Here are our tips on running the best recruitment marathon possible, and gaining great talent for your organisation every time.
Best foot first: Your preparation before the race
Just like an athlete, you need you make sure that when the starting gun fires, you’re as prepared as you can be. Ensuring your careers site is up-to-date and engaging means that you can maintain a level of interest in your employer brand, even before posting a vacancy, as well as providing jobseekers with a great impression of your organisation.
Employer branding doesn’t end at your careers site, however. Ensure that your brand is reflected consistently across your social media and all other communication channels. This will instil an accurate sense of your working culture and company values into your jobseekers’ minds.
Once you’re fully prepared on this front, you’re ready to race.
The starting line: Establishing your job opening
You need to give yourself the best start possible to take the lead in this race. Writing an effective job title and description are essential for candidate attraction. Describe the role in jargon-free terms to ensure you’re attracting only the most suitable candidates, and avoid gimmicky job titles such as ‘marketing ninja’, as these are enigmatic and can put off applicants. Be sure to manage expectations, as well as communicating your company culture, so that applicants can get a feel for what the role and working environment would really be like.
Now that you’ve written your job description, the race can begin. Position yourself ahead of competitors by not only posting on your careers site, but also on social media, as well as relevant job boards and any other appropriate channels. Posting your job over a range of platforms will help to appeal to a wide range of candidates.
Maintaining pace: Keeping your prospects warm
Once you’ve posted your job ad, you need to keep pace with your competitors and keep prospects engaged. Ensure you maintain a good level of consistent communication across all of your channels and manage applicants’ expectations as to when they’ll hear from you.
It’s also important not to overlook your passive candidates. Consider the wealth of skills and experience you may have in talent pools in your ATS or recruitment database – and think about how you can engage with them, for example setting up relevant job alerts, or sending out a newsletter to keep your jobseekers updated with company news.
With a selection of quality candidates, you can now cross the finish line, and hire your new recruit.
Winning gold every time: Collecting feedback
You’ve found your star candidate, and you may think that the recruitment process is over. However, much like the most successful athletes, you need to make sure that you’re always improving. Collecting candidate feedback from both successful and unsuccessful applicants is a great way to ensure that every aspect of your recruitment process is delivering what you want it to, and meeting candidate expectations. Listening to and acting on this feedback can take your hiring process from bronze to gold.
Like an Olympic Marathon, recruiting can be lengthy and resource-draining. However, with the right preparation, approach and feedback, there are ways to streamline your recruitment processes to cut time and cost, and to ensure that you hire your golden candidate every time.
Established in 1997, Hireserve creates leading recruitment software. Trusted by organisations across the world, including CERN, Arriva and Global Radio, Hireserve ATS is agile, intuitive and powerful. To find out more, contact the Hireserve team on 01256 634 140 or drop us a note at info@hireserve.com.
