6 Steps to Develop a Foolproof Recruitment Policy

A foolproof recruitment policy is the secret to success in building a proficient team. This applies to companies, independent recruiters, as well as managers building their teams. Employers and consultants are constantly in the pursuit of high-performing candidates who will stick around. But with technology and transparency at an all-time high, better opportunities are just a click away, making employee retention harder to maintain with each passing year.

Recruitment can be a daunting procedure, especially in the face of the unprecedented challenges that the pandemic has instigated. Despite that, it is possible to transform hiring into an effective and rewarding experience when broken down into essential components. Let’s take a look at this 6-step recruitment policy that most successful recruiters and agencies follow to hire and retain the best talent.

Topics Covered

1. Identify needs
2. Create a detailed Job description
3. Promote the job vacancy
4. Screen Resumes
5. Conduct interviews- the first 4-points from the 5-point solution
6. Ensure Continued training

Step 1: Identify Needs

A recruiter or agency needs to know what they want before beginning the search, or else they will end up going on tangents that are too far from the original requisite. It is necessary that a recruiter asks themselves these questions before starting the hiring process:

• Am I looking for a new graduate or an experienced employee?
• Is it a new position or a backfill?
• What are the priorities the role requires?
• What is our employee retention rate?
• How does this role fit in with the department’s strategic plan and the company’s mission?

Step 2: Create a Detailed Job Description

Once the recruiter has the answers to these questions, the next step is to prepare a rock-solid job description. It’s hard to catch the attention of top talent without an articulate synopsis of what is expected out of them. Here are the core elements top recruiters swear by when it comes to compelling job descriptions:

• A brief yet captivating story about the company
• An introduction to the job profile and how it fits into the company’s big picture
• The roles and responsibilities of the profile with the relevant keywords incorporated
• The required qualifications, skills, and experience
• A list of the desired personal traits that will help the candidate be a better fit

RELATED: What Areas Should Leaders Focus on When it Comes to Hiring?

Step 3: Promote the Job Vacancy

The next step is to kick-start the recruitment process by announcing the vacancy and publishing the job description. Keep in mind that the first applicants may not be the best. Based on our experience, it’s ideal to diversify the communication channels as much as possible to amass a promising pool of candidates. Here are the diverse channels that can lead to the best talent.

• Company websites
• Existing employees who would like a role or domain shift
• Referrals from employees or ex-employees
• Career platforms like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed
• Networking through connections
• Contacts from conferences or career fairs

Step 4: Screen the Resumes

Manually screening resumes is an impossible task if the recruiter or recruiting agency comes across hundreds of applications on a daily basis. Candidate tracking systems can be used to shortlist the resumes based on specific keywords that match with the job descriptions. These systems assign match scores to each resume and the ones that are scored over a certain percentage, say 80%, will be forwarded to the next round.

Next, the recruiters manually skim through the applications and shortlist the promising candidates. Here are the key points to focus on when browsing through resumes:

• The number of years of experience
• The desired educational and experience level
• The top skills and tools known
• The primary characteristics or traits
• A ballpark of the salary range
• Recent contributions
• Employment gaps
• The evidence of decreasing responsibility

RELATED: What is the 5 Point Process and Why Should You Care?

Step 5: Conduct the Interviews

The most crucial phase of the entire recruitment and selection process is the interview round, which could branch out to 3-4 rounds, based on the multiple stakeholders in the company or agency. Stick to standardized questions so the aspirants can be evaluated on the same criteria. Also, prepare notes, especially if there are numerous candidates in the question. Here are the four checkpoints every applicant should be rated on:

• Language and personality: Soft skills are important for communication, collaboration, and adaptability. No matter how experienced or talented a candidate is, they could run into roadblocks if they cannot articulate their thoughts or ideas.
• In-Depth Skill Review: Never select anyone at face value based on the technical expertise listed in the resume. Each candidate should be tested for technical skills by designated subject matter experts to ascertain their competency.
• Live Screening: No interview is complete without a face-to-face round, be it online or offline. It is vital that recruiters meet the candidate in person or via video call to confirm they are legit and can live up to their resume.
• Test Projects: Knowing how to do something and actually doing it in real-time are completely different. See to it that the candidates are tested for their qualifications and skills by assigning live tasks and tracking their activity through third-party platforms. It is also a wise idea to onboard promising candidates on a trial basis to rule out the chances of fake or outsourced assignments.

Step 6: Ensure Continued Training

Even after the candidate is onboarded, ensure they have ample opportunities to polish their skills and expand their spectrum of expertise. Good employees expect the company to provide them with a platform that helps them evolve. It is up to the recruiters to warrant that every candidate they hire is trained on the newest technology and trends, so as to never fall behind in the race.

Conclusion

Yes, recruiting can be tedious. But it is also an opportunity for companies and recruiters to lose dead weight and handpick promising candidates who would take them places. Use this window wisely, fortify and diversify the team, create a safe space for the employees to work, learn, challenge themselves, and help each other. With the perfect recruitment policy in place, finding the dream candidate won’t stay a dream anymore.

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