What Is Recruitment?

What is recruitment?

Recruitment is the process of attracting, screening, interviewing and selecting candidates for an open role in an organization. It can also include hiring and onboarding the chosen candidates. 

Businesses recruit new employees either to fill a newly established role or to refill a position when an employee leaves the company or takes on a new role. Companies can use recruitment software to find qualified new employees or to seek assistance from external agencies. [Read related article: How to Create a Hiring Timeline]

What are the different types of recruitment?

There are two types of recruitment: internal and external.

• Internal recruitment involves looking to your company’s internal network as a source of potential candidates. You can ask current employees for professional referrals or promote an internal employee. If you have more than one business location, consider transferring an employee from one location to another.
• External recruitment can involve various strategies, such as advertising on job boards, posting the open position on your company website and social media accounts, and connecting with educational institutions. Most employers find it beneficial to perform a combination of these recruitment strategies.

What does recruitment involve?

The recruitment process for your company may vary based on the role. However, the complete recruitment cycle generally includes six steps: defining the open position, sourcing job applicants, screening potential candidates, interviewing qualified candidates, selecting a candidate and extending an offer, and onboarding new hires. 

1. Define the open position.

Identify the key needs the position will fulfill, outline the job specifics (e.g., qualification requirements, anticipated start date, pay range, reporting structure), write a clear job description, and create a standard set of interview questions. Having this information defined ahead of time streamlines the hiring process.

2. Source job applicants.

You can have a recruiter or recruitment agency handle sourcing; ask employees or trusted colleagues for referrals; or source candidates through various other means, like posting the open position on your company website, job boards and social media accounts.

There are two types of applicants: active candidates (those who apply to the job directly) and passive candidates (those who are qualified but haven’t expressed direct interest). If you are reaching out to a passive candidate, you will need to tailor your recruiting strategy based on their current level of engagement with your brand.

According to Joe Mullings, founder, chairman and CEO of The Mullings Group, candidates fall into one of these three engagement categories:

• The individual knows you, will take your call and will engage with you because of an existing relationship in the marketplace.
• The candidate may not know you or your company, but they have been referred to you by someone else or may be familiar with your company and/or hiring brand.
• The individual is not familiar with your company and will require further education about your company and its brand.

3. Screen potential candidates.

Once applications start rolling in, you must filter them to find qualified applicants. Evaluate resumes and cover letters, and then conduct phone screenings with candidates who appear to be good matches. This screening should be brief. Ask each candidate the same set of screening questions to determine if they are qualified for the role. Choose the most qualified candidates to advance to the interview process.

For applicants who did not meet your expectations, thank them for their time and inform them that you are not continuing the recruitment process with them. Job applicants would rather hear a “no” than radio silence.

“Be responsive, and don’t burn bridges,” said Sarah Dewey, owner of Cake For Thought Bakery and a former talent sourcer at Meta. “If you have candidates that aren’t a fit for anything you’re currently hiring for, it does not mean you should ignore them. They may be a perfect fit for something down the road.”

4. Interview qualified candidates.

The next phase of the recruitment process involves the hiring manager interviewing prospective candidates. They should ask competency-based interview questions and evaluate whether the candidate would be a good fit for the team and company culture. This stage may consist of one or more rounds of interviews. During this phase, you will want to contact the candidate’s references.

5. Select a candidate, and extend an offer.

After you interview and evaluate each candidate, select the one you think would be the best fit. Draft an offer letter, and extend it to the potential employee.

During this time, you may want to conduct a criminal background check. In your offer letter, state that the job offer is contingent on the background-check results. Be sure to comply with federal and state laws as you conduct the background check.

Inform the unselected applicants that you have chosen another candidate, and thank them for their time. End on a high note; you never know if you’ll want to reconsider hiring this candidate if your primary candidate doesn’t accept your offer or at any point in the future.

6. Onboard new hires.

When the candidate accepts your job offer, the final step is the hiring and onboarding process. This step is usually handled by your company’s human resources professionals to ensure the new employee signs all of the necessary employment paperwork and is integrated into your business in accordance with labor and employment laws.

Who handles recruitment?

As with any other important business function, recruitment should be treated seriously, with experienced professionals taking the reins. The people in charge of recruiting for your organization will vary depending on factors such as your company’s size and available resources.

For example, a small business might delegate recruitment and hiring to the employee who will manage the new hire, known as the hiring manager. If a company has an in-house human resources department or HR manager, these professionals will screen the candidates and consult with the hiring manager before making any final selections.

If you don’t have anyone within the organization to lead your recruitment strategy, you can seek help externally.

“If your company doesn’t have the bandwidth to support all of their open recommendations, a recruitment technique they can adopt is to work with an agency to fill roles more efficiently,” Dewey said.

Companies that have partnerships with recruitment agencies (or internal recruiters) are in the best position, as they can entrust recruiting responsibilities to these experts. A recruiter may consult with an HR manager or hiring manager during the recruitment process, but they do the bulk of the work, such as posting the job, sourcing and screening candidates, negotiating salaries and placing employees.

What are some recruitment best practices?

A bad hire can cost your business up to 30 percent of its first-year earnings, so it is important to choose employees wisely. However, recruitment is often where employers misstep.

“Your employees are the difference between success and failure, yet the [recruitment] process that is used is generally ad hoc, rushed, and has little strategy beyond a post-and-pray approach,” Mullings said.

To build a successful recruitment process, you must be strategic. The experts we spoke with identified some best practices to help your business recruit top talent.

Ensure clear communication.

It is important to foster clear communication among recruiters, HR professionals, hiring managers and job applicants throughout the entire recruitment process. Good communication entails posting accurate job descriptions, quickly responding to job applicants (whether it is a yes, a no, or a simple update) and informing all hiring parties about the status of each candidate.

Use social media to your advantage.

Social media is a valuable marketing tool, and it can do more than just attract customers; it can also attract candidates. Choose a few social media platforms that suit your brand, and maintain an active presence on them. Posting content that reflects your company culture and values can draw in consumers and potential employees alike. When you are ready to hire for an open position, you can post the job opening on your social platforms and reach an already-engaged audience.

Reach out to passive candidates.

If you only target prospects who actively apply to your open roles, you may miss a lot of potential candidates. According to a Workable study, roughly 70 percent of people are either actively (33.4 percent) or passively (37.3 percent) looking for work. Do some research to identify potential candidates for the role. Platforms like LinkedIn and online jobs boards make it very easy to find top-tier passive candidates. 

Once you’ve identified a possible candidate, reach out to them with a clear and concise proposition on what the position is and why they may be a great fit. Providing them with clear details about the next steps in your recruitment process will make it easy to get them in your recruitment funnel (if they are interested).

Use the “Hum, Sing, Shout” method.

Employee recruitment is a continuous process, so employers should brand their hiring process to attract and hire top talent when needed.

Mullings suggested that companies use the Hum, Sing, Shout method to stand out from other companies that are recruiting and to attract the type of candidates they have in mind. Here’s what it entails:

• Hum: Your hiring brand should have a low “hum” in the marketplace, meaning your company is “always on.” That is, you are advertising, networking and using appropriate branding strategies for your company on the social media platforms that are best suited for your company and industry.
• Sing: During this stage, your company and your efforts to find qualified talent are visible to job seekers. You’re not looking to fill the position immediately; rather, you’re perusing a broader and deeper volume of candidates.
• Shout: You are ready to hire. You are leveraging social media, job boards and your network to quickly fill the open position. Ensure that you are explaining why someone would want to join your team and how they would benefit from working with your organization.

Diligently track candidates through the recruitment process.

It is important to track candidates during the entire talent acquisition process. Whether you’re using HR software, an applicant tracking system or other means, it is important to have a standardized approach so that no candidates or details are overlooked.

Here’s a list of our top choices for HR software platforms that include recruiting and onboarding capabilities:

• Paychex Flex: With Paychex Flex, you can publish all of your job openings to top career sites and social media platforms simply through the dashboard. Paychex can even connect you with background check services to screen your applicants before you hire them. Learn more in our full review of Paychex Flex.
• BambooHR: From recruitment to offboarding, BambooHR helps you manage all stages of the employee life cycle. You can post and track job openings and distribute them via social media. The software also allows you to review and rate candidates and send offer letters and new-hire documents with electronic signature capabilities. Learn more in our full review of BambooHR.
• Rippling: Rippling is our choice for the easiest HR software to implement. According to the company, users can onboard new hires within 90 seconds. With this solution, you can completely customize and automate the onboarding process. It can also run candidates through background checks and e-verification. Learn more in our full review of Rippling.

“Do your due diligence, and make sure you’re keeping track of what’s going on in your pipeline,” Dewey said. “This helps being able to see your own progress and areas of opportunities. Keeping track of all your candidates and the stages they’re in (along with your data) will save a lot of sanity when hiring managers ask for reports.”

Connect with former job applicants. 

One strategy that many successful recruiters utilize is to maintain an ongoing talent pipeline, which you can do via an applicant tracking system or HR software. When you hire for a role, hold on to the information for all of the prospective candidates who might be a good fit for your company. That way, when you are ready to hire again, you can simply go back to your list and see if any of those candidates are good matches for the new role. Reach out to qualified candidates, and encourage them to apply again if they are interested. 

Target boomerang employees.

New candidates aren’t the only possibility for hiring workers. Although the thought of hiring a former employee might sound odd, it’s more common than you might think. Harvard Business Review reported that 28 percent of “new hires” were actually “boomerang” employees who had resigned within the previous 36 months. 

Many of these boomerang employees may have been workers who mistakenly thought “the grass was greener” during the Great Resignation. But if they left on good terms, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t consider these former employees. You’ll likely save time with the recruitment and onboarding process, and they may have even picked up some new skills or industry knowledge while they were away.

When you’re hiring boomerang employees, be sure to consider why they initially left and what has changed since then. You want to make sure they will be satisfied with their new role and not resign again as soon as they find something better.

Reduce your recruitment timeline.

If you’ve tried all of the above strategies and you are still experiencing difficulties getting candidates through your recruitment process, it may be due to your timeline. How long does your recruitment process take? The average recruitment process takes between three and six weeks, although it can vary based on the job level, industry, number of applicants, time of year and other economic conditions. However, the best candidates don’t stay on the job market long.

Take a look at each step in your process, and identify where inefficiencies can be resolved. For example, you might need to cut out redundant steps, streamline communications through automation, or even take advantage of artificial intelligence. Regardless of how you choose to speed up the process, ensure that you don’t sacrifice quality, or you’ll be back where you started.

Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.