Recruiting

What is recruiting?

Recruiting represents the process of seeking out, attracting and choosing employees. Therefore, it includes deciding the company's needs for certain professionals, publishing job openings on specific platforms, conducting interviews, selecting the most qualified candidates, and filling job vacancies.

Depending on the company's size, personnel selection can be made by an individual expert, a recruiter, full-time HR department employees or an outsourcing agency exclusively hired for this purpose. Regardless of the approach chosen, personnel specialists must grasp the organisation's staffing requirements, operational procedures, team dynamics, and the essential skills needed for different roles.

A well-executed recruiting process can attract and retain qualified specialists, facilitate their adaptation to a new workplace, increase their motivation, and provide career growth and skill enhancement opportunities. More importantly, it can inspire business growth and scalability.

So, what exactly are the broader goals and objectives that recruiting serves?

Human resources specialists, special employees of the company HR departments or specialised professional agencies provide:

• Reliability by finding a dependable selection of personnel who fully meet the employer's requirements for qualified employees.

• A team of skilled professionals with the requisite knowledge and experience significantly enhances overall business productivity and benefits each employee.

• Efficient personnel leasing enables businesses to maintain essential labour resources, ensuring continuity in business procedures even if employees cannot perform their duties.

• Proficiently and quickly train and integrate new employees into their roles.

• Developing the company's internal image and fostering a positive corporate culture.

• Enhancing employee loyalty to management, promoting diversity inclusion, and fostering a positive psychological climate.

• Enhancing competitiveness and promoting the brand in the job market.

Different styles of recruiting

There are several main types of personnel selection process. Among them are:

• Mass Recruitment (simply mass or linear). This type of recruiting involves selecting individuals without prior work experience or qualifications for similar positions based on standard criteria. This approach is commonly employed to attract many employees who will eventually share similar responsibilities and salaries. Furthermore, Mass Recruitment is associated with high staff turnover: employees are swiftly hired. Still, they can also be fired just as rapidly. For instance, Mass Recruitment is commonly used to hire call centre operators and sales consultants.

• Management Selection is used when selecting mid-level employees or even department heads. This recruitment style distinguishes itself from the previous type by emphasising employees' experience and qualifications. In addition, Management Selection involves a multi-stage candidate selection process.

• Executive Search. This recruitment procedure primarily identifies candidates for prestigious management positions. We can consider this an extension of management selection that operates at a higher level. Typically, resumes of seasoned top managers are seldom found on online recruiting platforms. Therefore, Executive Search relies on alternative methods and tools (which I'll discuss later).

• Headhunting. Simply put, this process involves attracting and retaining a professional. Typically, they are highly qualified, talented, and creative. Expertly attracting the top specialists from competitors to one's own company is believed to be the pinnacle of a headhunter's expertise. This process involves significant financial risk and impacts the entire business's reputation.

In addition, it is customary also to highlight:

• Digital or IT recruiting when recruiting personnel using social networks, relevant platforms and recruiting services.

• Referral recruiting or, through word of mouth, that is, recruiting personnel based on the recommendations and advice of colleagues.

• Screening is a straightforward form of recruiting, akin to Mass Recruitment. It involves filling mass vacancies using similar principles and conducting group interviews.

Recruiting can be internal or external, depending on who searches, evaluates, and selects specialists for certain positions. When recruiting internally, this task is typically handled by the department head or employees within the company's HR department. External recruiting is characterised by this process being entrusted to third-party specialists, such as a recruitment agency or a freelance recruiter.

Recruitment stages

The recruitment stages differ from company to company. The recruitment activity is influenced by factors such as the company's size, industry specifics, and the vacancies that need filling. Therefore, even within the same company, personnel selection can vary significantly depending on the job position. However, in most cases, recruitment follows a universal scheme. It includes the following steps:

1. Establishing your target audience

First, it is necessary to establish who the recruiting processes will be aimed at. For each open position, criteria for selecting specialists are based. These conditions may include qualifications, education level, specific skills, salary expectations, willingness to travel for business purposes, etc. It is also important to understand the possible requirements of applicants to attract the most suitable specialist to the company and offer them ideal conditions.

2. Examining the job vacancy and creating a detailed job position profile

Analysing the job opening entails familiarising yourself with the vacant position's responsibilities, tasks, requirements, conditions, and other nuances. A job profile describes various work-related aspects, including the job title, required skills, key competencies, qualifications, educational background, experience, working conditions, precise responsibilities, and potential career growth opportunities.

This will make it easier to identify candidates who align with the company's requirements and expectations. Additionally, it facilitates the rapid development of conditions for evaluating candidates' qualifications during the selection process, leading to informed final decisions.

3. Identifying appropriate search channels and attracting potential candidates

Next, deciding the most effective channels for sourcing potential applicants is essential. Depending on the available job position, you can advertise the vacancy on online recruiting platforms, job boards, community forums, and social network channels. During this stage, the recruiter's responsibility is to disseminate information about the open position through channels likely to capture the target audience's attention of potential candidates, as identified in the initial phase. Equally important is ensuring that the job vacancy is attractively presented, with a well-organised format and comprehensive details about the company and the position.

It's essential not to disregard any recommendations from colleagues who suggest considering specialists they've worked with closely.

4. Employer branding

This stage will not necessarily be the fourth. HR specialists are also responsible for employer branding in the job market. Regularly sharing information about your company as an appealing workplace with a respectful corporate culture and a positive psychological environment is crucial. This ensures that the company maintains a steady stream of prospective employees who view it as their dream workplace.

Furthermore, when the target audience of professionals is unfamiliar with the employer and unaware of the conditions the company offers its employees, the likelihood of finding a worthy candidate diminishes. This is because experienced specialists are unlikely to contact an employer they haven't heard of when seeking employment.

5. Active search for candidates

This stage includes reviewing the resumes of the most suitable candidates for the position, conducting initial interviews, and handling incoming CVs and calls. During this stage, it is crucial to document the source through which each candidate became aware of the job opening, assess the effectiveness of information channels, and evaluate the recruiter's overall performance.

At this time, candidates who do not meet the requirements are eliminated. Simultaneously, it is crucial to provide feedback, even to candidates who didn't pass the initial verification stage.

6. Telephone interview

Candidates who meet the minimum requirements will be interviewed by telephone. Each HR department usually has its own questionnaire with standard questions about the candidate's current residence, the possibility of relocation and readiness for business trips, salary expectations, field of responsibility, career prospects, etc. This represents the traditional second phase of the selection process, aimed at gathering further details about possible cooperation and deciding whether an interview invitation is warranted.

7. The interview

The key aim at this stage is to finally evaluate the candidates, communicate with them, and ultimately decide whether to extend an offer or not. In addition, this stage may include "selling" an open position to attract the most qualified candidate.

Each company should create an interview procedure, like a telephone interview questionnaire, and a measurement system for assessing recruitment effectiveness and obtaining feedback from candidates who were not selected.

8. Interaction with external information about the company

This represents another crucial aspect that warrants your attention. When searching for an employer and the most lucrative position, potential candidates turn to various sources of information to gain insights into the company they are interested in and the available job vacancies. This is why recruiters must consistently manage reviews, monitor their appearance, address negative feedback, and ensure positive information about the company is accessible on its official website. HR specialists routinely monitor review sites, forums, and social media to achieve this.

9. Hiring and onboarding an employee

Once the offer is extended to the finalist, their employment is confirmed, and they transition from being a candidate to a new employee. To ensure a smooth transition for both the newcomer and the close-knit work team, it is essential to provide the new employee with comprehensive information about the corporate culture and features of the work, the nuances of interaction with management, resources to support their activities and other information depending on their particular area of activity in the business. The primary objective of this stage is for the employee to acquire the ability to complete tasks autonomously without relying on assistance from colleagues. Simultaneously, avoiding overwhelming the newcomer with excessive work, duties, and responsibilities is crucial while refraining from overprotecting them. Since everyone adjusts and learns at their own pace, it's essential to initially align with the new employee's speed until they fully acclimatise and complete the adaptation process.

10. Monitoring a new employee

This critical final stage evaluates the effectiveness of the recruitment process in this specific case. It provides insights into the overall competency of the company's approach to sourcing and attracting potential employees. The results are examined according to the following criteria:

• The quality of the employee's work.

• Assessing their compliance with deadlines.

• Adhering to company standards and corporate policies.

• Their interaction with the team.

The probationary period concludes once the employee has fully adapted and acclimated to the new conditions and contributes practical benefits to the company, including increased productivity and other positive indicators. When employees do not complete the probationary period and struggle with their responsibilities, the company's recruitment process may require adjustments and improvements at various stages.

Recruiting methods

Many recruiting methods exist - from direct advertising to organising career fairs and professional conferences. Let's explore some of the most effective and proven ones:

• Creating a vacancy aimed at a particular target audience or even one specialist

The best offer is personalised and tailored to your particular needs, expectations, and interests-a potential employee who will be valuable to you. Suppose you are looking for young and ambitious professionals for a startup. In that case, the vacancy might state you are a friendly team that enjoys pizza on Fridays at the end of the working day, Mafia games, etc. When targeting potential employees, primarily women with children, consider adjusting your perks and benefits to align with their needs. With employees in this category, consider offering a flexible schedule and the option for remote work.

• Direct employer advertising

This involves posting job openings directly on relevant job search websites and social media. Understanding your potential employees' interests and preferred communication channels is crucial. By tailoring your approach, you can efficiently capture the attention of the right candidates for your open position

• Interaction with passive candidates

A passive candidate is not actively seeking employment but remains open to interesting job opportunities. Such employees in their current roles are typically dissatisfied with their salary, lack of career advancement, and growth prospects. Given these needs, the recruiter must keep an eye on passive candidates. They may be useful if a suitable position becomes available in the company. By maintaining contact with these candidates, your company will likely be their first choice when actively seeking new job opportunities.

• Referral program

Or, in simpler terms, employee recommendations. They serve as a qualitative gauge of a company's working conditions. Suppose employees are unhappy with their overall situation, salary, or job responsibilities. In that case, they are unlikely to recommend the company to other professionals they know. Therefore, it's advisable to proactively consider the details of the company's referral program in advance. For instance, an employee who successfully refers a new colleague might receive a bonus or additional vacation days.

• A search within the company

In fact, you could find a new employee within your own team. This excellent approach involves promoting a proven employee prepared for a higher role by inviting them to fill a vacant leadership position and then hiring an external candidate to replace their previous role.

• Completing agreements with educational institutions

Another simple and effective, but not the most common, recruiting method. It will enable your company to identify highly promising young specialists studying in fields closely related to your industry. By nurturing and developing them according to your standards, you can effectively grow them into professionals and form and maintain a constant flow of potential candidates.

• Recruitment events

These include all kinds of job fairs, professional conferences and other similar events where you can attract favourable personnel to cooperate.

• Artificial Intelligence

This approach assists recruiters by efficiently filtering out unqualified candidates and identifying the most suitable potential employees for particular positions. This allows them to focus on enhancing strategies for engaging with candidates and avoid expending resources on reviewing and analysing numerous responses, which can sometimes reach hundreds.

Recruiting metrics

Metrics refer to precise measurement standards that enable the evaluation of task performance. In this context, metrics play a crucial role in evaluating the effectiveness of recruitment within the company. Which can help identify problem areas, highlight the need for optimisation, etc.

Let's explore some fundamental metrics that are essential for evaluating the recruitment process:

1. The deadline for closing the vacancy

This metric is calculated using a simple formula:

Vacancy closing date = deadline when a job offer is accepted - date of receipt of CV

Even if you're not an HR specialist, you've likely observed that certain open positions get filled more quickly than others. Recruiters should determine the deadlines for filling all vacancies, which are typically categorised as follows:

• Workers - drivers, machine operators, etc.

• Professionals - office employees, accountants, marketers, recruiters.

• Line managers - shift supervisors and heads of small departments.

• Middle managers - heads of departments.

The subsequent step involves calculating the average time it takes to fill positions within each of these categories. This analysis helps identify which professionals are more receptive to job offers, which categories present challenges, and which candidates are the most elusive.

There is another similar metric - this is the same period for filling a vacancy, but before the immediate start of work. It is also considered for various vacancy categories, particularly when determining precise deadlines for completing applications for an identifiable number of new specialists during the selection process. Experienced recruiters also analyse historical data for particular positions. This analysis helps them determine the typical duration before an employee returns. Then, the recruiter understands what to do next: redistributing tasks to existing employees or expecting a quick team addition. The period for filling a vacancy before the start of work can be calculated using a similar formula:

Vacancy closing date = start date - date of receipt of resume

2. Plan completion percentage

This refers to a plan for selecting and hiring personnel. This metric is calculated for a certain period, for instance, a month or a quarter. Remember that the errors tend to increase as the period lengthens. Hence, it's advisable to restrict your analysis to one month. The formula employed is:

Plan completion percentage = number of open vacancies/closed vacancies X 100

First, the completion percentage is a quantitative metric that indicates the extent to which a plan has been implemented. Therefore, it is not very informative, does not provide information on how well the selection process was conducted and does not explain why filling all the positions was impossible. Therefore, it's advisable to use it alongside other qualitative metrics.

3. Conversion of the source of attraction

To calculate total conversion, analyse each candidate source and position category separately. Begin by categorising positions, identifying the sources that filled positions in each category, and then compute the conversion rate. The indicator is calculated using the formula:

Conversion = number of candidates accepted / number of resumes received X 100

Therefore, the conversion rate enables you to assess the effectiveness of each source and make comparisons between them. At the same time, evaluating this or that source solely by the conversion value is inaccurate. Therefore, it is assessed alongside the average time to fill a vacancy and the recruitment funnel cost.

4. Cost of the recruitment funnel

The recruitment funnel is the most important performance indicator. Indeed, this tool is akin to a marketing sales funnel. In this context, it illustrates the progression of potential employees as they move from applying for a specific vacancy to undergoing an interview with the CEO and ultimately receiving an offer.

You can identify the stage where most candidates are eliminated by consistently analysing the recruitment funnel. After this, errors should be corrected, and recruiting processes should be improved. Suppose the conversion rate is lowest during the initial stages, such as collecting responses and receiving resumes. In that case, consider evaluating the clarity and attractiveness of the job description and explore alternative services for posting vacancies. Suppose candidates are mostly eliminated at the stage of receiving an offer. In that case, collecting feedback from them and objectively evaluating your company's job offer is necessary.

Numerous factors can contribute to low conversion rates, ranging from an unappealing job description to an uncompetitive offer, prolonged decision-making, and other related issues. Each situation should be considered separately. The selection funnel will allow you to determine and fix the problem quickly with minimal losses. However, a high-quality analysis of the recruitment funnel also costs money.

The cost of a recruitment funnel involves both the expense of attracting candidates and the recruiter's fees. To calculate it, use the following formula:

Cost of the funnel = cost of the source of attraction + cost of the working time of professionals involved in selecting candidates

5. Staff turnover during the probationary period

To calculate this indicator, there is a separate formula:

Employee turnover rate = number of employees who failed probationary period/number of hired employees X 100

This metric is particularly challenging because it necessitates precise calculations. To understand why certain employees left the company before completing their probationary period. Indeed, this situation could arise due to an error during the selection process, where an unsuitable candidate was hired for the position. The scenario differs significantly when a professional decides that the company isn't a good fit and resigns. Indeed, in these situations, the issue likely stems from an error during the new employee's adaptation process. Therefore, to obtain the most objective value of staff turnover during the probationary period, it is important to:

• Conduct exit interviews.

• Analyse the reason for the dismissal of each professional during the probationary period.

• Identify reasons directly linked to personnel selection errors.

• Further analysis should consider only these reasons during future recruiting.

6. Offer acceptance rate

This metric is far from just a recruiting metric because it is also influenced by the employer's brand, wages, job responsibilities, and the compliance of all these parameters with the candidate's expectations. You can calculate the acceptance rate of job offers using the formula:

Offer acceptance rate = number of accepted offers/numbers of rejected offers X 100

This indicator is also best calculated for each individual category of vacancies. It's possible that while over half of the offers are accepted by workers, the acceptance rate among middle managers is only 30%. In this case, you should find out why the indicators are how they are and what this is connected with.

7. Level of satisfaction with the selection process

When assessing satisfaction, consider creating a customised system. You can evaluate it using points or specific quality criteria. Additionally, seek feedback from recruiters and the candidates-they play a crucial role in the process. However, be mindful that individuals who were not selected may provide inaccurate information. Interview candidates who declined the offer to gather the most objective and optimal information.

Recruiting Tools

The ATS systems are among the most unobvious and, until recently, the least common headhunter tools. An Applicant Tracking System is an automated system for managing the search and selection processes. Instead of recruiters, they can:

• Search for candidates closely aligned with the job requirements.

• Independently filter out those who do not meet the specified requirements.

• Quickly publish job openings across numerous websites and forums.

• Develop a resume database.

• Inform candidates of their selection outcomes as they progress through the various stages.

This will significantly reduce the resources needed for recruiting processes, facilitate the tasks of HR specialists, and improve personnel selection.

Moreover, there are separate applications to simplify each stage of recruiting. For example, the Datapeople service will help you write a competent and attractive description of a vacant position, Indeed will help you post a vacancy and view resumes rapidly; Holly will help you select the most suitable candidate, and you can check if a specialist has certain skills using Toggl Hire. Experienced recruiters recommend the Spark Hire application for conducting video interviews with applicants. Now, it is a premier service, partnering with thousands of organisations worldwide, enabling them to discover top professionals for their teams. Consequently, the Deel program aids recruiters in adhering to legal requirements during the hiring process, streamlining it for HR specialists and applicants. Therefore, many tools will aid recruiters. The cost of such programs varies based on the quantity of job postings, video interviews conducted, and other relevant factors. Therefore, using such auxiliary products in large companies with a large capital turnover is best.

Another important tool, usually used in large businesses, is internships and internal training. Developing a genuine professional and nurturing their growth within the organisation is an alternative approach to identifying competent and well-suited specialists. Yes, this approach will require much effort and time, but it guarantees a high-quality result. Enlisting the assistance of seasoned employees who can serve as experts and mentors for newcomers is crucial. In addition, if the company has a lot of new professionals, it is necessary to regularly organise webinars, master classes, workshops and meetups with internal experts to transfer experience and important skills.

Non-standard testing can be a powerful tool for attracting potential candidates, particularly when these job openings are in the IT technology sector and other rapidly expanding fields. For example, cold search and traditional test tasks are replaced with gamification. Therefore, some companies develop online games to test applicants' knowledge. After completing the games, applicants gain access to an interview. While implementing these solutions may cost the company, they offer a dual benefit: rapidly filling open positions and enhancing the brand.

Conclusion

Therefore, recruiting is one of a company's most complex and important processes on which productivity, efficiency, profit, and business development prospects depend. As you're aware, the success of any collective endeavour hinges significantly on a skilled and motivated team. Furthermore, as we've previously discussed, recruiters are responsible for identifying dependable and experienced specialists and play a crucial role in fostering a positive corporate culture and promoting a healthy psychological environment, emphasising diversity and inclusion. Therefore, it is especially important to dedicate adequate attention and support to searching, attracting, hiring and getting new employees onboard.