Assess your recruitment approach with this 10-question checklist for hiring great candidates
The need for hiring teams to recruit rapidly and efficiently has never been higher, and this pressure is expected to grow. With the emergence of generative AI, it's difficult to foresee what the future holds for the recruiting industry.
As recruiting professionals, we tend to over-complicate things. I believe that successful recruiters and sourcers will always excel in the fundamentals and what is recruitment at its fundamentals? People. The organisations that the best people will belong to will prioritize a recruiting philosophy that values thoroughness, knowledge, and highly-personalized interactions with candidates. As the competition for talent intensifies, recruiting teams must align their approaches with the company, the hiring team, and the market itself. A strong, people-focused recruiting approach based on a good understanding of the market will mean that the right candidates are hired. It's that simple.
In this blog post, we will explore whether your own recruiting approach is set up to close your current open roles and I will provide you with a 10-question checklist to help determine this.
Don’t Leave Anything To Chance
In my experience as a recruiter and a sourcer (and a leader of both), I have found that closing a job offer is not just about getting a candidate to accept it. It involves much more than that. The most successful recruiters and sourcers start the closing process before they even contact a potential candidate. It's akin to building a piece of furniture from Ikea - you need to lay out all the pieces, read the instructions carefully, and make sure you have the necessary tools before you start. This ensures that the final product will be useful and durable. To clarify, human beings are more complicated than stools from Ikea but hiring is no different.
In order to reduce risk and improve the likelihood of making a successful hire, it is crucial to conduct extensive research and collect data both internally and externally. If a candidate declines an offer or interview, it could mean that they were not a good fit for the role. However, it's also possible that the recruiting team did not present the role in the best way or was not aware of other factors that influenced the candidate's decision. Without adequate research and data, the recruiting team may never know the true reasons behind candidates' decisions and will be ill-equipped to prevent negative outcomes in the future.
An ineffective recruiting process and a lack of understanding of market positioning can make it difficult to attract and close suitable talent. This can even lead potential candidates to view the company as not worth joining. To avoid these negative outcomes, it's crucial for recruiters and sourcers to do their due diligence and gather as much information as possible before starting the closing process.
Research Should Focus on 5 Key Areas:
The market and its composition
The real-life experiences of candidates in the market
The company they are recruiting for
The hiring team
What recruiting team has done in this area in the past
The aim of this examination is to assist recruiters and sourcers in comprehending the advantages, disadvantages, and possibilities of a particular job from the standpoint of the perfect candidate. This enhances the chances of filling a vacant position in a prompt and effective manner. Although no one appreciates unfavourable feedback, this kind of research can reveal underlying operational concerns within the recruiting process of the organization, the hiring team, or even the company itself. Nevertheless, these issues should be regarded as a chance to better the approach and to build to scale.
Our 10-question checklist for recruitment can be used for any job opening, regardless of the company's size or location. This checklist is designed to assess the effectiveness of the recruitment process and to gather essential information to fill the vacant positions.
10 Question Checklist
Why has this job opening opened up?
Positive / Negative reasons · Does the business need to hire this role · Is the role ready to hire · Is there approval from the business (legal / finance / HR) to hire the role · Can anyone internally do the role
What makes the hiring team (team with open role) special within the industry?
Current USPs · Potential · Ambitions · Diversity of the team · Main competitors
What has been the experience of individuals of this role type within your company?
Good place for SWEs · Opportunities for conditions to improve · Career growth trajectory · Is the culture engineering-centred and driven
What is the perception of the company/team in the industry?
Accurate / Inaccurate perceptions · Is branding needed · Potential objections to offers · Is there a way to feedback findings to the business
Is the operational structure set up to hire effectively?
Is diversity a consideration · Are job specs consistent with the team's needs · Is ATS capturing all necessary data · How is hiring data being used · Appropriate interview processes/interviewers · XFN partnerships in place (legal, finance, HR) · Competitive remuneration
Is the recruiting team able to adapt as conditions change?
Has there been previous experiences with similar roles · Is diversity hiring a consideration · Are sourcing strategies diverse and adaptable · Are personalised engagement strategies in place · Is the sell personalised · Is there a consultative relationship with the hiring manager · Is there collateral in-market to sell the role
Is recruiting building a detailed "persona" for every candidate they speak to?
Is every candidate researched thoroughly · Are conversations used to understand drivers · Is recruiting equipped to map each candidate’s shifting alignment with open roles · Is recruiting empowered to advocate for candidates within the business whilst understanding business need/priorities
How and when will the hiring team sell the role to potential candidates?
Is recruiting equipped to sell the role · Is there alignment between recruiting and business on the nature of the sell · Does the business need sell coaching · Is there agreement on when to use sell calls (at end of the process and/or earlier, when need be)
How clean is the offer process up to the start date?
Is it clear to every candidate what happens after interviews are completed · Are offers competitive · Is the approval process quick, clear and with minimum steps · Does the recruiter have the means to negotiate · Clear responsibilities for HR and recruiting · How are candidates who have accepted "cared for" up until start date
Is there a feedback loop to allow improvements and iterations?
Are candidates incentivised to feedback on their experiences · Is recruiting empowered to improve the process · Is there constant real-time feedback between XFN partners and recruiting to ensure smooth interactions · Is market data actioned internally accordingly
The answers that you surface with this 10 Question Checklist will help with the following:
Bring alignment between the business, the hiring team, the market itself, and potential candidates.
Improving the way open roles are presented to candidates.
Enable the recruiting team to operate a white-glove approach at scale.
Transparency in what recruiters share with candidates will eventually reduce offer decline rates and will ensure that only the right candidates are hired.
I could have presented 20 questions, but I wanted to keep it simple and provide easy-to-implement strategies for recruiting. This content is meant to be a starting point for more in-depth discussions within your team.
It is important to remember that you will not be able to change everything immediately but use this investigation to start the journey. If anything is not scalable, you likely shouldn’t be doing it and the more you put this process off, the harder it will be to make any change in the future. Be brave.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any additional inquiries. I would also appreciate hearing about your experiences implementing these suggestions.
Thank you for reading!