Does it feel as if corporate recruiting has become an overwhelming gig? If yes, it’s likely you’re hanging on to how things have always been done. Hiring and the role of HR has dramatically changed in recent years, and it’s only going to continue to evolve.
HR tech is permeating every aspect of recruitment, streamlining systems and making processes more efficient for all businesses from corporates to startups. The difference in corporate recruiting though is the sheer volume of roles, vacancies, applicants and candidates. Especially when you are also recruiting remotely for branches or divisions in other states or countries.
The digital transformation has also ushered in a change of approach, and therefore a new mindset. Add to that the growing talent shortage that’s resulted in candidates driving the market, and it’s obvious why you can’t recruit in the same way you did before.
What has changed, and what can you do about it?
Firstly, accept that candidates have moved on. They’re no longer willing to apply for random job posts that offer minimal information. People look for jobs online that give them not only a comprehensive job description but also tells them about the employer. The world has become accustomed to valuable and engaging online content, and that includes job posts.
Corporate recruiting teams have to be able to give people what they want to attract the best talent. To build a strong and successful team, the mindset and the composition of the team has to change to include not only recruiters and researchers but also marketers, strategists, networkers and analysts. There’s a lot more that goes into attracting and sourcing top talent today, so the back office of corporate recruiting has to evolve.
6 things to give your corporate recruiting a makeover
The thought of implementing change can seem quite intimidating. But that’s only if you envision manual change. Encourage an environment of digital transformation and ensure that the corporate recruiting team is trained to not only use technology but understand its uses too. There are plenty of digital solutions that can be implemented and integrated to quickly take care of time-consuming, laborious and manual tasks. This frees corporate recruiters up to focus on attracting talent, developing talent pools and having quality interactions with applicants and candidates.
1. Embrace technology
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is essential not only for convenience but also for corporate recruiting best practices. An ATS centralizes all of your recruiting functions and is accessible to everyone involved in the hiring process irrespective of their location. It’s a single point of internal and external communication and a record of all vacancies and applicants, current and historical. Features of an ATS include everything from attracting talent to automation and analytics to improve hiring decisions.
After you’ve invested in an ATS, you can decide what other digital platforms or recruitment automation will improve your hiring. It’s essential that you conduct a thorough needs analysis so that you know what your requirements are before you invest in any other solutions. A digital solution is only beneficial if it solves problems, identifies bottlenecks, streamlines processes, improves the quality of hires and reduces the time to hire.
2. Introduce collaborative hiring
An ATS improves collaborative hiring because all internal stakeholders have access to the recruitment process for any vacancy in real-time. This improves communication, limits bias, maintains transparency and leads to more informed hiring decisions. Once a new role has been identified, the corporate recruiter can select the hiring team. Together they’ll all work closely together to fill the position within a predetermined time frame.
If hiring and line managers have previously kept their notes and opinions to themselves after interviews, you’ll have to get their buy-in for the new system. Ensure that they are also trained on how the system works and write it into your recruitment and selection process policy. That way you will improve your recruiting best practices as well.
3. Reinforce your recruiting team
Traditionally a recruitment team was comprised of recruiters, researchers and administrators. However, with the way corporate recruiting has evolved, a strong team also needs marketing, strategic, networking and analytical skills. Recruiting is a skill on its own, and corporate recruiters have to focus on their core skills to fill vacancies with the right candidates. Although they need to understand the additional skills, particularly if they’re doing full cycle recruiting, it’s best to bring in people who have the specific skills. This is mainly true in environments that handle a high volume of vacancies regularly. Allow everyone to focus on their core skills within a team environment to get the best results.
4. Build your employer brand
With the right technology in place, a robust corporate hiring team onboard, and hiring & line management buy-in, the next step is to get your employer brand out there. Employer branding usually starts with building a careers site that reflects your brand, shares your vision and promotes your culture. It’s essential that your careers site can be integrated with other platforms, including your ATS, job boards and social media.
The next step is to implement a recruitment marketing strategy that promotes your employer brand. You must represent your company accurately; tell it just like it is. When applicants see a job post, they want to know more about the employer before they apply. If you have no, or a weak, employer brand presence you’ll miss out. Potential employees want to see the realistic reflection of your culture, vision, mission and environment.
5. Go mobile and social
With 4.3 billion people online and 3.5 billion social media users, you have to have a powerful online presence. You must also ensure that your careers and blog sites are mobile-optimized because 3.2 billion of the social media referred to above access sites from mobile devices. You can’t afford to stay behind.
There’s a distinction to marketing your employer brand on social media and how to run recruitment ads on your socials. Make sure you know the difference and use both to your benefit. Market your employer brand uniformly across platforms so that if a candidate does research, they get the same picture. Target your recruitment ads though to ensure that they are on the most suitable platforms and appear on the timeline of the type of talent you want to attract.
6. Build a strong referral program
Who knows better what type of people will fit into your organization than your current employees? In corporate recruiting you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of employees in potentially diverse locations. It can be challenging for recruiters to identify best-fit candidates based only on a CV and a few interviews. Employees know the environment, the team and the requirements. They are better equipped to understand who will fit in and who won’t. Also, most people like to help out and know that they can contribute to the company’s success.
Think your employee referral program through very well before it’s implemented. What will work for your environment and most importantly, what will encourage your staffs’ participation? Make allowances for cultural diversity if you have international branches or divisions. Also, add incentives for successful referrals and give employees public recognition. Keep your employee referral program updated and relevant. Make regular announcements and ensure that all employees are aware of and involved in the program. The referral program should be managed by the marketers on your corporate recruiting team.
Before we go
These are the basic steps to get your corporate recruiting process off the ground. Once you’re up and running, you need to optimize, evolve and keep on optimizing. Be creative. Think of new and innovative ideas to attract talent or grab the interest of passive candidates. Grow and develop your online following by posting engaging and valuable content. Have online Q & A sessions. Do surveys on social media. Post impromptu video clips of your working environment. Add random voice notes from employees. Make sure it looks good, but don’t rope in pros. It must be a real reflection of your organization.
Become tech-savvy as you go along. Identify apps and platforms that can improve your corporate recruiting, reduce your time to hire and improve the candidate experience. Consider chatbots to respond to FAQs and give applicants feedback. Make use of augmented writing platforms to improve your job ad copy and programmatic advertising tools to ensure that your jobs are posted on the best platforms at optimum times. Find the best job boards for each vacancy and utilize their screening questions and assessment options so that only suitable applicants get through.
Finally, always measure progress and reassess processes to ensure that your corporate recruitment system remains at the cutting edge of talent attraction and employee retention. Start using analytics in recruitment and keep developing at every level.
Remember, anything that isn’t measured can’t be improved.
