Dealing with HR can be a costly and draining process, but it does not have to be. To avoid this, try developing a set of best practices for recruiting new candidates. We asked 12 thought leaders for their best HR practices as it pertains to recruitment.
Below, they reveal the steps they take to ensure a smooth and beneficial recruitment process.
Let Employees Be Your Company’s Brand Ambassadors
Leverage current employees to tell your brand’s story and positively speak to its organizational culture. Employees are the most important stakeholder for any company; having them evangelize their time at your company is the best third-party credibility for your brand’s recruitment efforts.
Rennie Leon, Director of Marketing & Communications
Focus on the “Human” Element
Innovation is one of our core beliefs at our staffing firm. How do we practice what we believe? We have built an outbound call center that is solely dedicated to reaching out to candidates. That’s unlike any other HR temp agency, since most have their call centers reaching out to employers and soliciting new business. By focusing our outbound attention on candidates, we are able to innovate on the “human” element behind every candidate.
Michael Bratta, Interim HR Consulting
Ask the Hard Questions
I make sure to ask all the questions needed to determine if the candidate is the right fit for my client. Sometimes, asking the tough questions is the hardest part, but by doing so, we save our clients time and money – minimizing any surprises in the future.
Jon Schneider, Staffing Agency
Invest Time in Your Pool of Candidates
Invest the time into recruiting and have a process in place so that hiring is always done in some capacity. You should have a pool of candidates before the position ever exists and the candidates should be warm to your company and the role.
Be One Step Ahead
This is easier practiced when recruiting internally as recruitment can learn of headcount changes and know the approval is coming. Once the requisition is official, a pipeline of candidates is ready and can speed up time to fill while other candidates, both internally and externally, apply to the open position.
Katie Gillespie, Senior Recruiter/Account Team Lead
Follow Up. Then Follow Up Again
I think almost everyone at some time has been in the middle of the hiring process and never heard back from the recruiter or received an email six weeks later letting them know the position is filled. I know first hand how difficult it can be to juggle communication with all your candidates but finding ways to keep organized and stay on top of it could mean the world to that person who is waiting around to hear about their dream job or considering accepting an offer elsewhere. Block off time on your calendar each week to follow up with candidates (even if you don’t have an update for them), tell a candidate to reach back out to you in a week if they haven’t heard anything. Whatever you have to do, just communicate.
Maura Dern, Sr. Recruiter
Prioritize Transparency
Transparency, being honest, and explaining the interview process and timeline upfront to each candidate you contact and potentially interview. Many times candidates will drop off due to not knowing the next steps, leave bad reviews of companies when they never hear back, and never receive any feedback if they did not receive the position or move forward to the next step.
Rachel Valentino, Recruiting & Staffing Manager
Create Non-generic Job Descriptions
Discover a very direct, specific, and soft-skills driven description of whom you are looking for. Your goal is to eliminate as many people in the first steps as possible. Create non-generic descriptions that fit the company culture and save time on reading resumes that don’t fit.
Place Confidence in Your Personal Brand
Know that you have your own personal brand. I utilize my brand on LinkedIn by posting relatable statuses, engaging with my audience (aka my network), and posting my own open roles. You’d be surprised by how many people in your own network may know someone or they themselves may be the right fit for the role!
Amy Rishko, Senior Recruiter
Practice Empathy
My most valued practice is empathy. It costs nothing and says everything about a recruiter or a hiring manager. We never know what a candidate is going through outside of the hiring process. Life still goes on, and we have it in our power to still stay human. Part of that includes: returning calls, e-mails, and providing feedback when possible. Respect and compassion goes a long way and is what good recruiters are remembered by.
Deborah Bubis, Recruiter and Sourcer
Don’t Rely Solely on the Interview
We moved to a very prescriptive program called Top Grading. It has made all the difference. In this program, we recognize that the interview is a poor predictor of success. Instead we use the interview to learn about the candidate’s entire life and employment interest, talents, and hobbies. We then identify key people along the way that we want to speak to on a personnel level. We learn so much more about a candidate speaking with former colleagues than anything we learn in the interview process.
Thomas Ahern, Embark Behavioral Health
Rely on Team Perspectives
New hires have a huge impact on a small business. They work with or have daily interactions with virtually everyone on the team. So, involving the team that the new hire will work most closely with into the recruiting process makes sense. Listen to and value the perspectives of everyone on your team. By getting team buy-in early on a candidate, you’ll likely make a great hire and ensure the onboarding process will go smoothly.
