Here’s a checklist (not definitive but still pretty comprehensive) of 24 things that great recruiters do:
In the run up to joining the company you now work for you wrote a document proposing how they could improve their careers website (most can)......before you joined !!!
You use google analytics to track the ratio of visits to applications on your careers site and are constantly adjusting the content to improve that ratio.
You’ve demanded that the company introduce an online onboarding tool to both automate the collection of key information and add content valuable to new hires to get them up to speed quickly.
You got rid of your old ATS because it was making candidates login/register before they could apply.
You add a killer fact to the first paragraph of every job description about your company to grab people’s attention.
You insist every hiring manager blocks out designated time slots in their diary at the start of every hiring process so candidate interviews can be arranged without unnecessary delay.
You and your HR colleagues start writing a blog on your careers site about life at the firm and whacky things you’re up to.
You don’t interview people in the office. You take them offsite to somewhere more relaxed.
You arrange for the CEO to send new starters a welcome message on day 1.
You ask all new hires what they thought of the hiring process and how it could be improved.
You insist on putting a careers link on the front page of your corporate site (not hidden on the ‘About us’ section).
You insist that your current vacancies can be found by anyone anywhere on your website within 2 clicks.
You demand every applicant not taken to interview receives a formal rejection message. “If you have not heard from us within 3 weeks please assume you have been unsuccessful” = very, very poor.
You demand that your company goes beyond simply interviewing people and introduce formal testing procedures to minimise the likelihood of a bad hire.
You insist the careers site has a section ‘ Ask a question’ allowing potentially interested applicants to ask a question anonymously.
At least a third of new hires come from employee referrals and your cv/resume database (that you’ve been studiously building).
You can name 3 potentially brilliant candidates in your ATSs talent pool that you’ve added in the last week (you have been building it up…….right?)
You spend at least 20% of your time developing a pipeline of talent. Building relationships with great potential hires of the future even if you don’t have an immediate vacancy for them.
You’re damn good at selling. You recognise that the moment you meet a potential hire…..interview, trade fair, the pub, dinner…….wherever…..you’re selling your company as the best place for them to come and join.
You work closely with the marketing team to utilise all known digital marketing tools to attract the best people and have a detailed understanding of SEO marketing techniques.
You were horrified to notice that jobs listed on your careers site couldn’t be socialised onto the major social networks so you promptly added addthis.com to rectify that.
You’re very clever at how you write job descriptions ensuring each vacancy placed onto a job board has 3 sections: about the company - about the role - about the ideal candidate.
You’re very clever at getting your job placed at the top of job boards because you sneakily repeat the job title at least twice in the first 100 words (staffing agencies are smart like that…….most direct employers aren’t).
You can quote the following stats: current vs last year’s cost per hire and time to hire as well as new hire retention rates after 1 year (which should be going down each year).
Do all the above and frankly your company should thank their lucky stars they have you and here are the 6 signs you’re having a stormer:
Time to hire is coming down.
Average length of stay of new hires is increasing.
Your conversion rate of hits on your careers site vs applications is increasing
Cost per hire is reducing.
New hire 1 year review - average appraisal rate is improving indicating improved quality of hires.
The number of formal interviews you and your line manager colleagues do is reducing.