recruitment process.

Start by identifying the skills and labor gaps within your company. This includes understanding gaps within individual departments or specific teams. You must develop a deep understanding of your organizations’ available roles and growth objectives to proceed. Answer the following questions:

• Why do you need additional staff, and what are the wider business contexts of this need (e.g., its impact on sales or revenue)?
• What are the specific labor requirements of the roles for which you are recruiting?
• Do you need staff long-term, to complete a single project, or to handle a temporary workload?
• How will recruitment today contribute to growth (i.e., your company’s needs in 24 months)?

Once you have a foundational understanding of your needs, you can begin planning the most effective and relevant path for recruitment. Begin identifying channels you trust to connect with the right candidates. An HR solutions partner that draws from an extensive talent network can help you find the ideal combination of connections and tools to meet these needs.

100% of hiring success starts with getting the right candidates through the front door—and that begins with your job descriptions and advertisements. Writing a successful job description is the critical next step. In 2019, the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) described the job description as “the currency of recruiting — you should never hire without one.”

Find an HR solutions partner that can help you develop a simplified, holistic, effective approach to creating job descriptions — aligning the right candidates with the role for which you are hiring, and with the future success of your organization. 

Next, choose the best channels to advertise your vacancies. This can include internal channels for employee referrals, but it should also include highly visible external platforms such as job boards that increase your chances of reaching as many relevant candidates as possible. With the right data and insight, you can choose the platforms that ensure that your ads reach the right candidates.

An HR partner can very likely give you access to databases and search strings that ensure that you find exactly the job seekers who match your open positions.

identify those who are the best fit for your company. This starts with a thorough preselection process, during which you can begin to identify suitable applicants.

The preselection process can be expedited with technologies like chatbots, which can make prescreening much quicker and more efficient. That’s because successful prescreening involves questions about hard skills that often require only a “Yes”or “No” response from candidates (e.g., known languages, having a driver’s license). These can be adjusted to include or exclude certain candidates. These tools can also provide instant responses and answers to questions—from applicants and your team—at any time of day.

This phase of the recruitment cycle may also include screening and testing, which help build a picture of an individual’s cognitive abilities, their potential to learn, and their fitness for the role. Testing also helps reveal relevant technical skills, such as the ability to operate certain systems or machinery. The decision on which tests or screening methods are necessary will depend on the unique requirements of the role.

Once all the necessary assessments have been completed and you have identified the most suitable applicants, you can conduct interviews, background and reference checks, and any other evaluations you feel are necessary. A recruitment partner can manage a large portion of the preselection and checking process, presenting your team with only the best-qualified candidates and a clear explanation of their qualifications. That way you need only to conduct final evaluations before your approval. Or, you may choose to retain certain steps in the preselection process—such as personal interviews—and outsource the rest as well.

What are your teams’ existing knowledge gaps and performance deficiencies, and what was missing among any past employees who failed? What are the hard skills, communication habits, attitudes, or personal qualities that will make new workers successful? And how can you articulate those needs to new workers who will fill those positions? 

Job descriptions and advertisements are gateways to new candidates, so making sure they work in your favor is critical. They make the difference between choosing from a handful of great candidates versus a handful of poor ones.

Additionally, job descriptions help candidates determine if they will be happy and successful in the roles they describe. It’s  critical you ensure each job description does this successfully in addition to aligning with your needs.

You can use your new insights and support from a recruitment partner to ensure yours are engaging the right candidates. Your recruitment partner can ensure your job descriptions target candidates who align with your future goals as well, not just for the immediate responsibilities of each role.

Candidates aren’t just interested in filling a role — they’re interested in partnering with a company that will bring them long-term satisfaction and growth. Increasingly, job seekers align their personal growth with a healthy corporate culture, unique benefits, and industry best practices.

Showcase your company so that it stands out from your competitors in the eyes of potential hires. By describing life on the inside of the company, you’ll help candidates picture themselves as part of your team. HIghlighting benefits and advantages for workers at your company reinforces your company’s brand and can help set you apart from competitors. You may tip the scales for high-value candidates exploring multiple options.

Make the application process straightforward and easy. You can do this by clearly defining internal processes and responsibilities for moving candidates forward or turning them away. Automating key aspects of the application process can help as well. For example, candidates without enough years of experience or without specific qualifications are better served by early dismissal, as are you.

Also, be honest and strategic about the next steps so that the right candidates move forward and the wrong ones turn away. Clearly define which qualities are “non-starters” among possible candidates so you can eliminate those that aren’t aligned with your goals. Define high-priority qualities so you can quickly qualify strong candidates as well. For example, highly desirable skills or past roles may warrant a quick response and passage to the next stage of the recruitment process.

Too many companies lack a standardized interview process. This prevents hiring managers from communicating and receiving critical information, including details about the candidate’s behavior, situational responsiveness, and technical aptitude. Be sure you have a winning, formal internal interview process in place, or work with a recruitment partner who provides one.

In addition to finding employees, recruitment leaders should look to identify characteristics that every new hire should have—whether they are absolute necessities, or simply “nice to have.” These include natural talent, a willingness to learn, empathy, and confidence in their ability to make decisions. Similarly, you should know what qualities you do not want in a candidate.

Finding new workers is difficult enough. A recruitment partner can help you develop these best practices and create a recruitment process and talent acquisition strategy that supports your recruitment efforts in the long term.

Permanent employees are the most common types of workers. They receive salaries and may receive long-term benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and perks. Hire talent for permanent roles if you would like them to stay and grow with your company long term.

Temporary workers — freelancers or contingent staff provided through an HR solutions partner — may be better fits for some roles in your company, as well as short-term projects, seasonal peaks, and unforeseen absences. These workers do not receive salaries; rather they are paid as vendors, typically on a per-project or hourly basis. Temporary workers often do not receive benefits, though some employers have extended benefits to their temporary workers.

A recruitment partner like Randstad can help you determine when hiring either a permanent employee or a temporary worker is the right approach.

Too often, recruitment is left to hiring managers, for whom this is not their primary responsibility. They don’t have time for the tasks associated with recruitment, let alone time to optimize the recruitment process.

In other cases, HR professionals are too far removed from the roles for which they are hiring. They don’t always have the best vetting processes in place and often burden the hiring manager for the insights they truly need.

A recruitment partner can take on much or all of the tasks associated with recruitment. The right partner will help you optimize the recruitment process long term and eliminate inefficiencies using digital tools.

Randstad is the global leader in HR services and a universal provider of recruitment solutions, no matter the roles or types of workers you seek out. Our Human Forward philosophy means your prospects, workers, and recruitment leaders always have the best experience with the recruitment process. We also ensure that you improve your talent acquisition strategy in the long term. 

Contact us today and discover why leading talent and companies continue to work with Randstad for their contingent staffing needs.