Here at Connexus, we are kicking off 2022 with a new content series. In this series, we will discuss some of the recent trends we’ve noticed and share some of our key learnings that we believe may be beneficial to you.
Why Does Your Recruitment Process Matter?
One of the biggest challenges for companies in 2021 was finding and attracting candidates. Due to the hyper-competitive market, there was a skills shortage, and the power was with candidates to be more selective about what companies they wanted to work for. Candidates had more power in salary negotiations and in deciding working arrangements.
Companies that fought against these trends, struggled to make hires. This was evident recently when we were supporting one of Ireland’s most recognisable brands in their search for a Senior Digital Marketer. The company would only accept candidates who were willing to work on-site 5 days a week. In the end, this dramatically reduced the talent pool for them and the company subsequently failed to make a hire. A lot of companies also began to understand the difficulties in finding strong candidates and we started to see a much stronger emphasis placed on employee retention with many.
Taking these factors into consideration, it has never been more vital to ensure that your organisation has an effective and efficient recruitment process in place.
Is Your Recruitment Process a Positive Reflection of Your Employer Brand?
Your recruitment process and employer brand are of critical importance in an organisations ability to attract and retain talent. We’ve noticed the negative effects of both impact a handful of our clients in recent months. So, what is it that can make a recruitment process ineffective?
1. Time
“Time kills all deals” is as true about recruitment as anything sales-related. If you’re recruitment process is dragging on more than a couple of weeks, candidates will begin to lose interest and will be more likely to pursue other processes that may be moving faster.
You’ve dedicated time and resources to finding, screening and interviewing this candidate and the worst outcome is that it was all for nothing and you miss out on the hire due to procrastination and slow decision making.
If you’re organisation has a process that takes some time, a remedy to this is consistent communication and candidate engagement. Reassure the candidate that the process is underway and they have not been forgotten about between stages. This will increase candidate buy-in and reduce the risk of a potential or subsequent rejected offer/dropout.
2. Task Overkill
We’ve also seen the negative effects of task overkill in recent months. Tasks serve a purpose; they allow a candidate to demonstrate their expertise as well as their unique personality and thought process. However, when a candidate is required to dedicate hours into a task on two, three or even four occasions this creates frustration and can in fact deter a candidate from the process.
Equally, if a candidate has committed 10+ hours of their free time to research and creating presentations only to be rejected at the final stage they will likely not be keen to interview with your organisation again.
In order to maintain momentum in a process and increase candidate engagement, we recommend introducing tasks as part of the second stage of a process. After the candidate has spoken with the Hiring Manager or HR, this will help to put a face and a personality to the business they are applying to, increase buy-in from the get-go and reduce the likelihood of the candidate not progressing or refusing to complete a task.
3. Providing No Feedback
Providing no feedback to candidates following interviews is one sure way to leave a bad impression.
We spoke with a candidate recently about a particular role we were working on and once they knew who the company looking to hire was, they did not want to be put forward. The reason being that they knew someone who interviewed with the same company the year prior and who received no feedback following their interview. This information alone was enough to deter a candidate from applying and illustrates the importance of providing constructive feedback to candidates and at the very least informing them that they will not be progressing.
Similarly, if a candidate receives no feedback for two or three weeks following a first or second-round interview, they may presume that they have been unsuccessful and there is an increased chance that they will either reject an offer, will have lost interest, or will have found a job elsewhere.
The Digital Community
Research has shown that people will on average tell 16 people about a negative experience. Ireland is a small country, and the digital community here is relatively close. If people are sharing negative reviews and experiences about your business, you can be sure that word can travel quite fast.
Finding, attracting and retaining talent has never been more challenging and if you are to be successful you must ensure that your recruitment process is effective and not hindering your efforts and resulting in negative ramifications.
If you’ve any questions about any of the points raised above or would like some advice on how to improve your recruitment process, then get in touch with Graham@Connexusrecruit.com
