How to Improve Your Recruitment Process?
Have you ever wondered how long it takes to hire candidates? Read this blog to find out how you can improve your recruitment process…
It has been estimated that when a role opens in your company, it typically takes 36days to fill a given position. Most organizations don’t have that much time or even the amount of money required to carry on a recruitment process for such a long duration of time. This makes improving the efficacy and effectiveness of your hiring process all the more important. Recruitment processes need to be refined from time to time in order for them to be more productive and pleasant for both the hiring teams as well as the candidates. Hiring the right person for the right job is very critical and requires a high level of precision. Both the existence of the company as well as the growth of a business depends on the type of employees in your company. Hiring the wrong person leads to the wastage of a lot of time and money, which affects productivity as well as the growth of your organization. This blog covers various ways on how to improve the recruitment process, by organizations.
There exists a lot of pressure on the Human Resource Departments of the organizations because of the hiring needs of the company. From recruitment to onboarding, the hiring process has many moving elements and just as many opportunities for failure. There is a way to improve and master it, though. The only thing your company needs is a fresh approach and the following hiring hacks. Additionally, given the present scenarios, companies also need to be constantly improving on their remote hiring processes to be able to hire the best candidates virtually. If your recruitment process operates from the office, below are a few tips for companies to improve their recruitment process:
Diversify and redefine your job requirements
If not enough qualified candidates are applying to jobs in your company, the problem may be hidden in plain sight. In 2015, researchers from the US and Canada suggested that poor job postings are the number one cause for low application rates. Have you wondered what qualifies as a good job advertisement? As per the same researchers, job postings should be more than a mere laundry list of requirements. They should also be inspirational. More than anything, a good job listing should answer the question “why is this company a good career and life choice for me?”
Research also shows that women are less likely to apply to jobs where they don’t meet 100% of the criteria, while men will apply to jobs for which they meet 60% of the requirements. Including unnecessary details — such as certifications you’re willing to train for or secondary responsibilities — will drastically narrow your talent pool. As a result, you may have to prolong your candidate search, costing you additional time and resources. Not only that, but with a narrow talent pool, you will struggle to hire a diverse and inclusive team that reflects your community and the customers you serve. Tighten up your job descriptions to increase the breadth and quality of applicants.
Employ a new approach to discovering talent
In order to be able to improve your recruitment process, make sure that your job postings are more on the candidate-focused side. Candidate focused job postings work well on the candidate focused job boards. If popular career sites haven’t helped you find the right candidates, then dive deeper into the talent pool. Along with Facebook job advertisements, LinkedIn is one of the best sources for discovering job seekers that fit your needs. Great opportunities can be discovered on networking events as well, but there’s an even better offline approach to talent recruitment — employee referrals. Nobody is better equipped for talent recruitment than existing employees. And, since they are expected to vouch for their candidates, they’ll think twice before referring a person for the job.
Streamline your background check strategy
Many companies are streamlining their screening process by making a selection first and then screening only the final candidates. This puts an emphasis on what’s truly important, and what’s candidates’ hard and soft skills. Plus, reversing the order helps you make the final decision faster. On a related note, some roles don’t require certain screening tests. A candidate’s driving history, for instance, won’t help you identify if they’re a good software engineer. To make background checks more efficient, consider tailoring your screening process to the needs of each position.
Start hiring for attitude and training for skills
Hiring for attitude allows you to access a wider talent group. Candidates who pass the attitude test can make better employees in the long-term. They are in the right mindset to learn, develop new skills, and contribute to the future of your company. Besides, necessary skills change fast in the modern age — the tools your employees will be using in three years will be different from the ones they use today. By prioritizing work ethics, flexibility, and teamwork over expertise and technical skills, this recently popularized approach to hiring helps build dynamic teams.
Use tools to eliminate Bias and boost efficiency
The most important element of an efficient recruitment strategy is an applicant tracking system (ATS). An ATS enables recruiters to track applicants over the course of the entire recruitment process — from application to offer letters — and automate communications so elite candidates don’t fall through the cracks. A great part of your recruitment and selection process can be automated. AI helps for screening candidates that can reduce your time per hire and eliminate bias. Candidate rediscovery tools help you re-engage past candidates, and chatbots can boost engagement with new candidates.
If you aren’t currently using an ATS, we suggest you drop everything and implement this tool immediately. Don’t know where to start? Try the simple and user-friendly AviaHire ATS that can help meet all the hiring needs of various sized companies.
Collect and Analyse feedback from candidates
A candidate who’s just been offered a job at your company would hardly go on record with rating your hiring experience. The candidates who you have turned down, on the other hand, would probably have a lot to say about your employer brand. Use that opportunity to collect and analyze candidate feedback. This will equip you with valuable insight into how applicants perceive your hiring process and tell you what needs to be changed and why. Automation tools can speed up this process as well.
Keep optimizing your onboarding program
The most important thing every employer should understand about onboarding is, that it cannot be rushed. On the contrary, this should be a continual practice. To avoid spending more time and money, use LMS software to train for skills. Realize that selection is not the last step in the hiring process. Your employer's brand depends on your willingness to help new hires adapt to a new work environment and get used to their day-to-day responsibilities. This part of the process is called onboarding and needs constant optimization to be able to serve your candidates well and give them a great onboarding experience.
The bottom line
Hiring the right person for the right job is critical. And the entire process is time-consuming, expensive, and prone to a lot of failures. But if you break down the process into smaller steps and take your own time to streamline and automate every task, you’ll be able to come up with an improved version of your original hiring strategy. And if you keep improving on that version too, your hiring success rate will eventually go through the roof.
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