Getting Your Process Optimized for Success

My previous article focused on the importance of getting your people optimized for success. As is the case with any business, the quality of your people will be the biggest determiner of your department’s success or failure.

After you’ve examined the people side of your department, your process should be carefully considered.

For your recruiting department to be successful, your people need to consistently follow a well-planned process. And since time is always of the essence, they’ll need to move from step to step quickly, with set time limits in mind.

While recruiting processes vary in detail and complexity, make sure your department’s process contains at least these nine steps.

Step 1: Really knowing your requisitions

• Is it a standard part of your process to talk to your customers about the positions needing to be filled? It’s never enough to rely on the job description alone.
• Is it standard procedure to look for all the sales points and benefits that each job possesses? It’s vital to constantly dig deep and ask, “What could we say to a candidate that would make him or her choose
  this position over another one?”

Step 2: Advertising

• Does your recruiting department place high value on effective job ads with convincing messaging?
• Do you post job ads quickly? (Not much more than 24 hours after a requisition?)

Step 3: Sourcing

• Does your recruiting department search blogs and other online forums for qualified candidates?
• Are you skilled at finding passive candidates who are currently employed, but who would be open to new opportunities? Do you find candidates through professional networks?

Step 4: Resume examination

• Is it part of your process to see beyond a candidate’s clearly stated skills? Your people should also be looking for
  transferable skills and experience.
• Does your recruiting department go over resumes quickly after receiving them?

Step 5: Screening

• Does your process accurately match the candidate’s desires, needs and qualifications to your open positions?
• Do you single out the top-tier prospects and make them your department’s primary focus?

Step 6: Phone interviews

• Are in-depth phone interviews a standard part of your department’s process?
• If they are a part of your process, do your people sell the position and the company during the interview?
• Do they spend enough time conducting their interviews? Five or ten minutes per interview isn’t enough to determine whether or not the candidate may be an ideal fit.

Step 7: Onsite Interviews

• Is each person on the interview panel tasked with assessing specific skills of the candidate? Do you have a full assessment of the candidate’s ability once the interviews are complete? Make sure your onsite interviews are not repetitive and you maximize the time with the candidate; capturing all the information needed to make an informed decision.
• Do you conduct thorough interview debriefs timely once the onsite is complete? Are all the interviewers present at the debrief; providing their assessment and discussing areas of concern?

Step 8: Background checks and drug testing

• Does your recruiting department do thorough background checks? (Including criminal history checks, employment and education verification, credit reports and DMV reports?)
• Do you conduct thorough reference checks that include written reference reports?
  

Step 9: Onboarding

• Do you take the right steps to help the new employee integrate with the existing team? Are they given the tools they need to “hit the ground running”? This is a critical time for a new employee and taking the right steps helps to ensure a successful long-term employment relationship.