How to Improve Your Recruitment and Employee Hiring Process

Great employees are at the heart of every successful company, but the hiring process can be more complex than it seems. Posting a job ad, reviewing applications, interviewing, and finally hiring can be time-consuming – and time is money for small business owners!

According to a recent Glassdoor study, the hiring process takes an average of 23.8 days. If a position remains open, you or your employees may have to fill in the gaps in the interim, affecting daily productivity and impacting your business’ bottom line.

In order to speed up the hiring process and attract good employees, you may need to reconsider current practices and improve your recruitment process. Refining your recruiting efforts may help you to attract top talent more efficiently and thoroughly, ensuring you place better employees in open positions and potentially improving retention in the long run.

From job descriptions to interview tactics, these 11 tips may help you to improve your recruitment and employee hiring process. Click one of the tips below or read our post in full to discover new ways to enhance your organisation’s hiring process.

1. Write Thorough Job Descriptions
2. Utilise Employee Referrals
3. Include Your Employees in The Interview Process
4. Test Your Candidates
5. Consider Your Small Business’ Online Reviews
6. Understand Your Small Business’ Benefits
7. Implement a ‘Careers’ Section on the Company Website
8. Preserve the Interests of Your Best Candidates
9. Take Advantage of the Digital World
10. Survey Candidates About the Hiring Experience
11. Use a Pre-Employment Screening Service

1. Write Thorough Job Descriptions

Does your job description attract the right applicants? A typical job description includes the position’s title, responsibilities, and company benefits. Although these attributes are standard, it’s important to make sure your listing stands out from the competition in order to entice the best job candidates to your team. Consider adding supporting materials to your job descriptions, which could include:

• A map of the company’s location
• Relevant photos and videos
• Pictures of current employees in the workspace
• Company awards, certifications, and recognition

Remember, the job description you write now may influence your company’s employee turnover rate later if it’s not written with transparency in mind. According to a survey for Glassdoor , more than two-thirds of employers believe that retention rates would be higher if candidates had been given a better idea of what to expect about working at the company before accepting the job.

2. Utilize Employee Referrals

Employee referrals can help make the recruitment process easier. When a position becomes available, consider asking your current employees to check-in with their professional networks, as they may already know of someone with the qualifications you are looking for.

According to research from Oracle :

• Some businesses make as many as 75 percent of their placements through referrals
• Referrals account for anywhere from 24 to 33 percent of all hires in typical companies
• Referral hires perform 3 to 15 percent better than hires from other sources

Many companies rely on employee referrals to find great talent. A study by SocialTalent.com found employee referrals have the best conversion-to-hire rates, coming in at almost 40 percent.

Recruiting and hiring from a pool of candidates recommended by your team could expedite the hiring timeline. Instead of setting time aside to craft a job ad and wait for resume submissions, you could easily interview a candidate that has been personally referred to you from an already trusted source.

According to Jobvite.com, hires that come from employee referrals start working sooner; candidates sourced from career sites get started in their position after 55 days on average, but candidates hired through employee referrals start working after 29 days on average.

3. Include Your Employees in the Interview Process

Your existing interview process could be letting great candidates slip through the cracks. or vice versa, resulting in the hire of lackluster employees. Implementing a panel interview is an optimal way to reduce bias in your hiring process. When a candidate can better understand the scope of the role from different perspectives, they are more likely to share more in-depth details about their skills and qualifications.

Pro-tip: According to LinkedIn, by combining accomplishment-based questions with behavioural fact-finding, the entire team is collectively discovering if the candidate is both competent to do the actual work, motivated to do it, and whether or not they fit with the team and company culture.

Panel interviews can also help to see that the candidate is vetted thoroughly. In a recent survey, 82 percent of managers  reported that interviewers were too focused on other issues, pressed for time, or lacked the confidence needed to spot red flags. By gathering the thoughts and opinions of multiple team members, you may help to balance your company’s weakest interviewer with its strongest.

4. Test Your Candidates

Some job applicants overestimate their skills, which may prove to be problematic if hired. To help avoid this issue, consider testing candidates where possible. By designing a basic test in the candidate’s area of expertise, you could gather further knowledge of their skill set, before extending an employment offer.

There are a variety of tests that small business owners can use to help them to understand their candidate qualifications better, such as:

• Job knowledge
• Skills assessment
• Cognitive ability

By asking candidates to participate in a paid assessment, you get a real-time view of their ability to successfully perform in the role.

5. Consider Your Small Business’ Online Reviews

Your company’s online reputation (or lack thereof) could be doing a disservice to your hiring process. If your company has no online reviews, job seekers may choose to pursue another opportunity, as a lack of reviews may indicate the business has no presence in the industry.

Some job applicants research their potential employers thoroughly.

• According to a Glassdoor survey, 46 percent of its members read company reviews before they spoke to a recruiter or hiring manager
• Job applicants will read an average of six reviews before forming an opinion about them

By cultivating positive reviews and building your company’s reputation as a high-quality employer, you may be able to garner better job candidates. According to Glassdoor, companies that invest in employer branding are three times more likely to make a quality hire.

In addition to cultivating positive reviews, it’s important to respond to negative ones. The aforementioned Glassdoor study found that 69 percent of job seekers wouldn’t take a job with a company that had a bad reputation—even if they were currently unemployed.

Respond to negative reviews from both employees and customers appropriately.

• Respond to online criticism to show your organization is committed to improving
• Create intranets for employees to raise their concerns internally
• Ask current employees to provide feedback about your organisations’ application and work processes on review sites
• Research online review sites for data you can use to make changes

6. Understand Your Small Business’ Benefits

It’s important to foster a healthy, lively culture within the workplace, as the best job candidates are looking for more than a desk in an office. Robert Half broke down some of the top non-monetary benefits employees are looking for in their next company:

• Flexible work schedules – 88%
• Compressed workweek – 66%
• Telecommuting – 55%
• On-site amenities like a gym or childcare – 38%
• Paid time-off for volunteer activities – 31%
• Employee social events – 21%

The benefits you offer have a significant cyclical impact on company culture; while benefits are an extension of your organisation’s culture, they also play a significant role in creating and maintaining said culture. Company culture can also be an indicator of how well your company is doing. Up to 88 percent of employees believe workplace culture is integral to business success. Make an effort to promote positive company culture in the workplace to order to entice the best candidates.

7. Implement a ‘Careers’ Section on Your Company Website

64% of job seekers consider careers pages as valuable resources during their job search. Aside from searching solely for a job opening, potential candidates may also be trying to gain other insights about your business such as:

• Company values
• Employee testimonials
• Reasons to work there

Leverage your company website as a recruiting tool as much as possible. If you’re neglecting to put effort into developing an enticing ‘Careers’ section to help show that your company is a fantastic workplace, job seekers may opt to seek work elsewhere.

Keep in mind that your careers section should be able to paint an overall picture of your small business by:

• Answering frequently asked questions about your company
• Providing instruction on how to apply for an open position
• Elaborating on the work-life balance the company offers
• Featuring positive company reviews from current employees

8. Keep Your Best Candidates Interested in the Position

Keeping applicants in the loop can help retain their interest and help ensure that the best candidates don’t slip through your fingers during the waiting period. Keep finalist candidates apprised of where they are in the process and indicate any milestones that lay ahead.

Be transparent about your interest in your candidates; letting a great applicant know they’re in serious contention for the role may deter them from pursuing other opportunities during the interim period.

9. Take Advantage of the Digital World

Modern technology has transformed the way candidates look for jobs, therefore, it’s important to make sure your small business is keeping up with the trends. According to Pew Research Center, 79 percent of job seekers use online resources in their job search. It’s also important that your career website is mobile-friendly, as the same study shows 28 percent of Americans have used their smartphones in some way for their job searches.

10. Survey Candidates about the Hiring Experience

Once the interview is over, take time to survey candidates about their experience with your hiring process—whether or not you decided to extend a job offer. Their feedback may highlight areas of your recruitment and hiring tactics that need attention and give you the opportunity to make improvements.

Here are a few examples of survey questions:

• Did your discussion with the recruiter or hiring manager reflect what you read in the job ad?
• Was email and phone communication prompt and effective?
• What do you recommend helping make our interviewing/hiring process better?

The above questions are a great starting point, but keep in mind that the questions presented in your survey should be tailored to your small businesses hiring process.

11. Use a Pre-Employment Screening Service

Employers and hiring managers have plenty to gain from improved recruitment and hiring processes.

Streamlining your hiring process may help you to build a roster of dedicated, productive employees. Every hiring process should incorporate a thorough screening solution, and that’s why 72 percent of employers run background checks on new employees. As recent studies have shown,52 percent of all job applications contain inaccurate information, therefore it’s critical to thoroughly screen your top candidates prior to hiring.

Background checks can help you make a more confident hiring decision. For example, if you’re hiring for a role in the financial industry, a candidate’s credit report may provide invaluable insight into their money management skills. If you’re hiring for a position that interacts with children, it’s important to check a candidate’s criminal history.

Final Notes

It’s easy for small business owners to get started with pre-employment screening.

• No sign-up fees or membership costs
• No onsite credentialing
• No waiting to start screening