Monday, September 27, 2010

P is for Process...

How good is your recruiting process? Most people think they have a pretty good process…odds are, it’s not and it’s completely dependent on the people running it. A good process works regardless of who’s on the team and scales to handle the the needs of your organization.

Here area few tips on building a great recruiting process.

1) It serves the needs of your organization – Need 10 pieces of data to make a hiring decision? Then build a process that gets you 11. Need to hire huge a ton of employees fast? Build a nimble process that can handle a huge volume of candidates. Get this right and the rest will follow….get it wrong and the whole thing falls apart.

2) Repeatable – Every candidate, no matter the location or job level should have the same experience (or at least a very similar experience) Why? Because you need to evaluate who to hire and a consistent “standard interview” will give you the same data over and over again allowing you to really determine who’s the best and who you want to hire. File that one under “common sense”

3) People independent – Don’t build a process that relies on the institutional knowledge of your recruiters. Asking for failure. Build a process that is systems based and allows your team to use their tools properly to do their job. You need a rock solid process that works with anyone running it. Why? Star Recruiter is on vacation, anyone can cover for them. Star Recruiter leaves to start their own agency? Hire someone else, plug them in and no one misses a beat.

4) Automate, automate, automate – The more you can automate the easier things will be. Asking your recruiters to send a “test” to every candidate after the 3rd interview is a disaster waiting to happen…instead, customize your ATS or email systems so that the recruiter can’t do anything until they’ve sent out this test. Looking to have an offer approved? Automate your systems so recruiters can’t generate an offer letter until they have all the data the organization asks for to make a hire. Your process will only be as good as the systems you use to manage it.

Your process is the most important thing you’ve got, most people just throw one together and hope it works. Don’t do it. Develop a process that works and tweak it as the needs of your organization change.