Perhaps you have no idea that talent acquisition and recruitment are getting harder and harder over time, and employers are struggling with a lot of HR issues. The decreasing pool of qualified workforce, the discrepancies between what employers expect and what employees can actually offer, the staff’s expectations of more than just salary (such as flexible benefits, rewards, and recognition), and others make it difficult to hire good talent, not to mention retaining top employees. Because of that, the “war” for talent is heating up again, especially post Covid-19. And guess what? The winner in this harsh reality is only the one with the best recruitment process.
Are Your Hiring Processes Good Enough?
The employer-centric era is over, now it’s the time for the employee-centric market where employers compete with each other to get the best candidates on their sides, and the hiring process plays a decisive role in the success or failure of recruitment. According to Hirevue, 60% of candidates will drop a job application process midway if they find it complex and time-consuming.
Normally, a candidate will go through main 6 stages before officially becoming an employee of a company.
- Stage 1 – Awareness: This is when a job seeker runs into a job post from your company and becomes aware of your company and employer’s brand.
- Stage 2 – Consideration: Candidates research your company and your competitors before taking an employer into account.
- Stage 3 – Interest: Candidates choose you as their preferred employer over others.
- Stage 4 – Application: Candidates apply for an open position at your company.
- Stage 5 – Selection: The short-listed candidates go through the selection process (E.g., interviews, tests, etc.) before proceeding to the final stage.
- Stage 6 – Hire: The selected candidates become official employees of your company.
Each of these stages is a critical touchpoint that recruiters should focus on in order to keep the hiring process going smoothly while also building good impressions with candidates. So, if employers want to get the best hires, they first need to look back on their current recruitment process. Is your hiring process efficient enough to lead the job seekers through the candidate’s journey smoothly? If not, it is okay cause we have just what you need to improve your processes of recruitment and selection.
9 Useful Best Practices in Recruitment & Selection to Win Best Hires
It is so easy to Google-search the term recruitment best practices and gets a ton of results, but how many among them can actually be applied to your own case and make progress. That’s why we are not going to lure you to sleep with theoretical lessons about how to improve your hiring process. Instead, we research, consider and pick out as many useful yet practical tips as possible to help you sharpen your recruiting procedure and win the best hires over your competitors at every touchpoint. Make sure you get a note and jot down the practices that suit your recruitment process the most.
Make the Jobs More Appealing to Candidates
The job description is the starting point of the candidate’s journey, and you only get one chance to engage and persuade the job seekers to apply for your jobs. Therefore, we should enhance it first. Normally, job posts that are too generic, unclear, or also too long are more likely to turn the candidates away. As a result, recruiters should be more diligent and creative in creating the JDs. A good job description should be clear about the responsibilities, specific about the scope of work, and be informative about your roles, business goals, benefits, and cultures. Make sure that you write all the information in a concise way. In addition, you can make your job descriptions sound more exciting and friendly to candidates by putting in your brand tone of voice and including a little sense of humor.
A common mistake most companies commit is to reuse the old job descriptions, which are out of date and no longer accurately reflect the duties and responsibilities of the roles, every single time they hire new employees for the same positions. Hence, remember to always keep your JDs updated and aligned with your current business goals and objectives. In addition, you should have your recruitment team spend more effort and time reviewing the JDs multiple times before publishing them.
Monitor Job Posting Performance Regularly
Most companies often tend to forsake the job posts after putting them up without knowing this is a big mistake. After you have posted the jobs, don’t just sit and wait. Instead of sitting and waiting, you should take proactive actions to track how your job ads are doing in order to make necessary improvements. This is not only about the job posting performance but also the ROI of your recruitment campaigns, ranging from the platforms that you involve in the hiring process, the advertisements you run to promote the job vacancies, and more. By analyzing real data, you will be able to detect any potential issues and make changes to your recruitment strategies in a timely manner. From there, you can start to see patterns and optimize future job postings accordingly. Fortunately, there are currently a lot of recruitment management systems that aid you in job posting performance tracking and analysis. Simply connect all your recruitment channels with these systems, and you will get all the data stored in one place.
Sourcing Is Not Only about Job Boards
When it comes to recruiting, most recruiters still think that job boards are the only way to source candidates. However, this is no longer true, as social media has become one of the most powerful HR tools that can help you reach out to a wider pool of talent. In other words, you should not limit yourself to job boards only but also use social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to look for potential candidates. It is now easier than ever to find the contact information of any candidate you want, thanks to the Internet and social media platforms. Then why not use these platforms to your advantage?
Moreover, you should also consider conducting employee referrals as this method has been proved to be one of the most effective methods to recruit quality candidates. Your current employees may know someone who is looking for a job or is a great fit for an open position in your company. Therefore, don’t forget to encourage them to refer their friends or colleagues to work for you. You may offer some incentives like bonuses or rewards for those who successfully refer quality candidates to you.
Automate Time-consuming & Repetitive Tasks
With the ever-growing sophistication of technology, there are now many tools and software that can automate as many time-consuming and repetitive tasks as possible in the recruiting process, from candidate screening and assessment to emailing and scheduling interviews. These tools and software not only help you save a lot of time and effort but also improve your hiring efficiency and accuracy. As a result, you can focus on higher prioritized tasks that require human involvement, such as building relationships with candidates and assessing their soft skills.
Evaluate Your Candidates Through More Than Just an Interview
The selection process should include different methods to measure one candidate’s abilities, experience, and performance. It is a waste if you only rely on the face-to-face interview to make your decision because this method has been found to be the least predictive when it comes to job performance. Hence, try to use multiple assessment tools such as skills tests, work samples, and structured interviews to gather more in-depth information about each candidate. This will give you a more comprehensive view of their strengths and weaknesses as well as help you decide whether they are a good fit for your company or not. Moreover, do not forget to check references. Just because someone looks good on paper or does well in an interview doesn’t mean they will excel in the role. The best way to know for sure is through speaking with their past employers or managers.
Make the Application Process as Short & Easy as Possible
The recruitment process should not be too long or too complicated for the candidates. In other words, it should be short and easy enough for them to complete without any difficulties. The best practice is to limit the number of steps in the application process and make each of them as simple as possible. For instance, you can ask the candidates to submit their CVs only instead of making them fill out a long and tedious online form. In addition, you should also allow candidates to apply for multiple positions at once to save their time and effort. In addition, employers and recruiters should be more flexible by enabling online interviews or phone screenings for those who cannot come in person. And remember to only call for an interview once you find the candidates are close to the ideal standard required for the position to avoid wasting time for both sides.
Conduct Video Interviews to Save Time & Money
Video interviews have been around for a while, but they are becoming increasingly popular in recent years due to the advances in technology and the presence of the pandemic. With video interviews, employers can save a lot of time and money by conducting screening interviews with candidates who are not located near the company. In addition, video interviews provide employers with an opportunity to assess a candidate’s communications skills, which is important for many positions.
Catch Up on the Latest Recruiting Trends
With the ever-changing landscape of the job market, new trends are emerging all the time. To stay ahead of the competition and source the best talent, employers should be up-to-date with the latest talent acquisition trends. Some of the latest trends include the use of social media for recruiting, gamification in the recruitment process, and the use of assessment tools. As an employer, you should identify which trends are relevant to your company and make use of them in your recruiting strategy.
Don’t Forget about Interview Follow-up
Most recruiters often ignore the interview follow-up with or without intention. 73% of candidates said that they do not receive any kind of response to their application, while 60% never hear back from a company after an interview. This creates a very bad impression on candidates and discourages them from applying to the company in the future. Therefore, it is essential to send a follow-up email or call after each interview to thank the candidate for their time and effort. In addition, you should also keep the candidates updated on the status of their applications so that they know where they stand.
In brief, we would like to remind you of the importance of having an optimized recruitment process in place. And the decision on how to enhance it is up to you. By taking our best practices into account and choosing the most appropriate ones to adapt to your current hiring procedure, you will be able to build the best process of recruitment and selection for your company. Please note that everything will not work perfectly from the beginning – it is important to remember that optimization is an ongoing process that should be constantly updated and improved.
