It’s the start of the year, which means for employers, the start of a new hiring year and a fresh plan to add the best talent to the business. But over the years, we’ve come to realise that even the best companies can let good candidates slip through the cracks if they don’t have the best hiring process. So, with a fresh new calendar for 2020, how can you ensure your hiring process is as strong as it can be?
When you’re looking to hire new employees for a particular role or roles, you need to first understand what that role is and more importantly, what you want from that role. This may seem obvious and you may think you know the role, but knowing a role means knowing the finer details of what the role entails. What will their day-to-day look like? What will their targets and KPIs be? What kind of projects will they be expected to deliver? The better you understand the job role in question, the better suited your applicants will be.
Once you have a clear understanding of a position, you need to make sure you write a good job spec or ad. Make sure it’s not a recycled version of a similar ad you put up two years ago. All job ads should be written from scratch and based off of a realistic view of what someone can expect in the job. Don’t stuff it with meaningless buzzwords and phrases, but fill it with direct tasks they will be expected to perform.
Once you have your job spec ready to go and you know the kind of candidate you need to fill it, you need to think about your hiring timeline. How long do you want the job ad up before the closing date? Once it’s closed, when will you look at all the applications? When can you set up interviews? If a second interview will be required, how soon can these be arranged after the first round?
This thought process will be vital because your time is valuable and so is the time of the candidates you’re interviewing, so mapping out a timeline of the hiring process will help prevent you from dragging the process out and it will also help you spot any areas you can tighten the hiring process up.
A study of UK businesses showed that more than half of HR directors had lost out on a qualified candidate due to a long hiring process, so keeping the process as short and efficient as possible will give you the best chance at nabbing the best candidates before they’re offered a job elsewhere.
A well-structured interview will help hiring managers and employers find the best candidates and give top talent the chance to properly showcase their achievements. What a lot of hiring managers don’t realise is that they can miss out on the best talent if they don’t conduct a good interview.
Good interviews should be structured and consistent. They should help you find out if the candidate is a good cultural fit and if they have the capabilities to actually do the job. This can be addressed using competency-based questions. Use the job spec to help inform your questions about the skills the perfect candidate will need. It’s also important to find out what their motivations are for going for this job and why they want to leave their current role. These will help you decide if they’re the right fit and help you avoid bad hires. You can find out more about conducting interviews here.
One of the biggest complaints that candidates have about a job application process is that they never hear back from the company to which they’re applying. In fact, a few years ago, a CareerBuilder survey showed that 75% of workers who applied to jobs didn’t hear back from employers.
A lack of communication doesn’t sit well with many applicants and not only could it be a turn off for top talent you’re hoping to hire, but it can leave a bad taste in the mouths of the unsuccessful candidates too. These candidates are likely to talk about their experience and may even turn off future candidates you never knew you missed out on. It can be time consuming to respond to all candidates but it’s important to take the time to do it so they know where they stand and so that even the unsuccessful candidates will have a positive experience.
Your hiring process should be an extension of your employer branding. New applicants should get a good feel for how you operate as a business from how you deal with them throughout the hiring stage. In addition to this, it’s a good opportunity to sell yourself to top candidates. Do you have a careers blog or page on your website showing off what it’s like to work at your company? Do you have pictures or videos that give a glimpse into what working life is like there?
How you treat your job applicants will give them an idea of how they are likely to be treated in the job – which is why communication is so important in the hiring process. However, the best talent will more than likely have other offers on the table, so you will also want them to walk away from the process knowing why your company is such a great place to work and why you should be their top choice. Find out more about building an effective employer branding strategy here.
Brian McFadden is the client services director at RECRUITERS
Hiring sign photo by Free To Use Sounds on Unsplash
