Understanding and improving the recruitment process

Recruiting top talent for any organisation is a complex and multi-faceted process that requires careful planning, coordination, and execution. As a recruitment agency, we understand the importance of recruiting the right people for your organisation, and the critical role that a smooth and enjoyable process plays in ensuring successful outcomes. At each stage of the recruitment process, there is potential to improve your process, and to decrease the risk of losing a great candidate.

Recruitment timelines can vary widely depending on several factors, including the industry, job role, and availability of suitable candidates. Understanding these factors and their impact on the recruitment process is essential for developing an effective recruitment strategy that meets your organisation's needs and objectives.

The Process:

Job Briefing

A job brief, typically put together by the hiring manager, is the essential first step in the hiring process. It should include essential information such as job title, job description, necessary qualifications, and skills but also allows the recruitment consultant to develop an understanding for the type of person that would best suit your organisation and team. The job brief allows the agency to build a tailored recruitment strategy that aligns with your organisation's needs and objectives. If a job brief is incomplete or missing information, you risk missing out on the best talent.

Sourcing

Long gone are the days where you can post a job advert and expect a pile of eager and available candidates. As recruiters, we use a multitude of tools and strategies to attract talent, including marketing your business and employee value proposition (see our last post for ideas on this). If you are sourcing candidates without the help of agency networks, our advice is to diversify your sourcing strategy and utilise job boards, internal talent networks as well as social media to attract talent. This part of the process can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on the industry, complexity of the role, and availability of qualified candidates. The most important thing is that you fill the role with the most suitable candidate for the role.

Screening & Shortlisting

Simply building a list of suitable candidates is not enough, a short phone call is critical in determining whether a person is right for a role and for your team. As a third party working on your behalf, we run a thorough screening process which typically involves reviewing resumes, conducting phone or video interviews, and meeting candidates in person. After identifying the most suitable candidates (usually 5 CVs), we present these candidates in a shortlist for review and feedback.

Interviews

We recommend interviewing no more than three preferred candidates from a shortlist for your role, any more than this, it actually becomes more difficult to narrow down the best person for the position and turn the process into an unnecessarily lengthy one.

Offer and Onboarding

The offer process typically includes contract negotiation, background checks, and administrative processes, such as setting up payroll and benefits. This is often the most high-risk stage in a candidate's process. It is safe to say most top-tier candidates will be speaking to several different organisations so try to be as decisive as possible. Reducing the turnaround of an offer to a couple of days will reduce your risk of losing the best candidates. The last step in the process but by no means least important is to provide your new starter with a smooth and enjoyable onboarding process. We will get into the importance of effective onboarding in another post.

In our experience, a solid recruitment process takes anywhere from two to twelve weeks, depending on several factors. As a recruitment agency, we work closely with our clients to ensure that the recruitment process is efficient and effective, providing regular status updates of and ensuring that the process reflects the organisation's goals and objectives.

Recruitment timelines play a critical role in ensuring successful recruitment outcomes. By understanding the various factors that impact the recruitment process and developing a tailored recruitment strategy that aligns with your organisation's needs and objectives, we can help you recruit top talent and build a successful and sustainable team.