When a position opens in your business, how long will it take to fill? It’s estimated that most positions take approximately 36 days to fill and cost over $4,000.
If your business is like many others, you don’t have the money or time to spend trying to find and hire a new employee. This means it is absolutely essential that you find a way to improve the hiring process.
Are you ready to get started? If so, you can find tips and information here that will help to make your hiring process more efficient.
Establish a Strong Employer Brand
Over 75% of professionals are considered “passive candidates” who are not actively searching for jobs. While this is true, these individuals are still interested in new opportunities.
Because of this, it is up to you to build a strong employer brand. This can help reduce employee turnover by as much as 28% while attracting passive candidates to your business.
It’s been found that 69% of people are willing to apply for a job if the employer manages its brand and responds to reviews, updates the company profile, and shares information regarding the work environment and culture.
By focusing on developing a well-known employer brand, you don’t have to invest as much time or effort in active recruiting. Instead, your company will be sought out by potential employees and have plenty of applicants to choose from.
Add Your Employee Value Proposition to the Job Posting
Something that’s often overlooked when trying to improve your hiring process is the job posting.
Most postings are not focused and typically involve long, dull, rather technical descriptions. Even worse, they are focused on the company’s point of view rather than the candidate.
Companies like WorkBright.com recommend creating job descriptions that focus on how the position will fulfill the candidate’s needs. Taking this approach will attract more applicants and higher-quality applicants.
A good way to showcase the job-candidate fit is by adding the employee value proposition to the job listing. For example, include the benefits employees will receive in this position. You should also cover how you rate their performance and reward it.
Some other things to include as part of the employee value proposition include:
- Amazing perks
- Flexibility (i.e., remote work possibilities)
- Career progression
By including this information, you let potential hires see what they will get if they apply and are hired for this open position.
Get More People Involved in the Hiring Process
Ask your colleagues to help with the interviews. Let them ask some questions. Find out what other people think about the candidates. It’s always helpful to get the perspective of other team members when hiring someone new.
Use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
One of the most important parts of an efficient recruitment process is keeping things organized, which an ATS can help you with. When you begin using an ATS, recruiters can track all applicants through the entire hiring process.
This system can also be used to automate messages and communication to ensure the top candidates don’t “fall through the cracks.”
More importantly, using an ATS will help you figure out where the most qualified applicants come from. With this data, your recruiters can determine what avenues are most effective and dedicate more resources to these areas.
Move Quickly
Most of the best candidates will be off the market in just 10 days. You need to act fast, especially if you have a specific candidate in mind.
Even if you have not yet decided who to hire, be sure to follow up with the top candidates regularly. Discuss the details of the open position to ensure you stay on their radar.
Make sure you are responding to any concerns or questions they have as fast as possible too. Keeping them updated will help ensure they don’t accept another position instead of yours.
Automate the Resume Screening Process
For every 100 applications that your position receives, about 65% of them will be ignored.
When it comes to finding talent for your business, you really can’t afford to ignore this many people applying to the position. This is when AI-powered software comes in.
You can use AI to automate the resume screening process, which will make the entire hiring process more efficient. This is because it will reduce the time to hire without impacting the quality of the hire you ultimately make.
Modern AI software can be used to analyze your posted job description and then search through the ATS to find the top candidates who have applied.
Establish a Referral System
Take time to implement an employee referral program. By doing this, you can encourage candidate recommendations.
Feel free to get creative with the types of incentives you offer your existing employees. While monetary awards are common, you may be able to entice your team with other things, too. One example would be a vacation or weekend getaway.
Be sure you establish guidelines for when and how the rewards will be given.
In most cases, waiting a few months after the referred person is hired to provide the reward is standard. That will ensure that individuals are only rewarded if the hire works out.
Use Social Media and Digital Trends
People who are searching for a job today want to work for businesses that keep up with the latest trends in tech. Part of operating in the digital age means using social media for candidate research.
Just like other employers, you probably conduct a traditional background check on applicants. However, looking at these individuals’ social media profiles will offer even more information about the person.
While it can be legally risky to let the social media activity of a candidate impact your hiring decisions because it can cause discrimination or unconscious bias, it does provide you a better picture of the person you are thinking about hiring.
Personalize the Experience for Candidates
One of the top complaints of job seekers today is that the hiring process doesn’t implement personalization.
Employer actions fall short of today’s candidate’s expectations. While about 52% of employers respond to under 50% of the candidates that apply, 84% of applicants expect to receive a personal email, while 52% expect to receive a phone call.
When you begin using technology to help improve the hiring process, you reduce your team’s administrative burden. This also allows you to free up your recruiter’s time to personalize the entire candidate experience better.
Automating resume screening ensures that every resume is screened, ranked, and then sent a reply. It also helps recruiters focus on the shortlist of individuals who are seen as potential matches for the open position.
When recruiters have more time, they can create more high-touch, in-depth relationships with the most qualified candidates. It also allows them to determine what these candidates’ needs are, determine if they are a good fit, and take steps to encourage the candidate to consider taking the position.
Find Elite Candidates Where They Are
Figuring out where to find top candidates can be a huge decision. To find individuals early in their careers, social media is likely a good option.
However, more experienced candidates will likely be accessible through more traditional job boards. Remember, if you don’t take time to consider where to look, you will be wasting your resources and time if you fail to find the right sourcing tools.
Using avenues that you know are used by professionals in your industry makes it easier to connect with quality candidates faster. Your job is to determine where the passive job seekers are before you start recruiting.
Try to focus on the best sourcing tools for your job rather than using them all. This is going to improve candidate quality and minimize the work required to get them hired.
Match the Job to the Personality of the Candidate
While the right skill set may seem like the most important thing to consider when figuring out what candidate to hire, it’s important to remember something. Skills can be taught; personalities can’t.
When you are choosing a new hire, think about how the person’s personality alights with the day-to-day tasks. For example, a trait like empathy would be more important for social workers and nurses than it would for a computer programmer or tax attorney.
What type of person you hire depends on your company’s culture and the type of job they need to do. A good person with many skills could be a good fit for one position and a bad fit for another. Remember, personality matters.
Use Business-Related Metrics to Prove Recruiting Value
Your recruiting metrics are the measurements that offer insight into the effectiveness and value of your overall recruiting process.
These offer information for recruiters to figure out where process improvements are necessary. They also help to justify investments into certain recruiting functions.
You can improve your hiring process by measuring recruiting metrics. Once measured, link these to business outcomes. For example, you can show reduced costs related to less turnover or more revenue due to hiring the best candidates.
Including this type of information can improve your hiring process. That’s because it shows your strategic and financial value to the company.
Streamline the Interview Process
Your recruiters and HR staff are equipped to source, vet, and interview potential candidates. However, what’s the role of your hiring managers.
In most cases, you want the members of your team who will be working closely with a potential candidate to handle the interview process (as mentioned above). Your employees need to be familiar with the ethical interview guidelines and legal stipulations and understand the best prices to assess qualifications.
Try creating a standard template for evaluating candidates. Once you have a template, you can customize it for each role you plan to hire for. Before starting your search, be sure to speak to hiring managers to create a candidate persona. Here you will outline the responsibilities the person in the position will have.
Once you do this, create questions that will ensure the person has the qualities described. One example of this is if you want to hire a salesperson who is aggressive in their role. If so, ask every candidate about a situation where they fought for something they wanted. With this approach, you can ensure you are asking candidates the right questions.
Monitor Your Reviews
Many possible employees will seek insider information regarding the companies they are thinking about working for. This includes things like interview tips, salary estimates, and reviews from past and current employees.
In fact, most candidates will read company ratings and reviews before they decide if they should apply for a job. The top candidates may not apply if they don’t like what they find. Also, about half of all job seekers would not accept a job, even if it came with better pay if the company had a bad reputation.
Now You Know How to Improve Your Hiring Process
As you can see from the information above, you can do more than a few things to help improve your hiring process. The tips above will help you with this goal and ensure you find the right candidates for the open positions you have.
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