What you have to know about the recruitment process

Business recruiting today is not the same as it was a few years ago. The traditional recruitment tools businesses once used are taking a back seat in this current candidate-driven market. With no shortage of quality opportunities for job seekers, you’ll need a strong recruitment strategy to build an engaged workforce that will give your business a competitive advantage. Sounds great, but where to start? Here we have explained the process of hiring, step by step. 

5 Steps of your recruitment process

Recruitment is a process of finding and attracting the potential resources for filling up the vacant positions in an organization. It sources the candidates with the abilities and attitude, which are required for achieving the objectives of an organization.

To increase the efficiency of hiring, it is recommended for you to follow these five practices:

1. Recruitment planning
2. Preparing the job description
3. Searching for the candidates
4. Screening process
5. Interviews + decision making

An efficient recruitment process is an organization-specific sourcing model that aims to find the right fit for the right job at the right time. It is a step-by-step approach to bringing in talented people who can help your company grow.

1. Recruitment planning

Whether a job opening is newly formed or just vacated, you cannot find what you need if you don’t know what you need in the first place. So, your recruitment process should start with identifying the vacancies that exist followed by analyzing the job specifications including the knowledge, skills, experience and personality traits needed for the role. For example- you want the person to be funny, right?

You want someone who would complement the team, be different in his/her way of doing things. So first you have to find out, which type of person do you lack in your office.

2. Preparing the job description

Preparing the perfect job description will help you know what your potential employees must have in order to meet the demands of the role. More importantly, it provides your prospects with a checklist or a list that they can compare themselves to before applying. It is a tool to ensure that you get applications from the right candidates.

You might want to work with a communication consultant when making a job description. It is beneficial for you to attract the right candidates, therefore each word matters. It is important for you to be very clear about what you can offer the candidate, what are the benefits of working with you. Respect the applicants and understand that as much as they need this job, you need them too. 

3. Searching for the candidates

There are broadly two sources used to attract candidates: internal and external.

When it comes to external candidates, some companies work with a recruiter to find applicants, especially for higher-level jobs. Other companies will use social networking sites and LinkedIn to recruit, in addition to using traditional means of recruiting like posting ‘help wanted’ ads in newspapers, social media and local listing jobs online like Indeed or others. 

Campus placements are a quick and inexpensive way to find suitable candidates, who are competent, energetic, enthusiastic and most importantly interested in working for you. It is also your chance to reach the perfect match for your future job position, before your competitors do. 

4. The Screening process

Then comes the most annoying part, going through all the applications. You need a system for that as well. Here are 4 steps to effectively screen candidates:

1. Screen applications on the basis of minimum qualifications.
2. Sort resumes that have the preferred credentials by looking at their certifications, relevant experience, domain expertise, technical competencies and other specific skills that are required for the role.
3. Shortlist candidates who have both the preferred credentials and the minimum qualifications.
4. Finally, flag any concerns or queries in the resume so they can be clarified during the interview.

As part of the application process, you might want to ask candidates to take a talent assessment test to see if their background matches your company’s requirements. Job applications and test results will show you which candidate should be invited to follow-up interview.

The most time-consuming task of the recruitment process is reviewing resumes. Fortunately, there are many tools and applicant tracking systems that help with that, especially if you are dealing with hundreds of applicants.

5. Interviews + decision making

As candidates move through the interview process, you might interview them several times prior to a job offer or a rejection notice. The interview might also include PI testing (to find out the speed of candidates thinking), personality tests and/or others. You might also consider to run background checks, reference checks, and possibly a credit check as part of the recruitment process. After that, you will hopefully have a clear picture of who the candidates are and how well they would fit at the company. The last step of recruitment is for you is to make a decision and offer the position. 

The bottom line?

You must have a process for your recruitment. It’s not enough to blindly float between job boards, social media and employee referrals, hoping something sticks. And even if you do make a few great hires that way, can you replicate it again?

Create a hiring process flowchart or a similar order of operations that your recruiting team follows each and every time. It gives you a starting point to reassess your priorities and strategies each time.