In the article below, Darcie Hudson, National and International Recruitment Expert and Owner of Go Ahead HiRe, defines 5 easy steps to improve the chances of successful Recruitment.
Recruitment is not only pivotal to the mission and success of Companies, it is also the path that allows professionals to match themselves and their skills to new opportunities with organizations. Therefore, it plays a double sided role for both the candidate and the Company who are involved in the process. If we look from the perspective of the hiring manager, there are factors such as the war of talent, new technologies in Recruitment, globalization of the market and the changing employee-employer market, which is creating certain challenges when sourcing in new talent. Sometimes you, (hiring manager) are talking to a candidate who has 6 other job offers from around the world so you are not only trying to win for your organization, you are also trying to beat other competition in the job market. Although we can never promise a smooth, quick process, we would like to share some proven factors we believe can help organizations to maintain a strong recruitment process and increase their chances of finding the perfect match.
1. Create an all-in-it together hiring process
The first most important step in building a successful candidate pipeline is to turn every employee into a Recruiter during a hiring process. This sounds big but can be as simple as asking all your employees to place the hiring banner on their LinkedIn picture. Or, asking them to share the job posts into their network, or encouraging them for Solicitation referrals with the reward of a bonus. Another, very popular way is to let your employees become part of the Interviewing process. Not only is this an opportunity for them to decide who is working alongside them every day, it is also a chance for them to develop and enhance their own skills and try something new. It is important to recognize that although HR or the Line Manager is end responsible for a new hire, an all-in it together Recruitment approach can increase your target reach/pipeline, help you gain new market insights and improve your internal team spirit. Therefore, we advise to let Recruitment become part of the day to day in your organization; make noise, talk about it, update colleagues in the process and when you finally fulfil a new positions, celebrate it together & make it part of your team success.
2. Map out a Recruitment Strategy
A strategy is often defined as a plan of action to reach long or short term goals. Recruitment is often part of a bigger, internal strategy related to internal growth or a short term one related to replacing an employee who is leaving the Company. Many times, Companies want to start and fulfil positions in the same week. However, it can go wrong when Companies do not realize that although recruitment is a means to an end, it also needs a certain approach as today’s labour market is very competitive and talent is hard to find. Therefore, to improve recruitment and it’s means to your long term business goals and strategy, start every recruitment by mapping out a strategy.
The steps to do so are pretty easy:
- Ensure there is approval all around – never enter into Recruitment without approval from all the decision makers.
- HR and the line manager one team – it is important that HR and the line manager become team mates in this process and use each other’s strengths to find and sign the best candidate.
- Define who you want to hire – Draw out or describe your dream candidate and agree on it. Use competencies, hard and soft skills to support you in this definition before writing the job description.
- Define the location you want to target- Job platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed are wonderful tools which enable us to select our exact location where we want to source our talent. Tip: select regions instead of places so your job description reaches a larger audience.
- Design an attractive marketing campaign– don’t just post the job and wait, be creative and publish content, media or videos on social media to encourage candidates to apply.
- Determine your job platforms and approach – it is important to decide upfront where you will publish and if you will have a passive or active head hunting approach in place.
- Have a plan B if Plan A does not work out – it is always important to have another approach in place if your initial one does not work out. Example could be, first try low cost advertising and if this does not work out, increase costs + time invested into head hunting.
3. Never hire too fast
Nowadays Recruitment can be so competitive and tough that dropping the requirements of your initial profile to fulfil the position can be a short term win that often comes with a long term issue. When you start a Recruitment process, you write out an ideal candidate, built on an existing gap in your organization. 100 resumes and 20 pointless interviews later, you may be in the mood to drop the original profile and just hire someone, even when it means giving up the profile you originally wanted. Before you do this, stop and ask yourself a very important question; am I in need of an energy boost or is this person really the right fit? If the answer is the first one, bring in some colleagues to the process who can give some inspiration or ideas. Again, if you create that all-in-it-together spirit, you might find your answers or energy from those around you. Alternatively, you can re-root back to your strategy and consider; re-writing the add, re-posting the add, trying different target locations, getting in contact with external recruiters or re-checking in with your network. The point is, try to fuse the energy dip with some sugar which can be found when you reach out and ask for help. Never hire too fast because the financial and non-financial consequences of the wrong hire are far worse than waiting just that little bit longer.
4. Keep an interviewing process balanced
Years ago, there was a very much pull in approach from the employer to the employee when it came to job advertisements. Particularly before the World Wide Web, a job advertisement was posted in the local paper and people would call up and go for interviews. Fewer media channels and less globalization meant that employers had more choice during an interview process and arguably more of a final decision as the candidates choice was limited. Fast forward to now, there are platforms such as LinkedIn, Google, Indeed and social media where candidates have so much choice when looking for jobs across the globe. Also, candidates are being approached daily by Recruiters for new opportunities. One of the best ways you can beat competition is to adopt a mindset that this is a two way process for you and the candidates you speak to during an interview process. Therefore, focus on what makes you unique and attractive for them first. Once you have done this, communicate this as part of your initial phone call or on the job description next to what the job entails itself. Of course, it is really important to not oversell yourself and remain authentic but keep the ‘‘what’s in it for them’’ question as equally balanced as the ‘‘what’s in it for me’’ question. Lastly, during an interview process, give the candidate time to ask questions and conduct more of a two way conversation. This gives the candidate the opportunity to really learn about you which could help them in taking their final decision. Overall, it is important to remember that most candidates have more options, they are also coached by their career advisors to have this so it is really important to adapt your approach to facilitate their decision also.
5. Avoid low balling candidates in the offer stage
Lowballing a candidate is a Recruitment term which refers to a salary offer which is lower than the market average or to one you first promised to offer.
It is so important from the first phone call to manage expectations from both sides when it comes to the renumeration package. It is completely understandable that you do not want to communicate a final amount as perhaps you do not even know yourself. However, always goes into a recruitment process with a range in mind, concluded from your budget and perhaps initial market research average. Then communicate this from the first phone call by either asking their salary range or communicating your range so expectations are managed on both sides. There is nothing worse than getting to the final stage of an interview and finding out your dream candidate will only settle for 10k more than what you have offered. It puts you in a weak negotiating position, also your employer brand and wastes a lot of time if the candidate says no when you thought you found someone. If you know how much your candidate wants from the beginning, you can mark it against what you can offer and even in some cases make them happy with a higher offer. At all times, avoid low balling candidates either by asking them for their expectation or communicating your salary range from day one. The beginning is just as important as the signing!
Are you struggling with hiring people in today’s market? Get in touch with us at Go Ahead HiRe as we can help match you with the perfect candidate and take away the total Recruitment process from your shoulders.
