How did your recruitment efforts work out last year? Did you find the right talent to help you meet your strategic goals? Or did you spend last year feeling lost in a frustrating maze of resumes and interviews?
No matter how things turned out, there is always room for improvement. The recruitment market is constantly evolving, and your hiring strategy needs to evolve along with it.
Right now is a good time to think about how you can improve hiring results and build a reliable talent pipeline. Before you look ahead, however, it is important to first look back.
Looking back on the previous year
So, here is a question for you as the hiring manager, owner, or even human resources professional overseeing talent: what worked last year? What processes or recruitment initiatives helped with some of the more successful hires?
When looking at what worked, consider why they worked and how you can continue to move forward with these initiatives. Recruitment initiatives can be anything from
- Management training on recruitment best practices,
- Implementing an employee referral program,
- Developing hiring SOPs for staff and management to follow,
- partnering with a new organization and/or team to build your talent pool.
Also, were there hiring initiatives that may not have been as successful? If so, how can they be improved, or should they be eliminated?
Sometimes, taking a look back just means improving or going to the next level with your initiative. For example, perhaps you rolled out an employee referral program. What can you do to increase the number of referrals this year? Increase the dollar amount? Improve communication with staff about the program? Perhaps both?
Building on those lessons learned is a great way to make further progress in the coming year.
5 steps to improve your talent strategy this year
Having learned from the lessons of last year, it's time to turn insight into action. Here are some ideas to help improve your hiring outcomes:
1. Perform a skills gap analysis
A skills gap analysis is the basis of a successful hiring strategy. Work with stakeholders to identify the skill sets required for your company and departmental goals and needs. When you’ve identified these skills gaps, you can categorize requirements in the following way:
- Upskilling opportunity: A skills gap that can be addressed by training and development for existing staff members.
- Team reshuffle: Some skills gaps can be resolved by redeploying certain people into roles that play to their strengths or by reallocating certain responsibilities.
- Hiring: If your current team can’t fix a skills gap, you’ll need to hire someone with the right professional background.
A gap analysis will help you identify the most pressing recruitment requirements. It will also ensure that you’re looking for the right people to complement your existing team.
2. Allocate your hiring budget
Hiring involves two distinct financial considerations: the compensation available for new hires and the cost of the hiring process itself. It’s worth discussing both issues with your finance and accounting team. Specific issues to review include:
- Investments in seniority: Your skills gap analysis might indicate that you need to hire someone more senior, which means a larger outlay on compensation. For example, when performing your gap analysis, you find it is time to bring on a new employee not as an individual contributor but as a lead, manager, or director. Is there money in the budget to hire a leader instead of an individual contributor?
- Investments in hiring initiatives: Some of your ongoing initiatives might require additional investment. For example, if you have an employee referral program with cash incentives, is it time to increase the referral reward? Or can you look at some other incentives?
It’s a good idea to have these conversations before you start actively recruiting candidates. Doing so will allow you to build your talent pipeline and set clear expectations for the year ahead.
3. Expand hiring capabilities
Your hiring strategy depends on the people who execute it: hiring managers, recruiters, and HR professionals. It’s important to support those people and expand their capabilities with the right type of investment, such as:
- Updated Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Standardized procedures help to ensure a consistent candidate experience, while also making it easier to compare outcomes from different departments. Make sure SOPs are updated to reflect the latest best practices.
- Training on recruitment best practices: It’s also important to ensure that hiring managers, interviewers, and other people involved in recruitment are current on best practices. As well as SOPs, keep them updated on interviewing techniques and using recruitment technology.
- Collaboration with trusted third parties: Recruitment is often easier if you work with a trusted partner. This can include an HR consultancy firm (such as Helios HR), recruitment specialists, or retained search.
4. Increase your visibility
How do you advertise positions? Do you post and pray, hoping that the right candidate will see your job ad? If so, now it’s time to step up your hiring game and increase the visibility of your vacancy. A few ways of doing this include:
- Look at local colleges and universities: Here, you can find students who are graduating and seeking new employment.
- Partner with associations, social organizations, and industry: Such groups provide networking opportunities to get your company’s name out there for candidates to see.
- Employee referral programs: Advertise your vacancy internally and ask staff to share the posting with their network.
5. Improve candidate engagement
Candidate engagement is how you stay connected with candidates throughout the hiring process. Consistent engagement with candidates keeps your company “top of mind” as candidates consider interviewing and offers from other companies. Some things to consider here include:
- Encourage hiring managers to focus on engagement: Your hiring managers might not realize the importance of regular contact with potential new hires. Explain why this is so crucial and talk about candidate expectations.
- Provide communication tools: Engagement is easier with the right tools. A modern Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will provide tools to send regular messages, including details about next steps in the hiring process.
- Try to keep the hiring process as short as possible: Most candidates agree—the hiring process takes too long. If you can move quickly towards a decision, you’re more likely to secure the best applicant.
One of the biggest challenges is response time and ensuring hiring managers and recruiters continue to speak with and engage with candidates, provide them with updates, and check in on them as they actively search for new employment. It is competitive out there, and you want the candidates to remember who you are as a company.
Level up your hiring process
Hiring can be hard—but it doesn't have to be.
With the right partners, you can level up your hiring process and build a reliable talent pipeline that supports your business goals.
That's where Helios HR comes in. Our experienced consultants understand every aspect of the hiring process, from crafting job descriptions to onboarding new hires. And our team can work on a short-term project basis or as long-term strategic partners.
Want to learn more about how HR outsourcing can help your business? Book a call with Helios HR today!
