Recruitment… How’s your scorecard? | IMPROVING HR

THE BIG IDEA

I asked ChatGPT to give me a top 10 tips list for how companies can improve their recruitment process. Here’s what it said:

1. Define Clear Job Descriptions: Ensure job descriptions are accurate, detailed, and clearly outline roles, responsibilities, and required skills. This helps attract suitable candidates.
2. Utilize Multiple Channels for Job Postings: Don’t rely on just one platform. Utilize job boards, social media, company website, and professional networks to reach a wider pool of candidates.
3. Implement an Applicant Tracking System (ATS): ATS streamlines the hiring process by organizing applications, tracking candidate progress, and facilitating communication between hiring managers and applicants.
4. Streamline Application Process: Make the application process user-friendly and efficient. Lengthy forms or excessive requirements can deter qualified candidates from applying.
5. Develop a Strong Employer Brand: Highlight company culture, values, and benefits to attract top talent. A positive employer brand can significantly impact candidate perception and interest.
6. Leverage Employee Referrals: Encourage employees to refer suitable candidates. Employee referrals often result in higher quality hires who are a good fit for the company culture.
7. Implement Structured Interviews: Use standardized interview questions and evaluation criteria to ensure fairness and consistency in candidate assessment. This reduces bias and improves hiring decisions.
8. Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits: Research industry standards and offer competitive salaries and benefits packages to attract and retain top talent. Compensation is a key factor for candidates when considering job opportunities.
9. Provide Timely Feedback: Keep candidates informed about their application status and provide constructive feedback after interviews. This demonstrates professionalism and helps maintain a positive candidate experience.
10. Continuous Improvement: Regularly evaluate and refine the recruitment process based on feedback from candidates, hiring managers, and HR personnel. Adapt to changing market trends and best practices to stay competitive in attracting top talent.

As is often the case with AI, this list really is a “wisdom of the crowd” thing – and I have to say that all of these, save for social media, were on my radar when I was leading recruitment back in the UK in the late-90s

(in fact, we focused on them so closely that we won a national award for our “Candidate as Priority” approach)

So, there’s nothing new under the sun, right?

Right?

Yet, as a career coach, I spend a lot of time helping my candidate navigate recruitment processes and, sad to say, it’s like the list above is rare, arcane knowledge.

TRY THIS

Before we go any further, let me just say very clearly that I understand the pressures recruiting and recruiters are under. In the pressure cooker that is HR and TA, quite often the toxicity runs downhill and ends up aimed at recruiting. I get it

(and, boy oh boy, have lived it)

and my battle scars have been won by improving the process despite that toxicity, and despite being so busy I often felt I couldn’t breathe.

So, let’s revisit our list and, instead of taking it as just a statement of an impossible ideal state, use it as a diagnostic scorecard.

Let’s take out the descriptions so as to simplify the list and then rate each item from 1-10 (awful to great)

(I’ve added my general ratings from experience with candidates in the past 5 years)

1. Define Clear Job Descriptions; 7
2. Utilize Multiple Channels for Job Postings; 9
3. Implement an Applicant Tracking System (ATS); 6
4. Streamline Application Process; 2
5. Develop a Strong Employer Brand; 4
6. Leverage Employee Referrals; 4
7. Implement Structured Interviews; 1
8. Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits; 6
9. Provide Timely Feedback; 0
10. Continuous Improvement; 2

Great. We have some strengths and, frankly, we have some bleeding wounds, not least of which is item 10, which is actually the solution

(and, yes, I know the desire to improve is in the function, I just don’t and haven’t seen that will translate into measurable progress overall)

Now, HR has a curious habit of hearing the bad news, lamenting it being so, then shrugging shoulders in a “what can you do?” way and moving on to the next burning issue in the inbox, so I don’t really want to just leave this at scores.

USE THIS

Instead, let’s expand our diagnostic towards a more CI mindset:

Download this tool as a PDF

Here, we’ve added 3 columns

(and, believe me, I wanted to go full CI on it, but decided to KISS it – mmmm, acronyms… 😂)

the first is to provide context for the score. For example, I scored timely feedback as 0 given my candidates’ experience – ghosting is alive and well and, given the ease of automating rejections, is point-blank insulting to applicants

(go ahead, ask me if I have strong feelings on this particular issue)

Our second new column identifies opportunities for improvement – automating rejections would be a great opportunity as described above.

And our final new column culls that long list of opportunities to identify those things we can do easily/quickly/cheaply – again, automating rejections would fall into this category, while providing detailed verbal feedback to all applicants wouldn’t.

(as an aside, there are more structured ways to assess those last 2 columns, so consider this the quick-and-dirty method)

Once completed, this diagnostic can be used to gain sponsorship, prioritization, resources, etc. to make changes happen. And, it’s highly likely that you’ll be able to find low-hanging fruit that you can implement almost immediately without causing too much disruption.

As with all things improvement, the trick is to changing thought to action – and using this diagnostic is at least a first step towards moving beyond the status quo.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.”
~Mark Twain

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