7 Steps to Build & Maintain Your Recruitment Pipeline
By 2030, more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled globally, according to a Korn Ferry study. And as shocking as that may sound, this prediction provides a huge opportunity for recruiters to find ways to better attract the world’s top talent.
Millions of unfilled jobs mean copious amounts of clients who need someone to help fill those jobs. And if you want to make the most out of this situation as a recruiter, you should start by re-evaluating how well you currently manage your recruitment pipeline.
How effective is your pipeline management? Are you sourcing the right candidates quickly enough? Are you still forgetting to contact candidates due to heavy workloads? Have your candidates turned out to be valuable employees for your clients?
These are just some of the questions that could come to mind whenever you start questioning how effective your recruitment pipeline management really is. And the good news is that all it takes to ensure that your pipeline is functioning to its full potential are 7 key steps.
And in this article, we will be showing you the steps you can start taking today to improve the way you manage your recruitment pipeline. Read on to learn why success starts with ensuring your recruitment pipeline is at its best, and how to apply each step to your organization in the simplest way possible.
What exactly is a recruitment pipeline?
A “recruitment pipeline” refers to a recruiter’s own way of managing their applicants and candidates from the open requisitions they receive from their clients or organization.
The recruitment pipeline typically includes several stages, such as sourcing candidates, reviewing resumes, conducting interviews, and making job offers. The goal of a recruitment pipeline is to streamline the process of finding and hiring top talent, while also improving each candidate’s overall experience.
Every organization’s recruitment pipeline is different, as one might have different ways of choosing and qualifying candidates for each role. And depending on your preference, you might opt to manage your candidates with recruitment tools like an applicant tracking system, by manually printing candidate info out, or using spreadsheets, for example.
Whichever way you choose to manage your recruitment pipeline, always keep in mind that your pipeline must provide you with the following 3 benefits for it to be considered worth your time and effort:
1. Your recruitment pipeline must help you keep track of everything.
According to LinkedIn statistics, it currently takes an average of 33–49 days to hire someone, depending on the industry. A lot of information could be sent to your hands at that time, and that is per candidate.
During this process, recruiters typically have to deal with several applicants per job listing, as well as their resumes, cover letters, public social media profiles, and email communication. Thus, your recruitment pipeline must contain steps where you can record and organize all of the information you have collected.
This will help you decrease the chances of losing a candidate because you were too slow to contact them, or because you misplaced some of their information.
2. Your recruitment pipeline must improve overall candidate quality.
Having a strong recruitment pipeline helps improve candidate quality by generating and maintaining a larger pool of qualified candidates, compared to doing everything manually.
For example, if you use an ATS to manage your pipeline, you can post multiple job listings at once, use several sources to recruit candidates, and have access to every candidate you have ever considered for a role, in case they may be the right fit for another role in the future. Having access to all these candidates when you’re coming up with candidate shortlists will maximize the quality of your search, as it ensures you’re not leaving anyone out of contention for each job opening.
3. It improves the experience for the candidates.
Candidate experience refers to the overall impression of the recruitment process from the perspective of the candidate. It’s quickly becoming one of the main priorities for many recruitment agencies, mainly because it can make or break a candidate’s decision to work with your organization. In fact, 60% of candidates lose interest in a job if the hiring process takes too long in their opinion.
Managing a recruitment pipeline effectively can lead to a positive candidate experience, as it ensures no time is wasted between recruitment stages. Having a solid pipeline also guarantees that candidates are kept informed and engaged throughout the process, as you would not forget to send them an email at any stage. This means you will be able to communicate clear expectations for the recruitment process to each candidate, including the timeline and key milestones, along with the next steps.
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Now that we have covered the benefits of maintaining a strong recruitment pipeline from a recruiter’s perspective and a candidate’s point of view, let’s cover the potential risks of not taking the necessary steps to manage your pipeline well.
Biggest risks of not managing your recruitment pipeline well
Generally, there are two key risks related to not having a fully functioning recruitment pipeline:
1. You will risk losing valuable candidates.
A recruiter’s value lies in the quality of the people they find to fill every position. If you don’t have an organized way to manage your recruitment pipeline, you might miss out on the right person for a job.
Human error is bound to happen, especially if you’re dealing with hundreds of applicants at a time. You might unintentionally forget about a candidate, or might take too long to get back to them because you’re juggling other job openings at the same time.
This is why some things need to be automated for your sake, such as candidate data storage and communication via email. These tools are accessible by using an ATS to manage your recruitment pipeline.
2. You will risk lagging behind the competition.
There are approximately 4.8 million organizations using recruitment software, with the number expected to jump to 6 million organizations by 2030. These organizations likely use recruitment software to manage their candidate pipelines.
This is why manually getting things sorted will no longer be relevant. If you are planning to compete with recruitment agencies who are automating the way they source and contact candidates, for example, you will likely not be able to keep up with the pace of their talent acquisition efforts.
By ensuring that you have a strong recruitment pipeline that can be used for every position, you will be able to source candidates at a similar pace to recruiters who are also using recruitment software, for instance.
With all that being said, let’s move on to the top 7 steps you can start taking today to build and maintain a strong recruitment pipeline.
7 steps you can use to build & maintain a strong recruitment pipeline
1. Always start with the recruitment strategy.
Your entire recruitment strategy should be developed before you start the process of finding the right candidate for the job. This strategy should define the type of candidate you are looking for, the methods you are going to use to find them, and the criteria you will use to assess applicants.
This includes determining all the steps necessary for your recruitment pipeline, such as whether a 3rd interview round is necessary, or whether you need physical or remote interviews.
Wherever possible, start with a longer-term talent acquisition strategy, instead of hiring to meet short-term needs. Hiring based on an organization’s needs in the long run will help you as a recruiter navigate the uncertain changes in hiring demand, which will help increase your value if a client is going through a tough time business-wise.
If you can hire based on your clients’ business needs, and not purely for the sake of finding people to fill positions, each hire will be more purposeful. This should shape your pipeline and encourage you to plan for processes that are more repeatable and organized.
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2. Define your ideal candidate for the position.
Once you have concluded your talent acquisition strategy and sorted out your objectives, it’s time to create a detailed job description of the position you are trying to fill. This will help you stay on track in terms of looking for the best-case candidate for each job.
Your ideal candidate persona should consist of a list of the job duties and expected responsibilities, as well as the skills and qualifications you are looking for. This will help to ensure that you are looking for the right type of person for the job, and will also make it easier to assess applicants quickly and accurately.
In addition to the job description, you should also consider the type of person you want to hire. Think about the qualities and characteristics that would make someone successful in the role. Consider the type of attitude and work ethic you want to see in the ideal candidate. This will help you to narrow down your search and find the right person for the job.
3. Start posting across channels that are relevant to your desired candidates.
Once you have defined the ideal candidate for the position, it’s time to start posting about the role in places where potential applicants are likely to see it. This could include job boards, social media platforms, industry websites, or even print publications.
You should also post about the position on your own company website or blog, as well as in any other relevant forums or communities.
For example, if you are sourcing strong candidates for management or executive-level positions, don’t just limit yourself to job boards. Consider LinkedIn as well, and do a lot of networking on the platform.
You might just reach incredibly talented people who aren’t currently looking for jobs but could listen to your offer.
When posting about each role, make sure to include a detailed job description, as well as any other relevant information such as salary range, benefits, and company culture. You should include a link to your company website or blog, so that potential applicants can learn more about the company and the position.
Additionally, when you are managing several job openings at once, it’s wise to use a recruitment tool, like an ATS, to access all your listings in one place.
For example, Manatal’s ATS lets you post jobs across 2,500+ free and premium channels, and sends all applications to a centralized database. This way, you’ll never lose a resume or candidate profile ever again.
4. Review your applications.
Once you start receiving applications, it is important to review each one carefully and take your time to ensure that you make the right decision.
Make sure that you read through each application thoroughly, paying particular attention to the skills and qualifications that match your criteria. You may also want to contact referees or request additional information if necessary.
This essential recruitment pipeline step can also be made easier with recruitment tools. After receiving applications from all platforms and channels, you can organize them in your talent pool.
An ATS includes resume parsing and candidate profile creation features, which means all applicant data can be uploaded to one centralized database, which will act as your talent pool.
This ensures that even though an applicant is not selected for a role, you will still have access to their contact information once a role that is more suited to them comes up.
*First published on Manatal.com.
*To read the full article, click here.
Manatal is an end-to-end recruitment and onboarding SaaS platform trusted by thousands of brands in over 135 countries worldwide. It is an AI-powered Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that allows companies to hire faster, better and save costs.
