The 7 Best Practices Driving Your Recruitment Success In 2018
In over a decade of recruiting experience, the most dramatic changes I’ve witnessed have taken place in the past two years. Technology has disrupted and redefined talent management strategies, forcing employers to respond and adapt. As the war for talent intensifies, forward thinking organisations are embracing a digital HR transformation which delivers measurable results and enables them to compete in a candidate driven market.
Moving into 2018, these trends and best practices will determine your ability to attract, engage, hire and retain the talent vital to your business.
1: The continuing rise of mobile job search
90% of job searches are integrated on a mobile device, yet only one in four organisations utilise mobile technology in their hiring processes1. Mobile optimised recruitment processes enable HR to capture and utilise available data on prospective hires. These insights inform and improve hiring decisions and ensure HR is actively involved in the talent acquisition process due to easy to use functionalities.
HR cloud solutions offer hiring managers access to live candidate data on any mobile device, as well as the facility to approve vacancy requisitions, provide Interview feedback and approve job offers. Today’s talent is only on the market for 10 days, but the average hiring process takes four weeks from raising a requisition to making a job offer. As recruitment becomes more time critical, rapid collaboration through an ‘access anywhere, anytime’ system keeps your hiring process fluid and responsive. An integrated cloud system ensures that Information used within the recruitment process is both consistent and aligned with all other HR processes and data.
2: Transforming the candidate experience
The war for talent is often won or lost in the battleground of the candidate experience. Over three quarters of candidates believe your hiring process is also indicative of your employee experience2.
That process begins not only with the job application but also with the creation of a positive digital employer brand. Innovative organisations are driving down application times to under two minutes in some cases. Trending HR cloud solutions allow talent on the move to apply using their LinkedIn profile or CV. Delays in hiring are also minimised thanks to the continuous development of integration between cloud solutions and a company’s Outlook or Calendars. An interview schedule feature integrated with Outlook also allows candidates the convenience of self-scheduled interviews. The organiser can also access their availability instantly through Outlook Calendar when scheduling the interview. Automated acknowledgements and updates throughout the recruitment cycle also address the number one pain point for talent, namely the ‘black hole’ of the job search.
3: Reducing unconscious hiring bias
Diversity in hiring boosts employee engagement and productivity but almost one in three hiring managers admit to bias in candidate selection. The Aberdeen Group notes that ‘best in class’ organisations use pre-hire assessments extensively to tackle this issue. Current cloud solutions follow recruitment trends and best practices and provide the option to eliminate or hide applicant details for more objective candidate screening. HR cloud solutions are also adaptable to meet both company and job specific criteria to ensure the right candidates are selected for the right job at the right time using automated pre-screening of applications with disqualifying questions. The system can also be integrated with third parties for assessments, including SHL and People Answers.
4: Successful onboarding begins with the job offer
Onboarding – or the process of employee orientation – is the often-overlooked final stage of the candidate experience. 2017 saw the emergence of ‘job hoarding’ by sought after talent and an increase in candidates reneging on job offers.
The period between job offer acceptance and employee start date is critical to successful onboarding. Cloud HR solutions evolved to offer companies the possibility of launching reference and background checks immediately after a job offer is accepted. This process allows HR to engage directly with their new hire and ensure a seamless integration into their new surroundings from day one. HR can also simplify the onboarding experience for new hires and improve time-to-productivity. Hiring managers are also the drivers of the entire onboarding process and more actively involved through a streamlined, step-by-step experience.
5: Compliance with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
European businesses have until 25th May 2018 to comply with the requirements of the GDPR. Global research consultancy Forrester predicts that 80% of businesses will fail to meet this deadline. Of more concern is the suggestion that 50% will deliberately fail to comply due to cost. Cloud solutions have continuous updates which can ensure compliance, with the flexibility for businesses to implement updates at their convenience.
6: Delivering a better quality hire
Companies that choose HR cloud solutions for their recruiting process will be offered an integrated cloud solution, eliminating the need to maintain multiple candidate sources across job boards. Some key features that current solutions offer are:-
- A single, searchable database provides a faster and more effective recruitment process.
- Instant visibility facilitates easy tracking and monitoring of the talent in your pipeline.
- A dedicated agency portal enables tracking of agency sourced candidates and identifies those already in your database.
- Differentiating between your most successful candidate sources informs future recruitment campaigns.
The most mature talent acquisition functions also prioritise employee referred candidates who offer a consistent source of quality hires.
7: Creating a culture of data driven recruitment
Today’s high performance organisations operate within a data driven culture, aligning talent management strategies with business objectives, supported by powerful reporting and analytics. The most successful integrate employee data and feedback tools within their HR processes. HR cloud solutions continually adapt to evolving recruitment trends to facilitate these processes, enabling your business to respond and drive success in 2018.
Barbara is an experienced HR consultant with over 10 years of experience in the field of SAP/SuccessFactors. She has specialised in HR from an internal organisational perspective and by providing guidance and advice to clients who choose to implement SAP SuccessFactors. She has worked on multiple SAP SuccessFactors projects and is a certified expert in Recruitment Management. Barbara is a senior consultant and a recruitment subject matter expert at Gavdi UK.
2 CareerBuilder, The 2017 Candidate Experience Survey
