5 Things Your Recruitment Process Needs To Secure Top Talent!

In the current market, great talent is hard to find 🔍, and even harder to get onboard.

You only get one shot to impress during your recruitment process, you need to make sure you get it right!

Good candidates have a lot of choice between potential employers currently. It isn't just about who is offering the most money 💰 anymore!

Package and benefits aside, it isn't just the money that talks nowadays. Experience during a recruitment process has a huge impact on the candidates final decision.

Here are 5 areas where your process needs to excel to increase your chances of securing the right people for your business.

Fast

Your process needs to be fast, without compromising on structure and detail. Good candidates on average go off the market in less than two weeks. If you can't keep up with the pace of the candidate's other interview processes, they will get snapped up before you have completed yours. This also includes the back office process of producing offer letters and contracts. You would not believe how many great candidates withdraw from the process after accepting a verbal offer because it has taken too long to receive anything in writing!

Flexible

One of the biggest killers of a recruitment process is overly rigid and labor intensive stages, including admin heavy compliance processes. A high percentage of candidates have told us that they would actually withdraw from an interview process if asked to complete paperwork, assessments or other administrative tasks prior to attending an interview.

Another issue that will take the momentum out of the process can be the struggle to marry up diaries, or interviews being arranged too far in advance. This is especially true for people who are working currently, but searching for a move. The chances are that they won't be available during the day due to current work commitments, so you may need to be prepared to make yourself available out of hours. Think about whether the first stage needs to be face to face, or whether the use of technology will help the process fit around busy diaries, and be more time efficient.

Personable

For us, this is one of the most important parts of the process. This is your shot to make the candidate want to join your business. Having a dedicated point of contact to manage the process, sharing as much information as you are taking and getting to know them as people, will have a huge impact on whether the candidate chooses you or not. Most candidates pick a hiring manager, not a business.

Informative

Having spent a long time in Talent Acquisition, the most successful processes are always the ones that left no surprises for the candidate. It always shocks me to hear that candidates are invited straight in for an interview off the back of a CV or application, with no prior conversation or qualification. Now, this isn't about telling the candidate whatever they want to hear. It's about allowing the candidate to make the informed decision on whether the role and business is best fit, and visa versa.

Take time to explain the role, expectations, the process and information about the business to confirm suitability and interest. Follow up with links and resources so the candidate can do their own research. Ask them to come back to you and confirm that they are keen to attend an interview. Yes, before you say it, you will lose applicants during this part. But this is kind of the point! You will only lose people who don't really want to be there. What you WILL do is identify the best talent who are committed to the process!

Decisive

So… Your process is finished, all the stages are done. Decision time!!! At this point you need to have a clear decision making process in place. The most frustrating words to hear at this stage are, "we are just waiting for sign off" 😡 The role should be signed off with the agreed budget ahead of starting the search, this will avoid delays at offer stage.

An effective 'pre-close' should be done to make sure everyone is on the same page, and you know exactly what it will take to have a positive outcome.

You should not leave a candidate waiting to receive an offer, but you also don't want to lay it on too thick and fast, there is a fine line! Offering a candidate in the interview for example, is a big no no in our opinion! You may think that you are showing enthusiasm, but what you are actually doing is applying pressure and potentially scaring the candidate off. They will likely accept because they are being put on the spot and lets face it, it would be really awkward if they said no! As soon as they get home, the concerns and unanswered questions set in, only now they find it difficult to discuss them.

We feel it is more effective to make your intentions clear, "we are very keen and it is our intention to make you an offer", and then follow up to do your pre-close, giving an opportunity to gauge the level of interest and answer any last questions. If everyone is on the same page at this point then move forward and extend the offer.

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