How to enhance your recruitment process
Hiring new employees for your organisation can be an exciting process but it can also lead to lots of frustration for the hiring team and the candidates.
At The Human Element, we believe that it is vitally important to have a well-thought out recruitment strategy that helps you plan better and engages candidates throughout the interview process.
What does it mean to have a well thought out recruitment strategy and an engaging process? There is no magic wand that works for everyone but knowing the best practices can definitely help you attract and hire the best talent for your organisation. We have a few tips on how to ensure that the process is efficient and effective in getting you the right talent, within a satisfying turn-around period.
Here are our best practices:
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Know how the role contributes to the success of the organisation and what would be expected of the employee. We see too many employers not being clear on this. Many new employees do not fully understand their role and their contribution, which leads to a lack of engagement, and performance results that do meet the required standard. Having this information at the start of the recruitment process provides clarity so that you are able to screen better and interview candidates knowing how they will add value to the organisation and what they will be expected to achieve.
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Know what you want. Your organisation cannot be everything to everyone. It’s important to know what you want when you’re looking for talented individuals to join your organisation because this helps you target the right individuals. Skills, education and experience is important and having an open mind allows you to attract a diverse group of suitable candidates.
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Know where you will target your ideal candidates. So many recruiters do not use effective methods to source candidates and often put out an advert, crossing their fingers that the right candidate will apply and be found among the 100’s of CVs’. This traditional method is often a reactive way to find talent and while it does work, it is not as effective to finding a large pool of talent. Also, knowing where to place your advert is important – look for your ideal candidates where they are. This increases your chances of attracting them to your advert.
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Know who will be involved in the interview and decision making process before you start the interview process. How often have you been ready to send an offer of employment to a suitable candidate – only to be told that they need to be interviewed by an Executive or that they should complete a Psychometric assessment? This leaves a bad impression on the candidate and often further increases your time to hire. If you know the process up front – you can easily communicate this to the candidate up front. They will appreciate you for sharing and it will help them plan their time accordingly.
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Make the process fun and engaging for the candidates. I have seen too many hiring managers “grilling” a job seeker almost as if they are attending an exam. The purpose of the interview is not to intimidate the candidate but rather determine if the skills, experience and values are an alignment with the organisation and the team they will be working with. Remember that as much as you are interviewing the candidate, the candidate is also interviewing the organisation to determine if it is a good fit for them. It’s a 2-way process where each party sells themselves, and highlights how they will add value to each other.
Having a clear recruitment strategy and ideal talent profile allows you to not only make the right hiring decision and make the process efficient – it also allows you to keep your candidates engaged throughout the process. We cannot emphasize enough that having a world class hiring process can help you attract and win over the best talent in the market.
As Talent Management Specialists, it’s a our passion to help organisations attract, hire and retain talented employees who will contribute to the success of the organisation.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you with our Talent Acquisition Audit, Hiring or Consulting services – please get in touch at elin@humanelement.co.za.
