With scores of articles and thought pieces on ‘the great resignation’ and ‘quiet quitting’ over the last six months, we thought it was time to get back to basics and look at how to get it right in attracting and bagging the top talent through having a smart recruitment process. We asked Russell White, Director, Future Work to answer this month’s Big Question:
What does ‘Good’ look like in a recruitment process?
With over 30 years recruitment experience, working with companies large and small to identify talent, I have observed great recruitment processes and some that one can only describe as awful.
So what is a good recruitment process?
Job Description
Well firstly, you need to start with a Job Description. Having seen thousands over the years, the ones that stand out have an introduction about the job purpose, who it reports to. If it is a management role then who reports in and their functions, describes in detail the duties and responsibilities and lists the candidate requirements. One of the traps some Job Descriptions and equally Job Advertisements fall into is that they have ‘unconscious bias – which often results in up to 98% of potential applicants choosing not to apply for the role. Fortunately, online tools like Textio (https://textio.com/) are now available to mitigate and remove this.
Promoting the role
There are a multitude of options to choose when deciding where to advertise your role. Naturally, Job Boards like Indeed or Reed for more general roles, LinkedIn for more management orientated roles, but equally using a recruitment agency, if used effectively, can be beneficial and (surprisingly) cost effective. If advertising then it is important to make your advert inclusive, and again there are products available to ensure your advert reflects the inclusiveness of your company.
How to say no
As you start to get response from your ad (or CVs from your recruiters) it is important to assess quickly and decide whether to interview. If you are rejecting candidates then a polite ‘no’ letter within 48 hours explaining (preferably) in some detail why the application has not been successful. Naturally, if dealing with higher levels of response then something a bit more generic – for instance “thanks for your CV but we have had a number of other responses who match our requirement more closely and best wishes for your ongoing job search”.
Interview plan
Look to identify who you wish to interview swiftly; applicants may be pursuing other roles at different stages of their job search process. Decide beforehand who will be conducting the initial interview and agree what type of interview – competency based or personality fit, over the phone, or video or face to face and tell the candidate who they will be meeting, its purpose and any preparation required by them for the initial interview. A second interview should be agreed and arranged within 48 hours of the first and again, explain its purpose, what’s required and who they are meeting and if necessary, particularly for more senior roles arrange a 3rd interview. Anyone who is rejected at any of these stages should be given detailed feedback as to why.
There is so much more detail I could go into for each stage of the interview process as well as negotiating the final ‘doing the deal’ stage, but I trust this gives you a good overview.
Bio
Russell has worked with many of the FTSE 250 companies, most of the agency networks, as well as independent agencies, assisting them in their hiring needs, finding and placing talent at all levels and advising on recruitment practice and methodology. He has worked ‘client side’ in a CRM agency, managing a major talent acquisition programme.