General Insights
Are you looking for a new job or are looking to hire? If yes, then recruitment is probably something that you’ve heard about before. But what exactly does it mean? What should you expect? And what are some common misconceptions about recruitment?
Recruitment refers to the process of finding suitable candidates for a specific position. Recruitment is the act of attracting people to join an organization or business. This can be done in many ways including advertising, networking, word of mouth, social media, etc. The term was coined in the 19th century when recruiters would go out into the streets to find potential employees. Today, recruitment has become much more sophisticated.
A recruiter is someone who helps companies fill their vacancies. They usually specialize in a certain field, such as IT, HR, Marketing, Engineering and Manufacturing to name a few. Recruiters typically work for large corporations, but they also work independently.
Recruitment processes include all the steps that get people hired. There are six focal areas to cover in the recruitment process. Each area requires different skills and knowledge. This guide covers all six areas. You can use this guide to learn more about each area as well as how to improve your recruitment process.
1) Preparing
2) Sourcing
3) Screening
4) Selection
5) Hiring
6) Onboarding
Hiring costs money. When we talk about recruiting costs, we mean advertising, recruitment fees, assessment tools, background checks, etc. We rarely think about how an open position can be costly. Reducing the time to hire is an important business objective.
Employing new members of staff be expensive and time-consuming. From the actual cost of placing job adverts to the time spent reading CVs and conducting interviews, you will be surprised how much you spend on your current recruitment process.
In 2017 the REC (Recruitment & Employment Confederation) released a report on “Making the right hire and the cost of getting it wrong.” (Download here)
Recruitment planning is the very first thing you need to do when recruiting new employees. You must analyze your position and describe what kind of employee you want to hire. You also need to know what kind of work experience and skills are needed to perform this job.
Recruiters typically do the heavy lifting of recruiting. However, recruiters also work closely with hiring managers and other key players in the company. Recruiting teams often involve different people throughout the process. Teams should communicate well and share information. Be sure to set expectations upfront.
The recruiter is the person who puts the word out about the company is looking for new employees. He/she screens the applicants, organizes interviews, rejects applicants, sends assessments and job offers, and generally makes sure everything runs smoothly.
Hiring managers should work closely with recruiters. They need to know what the recruiter is doing, so they can make sure the right people are getting hired.
Executives should approve hiring requests before they go out to the hiring manager. They should also approve salary ranges and other important details about how the company wants to handle the hiring process.
Finance needs to know about new hires and new requisitions. This impacts the flow of money through a company.
HR needs to know about new employees.
The Office Manager must ensure a new employee fits in with the rest of the team.
The IT manager is interested in keeping the business safe, so he needs to know everything about the new employee. He wants them to learn how to protect the company’s information and data.
Recruitment plans should start by identifying the vacant position. Then, it is the responsibility of the sourcing managers to determine if the position is actually needed or not, whether it is permanent or temporary, full time or part-time, etc.
Before recruiting any candidate, proper identification, planning and evaluation lead to hiring the right resource for the organization.
A job analysis involves identifying, analyzing, and documenting the duties, responsibilities, skill levels, abilities, and work environments of a particular job. This information helps employers understand what jobs require and what employees need to be successful.
Job Analysis is a process by which an organization collects data about jobs. This includes gathering information about the job, what the job requires, how the job is performed, who does the job, and why the job exists.
After this information is collected, it is used to create job descriptions and job specifications, which are then used to recruit new employees or train existing ones.
A job description is an important document. It is descriptive in nature and describes the role of the job. The job description provides information about the job scope, responsibilities and the position of the job in the company.
Job descriptions should be written by hiring managers, not recruiters. Recruiters should focus on finding the right talent for the role while hiring managers should write the job descriptions to highlight the key responsibilities and skills needed to perform well in the role.
Conceptualizing the job description as part of the candidate’s hierarchy of needs helps you understand how the position fits into the candidate’s life. This impacts the consideration of the position, which ultimately leads to applying for the job.
Job specification focuses on the specifications for the candidate who the HR team is going to hire. The first step is generating the list of all jobs within the organization and its locations, then gathering the information of each job, including physical specifications, mental specifications, emotional specifications, behavioural specifications, and other relevant data.
A good job description lists everything an employee needs to know about the position. It includes skills required, qualifications needed, training and development opportunities, work responsibilities, emotional characteristics, planning of career, etc.
Integrity, dependability, intelligence, adaptability, and culture fit are required by any employee in your company. You need people who can work well within a team and be dedicated to the company. People who are honest and trustworthy are essential.
You want people who can think independently and solve problems without necessarily asking for advice. You want people who are curious about things and enjoy learning new information. You also want people who can learn quickly, and remember everything they’ve learned.
These are all examples of Soft Skills
Must-Haves are requirements that must be met by applicants. Nice-To-Haves are things that are nice to have but aren’t required.
Soft Skills are abilities that are important to the position but aren’t necessarily required. Culture Fit is how well an applicant fits into your company culture.
Skills that are most important are ranked first. Skills that are less important are listed last. If there are any skills that aren’t listed, then those skills are considered non-essential.
A job evaluation form is used to compare different jobs in an organization. This form contains information about each job including the qualifications required, responsibilities, skills needed, education requirements, etc.
The form also includes information about the company, industry, and location. Salary and wages are negotiated based on this information.
A recruitment strategy should be developed after considering the following points
The development of a recruitment strategy involves the following steps
Recruitment Marketing is an effective way to promote a business, product, service, or idea. It involves applying marketing principles to each step of the recruitment process.
Marketing campaigns should be more creative than using the same old words. You need to attract talented workers. You should focus your recruitment efforts on attracting those who want to work in your organization.
You should make sure that you recruit the right candidates for the positions you need to be filled. Yes, you’re not a marketer – we get that. But, you still have to approach this in a marketing frame of mind.
How do you do it if you don’t have a marketing degree? Hire a Recruitment Marketing manager to do the job, Or, you can try it yourself!
Call it “the candidate’s journey”. Now that you‘ve familiarised yourself with this journey, we’ll go through each of the elements you need to do to optimise your recruitment process.
Searching is the process of recruiting where the resources are sourced according to the requirement of the job and after the recruitment strategy is done the searching for candidates will start.
The process consists of two steps – source activation and once the line manager verifies & approves the existence of the vacancy the search for candidates starts and selling, here the organization selects the media by which the communication of vacancies reaches the prospective candidates.
Dave Hazlehurst urges us to build our employer brand everywhere. He says we should promote our company everywhere, including interviews, online and offline. We should make sure that every employee knows about our company.
A company that is known for hiring people who are skilled in a certain field should be hired by other companies that are also known for hiring people who specialize in that same field.
Companies that hire people based on their skills should make sure that they’re hiring people who are well known in their fields.
Candidates want to work for people who can help them grow in their careers. Presenting themselves as excellent employee helps them get hired.
Communicating themselves as excellent employee also helps them succeed in their job.
Your career page should contain information about the company such as its mission statement, history, products/services, benefits, etc.
You should also include information about the position available, qualifications needed, how to apply, contact info, etc.”The office environment is casual. There are no dress codes or uniforms. Everyone wears jeans and t-shirts. Perks include flexible hours, free snacks, and a gym membership.
Mission, vision, and values are listed on the website.
These three things are important because they help you understand who you work for and why you should want to work there.”
Internal sources of recruitment refer to hiring employees within an organization through promotion, transfer, former employee, internal advertisement, previous applicant, or employee referrals.
Companies often choose to hire an internal candidate over an external candidate due to the costs of acquiring new employees, and also the fact that companies have pre-existing knowledge of their own employees’ effectiveness in the workplace.
Posting job ads is a basic part of recruiting, but there are many ways to improve this part of the process. You should use LinkedIn, Indeed, and other professional social networks to reach your target audience.
But you must also advertise in the right places. Your ad should be targeted to the right audience, and you should set up an effective campaign to attract the right candidates.
Social media is another way to advertise jobs. With social media, you reach a wider audience than traditional methods. However, there is also a risk that people may post fake information about your business. Additionally, people tend to trust posts that come from their friends or organizations they trust.
You can also conduct job fairs and promote openings in leading industry publications to cast a wider net.
Attending job fairs, especially at secondary and post-secondary schools, is another method of recruiting external candidates.
Expand your pool of talent by reaching out to people who may not be actively searching. Reach out to elusive talent not just increase the number of qualified candidates, but also diversify your hiring funnels for existing and future jobs
Passive candidates are not a special type of candidate. They’re simply potential candidates who haven’t applied for your jobs. When you’re looking for them, you’re actually looking for qualified candidates.
Expand your candidate sources. When your only post your open roles, you miss out on quality candidates who don’t visit those sites. Instead of going to the job board, go to social media, CV databases, or offline.
Look at other places to find candidates. Diversify your candidate pool. Reach out to groups that don’t typically apply for your jobs. e.g posting to a women-only Facebook group could help you get more female applicants.
Build talent pipelines for future hiring. Sometimes, you’ll come across people who are skilled but aren’t interested in changing jobs. People who could fit into your company when the right opportunities come up. These people are valuable because they may be ready to change careers when the right opportunity arises. Contacting these people before you need them helps you save time when you do hire them later.
Hire someone via social media. Use social media to reach out to people who might be interested in working for you. Make sure you’re reaching out to people who are qualified for the position, though!
Passive candidates need to be approached differently than active ones. You should use different strategies when communicating with them.
Candidates should use the same template as recruiters to make their message more interesting. Recruiters should be aware of what kind of candidate they’re looking for and tailor their message accordingly. You want to make sure you’re sending personalized emails to passive candidates.
Good candidates, especially those who have high demand jobs, get regular emails from recruiters. These emails provide them with information about the job and the company. Candidates are more inclined to read these emails if they’re short and specific. Don’t send follow-up emails after the first one, as this could make you seem annoying and leave a bad impression.
You should try to connect with people you’ve met before. Investing your time in staying in touch with them may help you get a job later. When meeting new people, make sure to ask about their background and what they do.
You should be careful about what you post on social media. A poor site design could make you look unprofessional. Your career page must be attractive and informative. Reviews from past employees have a great impact on hiring decisions.
A successful referral program has many benefits. It allows you to tap into your existing employee network for sourcing candidates faster while also improving recruitment and retention.
Asking for referrals means adding another source to your recruitment mix. Your current staff may or may not know people that fit the job description and might not be able to recommend you as a potential hire.
Adding an additional referral helps improve retention and speed up hiring.
Hiring costs should be reduced by referring people instead of advertising or using external recruiters. You can get candidates without spending money.
Involve your current staff in the hiring process.
Determine your goals. When building an employee referral program for your business, start by asking yourself these questions:
Referrals are used to help people find jobs. Employees should be allowed to make them as long as they’re not illegal or unethical. This policy should also describe what happens if someone uses them illegally or unethically.
Referrals should be sent to relevant departments, including Human Resources. You should mention the skills and qualifications you’re looking for. Include a link to the full position description. Employees can also upload their resumes onto the company’s internal website.
Employees should be asked to refer good candidates who fit the job description and are qualified enough to fill the role. Candidates need to provide relevant information about themselves such as their experience, education, skills, etc. This helps employers make better hiring decisions.
Referral bonuses are often used by companies to motivate employees to refer potential hires. However, it may be more effective to offer gifts such as gift cards, days off or even free tickets instead of cash.
A successful referral means you get a bonus or some kind of reward. Limitations include an employee can’t refer someone who has already applied.
Diversity makes people stronger because they learn new things and become better at what they do.
Referrals are important but shouldn’t be used as the main source of finding employees.
Diversity is important when hiring. To avoid nepotism and bias, make sure you’re looking for diverse candidates from different backgrounds.
Remind your team to refer people they aren’t close to, but who have the right skills.
Encourage them to refer candidates who are part of underrepresented groups.
Referrals are very important when looking for new employees. Employees need to feel comfortable about referring people to work there. People should also be able to trust that the company will do everything possible to make sure the person gets hired.
After receiving applications, the company screens them by first looking at the CV. Then if there are any concerns about the candidate’s experience or qualifications, the company may ask for additional information. Finally, the company conducts interviews with the selected applicants.
A CV should be written in such a way that it shows the candidate’s skills, abilities, and knowledge. Also, it should contain information about why the candidate wants to leave his current position. This helps the employer decide whether or not he/she should hire him/her.
Top candidates are identified after reviewing CVs. These candidates are shortlisted, which helps the hiring managers make a decision. The hiring managers get insights and recommendations from the HR department.
You should evaluate candidates based on their skills, experience, and personality traits. When evaluating candidates, you must consider their strengths and weaknesses.
In order to make an informed decision, you must be aware of your organization’s needs and requirements.
When hiring it is not just about ticking a box or following a step by step guide. Yes, at its core, it’s just publishing a job ad. Screening resumes and providing a shortlist of good candidates – but overall, hiring is close to a business function that’s critical for the entire organization’s success and health. After all, your company is nothing without its people, and it’s your job to find and hire stellar performers who can make your business thrive.
Talent Acquisition Software automates administrative parts of the recruiting process. It makes it easier for hiring teams and companies to exchange feedback and keep tabs on the process. This helps you find qualified candidates via online job postings, sourcing or setting up referral programs.
This software lets you create and manage your job postings. You can set up an annual plan for hiring. It improves the candidate experience, helps you maintain a searchable database, generates reports on various key metrics, such as time to hire, allows you to export/import and migrate easily, and helps you stay compliant with laws such as GDPR
Don’t rely on gut feelings or other subjective measures when making decisions. Use objective metrics and data to evaluate candidates fairly.
Assessments are good predictors of job performance and can also help you make more informed decisions when hiring. There are many different types of assessment tools available, and each tool helps you create your own customized assessments.
Some of the most popular tools are listed below:
• Cognitive testing and analysis
Make sure to choose an assessment tool that is easy to navigate and fast to load. Don’t forget about candidates!
Interviews are important because they give employers an opportunity to evaluate potential employees.
However, there are many ways to structure interviews.
You should test out several interview styles before settling on one. Try different question formats and see what works best.
Pay attention to how well your interviewers score each candidate.
Know what questions to ask during an interview. Prepare yourself by reviewing the job description and the company website.
Use new technologies such as video interviewing and virtual reality to make the interview more engaging.
Questions about conflict resolution should be asked before hiring someone who can handle conflicts.
Questions about confidentiality should be asked before hiring people who need to exercise discretion and privacy.
Consider asking candidates to describe how they handled job-related issues in their previous jobs. This type of question gives candidates an opportunity to talk about what they did when faced with similar challenges.
These kinds of questions allow candidates to show off their problem-solving skills and demonstrate that they’re willing to take initiative and make decisions.
Questions should be asked to get insight into the applicants’ professional backgrounds. Abstract questions are to be avoided as they are irrelevant to the job. Interviews are a two-way street; candidates will want to know if you’re a good match for them. Be polite and friendly.
You can’t compare apples and oranges because apples and oranges are two completely different things.
You can’t compare answers to different questions because you can’t compare apples and orange to oranges and apples.
When you ask the same question to all candidates, you should do this in the same order, and leave space for candidate-specific questions.
Candidate-specific questions may include why they’re interested in your company or why they think they’d be successful in your position.
Biases can be conscious or unconscious. Unconscious bias can be hard to identify and eventually overcome.
You should take the Harvard Implicit Association Test to see if you have any biases against certain races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, etc. Then ask yourself whether those biases affect your hiring decisions. People without degrees aren’t always bad hires.
Someone with a degree may not be the most qualified person for the position. However, if you get too many applicants, you’ll end up rejecting people based on arbitrary criteria.
Hire only people who meet your criteria. Don’t hire someone because he or she is a friend or an acquaintance. You should avoid using shortcuts such as asking about someone’s personal life.
There are two types of video interviewing: synchronous and asynchronous interviews. Synchronous interviews happen when the interviewer and the candidate meet face to face, while asynchronous interviews are conducted via video chat. Some companies use both methods, but most prefer one or the other.
Spark Hire. Jobma, myInterview, SkillHeart, VidCruiter, Hireflix, Hinterview, Odro
Video interviews aren’t always helpful because they’re recorded and therefore don’t allow you to answer questions or pitch your company.
However, if used correctly, they can be useful to your recruiting process.
Candidates should be evaluated based on what they say, not how they say it. Avoid sending one-way video interviews to experienced candidates, especially those who might not be receptive to such methods. Use video interviews at the beginning and make sure candidates communicate with humans throughout the hiring process.
Make sure your video interview providers work with your recruitment software so that you can send questions easily. Group answers under candidate profiles.
AI is the future of recruiting because it’s going to be used to help recruiters find the best people for positions.
Algorithms are being developed that can analyze resumes and determine if someone fits the job description. This will allow recruiters to focus more time on interviewing potential employees.
Face recognition software can boost the efficiency of your video interviews. You should be aware of the potential pitfalls associated with such technology. People from different cultures may physically express themselves differently.
To avoid these issues, you should pick tools that integrate with each other, either by default or via well-crafted APIs. This is the most efficient way to keep data intact, as well as having easy access to the bigger picture.
You should try to make sure that your final choice is the best fit for the role. Don’t pick someone because they’re friends with another member of the team. Also, don’t choose someone who hasn’t been working there long enough.
You should hire people who are compatible with your team. Don’t be afraid to take chances by hiring someone who isn’t perfect. After all, if they’re a bad fit, you’ll know soon enough.
After identifying the right candidate, call them to extend a job offer, then send a formal letter or e-mail providing information about the start date and work schedule, compensation and any other information the candidate needs. A verbal offer of employment made during an interview is as legally bound as a letter to the applicant.
If they don’t accept your offer, you’ll need to prepare yourself for negotiation.
Consider who else made it to the final stage? The other candidate might not tick all the boxes, but they showed more passion for joining your business – so speak with them again and go over the specific area you had doubts about as you may be surprised with the answer.
Once a suitable person accepts your offer, make sure you notify everybody else who made it to the interview stage as a minimum. This isn’t a formal requirement, but it is good business etiquette. Candidates will appreciate your courtesy, and you will develop a better reputation as an employer.
Hire effectively if you work in collaboration.
Consider these questions:
Hiring goes smoothly only when tasks, roles and data are organized. Communication is key to making sure everyone knows what needs to happen. Training helps the team understand how the interview process works. Scheduling an intake meeting sets expectations and gives everyone involved time to prepare.
Pre-employment screening is an important part of any hiring process. A third of CVs contain false information, so it’s crucial to check them out before you hire someone.
Screening offers peace of mind so you know you’re hiring the right people.
Being a new employee can be stressful, but there are ways you can make sure your new hire is comfortable and happy whilst onboarding them. Make sure they know where the toilet is! Have someone else show them around and answer any questions.
You can also ask if they need anything or want to talk about anything. Showing support and being helpful will earn you some serious loyalty points.
This is a great opportunity to differentiate yourself and get your new relationships off to the best possible starts. It’s amazing how much companies slip up here.
You should ensure meetings are planned with their key team in the first week, so they have a chance of meeting everyone.
It also helps you to understand their roles and responsibilities early on, so you can hit the ground running!
Recruitment is not easy to do by yourself. You need to find a proven process to follow. When you have a proven process, you get more time to focus on other things.
A specialist recruiter can help you find candidates that fit your business, your budget, and the roles you are looking for.
The most important thing when recruiting is to be compliant during the whole recruitment process. You need to make sure you’re looking after candidates’ data in a proper way.
Companies should be careful about storing data on applicants. They should make sure that they follow the rules set by law. Companies should also make sure that they have a clear policy on what happens to the applicant after they leave the company.
To keep your data safe, you need a tool that is compliant with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Data security is important. Your software should protect data by restricting access to sensitive information. Ask your software provider about how they protect data. Make sure you understand what kind of data they store and how they manage it. Find out if they follow any legal requirements regarding data storage and use.
If access control options are offered by the company. You should check if the company offers any services related to compliance with equal opportunity laws. This includes things such as a voluntary anonymous survey about a candidate’s race or gender.
Companies must also maintain a record of their employees’ race and gender. In addition, make sure to seek legal advice about what kind of information you need to collect.
Hiring managers should be careful when complaining about how long it takes to fill roles. The hiring manager may be exaggerating, but if not, there could be an issue with the hiring process. You can dig deeper into the data to figure out what happened.
Hiring is hard to do well. Reporting helps by showing you what you’re doing wrong. You should report on both your successes and failures.
Allocate your budget to the correct candidate sources. Increase productivity. Unearth hiring issues and benchmark and forecast your hiring. Receive more objective (and legally compliant) hiring decisions. Make a case for additional resources (both human and software).
Your company should focus on a few key metrics. Ask your executives, your CEO or your finance director what information they want to see about the hiring process. Also, ask them where they think there might be problems or bottlenecks. What data would be helpful for them when reporting to their managers or formulating strategies?
Here’s a breakdown of common recruitment metrics you might find useful to follow:
Automated tools can help gather data about candidates. However, some data needs to be collected manually.
There are many different types of data that need to be collected. For example, some data might be gathered by asking candidates how they feel about the company culture. Other data might come from looking at previous interviews and seeing what kind of questions were asked.
Finally, there are other data points that can be gathered automatically. These include things like the number of applicants who apply to a job posting.
When your company is doing well when it comes to hiring new employees, you can also compare your company to others to see what you need to do to improve.
Candidates should know what kind of company they’re applying to before they apply. Companies should engage with applicants throughout the process, and make sure they’re feeling appreciated as a person. This helps candidates decide if they want to work there.
Candidates appreciate being kept up to date during the recruitment process. Clear and consistent communications help them feel valued by the company. Prompt responses to questions help candidates know if they’re going to be considered for future opportunities. Consistent updates about the next steps provide reassurance and clarity.
Feedback should always be given constructively. Candidates should understand why they were rejected, and what they could do better next time.
Negative feedback should never be delivered without constructive suggestions.
Positive feedback should be used to encourage candidates to apply again.
Candidates need to know the right questions to ask about the company. Recruiters should speak in the language of the candidates they want to attract. Candidates should feel valued when being interviewed by recruiters.
Consider the diverse range of interests, needs and wants in applicants – some may be parents or boomers who need to leave early for work or catch the commute home. Others may not be football fans, and it’s a powerful engager when speaking to the different demographic/socio-geographic/psychographic needs in applicants when advertising your benefits.
Keep it a pleasant, two-way street. Don’t be that horrible interviewer in the candidate’s story at their next social event. Do open up the channel of communication with candidates and asked them how their experience was either within interviews or in the thank you survey.
Opt for proactive hiring instead of reactively hiring. Hiring shouldn’t be an afterthought, especially when your team scales fast.
You should have a plan in place before you start recruiting. This way, you’ll be able to compare forecasts with actual results. You’ll also be able to prioritize hiring needs.
A recruitment plan helps to organize your recruiting efforts.
Hiring teams should use a single system that allows them to easily manage all aspects of the hiring process – from requesting openings to communicating with candidates to closing deals. This makes it easier to see how many people were hired, what role each person played, and how much money was spent on each hire.
You can use the time you’ll save by using automation on more meaningful recruiting activities, such as writing creative job ads or sourcing candidates when being confident that your hiring goes smoothly.
The recruitment process should be documented correctly and access restricted to those involved in the recruitment process. Data protection and GDPR in the workplace need to be carefully followed, along with the retention of HR records.
Equality monitoring should be carried out in the recruitment and resource process. This includes monitoring the diversity of applicants, from the initial stages through to an appointment being made.
Action should then be undertaken to address any issues.
Using metrics such as cost of hiring, candidate experience ratings and timing to hire can also provide insights into the effectiveness of recruiting processes.
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