Revamp Your Recruitment Process - Steps & Best Practices

Find out what’s slowing down your recruitment procedures and preventing you from reaching top talents.

Onboarding new employees is a time-consuming process—not to mention very expensive. The more time you spend looking, the more time and money you waste.

With your recruiting process, the goal is the only constant: To find and acquire qualified and suitable candidates for the role in a shorter time and at a minimal cost. But how do you achieve this?

In this article, we will show you how you can revamp your recruitment operations and implement the best techniques and practices, and their benefits to your organization. We’ll also review the importance of a proper job description and the tools you should use to recruit and onboard new people to your team. Read on.

What is a Recruitment Process?

A recruitment process is a series of steps to find and recruit qualified individuals to fill open roles in a company. In most companies, RPOs, HR managers, and talent acquisition specialists are usually the ones carrying out these procedures where they develop job ads that they post online, host in-person events outreaches, call for inside hires, and perform other proven-and-tested effective prospecting means to acquire and pool qualified candidates.

7 Steps of an Effective Recruitment Process

Any recruitment procedure requires a set of standards and practices to be effective. You can use the following steps as a baseline to revamp and optimize your recruitment strategy.

Step 1) Planning

Hello world! Before any operation goes up and running, a solid recruitment plan must be in place to ensure its success. The planning phase is where you lay down what it is that you need exactly, thus answering the following questions:

• Why and what do we need this role filled for?
• • Who do we need to find to look after the responsibilities of this role?
• How much is the company willing to compensate?
• Does the position have to be onsite or virtual?
• Does the employee have to work freelance only, part-time, or full-time?
• Is the job contractual, temporary, or permanent?

Remember: Having a clear idea about what you want and what you need will give you a sense of direction to go from Point A to Point B during the revamp.

Step 2) Strategy development

What’s about to go down? 🤔 Now that you have a clear plan, you will need a matching strategy to find the right candidates. Develop a unique strategy for your plan to attract and shortlist the best talents that’ll come your way. A great strategy outlines all of the techniques and approaches your organization will follow to source, attract, assess, and recruit potential candidates.

A recruitment process strategy document must answer questions like:

• Which social media platform, job fairs, or job boards are you planning to advertise that you’re recruiting?
• Who in your team is going to carry out the recruitment operations?
• What is the frequency of your recruitment operation?
• Are you sourcing local candidates exclusively or is the recruitment open to everyone as long as they’re qualified?
• Is inside hiring applicable to your strategy?

Always consider things like your goals, target demographics, budget, and other necessary factors that can affect the bottom line of your operation. This way, your strategy is not only effective for recruiting the right people but also effective at minimizing potential losses.

Step 3) Search

Search? Okay. But where? After laying out a plan and a selection process strategy, searching for potential candidate(s) to fill your company's open positions is now your goal. How do you do this?

There are two types of sourcing in recruiting that you can do: internal and external sourcing. Internal sourcing, or inside hire, aims to find the best candidates from people who are already in your team and see if they’re interested in applying to a job opening that matches their qualifications. External sourcing, on the other hand, is seeking talents outside of your team. For best results, do both.

While in the search phase, you should consider these things:

• Avoid implicit biases and assumptions
• Develop a well-written job description and specifications that are clear
• Look where your ideal candidates hang out
• Take advantage of industry-specific job boards and recruitment websites
• Try asking your network and your team if they are interested in taking on a new role. They might know someone on their network who’s looking and qualified for the role you’re looking to fill
• Implement an employee referral program
• Use a website (if you have one), and add a Careers page where prospecting candidates can check for job opportunities
• Connect with an RPO for a faster and more efficient recruitment experience

If you’re looking for a diverse pool of talents, it’s always a better option that you avoid discriminating this early in your recruitment process to help speed up the process. Let the screening (Step 4) do the elimination.

Step 4) Screening

The candidates are here. Now what? Screening candidates helps filter in all qualified leads—making shortlisting easy. Narrowing down the pool of applicants and focusing on those who have the potential to succeed in the role will speed up the process.

During the screening, recruiters or hiring managers will assess the qualifications and suitability of the candidates based on their resumes, applications, or initial submissions.

Here are some common activities that take place during the screening phase:

• Resume and application review
• Basic qualification checking
• Skills Assessment and trial tasks

In the screening phase, RPOs and other organizations pool highly qualified talents that they consistently engage with in case of need or staff-shortage. You can take advantage of this, too, and will come in handy in case you need qualified recruits urgently.

Step 5) Interviews and selection

The list gets even shorter from here. In the interviews and selection phase, supposedly, almost all of the unqualified applicants are already out. The interview process typically happens either in person or through virtual meeting apps. It can be a series of interviews depending on the number of qualified applicants per batch—and best if it won’t take forever to finish.

Besides the assessment, you, the recruiter, may ask a couple more questions about the applicant’s goals, check their enthusiasm about the role, and inquire about their soft skills. The recruiter must also check if the applicant is culturally fit with the company, as it can affect the quality of their work down the road.

As you can see, these interviews are heavy on stress management, how applicants will apply their skills to the jobs, and how they will react and play as team members.

A panel interview may be necessary if you’re a bigger organization with a higher barrier to entry and funding. After the interview phase, Recruiters and leaders decide on the final candidates and close the interview with a job offer.

Step 6) Job offer and onboarding

No more interviews. For now. After the interviews and selecting the perfect candidate(s), you can now release an offer letter (the job offer) that indicates their start date, compensation, working hours, and performance expectations.

In cases like this, it’s always best to consult with an attorney first about the inclusions in the letter and enforce deadlines for them to sign it so they can prepare for the next step: the onboarding.

The onboarding process starts once the contracts are signed and the necessary documents are submitted. Just a quick explanation about onboarding. Onboarding, or the onboarding process, is a useful intro for your new team members into the company culture that prepares them for their roles.

The onboarding checklist should highlight and outline the performance expectations for the first few months, helping them stay focused and grounded while they understand how the company assesses their output and the outcomes.

Step 7) Evaluation

Casually, this is the moment of truth. The evaluation phase is the final stage of the recruitment process. The data you’ve collected all this time are most handy during this phase. You will analyze and compare the effectiveness of your revamped recruitment process 2.0 and tweak it based on what worked and what didn’t in your strategy.

From here, you can refer to the data to improve your recruitment process next time to help you adjust it exactly to your needs and liking for faster and more cost-effective recruitment operations.

Benefits of a Comprehensive Recruitment Process

These are ways a comprehensive recruitment process can benefit an organization:

Support organizational goals

A comprehensive recruitment process with effective strategies makes it easy for organizations to attract qualified candidates with aligned goals and enthusiasm for their roles.

Improve retention and potential to attract applicants

Word-of-mouth is one of the best marketing strategies out there. A comprehensive recruitment process is very attractive to job seekers— since job seekers typically hang out where other job seekers are.

So, establishing a solid and personalized recruitment process will drastically improve your employee retention, minimize turnover, and boost your potential to attract applicants without doing more.

Boosts efficiency

It’s usually easier to automate low-level concerns like scheduling and running resume checks when you have a comprehensive recruitment process. Allowing more time for recruiters and hiring managers to focus on tasks that require a strategic approach and human touch Therefore, more thoughtful deliberations, better hiring decisions, and improved productivity.

Parts of a Proper Job Description

One question: What makes a job description “proper”? Here are the important parts of a well-written proper job description.

Job title

A job should have a title, otherwise, what is it? Without a job title, applicants will be confused about whether or not the job is about them. By naming your job with a job title, you’re giving your prospects clarity from the get-go. E.g.: Junior Copywriter, Sales Representative, Senior Java Developer

Duties & Responsibilities

Job descriptions or job responsibilities are the tasks associated with the role. Mentioning the tasks early helps avoid confusion and sets the tone and the expectations for the role. Identify and list all the responsibilities associated with the position Highlight essential responsibilities to give candidates a clear understanding of the job and its scope

Qualification & Skills

A job description must note all the qualifications and skills you’re looking for in an applicant. Be very specific about the education, experience, skills, and certifications needed for the role

Avoid confusion by differentiating between "must-have" and "nice-to-have" qualifications

Location

Include a portion in the job description that focuses on the job location. This is crucial information for candidates to assess the feasibility of the position of their location and commuting preferences. It helps manage expectations and ensures that potential applicants have a clear understanding of where the job is situated since certain jobs require employees to work onsite full-time.

Specify the physical location where the job is based. If the position allows for remote work or involves multiple locations, provide details or indicate flexibility. Indicate whether or not this position is location-dependent or not.

Compensation, Perks & Benefits

Realistically, this is a good way to filter out prospective applicants who are seeking higher pay from the get-go.

Clearly outline the salary or salary range associated with the position. Highlight any additional compensation, such as bonuses, commissions, or profit-sharing. List specific perks, such as flexible work hours, remote work options, or professional development opportunities.

Detail the comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plans, and any other relevant offerings.

Including information about compensation, perks, and benefits is essential for attracting qualified candidates and managing their expectations. It provides transparency about the total compensation package and can be a significant factor in a candidate's decision-making process.

Important: When listing a job, it’s only valid to elaborate as much as possible about the role. Applicant and or inside hires usually prefer direct to zero beating-around-the-bush job descriptions to help them decide whether or not they’d apply for the role or skip.

Tip: Your choice of words is very important when writing your job description. Only include the must-haves in your job description to prevent applicants from leaving your job openings.

Tools for Recruiting and Onboarding

Good tools are invaluable when it comes to recruiting and onboarding applicants. What I’m trying to say is that tools are your best friend. Take note of these tools when you’re recruiting and onboarding new people to your team.

1) Applicant tracking systems

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are software specifically for recruiters and employers to track candidates in their applicant journey throughout the recruiting and hiring process.

Some examples of ATS are Greenhouse, Workable, and Manatal.

2) Candidate assessment tools

Candidate assessment tools are used to test certain skills, including technical, job-related, and soft skills to help hiring teams shortlist their candidates.

Some examples of Assessment Tools are Codility, Berkke, and The English Quiz.

3) Interviewing tools

are digital software and techniques to make interviews efficient and comprehensive. These software are the best when dealing with enormous responses to a job posting or multiple job openings to fill. Interviewing tools include scheduling programs, audio/video conference rooms, sourcing interview tools, and skill assessments.

Some examples of interviewing tools are TalentBin, Calendly, and Zoom.

4) Employee onboarding tools

An onboarding tool is any tool that takes over the onboarding process. Onboarding software is the most common right now, which is designed to give employees and customers an engaging and positive learning experience.

When it comes to onboarding, we highly recommend you use a tool that makes getting to know new team members more fun. Sure, you should do the orientation and induction, and all, but why stop there?

I’m sure the rest of the team is curious about who the new guy is. That’s where tools like Quizbreaker can come in handy. Our clients have been using them for their onboarding processes since we started. Why? Here are some of the reasons:

• Our icebreaker games make it easy for new team members to learn more about their co-workers in an engaging way.
• We have workstyle profiles that tell you all you need to know about everyone on the team, including preferences, work personalities, and more.
• You can ask your new hires to answer personality quizzes so you discover their strengths, skills, and more.

Interested in giving our platform a go? Try Quizbreaker for your onboarding processes and make it more fun!

Frequently Asked Questions about Job Recruitment

Who takes charge of the recruitment process?

HRs and hiring managers usually take charge of the recruitment process. However, some companies hire third-party recruiting experts or avail RPO services who can take over the recruitment activities for them instead of doing it internally.

How often should I pool employees?

Keeping a pool of potential job candidates should be ongoing for all businesses. How often you do it depends on your company and how badly you need people in your team. It's smart to update and grow your pool of potential hires regularly so you're ready when you need to hire someone.

Talent pooling is just a way to be ready for future hiring needs, and it works best when you keep it going regularly.

How does the recruitment process affect employee retention?

Great HR managers know this by heart. If you make employees happy and keep them around, you won't need to hire new folks as often—therefore minimizing employee turnover. When people are happy with their jobs, they're more likely to stick around, and that's something to consider when going through the recruitment process. It’s hard to pass up a job that takes good care of you from the get-go.

What is the meaning of internal recruitment?

Internal recruitment is when a company looks to fill job openings by looking at the people already working for them. They announce job openings to their current employees and see if anyone is interested. This way, they can use the skills of their team members to fill gaps in different areas and help people grow in their careers.

It's like giving people already on the team a chance to take on new jobs or do more things while changing their job title.

Final Words

Having confidence in your recruitment process that it delivers is as important as having a comprehensive recruitment operation—an ongoing one.

If you’re constantly bothered that there’s something wrong with your procedures and that it’s not having much success therefore causing dissatisfaction, maybe because it is too slow and it’s about time for a revamp.

By applying the best techniques and practices to your strategy and what you learned from this article—like optimizing your job description—you can come up with the perfect personalized strategy that you can test right away.

It’s a good thing that you keep tweaking your recruitment process strategy all the time and it’s very important to take data-driven actions to get optimal results.

This way, you can react and fill the right gaps at the right time. Best expect that it makes recruiting and pooling talents easier, cost-effective, and time-effective. If you want to get different results, try something different in your recruitment strategy. And test constantly.