As with most things in life, when it comes to an organisation recruiting, there are instances where it has been done great and others not so. Therefore, we have come up with our top 5 tips on how you can ensure your recruitment processes are working in your favour to maximise your chances of securing that next talented individual for your business.

Promote more than just the job function
We live in the age of information coupled with low levels of unemployment. Therefore, you need to stand out from the crowd to attract talent to your business. Candidates are interested in more than just the details of the role, they want to know the full benefits package, the culture, the story of the company and why they should be interested in joining your team. Think about it like looking for a holiday. You wouldn’t just see an advert Jamaica, 14 nights, half-board, £700’ and buy it. You’d want to know flight times, transfers, the location, and details of the hotel. Then you’d probably read reviews and compare it to other deals available. Think of your vacancy in a similar way and you’ll soon realise that the more you can do to promote your company and the role then the more likely you’ll attract the very best talent.

Confirm the process before you begin
The very best organisations put a recruitment plan in place prior to embarking upon the project of filling a vacancy.

Budget and formal sign-off for the role has been authorised, they know which stakeholders will be involved in reviewing CV’s and attending interviews, and time secured in those people’s diaries i.e., times and dates are booked in for interviewing and decision making. They plan the structure of the interview, if there will be tests, and what questions they want to ask.

Essentially, they have a clear schedule in place with all individuals committed to it. Do this and get your ducks in a row before you begin, and you will have a far more efficient and organised process that will ensure you have that key role filled much quicker.

As the old adage goes, fail to plan then plan to fail!

Don’t drag out the interview process
Think about it, how frustrated have you been if you’ve ever been to a restaurant, and they took ages to take your order and then the food took even longer to arrive. With each passing minute your impression of that establishment diminishes. You may even catch a waiter/waitress and they promise you won’t have

to wait much longer…. but you do.

Well, that same principle and emotions can be applied through an interview process. If a Candidate is left waiting too long, at any stage of the process, bit it from submission of application, to arranging of interview, to waiting for feedback, then the longer the wait then the worse their impression becomes and the likelihood their interest in the role also decreases.

They may contact you for an update and, like the waiter/waitress, if you merely appease them with a response of ‘we’ll be back in touch very soon’ but then aren’t you risk losing that Candidate from your shortlist altogether.

We’ve seen it multiple times where a company have been really keen on an individual but due to internal delays, they haven’t been able to arrange the next stage interview swiftly after the first and have lost that Candidate to another organisation who have been quicker with their process.

Equally don’t have more than three stages to your interviews. It isn’t uncommon for a Candidates to withdraw their interest if they have been subjected to more than two or three interviews as the impression is that the business don’t seem organised and are too bureaucratic in their decision making.

Be honest & transparent about the salary & package
There is a tendency by many organisations to not advertise the salary and/or other benefits when recruiting. This is understandable if it creates internal issues in salary disparity but something that you need to navigate to ensure you are attracting the best talent.

This is confirmed when 62% of employees and job seekers cite salary transparency as the most important factor, they look for in job adverts (Glassdoor 2018). Not only does it help attract talent, but it also ensures.

you are pitching the role to the right audience by avoiding applications from Candidates who are too junior or senior. Put it another way, would you take time out of your day to view a new house or test drive a car only to find out afterwards that it was out of your price range? Of course not, and that’s why jobseekers want to know salary details – to ensure it meets with their expectations.

Keep questions relevant
There’s nothing worse than receiving feedback from a Candidate post-interview to discover they were asked, “If you were a fruit, which fruit would you be and why?”. If a company includes these questions in their interviews, with the purpose of providing them some unique insight about that Candidate, then unfortunately we’re here to advise that it mostly just back-fires. All questions like this do is leave the Candidate feeling bewildered and confused about the experience.

Most interviewees don’t prepare for left-field questions like this, so they are caught off-guard and therefore the answer is usually the first thing that springs to mind and not insightful at all. From the interviewees perspective the reasoning for the question is perplexing and adds no value. Our advice is that it’s better to stick to questions about experience, technical capability, and cultural fit.