In yesterday’s Advisor, we looked at recruiting efficiency can be a great boon. Today we’ll look at efficiency tips across three more aspects of the recruiting process.
Tips to Interview More Effectively
- Be sure you ask the interviewee for specific examples when answering questions—by focusing on giving examples, you’ll be able to hear real-world stories of how this person acted in the past.
- Schedule interviews at off hours to help the interviewee fit it into his or her schedule sooner. This could include evenings and weekends to work around existing work schedules.
- Consider conducting first interviews over the phone or by video call. This is more efficient and saves money, too.
- Ensure your interview process seeks to uncover whether the applicant will be a good fit with the organization’s values and culture. Many job skills can be trained if the applicant doesn’t have them, but that ever-elusive “fit” is tougher to come by and nearly impossible to force.
- If appropriate, consider using assessment tools to further narrow down the applicant pool. For example, some employers utilize personality tests or more direct skills-based tests to ensure the applicants can perform at the minimum required level.
Tips to Follow Up More Promptly
- Consider adding chatbots and FAQ pages to your careers section of the website to handle all of the most basic questions applicants normally ask.
- Have a robust careers page to minimize how much time applicants must spend getting answers to basic questions. (This also minimizes how much time they will need to spend trying to get answers from you.)
- Have a hiring process in place (including a timeline), and try to stick to it to minimize the time both you and the applicants need to spend just trying to see the status.
- Consider adding automated responses to those individuals who are not advancing in the process (this keeps applicants informed without taking more of your time).
Tips to Make General Process Improvements
- Consider utilizing an applicant tracking system (ATS) or other software to ensure your process is efficient and well-documented. You’ll waste less time backtracking to remember the status for a given applicant.
- Ensure everyone involved in the hiring process is trained well. Everyone should understand all laws related to hiring (nondiscrimination in particular) so that you’re not wasting time cleaning up any “messes” that could have been avoided.