Lean Recruitment! How To Start?
Concepts of Lean Process Improvement
The definition of process improvement seems self-evident, but it is more complex in theory — and challenging in practice — than you might realize. The term refers to the task of identifying opportunities for improvement, implementing changes, and, ideally, measuring the impact of those changes.
Without a structural, continuous approach to the process improvement, it is difficult to keep the momentum moving. It is also far too easy for busy and exhausted teams to work inefficiently which can allow bad habits to fester and affect the quality of their work and the speed of their delivery.
Continuous improvement (also known as Kaizen) is a LEAN process improvement methodology that provides the disciplined approach to those teams that keep “improvement” as their top priority.
What exactly does this approach have to do with recruiting?
You can potentially already see some parallels with lean production, and recruiting, and, indeed, there are now companies embracing “lean recruiting.”
The easiest way to think of lean recruiting is PROACTIVE vs. REACTIVE.
Many hiring processes right now are reactive: Someone leaves a role, or new headcount is granted, and the recruiting team will talk with the hiring manager, build out the specs for the role, and follow traditional routes to hiring that person.
Lean recruiting is more proactive. It includes capacity planning, forecasting, and understanding of future role needs. You’re trying to determine what employees are needed before you actually need them so that your hiring can shift to “just-in-time.”
Getting started with lean recruiting
“Lean” is about reducing waste. So if you want to embrace a lean method for recruiting, you need to:
- Reduce waste in your recruiting process, by being better at time management, and smartly automate where you can. You want your recruiters focused on the most valuable tasks, not the most time-consuming, rote tasks. Those latter tasks are waste; a lean process seeks to reduce those.
- Begin with recruitment automation, which is an increasingly-strategic value of human capital management software nowadays.
Here are 3 ways to quantify and capitalize on the value of recruiting automation to free up your time.
Create new systems in your process
1. Automate sourcing
It is very difficult to consistently and properly source candidates. High-quality candidates are often overlooked. But what if you could connect with databases such as CareerBuilder to automatically source top candidates and bring them directly into your ATS?
What if you could essentially put your pipeline on auto-pilot? What if you could use these tools to help reduce time to hire from 34 days down to 9?
2. Automate screening
What if you combined your performance data with millions of past hiring decisions? In this context, every action you take, whether it’s dismissing a candidate or bringing them into an interview, that feedback will now impact future decisions.
Your system gets smarter. Your time to fill reduces. You avoid candidates falling through the cracks. Candidates are screened and shortlisted instantly, so you know exactly who to contact first.
3. Automate top of funnel communication
One of the biggest complaints from candidates in every survey is the lack of communication. Some call this “the candidate black hole,” and it happens largely for two reasons: the ATS can’t handle the number of resumes being received or isn’t set up to communicate with every applicant, and recruiters are too busy on other tasks.
AI and automation help here too: use a chat-bot to improve candidate experience and boost communication.
And as you become lean…
… if you’re running a standard recruiting team right now, there is almost no way your people have the time for capacity planning, employee network development (i.e. referrals), hiring manager relationship-building, and the like. They are probably very focused on filling open seats and the tactical parts of doing that, i.e. screening, sourcing, scheduling, and presenting lists of candidates.
But as you become lean with the early steps of automation, your people will have more free time. That means they can:
- Work on capacity planning
- Look at future quarters that may need more employees
- Look at what business development is doing and tie the potential acquisition of a large client to future hiring needs
- Meet with A-Players in the local market to develop relationships should they want to leave their current job
- Attend networking events
- Build relationships with hiring managers
- Continue to learn how the business works
- Continue to learn how each department works
If your teams are doing these things, they’re being more strategic and getting ready for the advanced stages of lean recruiting. It all begins with intelligently automating what you can to create time for recruiting activities of more value.
Credit: Ideal
