Steps in a recruitment process

Recruitment is an essential part of the acquisition function of human resource management. It can be defined as the process of creating a pool of candidates interested in a job and choosing the best-qualified ones from within.

In a competitive job market, it is essential for your company to take every step of the recruitment process with added importance. Recruitment is not an easy task, and some steps are critical to successful hiring and retention outcomes.

1) Set Up

To have a good recruitment process in place, you must form a strong recruitment team. The recruitment team has a very important job. If they make a wrong decision, it will affect the productivity of the workforce.

Next, the recruitment team should be able to clearly identify the job vacancy and the qualities of an ideal candidate. You need to write a clear job description to enable candidates to understand what the company requires of them. An outline of an ideal candidate will also be able to aid the selection process for the recruitment team later on in the recruitment process.

You should assess all past recruiting strategies and improve them whenever necessary. This way, the recruitment process is constantly improving, and there will not be a need to customize a whole new recruitment process every time there is a job vacancy.

2) Source

Once the job description and ideal job candidate outline are prepared, the recruitment team will have a clearer picture of what is demanded. The team can then start to analyze the most appropriate source for recruitment. This source could be either internal recruitment or external recruitment. Internal recruitment is when a company hires an employee for the job from within the business staff. This method saves the company time and money, and employees take less time to socialize. You can recruit employees from outside the company as well. Some sources of external recruitment are employment agencies or walk-ins.

Of course, the source of your candidate pool is entirely up to your recruitment team and how you promote the job. Will you use search engine optimization or social media? A qualitative job advertisement should give complete information about the job description and the ideal job candidate. At the same time, publish it in appropriate media to attract the most applicants.

3) Application

Interested candidates should be able to apply for the job vacancy simply. Make the application form as user-friendly as possible to provide a good experience and ensure that you gather as many applications as possible.

4) Screen

You will receive a whole pile of applications through which you cannot help but scan. Good candidates should quickly and clearly highlight how their experience aligns with the available role. Revisit your job description and ideal job candidate outline for a reminder of what you are looking for. Even though you are just scanning through the application, be sure to inform all applicants about the status of the application and do not keep them waiting too long. At this stage, you should also provide feedback for all candidates who did not make it through to the interview.

Read more: 10 biggest challenges in recruitment

5) Schedule Interviews

The candidates often consider that interviews are the most crucial part of the recruitment process. It is an invaluable moment when you get to communicate with the candidate to see if he or she is a fit with the company. You should take this chance to find out more about the applicant’s background, skills, and even personality to see if they fit with your company culture. It will be useful to have a list of information that you would like to find out beforehand as a recruiter, which will make your interview session much more structured.

Remember that interviews are a two-way street, and candidates are also taking this chance to find out more about the company. As a recruiter, you should always be well-prepared and courteous to all candidates.

6) Offer

Once you have shortlisted your top candidates, you should check their references. Many employers miss this recruitment step, but it is essential to double-check the information candidates provide. Of course, be sure to inform the candidates and have them agree to these reference checks. Hiring the wrong person can be extremely costly; therefore, you should always be as precise as possible in your recruitment process.

Once you have confirmed all details, you can officially offer the job to the chosen candidate and draw up a contract of employment. There should be a template to follow for the agreement where details such as salary, holidays, and working hours are further discussed accordingly.

7) Onboarding

The last part of the recruitment process will be onboarding. This step is not always done by the HR department, but it should at least be arranged by the HR department. It will be the first point of contact for the new employee. The onboarding process should include a welcome session, shadowing for a period of time, and a follow-up.

Conclusion

If your recruitment process is not producing positive results and you are unable to find the best candidates, take a look at each critical step to see where you can make improvements. Analyze your current recruitment process and check to see if it is aligned with the goals you have set. Is everyone doing their job to ensure the recruitment process goes smoothly?

The recruitment process has many interlocking parts that are cross-related. Therefore, the consequence of poor quality is a lower return on investment for the recruiting effort and budget, which can be extremely detrimental. The most effective recruiters know what some critical factors that affect the company’s recruitment process are, and they strive to improve them.

Read also the blog post about Four things candidates hate in your recruitment process.

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