Beyond the Hiring Surge: Strategies for Sustainable Productivity in Recruitment

The trend that the world sees as the ‘Great Resignation’ has changed the recruitment landscape forever. In this scenario, the advantage lies with job seekers. Conventional methods, often tried and tested, of recruitment are no longer relevant in  today’s world. Professionals are not shy of quitting if they are not happy in their jobs. Given this situation, companies must come up with sustainable recruitment strategies.

How is this done efficiently and effectively?

Be agile, be creative

Recruiters must be both agile and creative. They must recognize that there are more jobs and fewer qualified candidates out there. Many of the talented professionals are not engaging proactively with the job market. So, recruiters must look out for them on social media platforms like LinkedIn. This is a given in today’s world. The other aspect of recruitment that has changed since the pandemic is the way interviewing happens. It happens remotely, which saves time and aids quick decision-making.

Recruiters are necessarily looking to hire people who are skilled and experienced. But such talent is now coming with constantly evolving expectations. Some want to work from home, others want flexible working hours, some others want to study while they work. So, recruiters must craft flexible workplace recruitment strategies to match the demands of the new workforce.

As a specialist staffing firm, Xpheno employs speed and creativity in sourcing potential candidates. The teams execute the processes promptly and on a high scale. The key indicators for good speed are turnaround time and time taken to fill the role. 

Building a robust recruitment strategy

People in recruitment roles must not see themselves as merely delivering headcount targets. They must collaborate with business leaders in the organization and understand business goals. They must then draw up a recruitment plan that looks at optimally onboarding talent to meet these goals. Such talent may be willing to work only part-time, for instance. Or they may demand better wages and perks. So, a recruiter must have both the empowerment and wisdom to recruit talent that fits the organization’s needs and culture.

Be your company’s ambassador

Simply, go beyond being a recruiter. Be a champion, a spokesperson, an ambassador for your company. When you reach out to a potential candidate, sell not only the job profile and the role, but also the organization’s vision and the role the candidate can potentially play in achieving that vision. Some candidates will not immediately be willing to move from their current jobs. So, a recruiter must be continuously in touch with those candidates. This calls for patience. This calls for being a good, reliable, professional ‘friend’ for potential candidates.

Embracing exclusivity for enhanced conversion

While it is important to be flexible, it is equally significant to note that exclusive job opportunities are more appealing to candidates. In fact, non-exclusive jobs often yield lower conversion and onboarding ratios. On the other hand, exclusive engagement models are sought after. By investing in more competent people and fostering deeper relationships, recruiters can achieve a conversion rate that is three times higher. Prioritizing exclusive partnerships with candidates can lead to more successful placements and improved productivity.

Leveraging homogeneity for high-performance

Recruiters will do well to align themselves to specific jobs or roles or functions to enhance productivity. While being all-rounders may seem appealing, sticking to a niche area and avoiding excessive variety can drive high-performance. By becoming subject matter experts in specific fields, recruiters can develop specialized skills, in-depth knowledge, and stronger connections within those domains. This will help them engage more productively with candidates.

Implementing candidate-rotation strategies

This point is counter-intuitive to exclusivity. But considering this aspect of recruitment is important. Particularly because this is the way the business is at this moment. In a market where demand exceeds supply, deploying talent to multiple opportunities rather than following the traditional one-candidate-to-one job model can often yield better results. By strategically exploring multiple openings for a candidate, recruiters increase the likelihood of landing more placements. It is important to recognize that candidates are often engaged in multiple job openings simultaneously, making candidate rotation a sensible and practical approach.

Using cloud-based recruitment resources

Recruitment technology has made the process of recruitment seamless and simple. Recruiters can use a cloud-based platform to collect applications, sort resumes and send personalized emails to potential candidates. Robust application tracking systems help keep candidate profiles up-to-date and relevant.

Empower with data

Recruitment is a strategic initiative. So, empower people leading recruitment with data on how the function has been faring over a period of time. When recruitment data is efficiently mined and analyzed, it leads to reviewing and tweaking processes. This enhances productivity and improves efficiency.

Rely on AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how business is done globally. Tedious recruitment processes that were once prone to human error can now be effortlessly managed with AI. Specifically, it speeds up tracking applications, sorting them and aids sourcing candidates swiftly and seamlessly. Importantly, recruitment bias, which was possible at a human level, is eliminated and all qualified candidates get to be considered.

First time right

A sustainable recruitment practice is to make the right hiring decisions. A poor hiring decision often proves to be costly when a candidate leaves within a short period after joining the organization. When new-joinee turnover is high, the entire organization feels the pain – time is lost in onboarding, more time is lost in rehiring for that role and overall employee morale is affected.

Conclusion

Consider three crucial factors to build and sustain a good recruitment process:

•   Evaluate your current strategy and eliminate all redundancies and sub-processes that are not being effective.
•   Embrace technology to aid your process and make it quicker and smarter.
• ·   Be creative and flexible to onboard good quality talent because, simply, demand is more than supply!