Those in charge of recruiting know sometimes there’s a shortage of talent. For others, there are so many candidates in the marketplace, it’s difficult to source and recruit the best fit. A consistent recruitment strategy plan can help. These 5 steps can help you refine your plan to best meet your organizational needs.

 

 #1 Know Your Value Proposition

Why would someone want to work for you? You likely have a marketing team focused on your customer brand, but your employer brand is equally important. When looking to hire the best talent, you need to impress upon candidates why they would want to join your company.

Interview current employees to understand what they see as the benefits of working for you. Is their feedback aligned with how you want the company to be perceived?  Consider profiling current employees on your website. Paying attention to positive employer branding can ultimately help you not only recruit, but retain employees too.

Companies with positive employer branding get more applications and spend less money on recruiting.

 

#2 Identify Factors for Success

To hire someone for the right role, people in your organization first need to agree on the nature of the vacancy. Work with the individuals who will interact on a daily basis with the new hire to analyze need and sort out what knowledge, skills, and aptitude are necessary.

 

#3 Create Effective Job Descriptions

The role you are advertising needs to sound attractive to candidates. Yet, you need to be crystal clear about the specific qualifications and the role’s key responsibilities. Based on your analysis of what the job involves and the technical and performance skills required, write a descriptive posting that is objective and behaviorally focused, but engaging.  Remember—the first thing potential employees will engage with is the job description; if it is boring and dry, that is how the candidate will perceive your company.  Take the time to add a little personality into your job description.

 

#4 Identify the Right People-Finding Strategies

There are many ways your organization can recruit new hires. To find a specific talent type for a new role, you might consider posting on niche job boards. You could also develop a network of alums of your organization who can be tapped to spread the word about openings. Encouraging employee referrals is another smart way to find new hires who will suit your culture. And social media has been at the forefront of most recruiting strategies.

 

#5 Sort Smart

Build pre-screening assessment into your recruitment process. An application can help you to identify eligible candidates, but when going through applications and resumes, prioritize the responsibilities — what skills are mandatory? Which are on the wish list? Rank applicants, then do phone interviews to determine the candidate’s overall communication skills, attitude, professionalism, and ability to listen. These 20-30 minute interviews can eliminate candidates before getting to the more time-intensive in-person interview stage. When bringing someone on site, be prepared and plan to spend a lot less time talking than the candidate does. Be compliant too — in NYC, for instance, you can no longer ask for an applicant’s salary history.

Test the efficacy of your recruitment strategy plan by paying attention to factors such as:

  • Time to fill a role
  • Quality of hire
  • Recruitment costs
  • Longevity of the hire

Forrest Solutions is an expert in recruiting with over 40 years of experience in this space. We can help you understand the cost/benefit of every hire and keep you abreast of industry hiring trends. Reach out to us for help today!