When a position comes open in your company, how long does it take you to fill it?
By 2030, low employee retention will cost the US $430 billion annually, on average. Employee retention is a significant issue for businesses in the technology sector.
The best leaders recognize how to put employees in the right positions. They give their teams the right responsibilities to keep them engaged and wanting to work for the organization. Now, more than ever, it’s vital to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your recruitment process.
But how do you know how to improve your recruitment process, exactly? And why is employee recruitment so important?
First, you must establish consistency in your talent recruitment process. Use the following 10 ideas to heighten your company’s recruiting efforts.
1. Use Applicant Tracking Systems
One of the essential elements to implement into your recruitment plan is an applicant tracking system (ATS).
An applicant tracking system allows you to follow applicants over the course of the recruitment and hiring process. This tracking begins when the first application is filed. This system also automates communications, so you don’t lose your best candidates.
Ultimately, an applicant tracking system helps you distinguish where most of your top candidates are coming from. Are they finding your job posting from your careers website, job boards, or somewhere else?
With this data in your back pocket, you can more efficiently advertise job openings in the future.
If you don’t know where to start in optimizing your recruitment process, take our advice and implement an ATS tool first—you’ll thank us later.
2. Improve Job Descriptions
People are less likely to apply for jobs where they do not meet all of the job description requirements. Statistics show that women will choose not to apply if they don’t meet 100% of the criteria, while men will only apply if they meet at least 60%. This includes less-important details such as secondary responsibilities and certifications.
Rather than a lengthy list of required past skills and experience, consider trimming your job descriptions down to the core requirements. This will increase the confidence of your applicants and ensure you end up with a deeper talent pool.
Fail to do this, and you might have to start over or prolong your search for candidates, which costs your organization time and money.
When crafting job descriptions, think about listing problems you’ll need the future employee to solve. The best employees are excited by challenges and the opportunity to help an organization thrive. Don’t just state the challenges that they will be asked to solve in the long term, but daily ones as well.
You should make the impact of their work clear. Connect the dots between the work they will be doing and the specific impact it will have on others.
3. Utilize Your Internal Team
If you are a hiring manager, you don’t have to bear the burden of hiring all on your own. When it comes to filling job positions, turn to your internal team to boost your hiring efforts.
Thinking about asking employees to recommend candidates before posting a job description? Consider employees that you can promote from inside of your organization first. You can open the application up to current employees before starting the search.
This tactic is ideal, as no one knows your organization and company culture better than someone who already works there. Thus, the onboarding process is mitigated for an outside candidate.
Offering your current employees the ability to apply also shows your internal team that you’re encouraging career advancement. They’ll see this as you valuing their contributions to your organization, which can boost employee engagement and slow turnover rates.
If you decide not to open up the position to current employees, consider leveraging employees as recruiters. Ask them to tap into their networks and share information regarding the open position. Equip them with images and social copy that they can share on their social media platforms.
The copy and images you provide don’t have to be super polished. And as your employees share the news of a new position opening, you can build a robust talent pipeline.
4. Strengthen Communication With Applicants
If a candidate is interested in your position, they’ll expect regular updates to keep them engaged. If they think you’ve left them hanging, they may take their talent elsewhere.
Improve communication with applicants across your recruitment process. Keeping in touch can be as simple as a quick check-in to say you don’t have any news yet.
The best candidates are likely receiving multiple offers, or they are at least being noticed by other companies. If they haven’t received an update and have no idea when they will hear from you, they won’t wait around long.
Stay at the top of your candidate’s inbox, so they remain a viable option and you don’t have to restart your candidate search.
5. Adopt Interviewing Best Practices
Of course, your human resources team is experienced at sourcing, vetting, and interviewing candidates, but is your hiring team?
Ask the employees who will work on the same team as the potential candidate to conduct an interview. Don’t let them do this unprepared, however. Prepare them with an overview of ethical interview guidelines and legal stipulations. Also, give them the rundown of interview best practices for assessing a candidate’s qualifications.
An easy way to prepare your hiring team is to prepare a standardized candidate evaluation sheet and tailor it for each job position you’re hiring for.
Before you open the position, ask your hiring team to develop a candidate persona. Include information such as what you are looking for in a position and what responsibilities are involved. Then, draft questions that are designed to uncover the qualities they describe.
For example, if you’re looking for someone who will be assertive in the role, ask them about a time they were successful in fighting for what they wanted. Approaching interviews in this way ensures that you’re asking the right questions.
Knowing which types of candidates you’re looking for and training your hiring team before the interview process can make it easier to spot the right candidates for the position, minimize lost employee productivity due to a longer interview process, and lower your cost-to-hire.
6. Source Candidates to Build Your Talent Pipeline
Don’t only search for candidates as jobs come available. Part of your routine should be continually combing candidates for positions before they become free. Being proactive can reduce your time-to-hire. Creating a strong talent pool, especially for job roles with higher turnover rates, can help you retain prospective candidates sooner.
One thing you can do to increase your network’s size is to join online professional communities to connect with candidates passively. Individuals who aren’t actively looking for a new role but are interested in learning more are vital to your recruitment process—especially because we’re in a candidate-driven market.
You can split the candidate journey into six stages. The act of submitting an employment application typically doesn’t occur until the fourth stage.
Also, thanks to the technology we have access to, candidates are likely to consider several positions before applying for a job. They’ll check out your company website, social media profiles, career pages, and anonymous job survey sites.
Candidates can afford to shop around for better roles. This means you must be patient and begin searching early by networking with idle candidates before positions become available.
7. Show Off Your Company’s Culture
Today, your company’s culture is a crucial aspect to highlight in your recruitment efforts. It’s the personality of your business, and company culture remains high on the list of factors that are important to job seekers.
Company culture is so important because people care about what they do and where they work. Highlighting your company culture reinforces to job seekers that you’re not only building a business but also a community.
To show off your company culture, consider adding employee spotlights to your company’s website. Also, feature your core values and mission statement promptly. Sharing details about your organization and your culture helps prospective candidates invasion what it would be like working for you. If they like what they see, they’re more likely to accept an offer.
You can also highlight your company culture by sharing employee testimonials on your website’s careers page. If you’re filling a sales role, for example, ask one of your top sales representatives to share their thoughts and experiences working for your company.
Along with the testimonial, add a photo of your employee to make it more authentic. Share this on social media and ask your employees to do so as well. This is a simple way to inspire people to work for your company.
8. Craft an Employee Value Proposition
Believe it or not, you have a reputation as an employer. It’s called your employer brand, and it’s what the general public and your employees think about your company.
You can’t control the way others perceive you, but you can gently help influence their opinions. The first thing you’ll need to do is craft an employee value proposition. This proposition will help you pitch your open job roles and organization to prospective candidates.
Next, you should update all public-facing content and create new materials that tell your brand’s story. These promotional materials are what job seekers will see first, so ensure that you’re accurately representing your team and organization. Whatever you create, be sure it stands out.
According to survey, 50% of job seekers say they won’t take a job with a company with a poor reputation, even for an increased salary.
An impactful and confident employer brand will drive more inbound candidates to your careers page and impress those already on your radar.
9. Network With Potential Candidates
Sometimes the best candidates aren’t local. If you’re looking for a way to connect with prospectivate employees, check out industry events. These events will give you the opportunity to meet elite candidates in your industry. The relationships you form at industry events can lead to lasting professional partnerships.
Plus, you can’t get a good feel for someone by simply reading their resume.
The best way to consider a potential employee is by meeting them face-to-face. Speaking face-to-face in a neutral setting allows you to effectively eliminate the first step of your. job search by providing insights on the person’s values, personality, and long-term career objectives.
10. Begin an Employee Referral Program
To encourage your employees to recommend potential candidates, implement an employee referral program. By providing creative incentives, your employees will work harder to find individuals that will excel in an open role.
Sure, monetary rewards are most common, but consider giving away experiences as well. For example, offer the referring employee a weekend getaway with the person of their choice.
When implementing a referral program, you must set guidelines for when and how you will distribute rewards. Consider waiting several months after you hire to issue rewards. Waiting ensures that employees are only recommending quality hires.
Still Wondering How to Improve Your Recruitment Process?
If you’re not a recruiting expert, you’re likely still considering how to improve your recruitment process.
At Golden Technology, we use a proprietary IT staffing model to help you achieve your desired results. We have a large sourcing team consisting of tenured recruiters who are experienced at tech recruiting.
Our experts have helped countless project teams prototype, produce, and execute some of the most complex and advanced IT applications. We will work in tandem with your team to add value by providing the technical talent that you’re seeking.
Ready to hire talent? Contact us to let us know how we can assist today.
