Recruitment Best Practices: Improving Your Hiring Process

Hiring new talent is an inevitable and important part of any business leader’s role, and it’s more complicated than simply opening up a position, taking applications and interviewing people. As hiring becomes more competitive, companies have to get strategic and creative with their recruitment practices. 

In the post COVID-19 world, finding and attracting candidates can be a challenge. In a survey by McKinsey & Company, 44% of people said they have little to no interest in returning to traditional jobs in the next six months or longer. That means companies must find ways to appeal to people who might have only a small desire to return to the workforce. 

Recruitment can be a lengthy, time-consuming process that might seem overwhelming or unnecessary. However, it’s a critical step in hiring and retaining employees for any industry or organization. Continue reading to learn the importance of the recruitment process, recruitment best practices, how modern technology plays a role in recruitment procedures and how your company might benefit from HR training. 

What’s the Importance of Improved Recruitment Processes?

Recruitment is an important business strategy involving hiring the right person for a specific job position. Typically, recruitment is carried out by a team of people so the weight of the role does not land on one person’s shoulders.

While the recruiting process looks different for every company, it typically involves the following steps:

1. Find ideal recruitment software to streamline processes.

2. Establish clear and defined expectations for the ideal job applicant.

3. Determine where to recruit from and start advertising.

4. Review applicants and conduct phone interviews.

5. Follow through with all interviews and choose a job seeker.

6. Hire the applicant and complete the onboarding process.

Recruiters have an important task on their hands: Finding a person who can accomplish the tasks demanded of the job while flourishing in the set company culture. Since the world is changing, recruitment is also evolving. Here are some reasons why updating your company’s recruiting practices can improve the hiring process: 

Find Quality Candidates

To hire the best person for a given role, a company needs to attract quality candidates. By having a good job description, attractive advertising and a smart hiring page, hiring managers can encourage job seekers with the necessary skills more likely to apply. 

Prevent Disruption of Business

The recruitment process allows an actively hiring company to continue working without unnecessary disruptions caused by an empty position. By having a plan your business can stick to, you can fill the position quickly without losing out on productivity.

Save Time and Money

An organization with a set system of modern recruitment can save time and money in the long run by vetting candidates with streamlined advertising, applications and interview procedures. Having established systems in place also reduces the chance of making costly hiring mistakes. 

Enhance Company Reputation

Most people want to work for a company with a good reputation. If an organization communicates often, makes the hiring process uncomplicated and leaves candidates feeling valued whether they are hired or not, the business may build a good reputation and attract more applicants in the future.

Adding recruitment to your business strategy enhances the hiring process and drives improved candidate results. Once you’ve internalized the value of recruitment best practices, you can learn more about them.

What Are Today’s Recruitment Best Practices?

The hiring process isn’t always easy — there are many factors to consider and procedures to manage. To ensure fewer hiring mistakes and prevent extremely long recruiting windows, every company should consider ways in which their hiring practices could be improved and streamlined. From the start of the process all the way to onboarding a new employee, strategies may need changes in order for an organization to receive the best results possible. 

You can boost recruitment results by implementing the following recruitment best practices:

Monitor Job Post Performance

Many job hunters use a search engine to discover job opportunities, meaning a company that shows up on the first page of a search engine’s results is more likely to have applicants than a business appearing on any other page. 

After an organization creates recruiting advertisements, it is a good idea to track the results of those ads to see if they’re performing well. If the ad isn’t giving the company good results, try adding more keywords or using a different medium to post the job opportunity. 

Make the Application Simple

According to the Talent Board’s 2021 Candidate Experience Benchmark Research Report, applicants tend to abandon a given application because of one main reason: The application or recruiting process is too long. With that knowledge, companies should attempt to make the application process simple and cut any unnecessary steps. Of course, it’s vital to collect important information, but condense the application so the applicant is compelled to finish it. 

If your company does require a long application, try letting the candidate know what step they’re on, show how many needed actions are left and thank them for their time throughout the process. 

Share Relevant Information 

People generally want to know as much as possible about the job they are applying for. To pique people’s interest, companies should share relevant details about each open position in a well-written way. First impressions are important, so having an informative and attractive job description may push more people to follow through with their applications. 

Prepare Properly For Interviews

The applicant isn’t the only one who should be prepared for an interview. In modern recruiting, the job candidate is evaluating the company and interviewer to the same degree the company is looking at the applicant. Ensure the candidate feels comfortable potentially agreeing to work with your organization by coming prepared and engaging with them. 

Use Candidate Assessments and Employee Referrals

In the recruiting process, it takes more than just cover letters and resumes to successfully fill an empty position. To narrow down the candidate pool, companies may want to implement a type of candidate assessment to test the quality of work an applicant may bring to the table. These assessments could include work samples, job simulations, cognitive ability testing, job trials or exercises and games. 

Another way to efficiently hire people is to hear from the employees a business has already hired. Employee referrals can help a company get connected with people who current employees trust and believe in.

Onboard Efficiently

After an organization hires the right candidate for its empty position, onboarding is the process of getting the new employee trained and ready for the job. By investing in good onboarding practices, the business can set the new hire up for success due to their understanding of the company, grasp of their job responsibilities and knowledge of who they should talk to when needing assistance. 

Before starting the recruiting process, come up with a structured hiring and recruiting plan — a way to consistently complete each part of the process with every applicant. In order to compare each candidate equally, it is important to rate them using the same scale, ask them the same questions and give them similar information. 

With a recruitment strategy and best practices in place, it is easier for a company to effectively hire. But what does it take for a company to truly take advantage of this recruitment process? 

How Do Companies Take Advantage of Effective Recruitment?

Many companies would say they want to effectively recruit people to their business. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. According to Indeed, in order for companies to take advantage of effective recruitment, they have to create a strategy. 

A recruitment strategy is a plan to help companies discover, recruit, hire and retain employees. This strategy should reflect your company’s values and goals for the future. Although every company has a different style of hiring, here are some items to consider when formulating your approach:

• Goals: Decide what it is your company wishes to achieve with hiring. This could include how many employees a company wishes to add, an objective of achieving more diversity in who is hired or a need to change the hiring process.
• Budget: Figure out what dollar amount your company is willing to spend on recruiting. This can include marketing, travel and the eventual cost of the new employee’s paycheck and benefits. 
• Position: Find out who in your company may need replacing and come up with the desired number of new hires. 
• Timeline: Discover approximately how long your organization wants recruitment to take and which positions need to be filled in that amount of time. 
• Marketing Plan: Come up with an advertising plan to spark the audience’s interest in the open position or positions. Create ads to attract and inspire your company’s target audience to apply. 
• Hiring: Plan every step your company’s hiring team will take to fill the empty position. 

After an organization has a recruiting strategy in place, that business can put it into action. Let’s take a look at some examples of modern and effective recruitment:

Create a Career Page

An effective way to allow people to learn more about a company is to create a career landing page on the organization’s pre-existing website. This landing page can contain the job description, employee testimonials, perks of working at the company, videos showcasing the brand and the application itself. Keep all of these resources accessible to make the application process simple. 

Approach Passive Candidates

A passive candidate is someone who is not currently looking for a new job because they’re happy at their current job. These people are still legitimate options for a company, as long as recruiters approach them in a respectful and strategic manner. Reach out to them by letting them know your organization noticed the work they are currently doing and could see them doing that job at your business. 

Use Technology to Streamline the Process

Technology has many uses in the workplace, and recruiting is one of them. Use online applications, email, employee tracking data and online candidate assessments to create a structured or consistent hiring process. 

Along with streamlining hiring procedures, technology has even more applications in the modern recruiting process. 

How Does Technology Fit Into Modern Recruitment?

It might be hard to imagine what recruiting looked like before the implementation of modern technology. Now that automation and telecommunication make up a pivotal part of hiring, there’s no going back to the way things used to be. Here are some ways technology helps with modern recruitment:

Social Media

A good rule of thumb for hiring is to put information where people will see it. That means many social media platforms are being utilized for recruitment purposes. According to Global Web Index, internet users have an average of five social media accounts. Apps like LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram are often used to promote open positions and find the right people for the job. 

Video Interviewing

Incorporating video interviewing into a recruitment process can save hiring managers time and travel costs. Whether a company is hiring nationwide or simply wants to speed up the recruitment process, video interviewing can streamline efforts to fill high-volume positions and get someone hired sooner. 

Virtual reality 

Although virtual reality (VR) has mainly been used as a source of entertainment, it also has value in the recruiting process. Using VR could show how a company is advanced and constantly evolving. It could serve as a way to further connect with a candidate in a way video interviews don’t allow, present a skills-based recruiting game for a candidate to show their qualifications for the open position or offer a fully immersive office tour to allow a peek into the company culture. 

Technology can serve companies in the modern recruitment process. By considering tech’s place in your corporate culture, you can find ways to streamline and innovate your company’s approach to hiring.

How Can Modern HR Training Improve Recruitment?

Recruitment is no easy task, which is why modern HR training can make it an easier process for a hiring team. Online, video-based training has the potential to help organizations reach each of their employees whether they’re remote or in the office. Like recruiting technology, this version of learning utilizes advanced tech-based methods to ensure every hiring manager knows how to effectively recruit and retain employees. 

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