Recruiting is an industry people love to hate.
The word probably triggers many of us who are forced to remember the dark days of job hunting.
But recruiters have their own set of problems. Recruiters are battling one another for the top talent. Attracting and retaining top talent has become increasingly difficult, with so many choices for jobs available.
As job recruiters know, the concept of hiring is, in theory, simple: you create a job posting and wait for the best candidates to apply. But in reality, a lot more goes into a good recruitment process.
The best hiring process is one that you refine, year over year.
More and more companies are giving better feedback on how to perfect the process of recruitment. Whether it is how to attract talent, how to screen and select talent, or how to integrate new hires effectively.
To help you refine your recruiting process, we asked HR experts for their best recruiting tips and practices to understand some HR trends. Read their wisdom below:
What are the qualities of a good recruiter?
Recruitment is one of the most important jobs to have–it determines the makeup of your workforce. That means finding the best recruiter is key.
1. Strong interpersonal skills
Being a people person is major. Great interpersonal skills are integral.
You need to be a natural connector of people. To be able to network and communicate with people effectively requires confidence in what you do. Patience is also key. You will have to anticipate going through many candidates, some strong and some not so strong.
2. Marketing skills
Tarek Pertew, CCO at Uncubed, advises:
A good recruiter is also great at marketing themselves. Focusing on important marketing strategies such as having a target audience, buying into company benefits, and using social media as a recruiting tool are important ways to bridge marketing with HR. Being up to date with hiring trends is also essential.
3. Culturally-forward thinking
A great hiring manager focuses on a culturally forward vs. culturally fit approach. Being culturally forward means that the candidate will contribute to your company culture, rather than just fit in. This way you’re focused and invested in the company’s future and growth.
Ask yourself if this candidate will be a “culture add” to your company. This removes a lot of bias in hiring that EVERYONE, including recruiters, have.
4. Objective perspective
A good recruiter also does their best to avoid bias. A great way of doing that is by incorporating AI into your selection process to ensure a more diverse candidate pool.
AI separates the recruiter from hand-selecting people and instead has an automated recruiting software take over. Artificial Intelligence allows for the space to use less traditional methods in finding successful candidates. It will help increase your minority candidates and allow for a fair process.
Why are effective recruitment practices important for your company?
1. Reduction of turnover
High turnover rates are not a great reflection of the company you work for. It results in low employee morale, from both overworked employees, to new overwhelmed employees.
High turnover can also become a big strain on the company. Processes are not implemented with the same vigour in a company with a low turnover rate. The cost of replacing staff is too high to allow dysfunctional turnovers to be something that becomes a part of your company culture.
2. Better results in the right candidate
Not only is a good hire important for the overall company culture by providing inspiration, motivation, and overall high spirits…they also provide new skills which are vital.
Your productivity is maximized when you ensure that your hiring process is quick and effective. This in turn saves your company a lot of time, since many different people are involved in the hiring process, outside of just the hiring manager.
3. Strong employer branding
Once you implement the right strategies in your recruiting processes, your company’s reputation will improve. Word gets around via your own employees–if they’re enjoying their colleagues and experiencing a great company culture, they will talk about it everywhere.
If the image of your company is that your recruiting process isn’t effective and your turnover rates are high, it turns the best talent off from applying.
4. Having a structured approach
A big issue in the interview process can be a lack of structure. When companies allow for the interviewer or candidate to ask questions in an interview based on whatever they desire, it can be difficult to standardize processes. It leaves room for confirmation bias, and that is a major setback for finding top talent.
How do you create impactful processes that ensure your recruitment is top of the line?
Before getting into impactful processes to ensure success in your recruitment, you need a baseline for hiring. Below are important steps to the hiring process (in the infographic below). These steps will keep your experience seamless and help with the reputation of your company:
Organize each step. Have templates ready to go, including:
- email templates (invitation for interview, applicant rejection, first day on the job etc.)
- job posting templates
- interview question templates
Once you understand the general hiring process, you can begin to tailor it so that you get the best results. Ashley Roman, Global Recruitment Manager at Mejuri points out:
Ensuring that from the start of the hiring process to the end at whatever stage, is a positive experience for every candidate is integral. This means the experience is timely, simple to understand and transparent. This is their first point of contact with your company. If the process starts off as negative, you may potentially lose out on top talent.
Shonezi Noor, Chief of Staff at Sampler emphasizes:
Track data over time in your recruitment practices, figure out which strategies had the best results and improve them. Scrap out the ones that didn’t yield the same results. The more you track over the months and years, the more data you will have to be able to create a seamless process for everyone involved.
Laurie McNab, Co- Founder at SMB Group suggests:
Offer employee referral bonuses for every time they refer someone. This will encourage everyone in the company to be apart of the process therefore the workload is less on the hiring manager. There’s also a better guarantee that better candidates will be applying if your own colleagues are referring them.
Highlight your best and brightest employees on your company’s social media. Not only will this get you more traffic, but you will have testimonials all over the internet about your company. It makes your company more accessible.
Build your brand. The last thing you need is for people to see terrible glassdoor reviews about your company culture and employee experience.
It’s integral that your employee experience is one that is so great that you’re confident most people will leave with the best of things to say. You do not want to drive away a potential candidate because of bad company reviews.
Kristin Patrick, Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Bullhorn reminds us that:
At the end of the day, having a humanistic approach to recruiting will bring about the best results. If you are genuine and empathetic in your approach, you will attract similar energy from your candidate pool.
Conclusion
Whether we love or hate recruiting, we can’t deny the value of it. The first thing a company has to do in order to expand is to recruit. The process is long and takes a lot of time and energy in order to ensure the best candidates are selected. But it is one of the most important jobs to have.
Our recruitment experts have given us much needed advice based on their many years of experience to implement the best recruiting tips.
Let us know how effective these tips were! We would love to hear tips of your own in the comments.