In this excerpt from our comprehensive guide, “Actionable Hiring: Quick Wins for High-Volume Recruitment,” we’ll dive into strategies obtained from our experiences working with talent acquisition teams and leaders across diverse industries. We’ve encountered numerous ways to optimize the recruitment funnel, and we’re here to simplify them for you.
Whether you need 10, 50, or 1000 hires, these strategies work for any employer in high-volume or skilled recruitment.
Let’s get started.
Audit Your Current Recruitment Process
The recruitment funnel is a critical aspect of any hiring strategy. However, many organizations struggle to optimize it effectively. According to HRD, 3 out of 4 organizations are facing challenges in finding skilled talent, indicating a widespread need for improvement in recruitment processes. Some of the industries struggling to find skilled talent include:
- Healthcare & Sciences
- Consumer Goods & Services
- Information Technology
- Transport, Logistics, and Automative
Some of the sectors having trouble finding employees include:
- IT & Data
- Engineering
- Operations and Logistics
- Manufacturing and Production
The first step to begin unlocking recruitment gaps is auditing your current recruitment process. By identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies, you can streamline your workflow and improve candidate experience. For instance, we found that optimizing candidate email communication resulted in a 50% to 100% increase in responses compared to email. Here are some questions to ask in your audit:
- Which part of the recruitment process needs improvement? Which one is higher priority? (sourcing, screening, interviewing, or accepting candidates?)
- Are your job descriptions clear and compelling? Or are they unclear?
- Is your application process straight forward?
Quick Fixes to Job Descriptions
Quick improvement tip: ask every candidate in the next interviews how they found the job description and application process. Get a small sample size and implement the easy things first. If you identify bottlenecks, add it to your long-term project list.
Small changes can often yield significant results. By simplifying application forms and clarifying job descriptions, you can attract more suitable candidates and improve your overall recruitment process. Our data shows that organizations that optimized their job descriptions experienced an increase in conversions in the application process by 25%.
Adopt and/or Combine Screening Tools with an Instantaneous Human Assessment
Incorporating technology into your screening process can help save time and resources while ensuring you identify the best candidates for the job. According to industry reports, organizations that implemented AI-powered resume scanners experienced a reduction in time spent reviewing applications by up to 50%.
If you already have screening tools, now is the time to spend less than an hour with your team to assess areas to improve or optimize. Perhaps, you’ve had these tools for many years and haven’t gone through a tech clean-up. Are your recruiters using the tool?
Quick improvement tip: Reach out to your customer success manager and ask if they have any new learnings from their clients that they can share.
Some tips to consider include:
- Are your recruiters assessing candidates in the same manner?
- How is the quality of candidates from the screening tool? Is it accurate to the criteria you provided to the tool?
- Is there wastage anywhere?
- How much time do your recruiters spend assessing screened candidates?
- How do results vary by role?
How quickly are you responding to candidates?
We’ve learned that pure automation isn’t sufficient when it doesn’t come with a succinct human process. Our hiring managers use an automated SMS-based screening process to efficiently prescreen a high volume of candidates. Those that quality will be shortlisted for a screening interview. Our candidate response rate is almost immediate.
Quick improvement tip: improve candidate response times post-application.
Next Steps
Remember that continued optimization is key to any recruitment success. By taking a close look at your current recruitment process, making some quick fixes to job descriptions, and adopting screening tools alongside human assessment, you can streamline your workflow and attract top talent more effectively.
Want a deeper dive into mastering the recruitment funnel?
Download the full “Actionable Hiring: Quick Wins for High-Volume Recruitment” guide today.
About Cameron Laker and Mindfield:
We offer streamlined and effective recruiting solutions that alleviate the recruitment burden from hiring managers, leading to consistent, high-quality hires and allowing managers to focus on their primary business operations.
Connect with Co-Founder Cameron Laker on Linkedin for quick tips and how-to’s or sign up to The Hourly Minute for more in-depth discussion.
