Recruitment can be one of the most tedious and challenging tasks faced by Human Resources professionals and Leaders. It’s so important to get the right fit for your team. Sometimes part of the challenge comes from figuring out where to start.
Here are five recruitment tips to get you started and to ensure a more positive experience for your Recruitment Team and Candidates.
1. Know What You’re Hiring For
Getting aligned on the details of the position before seeking all the necessary approvals and advertising the vacancy is so important. When there are multiple stakeholders for a position, it’s totally possible to see a lack of alignment on the responsibilities and purpose of the position. This lack of alignment can lead to wasted time and confused priorities.
In order to overcome confusion, make sure your job posting is accurate and everyone is on the same page with who the ideal candidate will be. Get all the key stakeholders together to talk through their requirements for the position. Write those requirements down and get aligned. This will avoid wasted time for everyone involved in the hiring process. Ensuring the position is clearly outlined is the first step to writing an accurate job description, advertisement and attracting the right candidates.
2. Know Your Process Before You Start
Now that you know what you’re hiring for, you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to hire your ideal candidate. Depending on the size of your organization and level of position you’re recruiting for, you might need different levels of approvals to make a hiring decision. On top of this, you need to understand what types of screening tools are in place and who will participate in your hiring process. Whoever is responsible for leading your hiring process should lead these conversations and clearly outline the requirements to everyone involved before the position is advertised.
A few things to consider as you build your process:
What’s the promotion strategy?
Who will coordinate and distribute the posting?
Who will screen resumes?
What type of interview is ideal for this position?
Who will conduct the initial interview?
Who has decision-making authority over hiring?
3. Keep It Organized
Your organization might have an awesome recruitment tool to help manage candidate applications, or resumes might be sent to someone’s inbox. Whatever the case, you need to make sure you’ve got a resource assigned to keep it all organized. For larger hiring projects and volume recruitment, it’s important to understand the number of applications you’re receiving and where there are potential skill gaps in the market.
Regardless of the hiring initiative’s size, you should always want to be able to answer key questions from the Leadership of the organization. Be prepared to know how many candidates have applied to your posting, the number of quality candidates, the number of interviews, the number of offers extended and if any offers were declined.
4. Don’t Leave The Candidate Hanging
You’ve gone through your process and found the ideal candidate. You’re prepared to make an offer and you’ve got all your approvals in line. You also have a ton of other competing priorities. You put off extending the offer by one day, then two. When you call to finally inform the candidate – guess what, they’re now going to work elsewhere.
Most frequently the candidate is left hanging due to some sort of gap in your recruitment process (See Point 2). A likely scenario would be that a key decision-maker is out on vacation or unavailable, leaving the candidate hanging for too long. These types of mishaps can sometimes be avoided by making sure you’ve got someone who can step in while this key person’s away. Sometimes these mishaps will just happen because there’s reluctance to make a decision within your organization. This is one of the most frustrating realities of recruitment.
5. Make Sure You’ve Got an Onboarding Plan
Onboarding plans are intended to make sure your new hire gets familiar with your organization’s goals and culture, allowing them to make meaningful contributions to your company. On top of this, onboarding becomes an important part of the employee’s overall experience and relationship with the employer. Given all, you’ve gone through to get this far, make sure you and you and your new hire are setup for success. The hiring manager should take ownership of building a plan that makes your new hire feel like part of the team from day one.
Recruitment is really important to your organization’s success and sets the foundation for your experience as an employee. It can be a struggle at times – but the right candidate is out there!
Happy Recruiting!
BIO – Shauna Cole
Shauna is a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) with a Master’s Degree in Business (MBA) and Undergraduate Degree in Communications (BA).
She provides career guidance, resume writing and human resources consulting services. Her Human Resources Boutique will launch in February 2018.
Follow Shauna for more information on the launch and free career tips.
