How To Create A Solid Recruiting Strategy To Improve Your Candidate Experience
Recently, I wrote and published a Forbes article outlining the seven common mistakes recruiters make when it comes to attracting quality tech talent. As a coach, consultant and speaker, one of the questions people often ask is how to create a structured recruiting strategy to improve the candidate experience.
The easiest part is often attracting talent while the hardest is retaining them. The reality is, companies with disorganized interview processes lose talent before they have a chance to extend an offer. Their once boastful and seemingly irresistible benefits package is no longer the selling point if their recruiting strategy is pure chaos.
It doesn’t matter how attractive, reputable or high-paying a company is, if they have a weak strategy or lack one altogether, they risk quality candidates losing patience and walking away. For example, a friend of mine who was interviewing with Google, the dream company of many, even himself, or so he thought.
He started the recruiting process strong and excited. However, his enthusiasm quickly faded and frustration kicked in when he hit his 6th then 7th then 10th interview. He eventually dropped out accepting another position before finishing the process with the multinational tech company. To this day, he cringes, without regret of walking away, when he tells the story of the process he endured.
This is why I’m excited to create this blog post with you. I want to help you create a solid recruiting strategy to prevent you from losing quality candidates to exhaustive or chaotic interview processes. What has made the process I’m about to teach you successful is the amount of collaboration and communication from everyone involved.
Every single person will walk away with a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities and how candidates will navigate their journey with your company. We’re going to pick up at where the job description has already been created and work from there to create a solid recruiting strategy that works for you.
As soon as an opening is announced and a job description is created or amended to fit the role, recruiters should schedule a meeting with the hiring manager. This meeting will review the details of the job description and get an understanding of who is on the interview team.
Here are some questions that should be asked in the meeting that will help develop a solid recruiting strategy. These will touch upon basic housekeeping questions, career pathing, skills, tasks and the candidate to employee journey.
I’ve broken them down into categories to make them less overwhelming.
Tasks and Career Pathing
Who will they work closely with? What is the team structure like?
What are their day-to-day tasks?
What does the future look like for someone in this position?
What developmental opportunities are available for someone in this role?
What are nice-to-haves?
What are must haves?
What challenges will someone in this role face?
What is the goal of this position?
What tools and resources will they be working with?
What training will they receive? Is there a personal development budget?
Candidate to Employee Journey
What will their onboarding look like?
How long will the interview process take and how many interviews in one day?
Miscellaneous but Necessary
Wishlist companies to look for when sourcing?
Is there a possibility for remote work for the right candidate?
Will there be visa sponsorship?
Is there a relocation budget or package available?
Describe the culture of your team
General Housekeeping
Salary range
Is the salary flexible for the right candidate?
Educational requirements
Certifications and trainings
Soft skills preferred for this role
The next step is clarifying key points of the job description and tightening it up to align with the other job descriptions so it speaks to the candidate. Once the job description is finalized, the recruiter should then schedule an intake meeting with the hiring manager and interview team.
The goal of having an intake meeting with everyone involved is to craft a clearly defined interview process where everyone is aligned on the candidate they’re searching for, their roles and responsibilities and the exact steps of the candidate journey.
Some questions that should be asked during the intake process will be similar to the ones asked during the meeting with the hiring manager. While this may seem redundant, you’d be surprised the type of conversation it creates. Everyone has their own idea of what the ideal candidate looks like yet, most often they’re not the same for everyone.
The reality is, everyone has their own expectations, experience and perspectives. Taking the time to discuss and agree on the traits, skills and qualities of a candidate keeps everyone on the same page. The interviewers are able to share what’s worked and what hasn’t in the past and what they’d like to see from someone in this role.
Here are some questions that should be asked and discussed during the intake meeting
What does the ideal candidate look like?
What are nice-to-haves?
What are must haves?
What does the interview process look like? What do the steps look like?
What roles and responsibilities will each person have during the process?
How long will it take?
What type of assessment will be taken?
How will you determine the final candidate? Who will conduct the glass raiser interview, if needed?
Gaining clarity around the types of interview questions that will be asked and who will be asking them is invaluable to a strong recruitment strategy. Interviewers are more likely to ask illegal interview questions when they don’t have a plan.
Asking illegal interview questions is the easiest way to destroy a company’s reputation and prevent others from wanting to work for you. I wrote an article of commonly and unintentionally asked interview questions that are illegal and what interviews should ask instead.
A solid recruiting strategy goes far beyond the types of questions asked, it also lays out the length and structure of the recruiting process. If multiple interviews are being conducted on the same day, it’s essential for the interview team to know who they will be handing the candidate off to so they can make a proper transition and introduction.
Of course, there’s more that goes into creating a solid and successful recruiting strategy and this is exactly what I help my clients and companies develop and implement to create stronger and positive candidate experiences. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend downloading my FREE guide walking you through the exact recruiting techniques the most successful companies use to attract and hire the best talent. You can grab yours by signing up here.
I want to hear from you! Do you have a successful recruiting strategy in place? What does it entail?