How to Recruit New Employees?

Intro

Recruiting an employee might seem straightforward: post a job online, interview candidates and hire. But in reality, it’s more complex. Your employees are crucial to your business—they can make or break it. To recruit top talent effectively, it’s important to understand what recruitment is and how it works.

What is recruitment?

Recruitment is the process of finding, screening, interviewing, and selecting candidates for a job opening in an organization. It also involves hiring and on-boarding the chosen candidates. Companies recruit new employees to fill newly created positions or to replace employees who have left or moved to different roles. They can use recruitment software or seek help from external agencies to find qualified candidates.

What are the different types of recruitment?

There are two main types of recruitment: internal and external.

• Internal recruitment involves looking within your company’s current workforce for potential candidates. This can include asking for referrals from employees, promoting from within, or transferring employees between locations if you have multiple business sites.
• External recruitment, on the other hand, involves seeking candidates from outside the company. This can be done through strategies such as advertising on job boards, posting on your company’s website and social media platforms, and establishing connections with educational institutions. Many employers find it effective to use a combination of these strategies for recruitment.

“Did You Know?

Although both internal and external recruitment are effective, Jobvite reports that internal referral hires have higher employee retention and job satisfaction rates than external hires.”

Who handles recruiting?

Recruiting is typically managed by experienced professionals who understand the importance of the process. The individuals responsible for recruiting in your organization will depend on factors such as the size of your company and the resources available.

In a small business, recruiting and hiring responsibilities may fall to the hiring manager, who will also oversee the new hire. If there is an in-house human resources (HR) department or HR manager, they will screen candidates and collaborate with the hiring manager to make final selections.

If your company lacks internal resources for recruitment, you can seek external assistance.

Sarah Dewey, a talent sourcer at Meta, suggests, “If your company doesn’t have the bandwidth to support all of their open recommendations, a recruitment technique they can adopt is to work with an agency to fill roles more efficiently.”

Companies with recruitment agency partnerships or internal recruiters are well-equipped to delegate recruiting tasks. While recruiters may consult with HR or hiring managers, they primarily handle tasks such as posting jobs, sourcing candidates, screening applicants, negotiating salaries, and facilitating placements.

“Important: When deciding on the type of person you want, consider the benefits and drawbacks of hiring a seasoned professional versus a fresh college graduate.”

What does recruitment involve?

The recruitment process can vary depending on the business or the specific role you’re hiring for. However, it typically involves six main steps: defining the open position, sourcing job applicants, screening potential candidates, interviewing qualified candidates, selecting a candidate and extending an offer, and onboarding new hires.

Defining the Open Position

Before you start looking for candidates, it’s important to clearly define the role you want to fill. This includes understanding the key responsibilities the position entails, outlining specific qualifications required, deciding on an anticipated start date, determining the salary range, and clarifying the reporting structure. Writing a clear job description and preparing a set of standard interview questions can help streamline the hiring process.

Sourcing Job Applicants

The next step in the recruitment process is to find job applicants. You can do this by hiring a recruiter or recruitment agency to help you, asking your employees or trusted colleagues for referrals, or using various methods such as posting the job on your company website, job boards and social media.

There are two types of job applicants: active candidates who apply directly to the job, and passive candidates who are qualified but haven’t applied. If you’re reaching out to a passive candidate, you’ll need to adjust your recruiting strategy based on their current level of interest in your company.

According to Joe Mullings, candidates fall into three engagement categories:

1. Those who know you and will engage because of an existing relationship.
2. Those who may not know you but have been referred or are familiar with your company.
3. Those who are not familiar with your company and will need more information about your brand.

Screening Potential Candidates

Once you start receiving applications, it’s important to filter them to find qualified candidates. Review resumes and cover letters, and conduct a brief phone screening for candidates who seem like a good match. Ask each candidate the same set of screening questions to assess their qualifications. Select the most qualified candidates to move on to the interview process.

For applicants who don’t meet your criteria, thank them for their time and inform them that you won’t be moving forward with their application. It’s better to communicate this than to leave them wondering.

“Be responsive and maintain positive relationships,” says Dewey. “Even if a candidate isn’t a fit now, they might be in the future.”

Interviewing Qualified Candidates

The next step in the recruitment process is interviewing qualified candidates. The hiring manager will conduct interviews with potential candidates, asking them competency-based questions to assess their skills and fit for the team and company culture. This stage may include one or more rounds of interviews. It’s also important to contact the candidate’s references during this phase to gather additional insights.

Selecting a Candidate & Extending an Offer

After interviewing and evaluating candidates, select the one you believe is the best fit for the position. Prepare an offer letter and extend it to the chosen candidate.

During this stage, consider conducting a criminal background check. Ensure that your offer letter states the job offer is contingent on the results of the background check, and comply with all federal and state laws.

Inform the candidates who were not selected that you have chosen another candidate, and thank them for their time. It’s important to maintain a positive relationship, as you may consider them for future opportunities.

On-boarding New Hires

Once a candidate accepts your job offer, the final step is the hiring and on-boarding process. Typically, your company’s HR professionals will handle this step to ensure the new employee completes all necessary employment paperwork and is integrated into your business in compliance with labor and employment laws.

What are some recruitment best practices?

As USA Timely explains, choosing employees wisely is crucial as a bad hire can cost your business up to 30 percent of its first-year earnings. However, recruitment is often where employers make mistakes.

According to Mullings, “Your employees are the difference between success and failure, yet the recruitment process that is used is generally ad hoc, rushed, and has little strategy beyond a post-and-pray approach.”

To build a successful recruitment process, you must be strategic. Experts have identified three best practices to help your business recruit top talent.

Communication

Clear communication is key during the recruitment process. It’s important to ensure that recruiters, HR professionals, hiring managers, and job applicants are all on the same page. This includes posting accurate job descriptions, specific business certifications, promptly responding to applicants (whether it’s a yes, no, or an update) and keeping all parties informed about the status of each candidate.

The “Hum, Sing, Shout” method

Employee recruitment is an ongoing process that happens multiple times throughout a company’s lifespan. Therefore, it’s essential for employers to brand their hiring process to attract and hire top talent when needed.

Mullings recommends using the Hum, Sing, Shout method to differentiate your company from others in the recruitment process and attract the right candidates. Here’s how it works:

• Hum: Keep your hiring brand active in the marketplace. This means consistently advertising, networking, and using appropriate branding strategies on social media platforms that align with your company and industry.
• Sing: Make your company and your efforts to find talent visible to job seekers. Even if you’re not actively hiring at the moment, you’re still engaging with a wide pool of potential candidates.
• Shout: When you’re ready to hire, make some noise. Use social media, job boards, and your network to quickly fill the open position. Highlight why someone would want to join your team and how they would benefit from working with your organization.

Tracking candidates

It’s crucial to track candidates throughout the entire talent acquisition process. Whether you use HR software, an applicant tracking system, or another method, having a standardized approach ensures that no candidate is overlooked and no detail is missed.

Here are some top choices for HR software with recruiting and onboarding capabilities:

• Paychex Flex: This software allows you to publish job openings to top career sites and social media platforms directly from the dashboard. Paychex Flex also offers background check services to screen applicants before hiring them.
• BambooHR: BambooHR helps you manage all stages of the employee life cycle, from recruitment to offboarding. You can post and track job openings, distribute them via social media, review and rate candidates, and send offer letters and new-hire documents with electronic signature capabilities.
• Rippling: Rippling is known for being easy to implement, with the ability to onboard new hires in just 90 seconds. The software allows you to customize and automate the onboarding process, run candidates through background checks, and conduct e-verification.

According to Dewey, “Do your due diligence and make sure you’re keeping track of what’s going on in your pipeline. This helps you see your progress and areas for improvement. Keeping track of all your candidates and their stages (along with your data) will save a lot of sanity when hiring managers ask for reports.”

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