No pain, no gain — Recruitment might be challenging, but it’s worth it
Many times your best candidate or a self-motivated colleague is the result of your creativity in recruitment and the way you attract talents even if you own a SME.
Some might think, that the most costly things for SMEs during a recruitment are the outside purchases to support the process itself. In fact, time can be more precious than the money you spend in this case.
In the following post you can read tips to make your recruitment much more efficient. We have tried all of them and I have to tell you, they do work:
- Spend some time on figuring out how your specific recruitment should look like.
- Know who you are looking for. Personality is just as important as knowledge and expertise.
- Pick the best way to find the talent you are looking for. If the classical methods does not work for you anymore, use your creativity to find the best tools.
- Pre-screen and test your applicants, measure competencies.
Know who you are looking for.
You should decide prior to the actual interviews what it is you want to find in the applicants. Of course the ideal employee knows everything, can do the job of everyone all at once. Have you met such a person so far? I know I haven’t. To decide efficiently, start a list of the duties followed by the expected skills and the skills that you can develop internally. My tip is to look for a talent enthusiastic to learn something new, to develop.
Write a great job ad.
Your ad should show the world what your company is like, what it stands for. To attract applicants who could potentially be a great fit for you, you have to show your values beforehand. Let me share with you my favorite example. There is a young, energetic, idealistic Hungarian SME specialized in employer branding, Style Communication. These are clearly visible from their snappy advertisement (sorry, it’s in Hungarian), which resulted in more than 200 applications from their Facebook site. (They were looking for a graphic designer.) All you need is the following: a great picture and a snappy and positive wording.
Use the social media to your advantage.
Did you know that more than 94% of the companies use social media as a platform for recruitment? You can reach thousands of people through your and your team’s friends on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Take a look at this Prezi post. It is possible to reach more than just the people seeking new employment. It only depends on the style and wording of the post. Or if you need a bigger audience, think about paid advertisements, it is worth it. Also, pay attention at the meetups and conferences, you might bump into someone fascinating.
Use a software to manage applications.
An ATS or a video interview software is very helpful when receiving applications on a large scale. Those who find these solutions strange and frustrating are not the right fit for you, so do not worry about losing precious talent. Usually these softwares have a trial version and/or a free, limited version for smaller companies. Like Indivizo offering also a free package. Go, explore and find the best solution for your company.
Pre-screen effectively.
Pre-screening the applications can be very painful and time consuming. Think about it, even if you set all the minimum criteria, reading through around 200 applications (1 CV/ minute), is very time consuming, it would take 3,5 hours. Now imagine this: you can reduce this number while improving your efficiency. By using a video interview solution you can pre-screen the applications easily, or just send a video interview invite to all of them, that should also do the trick. Around 10–15% of the people do not record themselves, but those who do will be candidates you can get to know better more easily. Or maybe just send out some kind of test assignment, this way you will also get an insight into their competences.
Find the skills you need and write an interview plan according to them.
What competencies would you like to measure? If you figure out the answer to this problem, you can use a question bank provided by many companies providing online solutions to help you. Customize it so that it fits your needs and you are good to go. Eventually you will see which questions do the work for you.
Test the applicants.
If you give the candidates a test assignment to deliver on time, they will find your company to be open, challenging but a good opportunity. You can do this during the actual interview, or even organize a test day. You can even include your team in the evaluation and decision-making process. It might make them more dedicated in the inclusion of a new teammate.
Be aware of the importance of communication. Treat them as you would like to be treated.
If a company does not respond to the majority of the applicants, its reputation pays the price. Even though it might seem like such a type of communication doesn’t do any visible good to the company, it does define the style, morale and values of it. You don’t need to write these letters one by one, the online ATS-like softwares can do it for you automatically.
Build an employer brand for your company.
Although the employer brand is a highly important factor in recruitment in the Anglo-Saxon region, others do not pay such close attention to it. For a larger company to deal with related issues is absolutely normal, but a smaller one usually does not have the necessary resources. They can resort to new and innovative ideas such as gamification or video interview throughout the recruitment process. Be aware, that you also need to adjust your communication strategy to the applicants, throughout the personal interviews in the second or third round you need to be more open and direct with them, otherwise they might feel vulnerable to your needs. If they deliver your expectations in the beginning and give their best performance, you also need to give something back to them.
There is nothing to lose. Try these tips, plan and execute the recruitment with ease. If you have any other useful ideas that might help others, please share it. Tweet us to @indivizo or write an email to kata [at] indivizo [dot] com.
