Whether you’re not a hundred percent satisfied with your recruitment process, or you’re quite happy with it but think it could stand to do better, here are five best practices to implement to maximize company productivity.
Being global technical recruiters, it seems almost silly to not take advantage of the incredible technology available for businesses—both physical and online. Telecommunications has improved in leaps and bounds over the past year, transforming the online landscape into a bustling, interconnected metropolis.
Thanks to the internet and messaging apps, distance is no longer an issue. People from opposite ends of the world are able to reach each other with ease.
That being said, it’s almost comical how people in the same building (or business) don’t take advantage of this. Utilizing technology to improve your inter-company communications can save a lot of time, effort, and unnecessary back-and-forth.
Applications like Slack and Skype (or Skype for Business), for instance, allow for direct messaging on a secure platform—effectively eliminating the security risks that come with public community messaging forums and chat boards. They also have the option to enable desktop notifications, which means you can get real-time updates from different members in different departments while simultaneously running a separate program or project.
Web-based apps like Zoom and GoToMeeting can help you set up on-the-spot meetings that are convenient for all staff members, regardless of where they might be. Programs such as these are ideal for when there’s too much to discuss and too many people to include that group chats might get a little messy. With paid subscriptions, you have options to run meetings for as long as necessary, invite as many people as needed, record and save meetings to cloud or server-based storage, and much more.
If this isn’t your first rodeo (read: technical recruitment), then you probably already have an existing resource pool of potential new team members—you just don’t realize it yet. Whenever you interviewed a candidate who seemed a great fit for the position but didn’t get it because of one thing or another—the timing wasn’t right, there was someone more qualified, their particular skillset wasn’t needed for the project—you probably told them you’d keep them on file for ‘future reference.’
That future is now.
Instead of going through the whole song and dance routine of posting on job boards, reading through resumes, narrowing down the applicants to interview, interviewing said applicants, and then narrowing the choices down again … why not just look at the ones you’ve already interviewed?
Alternatively; you might have worked with some people short-term or on a per-contract basis for certain projects. Why not pull out their details and see if they’re willing to work as a full-time employee, or see if you can extend their short-term contract to something a little more long-term?
By cycling back to candidates whom you’ve already interviewed and may have already gotten to know, you save yourself time, energy, and resources that would have otherwise been spent chasing down new people and training them.
With people you’ve already interviewed, you can skip a good chunk of the actual discussion should you call them in again, as you’re already briefly familiar with their personality and resume. With people you’ve already worked with, you can condense the onboarding process into something briefer and shorter—or even cut it out altogether—as they already have experience working in your company.
We understand wanting to look for fresh talent, but sometimes, completely disregarding existing potential can lead to missing out on big opportunities.
One thing technical recruiters tend to do (a lot) is multitask.
They tend to micromanage every person handling every stage of the recruitment process. They’re the ones who end up drafting the acceptance, rejection, and invitation for reapplication emails even though someone else sends them out. They’re the ones reading all the resumes and CVs even though someone else is handles the bulk of the interview. And, at the end of the day, they’re the ones reviewing and re-reviewing all the applications, interviewer notes, positions that need filling, and requirements/skillsets for each.
The problem with one person being the jack-of-all-trades is that the risk of bottlenecking is doubled.
If you lose documents, fail to come up with an email, can’t finish a form on time, or are the only one who knows specific information—like login credentials, schedules, contact details, etc.—then you end up being the roadblock in the recruitment system. Others can’t step in to help you because they’re not equipped with the knowledge or training to do so.
In other words, you need to get better at delegating—not multitasking. Learn how to step back and stop micromanaging the people in charge of different departments.
To free up your time, create scalable systems that make it possible to plug new people into any position without the need to hold their hand the entire way. This can easily be done by recording How-To videos or step-by-step tutorials. Alternatively, you could have your team set up automated training systems that drip-feed information over a period of time.
As mentioned earlier, technology is an incredible thing. Utilizing it for efficiency often means narrowing your field of focus and re-assigning tasks to other people.
On the subject of technology, telecommunications isn’t the only aspect you should take advantage of. There are dozens of highly-intuitive project management programs that can help you stay on track of what you and your team is doing.
During the technical recruitment process, you can use apps like Trello or Asana to organize the list of applicants, upcoming meetings, resumes, dossiers, interview notes, and other miscellaneous—but relevant—documents. You can also assign certain tasks to other members of your team. They’ll be notified instantly via the app, making delegation so much easier.
Many similar time-tracking and project-management programs allow administrators to have an overview or summary of all the tasks assigned to all team members. This makes it easier to note who’s working on what at a glance, which means you can immediately find out who’s interviewed whom, who’s been selected to move on, or who’s handling which stages of the process—effectively freeing up your time and letting you focus on other things.
If your productivity is feeling particularly low, it might be time to review your existing workflow for potential redundancies, bottlenecks, or unnecessary areas. The longer it takes candidates to move through your recruitment process, the higher the risk of them leaving for other companies before you can make a decision.
Again, in technical recruitment, time is everything. The faster your workflows, the more productive your work and, consequently, the more successful your hiring. Complexity does not equal efficiency. If you can automate certain steps or eliminate certain areas completely (without compromising the veracity of other areas), then you should do so immediately.
Customized, flexible processes make for more optimized workflows, effectively leading to more productive recruitment. You don’t want outdated workflows to be the only thing holding your entire organization back from its optimal potential.