In a market short of candidates yet no less busy, it’s important to make sure your hiring process is as efficient as can be. Having been in recruitment for almost 3 decades, we have a few top tips on this that we want to share with you – keep reading for 4 ways to easily achieve this, and feel free to get in touch with us directly to discuss any recruitment challenges you’re currently facing.
Use a recruiter to weed out unqualified candidates
This might be obvious coming from a recruitment agency, but one of the most useful services that a recruitment consultant provides is the ability to reduce the quantity of unqualified candidates you have to sift through. It takes up a lot of your (valuable!) time, and a lot of effort as well. Recruiters will only send you the profiles of relevant candidates, saving you the hassle of sending rejection after rejection with no end in sight.
Be flexible with availability
With recruitment continuing to increase in the current market, it is natural to want to attract the best candidates you can. One way of doing this is making sure applicants feel that you value their time. Don’t just block out an entire day for the process of interviewing your shortlist and be unable to accommodate those who aren’t available; instead, we recommend being more flexible with your time and make sure you’re available throughout the working week during times when you are looking to hire. The market can be very competitive, and being flexible will both improve your efficiency in hiring and help you attract the type of candidates you want.
Put more thought in at the first stage
Fairly often, we’ll have a candidate get through multiple rounds of interviews just to fall at the final hurdle with the reason being along the lines of ‘We just don’t think they’re quite the right fit.’ We’re paraphrasing there, but it would actually improve your hiring process to take a bit more time early on in the process. Use the first interview to really get to know the candidate, and involve as many key decision makers in the process as you can. This saves time later on, and if anyone is involved from an early stage then there is likely to be disappointment later on if someone feels they’re just not quite right.
Do tests early in the process
Many of our clients like to include some form of test or practical exercise as part of the interview process; naturally, to make sure candidates can complete them to a high standard, they allow plenty of time for these to be done, and sometimes need to be scheduled for a specific time in advance. However, there are ways to reduce the amount of time these tests add to the recruitment process and get your new hire starting sooner.
For example, don’t leave the test to the very last stage of the interview as this lengthens the process, and in a candidate-short market, having the test at an early stage means the applicant will be more involved with you from the outset. Also, introduce the test to the candidate early on to ensure they are prepared to do the test and understand precisely what you want from them. More preparation means a high-quality result, so candidates can show you exactly what they can offer.
And there you have it! 4 simple things to check, and you’re on your way to hiring the best talent you can find.
