Do you have a recruiting strategy? You'd better!

Something that has struck me lately his how many companies simply don’t have a recruiting strategy.  They bring on recruiters and expect the hires to follow.  That might have worked in 1997 before the world was round for us recruiters, but nowadays you have to have a strategy or you’re dead.  Here are a few tips to get you started:

Know the data - Understand how hiring works at your company and the rest will be easy.  Figure out what your interview to offer ratio is and map it directly to how many interviews you’ll need to do to get a hire.  This way, you’ll know what to expect.  People will differ on what a “good” ratio is but I’d argue the right ratio is one that allows you to hire the best people....ideally maybe 4 to 1 (ish)

Pipeline, not funnel - Funnels are for sales-guys.  Pipelines are for candidates. All of your candidates come through different channels - Employee referrals, online applications, events, recruiters, etc etc.  Use all of these channels to build a robust candidate pipeline that allows you to tweak different channels to increase your yield.

Have a process, but don’t be afraid to change it - Process allows you to consistently evaluate candidates across multiple roles/teams.  You need a good process to recruit effectively.  However, you should also realize that as your organization changes, so should your process.  A hiring process that works when you have 100 employees might not work when you are 10,000.  So, be flexible and adjust to things as your company evolves.

Have a comp philosophy...and stick to it - Lots of smaller companies simply pay what they need to in order to attract the right person. Wrong.  Have a philosophy of how you want to compensate people.  Spend the time doing this so when you find the perfect new hire and they ask how you came to whatever number you’ve offered you’ll have an intelligent answer.  

Referrals are your lifeblood - Everyone hires their friends and former colleagues....it’s the way to world works.  So, when you hire someone...hit them up and find out who they know.  Be nice and do it ethically (do not violate non-solicit agreements).  BUT, you’re best hires will come from your referral program so treat them like gold

There you go, it’s a start and by no means comprehensive but when you think about recruiting (or your job search) you’ve got to have a strategy and then work thought the tactics.  Expecting people to just show up and apply.....is not going to work, there is just too much competition for great talent and/or great jobs now.

Until next week, good luck!