Behind every excellent company is a team of talented, passionate individuals. But those teams don’t just build themselves – they’re formed based on strategic recruiting and talent management processes.
Your recruiting process plays a big role in hiring the right talent for a position, and when you know how to recruit well for your company, you’re setting your company up for sustainable success.
Simply put, recruiting is the process of finding talent and hiring them to fill roles within a company. But it’s a little more complicated than just that, as the process of recruiting people involves several moving parts.
While every company is different in terms of how they build their recruitment processes and how their HR and talent departments are structured, the basic fundamentals are always the same:
This person builds and manages the entire recruitment process, from sifting through resumes to making initial contact with applicants, interviewing candidates, and breaking the news that they did (or didn’t) get the job in the end.
This person outlines what each role requires and ultimately has final say in hiring. This is often a person who manages the team that the new recruit will be a part of, so they’ll be working closely with the new hire.
There may be other people involved in the process, such as HR for determining compensation, marketing for employer branding, and other high ranking stakeholders like a board of directors acting as hiring executives.
It’s important to point out one common misconception in this field – recruiters and talent acquisition managers are different.
While talent managers are similar to recruiters, the former is more focused on long-term planning and building ongoing strategies. The latter is more focused on filling openings as quickly and efficiently as possible.
To put it plainly, if you don’t have a team then you don’t have a business. You need people to carry out workloads, drive revenue, and build your company.
When recruiting employees, you should never just take the first applicant who comes to you – not unless you’re confident they’re a perfect fit for the role. You need to think big picture and strategically decide how you want to shape the future of your company and then hire based on these concepts.
Here are the key reasons you need to build a recruitment process:
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The basic level of every good recruitment strategy enforces that candidates are hired fairly and based on merit. A systematic approach ensures that no unfair biases influence the hiring decision, no matter the candidate’s gender, age, ethnicity, religion, etc.
Inconsistency is basically every business's worst nightmare. Inconsistency goes hand in hand with instability, and that’s not good for any company.
Developing a strategy helps the recruiter move fluidly throughout the process with each applicant and determine what to look for along each step of the journey.
Developing a system by which you hire allows you to more efficiently and effectively write accurate job descriptions to fit the role you’re filling.
You’ll be able to work closely with the hiring manager at the necessary stages to determine what core skills and job experience is necessary for the role, and thus hire the best applicant for the position.
Having a system in place ensures that everyone involved in the recruiting process knows what’s going on – they know where applicants are throughout the process, and who are the frontrunners.
It also allows you to be transparent with candidates about where they are throughout the hiring process, which makes for a better overall candidate experience.
A messy recruitment process is a big red flag for applicants. It might scare them off, or even worse, there are tons of scams in which job applicants get roped in by fake companies.
If you have an organized, systematic recruitment process, it allows candidates to build trust with your brand and rest easy.
Now that you know why it’s important to have a strong recruitment system, you need to ask yourself an important question before taking steps to build out your strategy: are you keeping it in house or hiring an agency?
There are ultimately two ways you can recruit employees – with an internal recruiter, or by hiring a staffing agency.
Both options are valuable, but the best method depends on your current resources, needs, and goals. The two avenues of recruiting offer very different benefits and disadvantages.
Internal recruiting is when your organization hires an in-house recruiter or talent acquisition manager to fill roles in your business. It creates a very different dynamic to outsourcing to a staffing agency, because in-house recruiters feel a connection to and hold an important place in the success of your brand.
Agency recruiting is very different to that of hiring an in-house team member. Working with a recruiting agency means that a recruiter will send you candidates who could be a good fit for the role you’re trying to fill, and you can choose from their suggestions.
It’s important to note that recruiting agencies are in the sales game, and their allegiance is to whoever is “closest to the money” because agency recruiters get paid a commission. To put it harshly, they honestly don’t care about whether or not your brand is successful, they just want you to hire one of the candidates they suggest to you.
Despite their many differences, there are some key similarities you’ll find between agency and in-house recruiters.
All recruiters – whether at an agency or working in-house at a company – are great at fostering relationships with people. They’re essentially networking superstars; they know how to start conversations and connect with candidates and companies.
All the best recruiters are tech-savvy and use digital recruitment technology for job posting. They also maintain resume databases, email tools for quick and efficient communication, and more.
Recruiting is a tough game, but these professionals know how and where to utilize their resources to build full hiring pipelines and fill positions as quickly as possible. They know where to look and they know what to look for.
Let’s be real – it’s hard to find really good talent. And if you’re not working with a recruiting firm, then you need to know how to fill open roles yourself by running effective recruiting campaigns.
Here are some best practices for recruiting employees:
In the digital age, there are endless places candidates are waiting to be found. Some of the best options are utilizing job boards and implementing an employee referral program.
There are both general and specific job boards that can bring in a whole hoard of job applicants. General boards include websites like Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Monster. However, you should also try searching for industry specific job boards if you’re looking for specialized top talent.
Nobody knows your company better than your own employees. Developing an employee referral program is a great investment, as there’s a good chance some of your own team members know someone who could be a good fit for a role you’re trying to fill.
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Hiring internally can actually save you a lot of time, effort, and resources during the recruiting process. There’s a possibility that the best candidate for the position you’re trying to fill may be sitting down the hall.
Allowing internal mobility allows you to find the best place for each and everyone of your employees, and ultimately, they may be more successful and happier in a different position within your company.
Whether it’s a promotion or a lateral move, trying to fill positions with your current in-house team first is always a good approach.
One of the best ways to determine whether or not a candidate will be a good fit for the role and company is by bringing a few current employees on board with the recruiting process.
Grab one or two members from the department that the new hire will be working in, and ask them to either look over a few resumes or join you for the interview process.
Employer branding is a major factor in attracting top talent. If your company has a lot to offer and has great employee benefits, make sure these elements are highlighted!
Having a strong career page goes a long way in enticing job seekers to apply to your company.
Talk about your great company culture, the benefits you offer to employees, and more. More often than not, this is the number one place where potential applicants go to find out more about working for your company.
Most job applicants check out a company’s social media channels before applying to a role or going in for an interview. The level to which you engage on your social channels and the content that you post can make a big difference to how candidates view your company.
This one often gets overlooked, but winning and showcasing an award like “best marketing company to work at in 2018” is a huge attractor to potential job applicants, especially coveted top talent who has the power to be selective in where they choose to work.
One of the best ways to showcase your employer brand is by highlighting real employee stories and testimonials. You can post this content on your careers page, or on your professional social channels like LinkedIn.
This one should really be a given, but make sure that you run a completely unbiased recruiting process – it’s important for both attracting and hiring the very best in the industry.
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This is a great way to get a good handful of potential applicants through the door to meet with each of them quickly. Have your current employees attend so they can meet with the attendees, give tours of the company, and conduct mini interviews to identify who might be a good fit for the open positions.
If you don’t want to host a recruiting event, attending a job fair is a great way to meet potential applicants upfront, and quickly identify some leading candidates for the role.
It’s basically like a first interview – you meet candidates, have a quick chat to get to know them, and learn about their skillset. It’s also a great way for the candidate to find out more about your company, and why it’s a great place to work.
Bring along some visual elements to entice applicants to approach your booth, such as posters and slideshows that display what your brand is all about, open positions, and the benefits your company offers.
Encouraging your employees to volunteer for nonprofit organizations is a great way to create a stronger sense of community throughout your brand and thus attract more potential applicants.
Many companies hold a yearly “give back” day in which the whole office takes the day off work to give back to the community by volunteering to help a nonprofit.
Processes can make or break how successful your recruiting program is, as they ultimately determine the steps you follow from start to finish of the task – from identifying an open role to signing the contract with a new employee.
In order to develop a successful recruiting strategy, follow these steps for building the best process for your company:
The first step is one of the most crucial, because it builds the foundation for what you’ll be paying attention to and looking for throughout the rest of the process.
Determine what you need from the new hire – what duties and responsibilities they’ll be tasked with and the experience they’ll need to be able to successfully and satisfactorily carry them out.
The job description is often the first interaction applicants will have with your company. Make sure you’re clear about the responsibilities and skills required for the position. But, it’s also important to talk about what the employee will receive in return.
In addition to compensation, what benefits do you offer to your staff? Do you offer health insurance? A 401K plan? How much time off is allowed? These are all important factors when people consider whether or not they want to apply to a position.
Take a look at how you currently attract job applicants, and consider how you might be able to do this better. Are there channels that you’re not utilizing?
Remember, job boards, job fairs, recruiting events, social media (LinkedIn especially) and your company career page are all great spaces to showcase your company’s great culture and attract top talent.
Develop a core list of criteria by which to consider candidates will streamline your resume filtering process.
Some positions attract as many as 200 or more applications, and that’s an overwhelming amount. By determining some make or break criteria, you can quickly weed out all the applicants who aren’t right for the role and focus on the ones who are.
Consider a few core questions:
Phone screenings is a great way to make a first point of contact with a wider group of applicants, so you can discuss their skill set and experience, get an initial feel for the type of person they are, and also gauge their level of interest in the position.
Conducting phone screenings will help you narrow down the group to a few leading contenders who you want to bring in for an in-person interview.
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This is the last step in the hiring process before making an offer. It’s always a good idea to double check with the candidate’s references to discuss the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and confirm the circumstances by which they left their previous role.
If you think you’ve found the right candidate for the role, don’t wait to pull the trigger. Job seekers don’t just apply to one position, they apply to many.
It’s possible that the golden candidate you’ve identified is currently going through the interview process with other companies as well, so you should extend an offer before someone else does. There’s nothing more frustrating for a recruiter than losing top talent to your competitor.
Developing powerful recruitment processes and strategies can help you elevate your team and take your brand to the next level.
Good recruiting brings in the very best talent, not just for a good position fit, but for a good company culture fit as well. By building a strong team, you build a strong company that stays the course of growth and success.