By Alexandra Mindrila, Voicemod Talent Acquisition Specialist, and Jóni Sousa, Voicemod Talent Acquisition Manager
“We’re looking for a highly skilled professional who’s passionate about what they do and fits in with our company culture.” Is that too much to ask when recruiting for a position? No, but it’s also no easy feat to find someone who meets all the requirements and needs of a role. And that’s where an effective hiring process comes in.
A good hiring process has the power to attract and retain the best talent for your company. And with great power comes great responsibility. That’s why it’s essential that a talent acquisition team develops a robust recruitment strategy and candidate pipeline that aligns with its company’s mission and goals.
In this article, we’ll share some advice based on professional experience on how to have a successful hiring process that benefits both your team and candidates.
Tip 1: Find a good fit for your company culture
One of the most important things we look for when hiring for new positions is whether or not the candidate is a good fit for Voicemod’s company culture. All the roles we’re hiring for are challenging because we want very good professionals with top-level skills and experience. But we’re also looking for people who align with our culture and values, people we know can be passionate about our product and our mission. To find someone who has all of this is perhaps the biggest challenge for any recruiter.
To help ensure a candidate is a good fit, you want to design your hiring process in a way that demonstrates (1) how that person solves problems and (2) how they deal with other people. At the end of the day, that’s what makes or breaks a company’s culture.
An effective hiring process should help you understand how candidates approach specific problems. It’s not about asking different questions and getting the right answer. Many times, there isn’t a right answer. There’s only a right way to approach a situation or a problem.
Tip 2: Prioritize communication
Remote work offers so many benefits for both companies and their employees. It allows us to interview people from all over the world and access a global talent pool that’s not limited to location. But with that comes new challenges.
If we had to pinpoint one big difference between hiring for remote work versus in-person, it would be the level of communication that’s required. The hiring process must be designed differently because when you’re hiring in person, there are nonverbal interactions or body language that you can assess. This isn’t the case in a remote setup. Other things become more important, like asynchronous communication. As such, the communication between the recruiter and the candidate demonstrates how effectively the candidate works and communicates. It also shows the candidates that the company they’re applying for is reliable, trustworthy, and cares about people.
It’s easy to get lost in all the communications and steps of a hiring process, especially when dealing with multiple candidates, various positions, and different stages. Regardless, it’s very important as a professional and a recruiter to notify candidates and provide feedback if you decide not to move forward with them. Everyone is valuable, whether they can cover your current needs or not, and it’s important that everyone has the best experience, even if they’re not chosen for the role. This people-first mentality is something that we really value at Voicemod.
Always remember that if a candidate has a good hiring experience with you and feels respected throughout the process, they’ll be more likely to recommend your company to someone else or even apply again in the future for a different role.
Tip 3: Automate everything
One of the best things you can do to make your life easier as a recruiter is to automate as much of the hiring process as possible. There are many tools out there that can help make the hiring process run smoother for the talent acquisition team and the candidates, like Lever, which is what we use at Voicemod as our applicant tracking system. It’s important that once your acquisition team chooses an ATS, you take advantage of all its features, like triggering actions, automatic emails, and interview scheduling.
From self-scheduled interviews to candidate pre-screening, applicant tracking, and running background checks, there’s so much that you can automate in your company’s recruitment process. Not only will this make the process more consistent and straightforward for the applicants, but it will also save the HR team so much time and increase productivity and efficiency.
Create a process that works for your team
At the end of the day, the talent acquisition team needs to craft a hiring process that works for the company’s unique needs while giving all candidates a good experience. Remember that an effective process will ultimately give your company an upper hand in attracting not only the best professionals to your team, but also people who are aligned with your company’s mission and values.
Want to take the next step in your career with Voicemod? Check out our careers page here.
