The easiest way to a faster and more productive recruiting process is by cleaning up your recruiting workflow. Think of it like a housecleaning project that you keep putting off; once you get into it, you find valuables you thought you’d lost as well as space you didn’t think you had.
Where do you start? Put sourcing aside for a moment, and take a realistic look at your candidate journey from the time your company receives their resume. How long before someone replies to that candidate? How long before the resume gets a formal review? If the candidate has the experience you planned for, how long does it take to contact them to arrange a phone screen or interview? Does your process involve phone screens, in-person interviews (and how many rounds?), technical reviews or skills-based assessments, and a senior executive meet and greet for final sign off? What about reference checks, background checks, etc.? Once all of these steps are complete, how long before you get approval to make the candidate an offer?
If your candidate roadmap runs longer than 3-4 weeks, you run the risk of losing great candidates because your process is far too slow. Here are some ideas on how to streamline your recruiting workflow and processes:
5 steps to success
- Automate manual processes: Leverage the right technology partner right technology partner to automate any manual processes. This will instantly take time out of your process and free up time for your recruiting team.
- Challenge your recruiters to find better ways to move a candidate through the process: Who knows your systems better that the team executing every day? They can point out all of your log jams easily. Empower them to find a solution.
- Consolidate wherever possible: If you have a process that requires two rounds of interviews followed by an executive meet-and-greet, consider condensing that to one round. The more senior the candidate, the more difficult to coordinate large blocks of time for interviews. Don’t miss out on an A+ candidate because your process was too time consuming.
- Engage hiring managers: No process can work without engagement and buy-in from the hiring managers you work with. Make sure your process allows for simple hiring manager interactions. Your ATS should have a way for hiring managers to easily engage in the process and keep candidates moving through your workflow.
- Communicate quickly: This may sound simple, but quick feedback to a candidate can keep them interested vs. wondering what happened when they go days without a response. This can be accomplished by each recruiter as well as by leveraging your technology.
It's a great time to do some thoughtful house-cleaning to make sure your candidates get through your system in a simple, yet effective, way. Beat your competitors to the best candidates by delivering a swift and engaging recruiting process.