Most people new to recruiting ask a straightforward question, "How do I find the best employees for my company, and find them fast?" The challenge with hiring quickly is that you can skip vital steps and best hiring practices in the rush to fill positions. However, with focused and well-organized recruiting and hiring best practices, you can find the right people for your team without compromising quality.

Before we get into the meat of this article, what are hiring best practices and why do they exist? Hiring best practices are the most effective and efficient methods used to attract, recruit, select, and hire top talent for your organization. These practices help you identify and evaluate the right candidates while also creating a positive candidate experience.

While best practices may change slightly based on your company and the roles you're hiring for, several common hiring best practices are:

- Clear job descriptions and requirements: Make sure that your job postings are transparent, accurately reflect the role's responsibilities and expectations, and mention any essential skills or qualifications.

- Diverse candidate sourcing methods: Using multiple channels such as job portals, social media, employee referrals, career fairs, etc. can help you reach a wider pool of potential candidates.

- Semi-structured interviews: Conducting interviews that have a mix of structured and unstructured questions can help you gauge past performance, technical skills, and cultural fit.

- Pre-employment assessments: These tests help evaluate candidates' skills, competencies, and potential fit for the role and organization.

While these four are simple and well-known, they're key to ensuring a fair and equitable hiring process. Now that we know what hiring best practices are let's dive into why they are essential to the recruiting process.

Importance of the hiring process:

Hiring is a crucial process in any company's success. A strong recruitment process leads to better hires, which results in better performance and company cohesion. A hiring process also gives structure to a vital aspect of your business (finding new employees) so it can be managed properly and measured objectively. Once the hiring process is properly structured, you can apply a data-driven approach to the process.

How to improve the hiring process:

Once you have a structure in place that's proven successful at attracting top talent, you'll be able to find bottlenecks that need improvement. For instance, if you're hiring people but they leave in 6-9 months, costing the company thousands of dollars in recruiting fees and potentially hundreds of thousands in lost production and knowledge, you can quickly identify the issue and work on resolving it.

One of the most powerful ways to change your hiring process is by applying relevant technologies like interview intelligence software to each step. Interview intelligence is a relatively new type of solution that allows interviewers to use AI-powered tools to see what the human eyes and ears may miss. For example, tonal changes, micro-expressions, and other non-verbal cues can give an interviewer a better understanding of whether someone would make a good fit for the team. Interview intelligence solutions like Pillar offer all of these features and more to help you identify the best for each open role and take the guesswork out of hiring.

Recruitment Strategies Examples

In the previous section, we briefly covered the importance of having a structured hiring process and utilizing technology to improve it. Now, let's take a closer look at some effective recruitment strategies examples that can help you attract and retain top talent for your organization.

Types of Recruitment Strategies:

1. Employee Referral Programs: This is one of the most common types of recruitment strategies, where current employees are incentivized to refer their family, friends, or professional connections for open positions within the company. This method is not only cost-effective but also ensures a higher chance of finding qualified and culturally fit candidates.

2. Social Media Recruiting: With the rise of social media platforms, companies are now leveraging them to reach a larger pool of potential candidates. Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter allow recruiters to target specific demographics and advertise job openings to a larger audience.

3. Employer Branding: This involves showcasing your company's values, culture, and work environment to potential candidates. By building a strong employer brand, you can attract top talent who align with your company's mission and vision.

4. Career Fairs: Attending career fairs is an effective way to connect with a diverse pool of candidates and promote your company's job opportunities. This also allows you to network with other professionals in the industry and build relationships for future hiring needs.

Recruiting Best Practices for Hiring Managers:

While recruitment strategies are important, it's equally crucial for hiring managers to follow best practices during the selection and interviewing process. Some key recruitment strategies to attract and retain talent are:

- Considering diversity and inclusion: It's important to have a diverse and inclusive workplace, not only for ethical reasons but also for better decision-making and overall company growth.

- Offering competitive compensation and benefits: In addition to salary, offering attractive benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and flexible work arrangements can help you stand out in the job market. Make sure that the things you're offering are not only compliant with the laws of your region but are also what your employees want. A $500 dollar tennis table or $10 lunch goes a long way to boosting employee morale if that's what they really want.

- Providing a positive candidate experience: The recruitment process is also a reflection of your company's culture. It's crucial to provide a positive and transparent candidate experience, regardless of whether they are selected or not. This will not only leave a lasting impression on the candidates but also improve your employer's brand.

By implementing these best practices in recruitment and selection, you can attract top talent, build a strong team, and ultimately build a company that thrives.

Suggestions To Improve the Recruitment Process

If you're seeing bottlenecks in your hiring process now may be the time to address them by taking a step back so you can see the entire hiring process like one big landscape photo. "Zooming out" gives you perspective, it helps you see the bigger picture, and it gives you an opportunity to see what's not working so you can make suggestions to improve the recruitment process.

Since we talked a bit about recruitment best practice examples in the first section, I don't want to lean too heavily on one point, so let's change things up a bit and focus on the recruiter and hiring manager relationship. This partnership is crucial in ensuring a smooth and successful recruitment process.

Here are some suggestions to improve this relationship:

1. Establish clear communication: Both recruiters and hiring managers should have open and transparent communication throughout the entire recruitment process. This includes being on the same page about job requirements, candidate qualifications, and updates on the hiring status.

2. Collaborate on job descriptions: Recruiters should work closely with hiring managers to create accurate and compelling job descriptions that attract top talent. Hiring managers can provide insights on the specific skills and qualities required for the role, while recruiters can use their expertise to tailor the language and format for maximum impact.

3. Provide timely feedback: Time is of the essence in recruitment, and delays can lead to losing qualified candidates. Hiring managers should provide timely feedback on resumes, interviews, and overall progress to keep the recruitment process moving efficiently.

Once you have these things, you'll see the "free flow of ideas" and suggestions that will ultimately lead to a more effective recruitment process. The hiring manager and recruiter relationship is a key metric to successful hires and any miscommunication here will lead to a decrease in productivity and increase turnover rates. By implementing these suggestions, you can improve your recruitment process and build a strong team that drives your company towards success. Remember, the key to attracting and retaining top talent is having a well-thought-out hiring process backed by best practices and continuous improvement.

In closing, hiring is one of the most frustrating and rewarding tasks for any team. Whether you're in HR, a recruiter, or a hiring manager, it's important to constantly adapt and improve your recruitment practices to stay competitive in the job market. Try implementing these best practices and suggestions and see what happens in your company. You might just find your next star employee by doing so.

If our team can help you make better hires, let us know. At Pillar we've helped companies do some amazing things like lowering turnover by more than 50%, increasing diversity hiring by 52%, and decreasing the costs associated with hiring. Book your demo to see how you could see similar results. Happy hiring!