Getting your recruiting department optimized for success

Q. What’s the secret of recruiting departments that continuously feed businesses a steady stream of top talent? The answer isn’t too difficult.

A. Successful recruiting departments optimize their three most important elements: their people, processes and technology.

When things don’t go well for recruiters, it’s the technology (or the lack of it) that often gets blamed. Technology is always evolving, and it’s tempting to try to fix problems and inefficiencies by investing in the latest high-tech “solution.”
But before you spend serious money on an upgrade, optimize first! Start by asking some very specific questions about your people, process and technology.


1. People

• Do your people have the skills needed to fill jobs on time, and with top notch people? If not, what’s missing? Do they have a hard time getting the most out of job boards? Are they having difficulty creating good ads that get candidates’ attention? A successful recruiting department identifies weak spots — and immediately strives to close all gaps.

• Does the team know their customer and have a strong understanding of the open requisitions? Or do they instead rely on a job description and look for candidates that seem to match it? If they aren’t getting in-depth clarification about all the details of the open position, they’re not digging deep enough.

• Are your people fully trained in all existing systems and processes? If not, make such training the top priority.

• Is there a clear recruiting brand image? Can the team clearly articulate why a top candidate should join your organization as opposed to your competition?


2. Process

• Do you have established processes? Are they measurable?

• Are your processes followed by everyone on your team? Remember, consistency is key!

• Do you measure the processes end-to-end, even with third parties and hiring managers?

• Have you identified and shored up gaps and lags in the process?

• Do they have an effective means to escalate when necessary?

• Do you know what the candidate market thinks of your process? Are there any small tweaks you could make to your process that would make candidates more receptive?


3. Technology

• Is your team fully utilizing the technology available to them? Before you invest in an upgrade, make sure the technology you have now is being used as much as it should be. Does your team know the most efficient way (all the short cuts) to use your current technology? Is further training needed?

• Is your technology fully integrated?