Recruitment just like any other process needs a concerted and structured approach to deliver the best results. The best in the class employers understand this and keep on evolving their recruitment processes and strategies. Unprecedented efforts are being made to bring a radical change in the recruitment process. Every candidate touch point is closely managed and efforts are on to constantly improve the candidate experience. This is a function of the evolution in the talent market with potential employees becoming more and more sophisticated for whom their experience during the recruitment process becoming a key input in their decision making. Hence responsive recruiters need to evolve with the times.
How can a recruiter provide exceptional services to his/her stakeholders?
Process - A well thought out process is a key to the great recruitment outcome. Recruiters must spend time with the hiring managers in understanding what process to follow, which would vary depending on the seniority, urgency and relevance of the role. The process followed for volume hiring would be different from the CXO or niche hiring. The clear understanding of the process at the onset increase the chances of closure and the quality of the talent significantly.
Approach – Let’s be clear that recruitment is a typical sales role. All the sales activities like cold calling, scouting, research and follow-up are an inevitable part of recruitment and hence a recruiter should develop these skills to be effective. The next important thing to understand is the role itself, which includes understanding the company, industry, competitors, job description, whether it’s a new role or a replacement role etc. For this you need to closely partner with the key client.
The next important thing is the understanding of the mandate, for which the recruiter should understand the entire context which includes understanding the company, industry, competitors, job description, whether it’s a new role or a replacement role etc., and hence closely partnering with the key client stakeholders is necessary, also the recruiter should have exceptional googling and research skills for gathering the necessary information.
Finally, the recruiter should have a clear sourcing strategy including channels to employ. Social media is becoming an increasingly important channel and recruiters need to skill up.
Motivation – Work on 2 – 3 mandates in parallel to break the monotony and remain focused. In addition, there needs to be continuous support from the company to promote learning in the form of skill and behavior training, providing alternate opportunities to grow like mentoring the new team members, knowledge sharing in the focused groups etc. Moreover, it is very important to celebrate the successes since these small gestures can have a huge impact on motivation.
Expectation Setting – There should be clear expectation setting with both clients and candidates. For clients on the availability of the talent pool, benchmark compensation and candidate expectations. For the candidates, clear communication on the role requirements, growth prospects and expected compensation. Be transparent always, since the best recruiters build long term relationships and are not transaction oriented.