Recruiting 101: Solid Strategies for Starters in Recruitment

Recruiting 101: Understanding the Recruitment Game Today

Today’s recruitment scene is different from what it used to be a few years ago. The talent market is more diverse, complex, and demanding than ever before. Recruiters have to deal with various factors that influence their success, such as:

• The talent shortage: According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, although the overall population and labor force expanded, the labor force, in fact, slimed down from 2010 to 2020 in age groups 16-24 (entry-level), and 45-54 (leadership level.) The talent shortage is more acute in certain sectors and regions, such as IT, engineering, healthcare, and Asia-Pacific. This means that recruiters have to compete for a limited pool of qualified candidates and offer them attractive incentives to join their organizations.
• The changing expectations of candidates: Candidates today are more informed, empowered, and selective than ever before. They have access to various sources of information about employers, such as online reviews, social media, and referrals. They also have higher expectations for their career development, compensation, benefits, culture, and work-life balance. This means that recruiters have to tailor their employer brand and value proposition to match the needs and preferences of different segments of candidates.
• The impact of technology: Technology has transformed the way recruiters and candidates interact and communicate. Recruiters can use various tools and platforms to source, screen, assess and engage candidates more efficiently and effectively. Candidates can use various channels and devices to search, apply and interview for jobs more conveniently and flexibly. However, technology also poses some challenges for recruiters, such as keeping up with the latest trends, ensuring data security and privacy, and maintaining a human touch in the recruitment process.

So, How Do You Overcome These Challenges?

To overcome these challenges, recruiters need to adopt a proactive, strategic, and data-driven approach to recruitment. Here are some solutions that can help:

• Leverage multiple sources of talent: You can expand your talent pool and reach more qualified candidates by diversifying your sourcing channels and methods.
• Optimize your employer brand: To stand out from your competitors and attract candidates who fit your culture and values, it’s important to build a strong employer brand that showcases your unique selling points as an employer.
• Enhance your candidate experience: Engaging candidates throughout the recruitment process and increasing your conversion rates can be done by providing a positive candidate experience that meets their expectations.

Recruiting 101: Recruiters’ Tips to Forge Stronger Relationships with Hiring Managers

Recruiters and hiring managers are both essential players in the recruitment process. They have a common goal: to find and hire the best talent for the organization. However, they may have different perspectives, expectations, and preferences on how to achieve that goal. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and delays in the hiring process.

To avoid these issues and ensure a smooth and successful recruitment process, recruiters and hiring managers need to build strong and collaborative relationships. Here are some tips for recruiters to forge stronger relationships with hiring managers:

• Get to know their needs: You need to understand the hiring manager’s business goals, challenges, and priorities. It’s also essential to know the specific requirements, responsibilities, and expectations of the role they are hiring for. You can use various methods to gather this information, such as conducting an intake meeting, attending regular business meetings, reviewing job descriptions and performance indicators, and talking to current employees in the same or similar roles.
• Educate them on the recruiting process: It’s important for recruiters to explain to hiring managers how the recruiting process works, what are the best practices and tools they use, what are the potential challenges and risks they may face, and what are their roles and responsibilities in each stage of the process. You can use various methods to educate hiring managers, such as creating a recruitment plan, sharing a timeline and milestones, providing regular updates and feedback, and offering training and coaching sessions.
• Communicate effectively: Frequent communication between recruiters and hiring managers is the foundation for strong relationships. Be clear and respectful. You need to establish effective lines of communication, such as email, phone, video call, or chat. In addition to that, you need to agree on the frequency, format, and content of their communication, such as daily updates, weekly reports, or monthly reviews. As recruiters, it’s important for you to listen actively to hiring managers’ concerns and questions, provide honest and constructive feedback, and address any issues or conflicts promptly and professionally.
• Align on expectations: You need to align with hiring managers on their expectations regarding the quality, quantity, and speed of candidates. It’s imperative to set realistic and measurable goals and criteria for each stage of the process, such as sourcing, screening, interviewing, and hiring. Moreover, you need to monitor and evaluate your progress and performance against these goals and criteria and adjust them as needed based on the market conditions and feedback.
• Leverage their expertise: As recruiters, you need to leverage the hiring manager’s expertise in their field or function. Ask for their input and advice on how to source, assess and attract candidates who have the relevant skills, experience, and fit for the role. You also need to involve hiring managers in the decision-making process and respect their opinions and preferences. You can use various methods to leverage the hiring manager’s expertise, such as conducting joint interviews, asking for referrals or recommendations, or using assessment tools or tests designed by them.
• Build trust: It’s crucial to build trust with hiring managers by demonstrating their competence, reliability, and integrity. You need to show that they understand their needs, follow their processes and guidelines, deliver on their promises and expectations, and respect their opinions and preferences. Be transparent and honest about any challenges, risks, or issues that may arise in the recruitment process. Seek feedback from hiring managers and input on how to resolve them. You can use various methods to build trusts with hiring managers, such as sharing success stories and testimonials, providing regular updates and reports, asking for their advice and suggestions, or acknowledging their contributions and achievements.

Recruiting 101: Best Practices to Structure a Solid Strategy

1. Define Your Hiring Goals and Targets

Before you start recruiting, you need to know what you are looking for and why. You need to define your hiring goals and targets, such as how many people you need to hire, for which roles and functions, by when, and with what budget. You also need to identify the key skills, experience, and fit that you require for each role. You can use various methods to define your hiring goals and targets, such as conducting a workforce planning analysis, reviewing your current and future business needs and challenges, and consulting with your stakeholders and hiring managers.

2. Use Data and Analytics

To make informed and effective decisions about your recruitment strategy, you need to use data and analytics. You need to collect, measure and analyze various metrics and indicators that reflect your recruitment performance and results, such as time to hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, candidate satisfaction, employee retention, etc. You also need to benchmark your data against industry standards and best practices, as well as your own historical data and trends. You can use various tools and platforms to collect, measure and analyze your data, such as applicant tracking systems (ATS), human resource information systems (HRIS), or a recruitment software.

3. Leverage Multiple Sources of Talent

You can reach more qualified candidates and increase your chances of finding the best talent for your organization by leveraging multiple sources of talent. You need to diversify your sourcing channels and methods, such as job boards, social media, referrals, alumni networks, talent communities, events, etc. You also need to use passive sourcing techniques, such as Boolean search, email campaigns and talent pipelines, to identify and attract candidates who are not actively looking for jobs.

4. Optimize Your Employer Brand

To stand out from your competitors and attract candidates who fit your culture and values, you need to build a strong employer brand that showcases your unique selling points as an employer. You can use various channels and media to communicate your employer brand message, such as your career site, social media pages, online reviews, testimonials, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc. You can also use employee advocacy programs to encourage your current employees to share their positive experiences and stories about working at your organization.

5. Invest in Recruitment Technology

Streamline your recruitment process to save time, money, and effort. It can be done by investing in recruitment technology that helps you source, screen, assess and hire candidates faster and smarter. You can use various tools and platforms to enhance your recruitment process, such as:

• A smart sourcing tool that allows you to find candidates from various sources, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Indeed, and more, with just one click.
• A comprehensive candidate profile that displays all the relevant information about each candidate, such as resume, skills, assessments, notes, feedback, and more.
• A collaborative hiring platform that enables you to share candidates with your team members and hiring managers, assign tasks and roles, communicate via chat or email, and track progress and performance.
• A data-driven dashboard that provides you with insights and analytics on your recruitment process and results, such as time to hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, candidate satisfaction and more.

Final Thoughts

Recruiting is a challenging but rewarding activity that can make a significant difference in your organization’s success. By following the recruitment 101 tips and applying the guidelines above, you can attract, hire and retain the best talent for your organization and achieve your business goals.

To further ensure the success of your recruitment amidst the overheated talent market, you can leverage an AI-driven tool like Manatal. It is a powerful and easy-to-use recruitment solution that helps you source, screen, assess and hire candidates faster and smarter. Manatal offers various features and benefits that can enhance your recruitment process, such as:

• Candidate Sourcing: You can source candidates from over 2500+ job board integrations, a branded career page, a LinkedIn extension, a referral program, and more.
• Candidate Enrichment: With Manatal, you can go beyond resume parsing and build comprehensive candidate profiles with data from their LinkedIn and 20+ social platforms.
• AI Recommendations: Manatal comes with an AI engine, search tools, filters, and candidate scoring that are designed to help you find the best talent in your database.
• Collaboration & Activities: You’ll be able to manage user roles and invite hiring managers to collaborate. You can also integrate your calendar and mailbox to optimize your time management.
• Reports & Analytics: Manatal provides you with the ability to customize your dashboard and access to a full reporting and analytics suite to track metrics and KPIs that matter.

Interested to know more about Manatal? Try its 14-day free trial today to discover more of Manatal’s innovative features and see how this cloud-based recruitment tool can transform your hiring process within a few clicks.

Citations:

1. CPS Tables : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov)