No hiring manager has the luxury of focusing exclusively on filling any single vacancy. It’s either multiple vacancies or many other unrelated responsibilities, simultaneously. That means that without proper control, hiring staff can quickly become a hit and miss affair that no business can afford. That’s where well-planned recruitment process steps can bail you out!
With some pre-planning, you can streamline your recruitment process to save valuable time, and more importantly, ensure that you make the right hiring decisions. Here are a few things to keep in mind when mapping out your own recruitment process steps.
How to build recruitment process steps in a team
When compiling a recruitment process template, its best to invite all team members to contribute so that no vital steps are left out. Small steps that might seem obvious could easily be overlooked, resulting in issues further down the line, so ensure that your template is comprehensive.
Consider your recruitment process steps to be your business’s recipe for success. As with any recipe, each step can make or break the end result, right down to a pinch of salt. Each business has their own requirements, but a good hiring process flowchart must begin with a sound job description and end with onboarding your new hire.
There’s one danger to be avoided, and that’s distributing your business’s recruitment process steps in template form and then assuming that it’s going to be used. Many good intentions don’t come to fruition when the daily stress of producing results takes over.
One way to ensure that your hiring process template is seamlessly implemented is to invest in an applicant tracking system or ATS. In that way, all processes come together in a single system that can be accessed by all team members in real-time.
Think of your candidates
As much as you want to make sure that all your needs are met, don’t forget the candidate experience! Long-winded processes and extended time delays put candidates off, and you could end up losing the best talent available.
Job seekers’ needs have evolved and their expectations aren’t the same those of a few years ago. If you don’t keep pace, you’ll be left behind.
An ATS is an excellent tool for bringing your recruitment process in line with current trends and expectations. Look at job adverts. Few candidates today browse through newspaper classifieds to find a new job. Everything’s done online, including communicating with potential employers.
Social media should be a critical factor in your hiring process. Even if you don’t know much about social recruiting, an ATS will get you connected to the various social media channels in no time. Depending on the type of roles you have, you’ll soon be able to identify the best source of potential candidates for your business.
Streamlining all your recruitment processes while tracking analytics and data in real-time is also a big plus. The great benefit of reporting in real-time is that it allows you to adjust any deficits in your recruitment process right away before any bad decisions are made.
Reports on issues like time to hire, pipeline and candidate origins are invaluable in the applicant screening and candidate interview stage. Without the data and prediction an ATS gives you, it would take weeks before you realize that a vacancy is proving difficult to fill, that bottlenecks exist, or that you haven’t selected the best portals to advertise.
What are the essential recruitment process steps?
Irrespective of the size or type of business you have, specific recruitment process steps have to be included. It’s also best to do a quick process review with the hiring team before any vacancy is put out into the market.
No two roles are the same, so your recruitment process steps will most likely need some tweaking for specific vacancies. As much as pre-planning can seem trivial to some, it’s a vital step to success and will end up saving your hiring team valuable time. Encourage ongoing collaboration between team members.
Every recruitment process template should include:
1- A detailed job description
- Skills and experience requirements
- Personality preferences
- Remuneration package
- Applicable benefits
2- Advertising vacancies
- Advertising budget
- Advertising channels
- Social media campaign
- Date when adverts will be live
3- Pre-screening questions
- Essential requirements
- Advantageous requirements
- Video answers
4- The interview process
- Phone interviews
- Video interviews
- Panel interviews
- Number of interviews
5- Shortlist process
- Assessments
- Evaluations
- Trial day
- Final interview
- Reference check
- Salary negotiation
6- Job offer
- Negotiating start date
- Signing all documentation
- Maintaining contact
7- Onboarding the new hire
Of course, not every step listed will apply to every vacancy; you might have to add or delete steps. But having a predetermined process in place makes hiring simpler. If you’re the only person involved in the process, it’s easy to stay on top of each step. When there’s a hiring team it’s essential that everyone coordinates their diary and work schedule to accommodate the full process, start to end.
It can be off-putting for candidates if the interviews are proceeding well, then suddenly go cold because one of the hiring team is unavailable. Many candidates see this as a red flag and will withdraw from the process. You could lose the best talent in your pipeline!
All hiring happens in stages, and often different team members are involved at various stages. A recruitment process flowchart ensures that each team member is prepared to step in when they need to while keeping updated on the progress throughout.
Keep your ideas fresh
Once you have your recruitment process steps set up, don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s done and dusted for now and into perpetuity. In business, there’s no such thing!
Technology and business processes evolve continuously, and so do people. Existing staff and future candidates will expect different things, so you have to keep up with hiring trends. By automating your recruitment process steps, you’re opening the door to keeping your hiring innovative and competitive.
When you sign up with an ATS platform, you’re signing up for updates on market trends, legislation and system improvements. Plus, you’re buying into convenience, brand building and optimized recruitment processes. No manual system, electronic diary or elaborate spreadsheets can compare.
Every recruitment process must be open-ended and have room for improvement, especially when it comes to developing your recruitment process steps.
