Hiring is more complicated than reviewing resumes and conducting interviews, even with the recent increase of layoffs more candidates in the pool don’t automatically equal better hires.
Some recruiting mistakes can be easily corrected, others may be a product of your culture and can be difficult to change from within. Leveraging a recruiting partner like Hire Ventures can bring fresh eyes to your recruiting process and improve your quality of hire. We’ve seen so many mistakes, from poorly-crafted job postings to ghosting and losing candidates during the offer stage. Not to mention how hiring the wrong employee could create HR nightmares for your organization for years to come.
Here are our top 5 tips you can implement right away to improve your candidate experience and ensure a better hire!
1. Craft a Compelling Job Posting
A poorly crafted job posting can do more harm than you may think. Not only will it potentially turn off your target candidate, but it could also attract a slew of totally unqualified applicants, which means you waste time and resources weeding through the unqualified candidates to find someone worth screening. Even with the best applicant tracking system in place, the added work to reject and disposition those candidates is a burden.
On average, most candidates only spend 14 seconds reading a job posting before either scrolling to the next one or deciding to take the next step to apply. Your job posting should tell your candidate everything they need to know in a way that is both captivating and clear!
There are two simple questions the job posting should answer, why would they want to work for you and are they a match? We like our job postings to follow the same basic style including the following key sections:
1. A brief summary of the company, your PITCH, what makes your company stand out?
2. Job title and a brief overview of the function.
3. What the person will be doing.
4. What skills/experience do they need to have?
Don’t forget to include the must-haves and deal breakers in your posting! Better to screen out those applicants that you can’t ultimately hire before they apply. Often these include work location, shifts, background screening requirements, sponsorship, certifications or license requirements and the ability to travel.
As an example, this job post for a Marketing Manager for Hire Ventures describes exactly what the candidate will be doing in the role. The description breaks down each part of the job, including bulleted lists and well-written paragraphs, both are often required for job board algorithms.
Write the job description as if you were writing to attract your ideal hire. Focus on how the employee will benefit from being in the role and as a part of your company. That may mean emphasizing how they’ll contribute to the company and what role they will play in the company’s projects and initiatives. You can read more about this on our blog How to Write a Compelling Job Posting.
2. Sourcing Strategy!
Your sourcing strategy should be curated specifically for each role and we always recommend using a multi-faceted approach to sourcing candidates. This includes posting all of your open positions on your company career page as well as specifically posting certain roles, to niche sites. Most ATS solutions can automate this for you as well, our favorite JazzHR can and does integrate with many partners and platforms to streamline this process.
Most of us know that LinkedIn is one of the best sources for discovering professional job seekers, but did you know that Handshake is the go-to for hiring an Intern? Indeed & Glassdoor will increase your candidate flow but a paid job posting on LinkedIn combined with recruiting direct outreach will elevate your chance of success.
Even certain dating apps have a separate profile for finding candidates! Posting on the correct site to generate interest as well as combining that with social outreach will position your job to attract the right candidate! 73% of millennials found their job through social media and that trend will most likely continue to rise as hiring continues to move into a virtual space.
3. Use AI to Eliminate Bias and Boost Efficiency
Recruiting is a process and can be automated and streamlined or broken and clunky! If you have the right applicant tracking system and a solid recruiting process, you can often leverage automation, reduce unconscious bias, and lead you to a great hire.
- Set up AI to reject & message candidates that don’t meet the requirements (out of area, need sponsorship etc)
- Leverage your templates to include personal messages, and ensure they follow your organization’s lingo and communication style.
- Disposition rejected candidates in ways you can revisit should the scope of the position change or a new position added
- Manage your process, with all stakeholders involved in one Applicant Tracking System, track data and results
4. Data + Review + Tweak= Results.
We believe that every company can successfully hire, without paying contingency hiring fees. However, if you are not having success in your direct hiring process, I encourage you to look at the data. Check your candidate flow…not getting a good inflow of candidates, you may need to tweak your sourcing strategy. Is the position posted on the appropriate career sites, has it been shared by your leadership team or hiring team, is it on social, is your recruiting team doing LinkedIn outreach? These are all things that can impact your top-of-the-funnel flow.
Or, are you getting tons of unqualified candidates? If so, revisit your job posting. Is it clear, does it clarify the deal-breakers and requirements? What are the candidate trends you are seeing?
Use the opportunity to review the data and recalibrate. The little levers you can pull in your recruiting and sourcing efforts have big impacts! Don’t be afraid to change it up!
5. Don’t forget about Onboarding
Acceptance of an offer is not the last step in the hiring process. Between accepting an offer to the first day, there are many steps that can either make you stand out as an employer or make your new hire question their decision. This may include the background screen as well as the first-day preparation. We can help set these systems up and build them right into your automated recruiting process.
The most important thing to remember is to communicate and set expectations accordingly. Especially during this very virtual hiring and new hire onboarding experience. Having a reliable onboarding checklist will help you maintain and keep new candidates for the long term, ensuring your hard work.
Conclusion
Hiring the right person in your organization is critical. A recruiting partner (like Hire Ventures) can help to establish the process, implement the right recruiting technology and we can even do the work to ensure your candidate experience is a priority for hiring success.
If you have questions about your recruiting process or would like a free Recruiting Consultation with one of our Talent Consultants, contact us today!
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