A great article came out from The Boston Consulting Group recently. The takeaway of the article pointed to recruiting as being the most important HR function to an organization’s bottom line. While many, especially in the HR field, won’t find this Earth shattering news, it did get me thinking…
Why aren’t companies, especially smaller organizations, investing more in their recruitment process?
Hiring is the one of the most important functions for new organizations, yet I still see smaller companies devote very little time and resources to their recruitment function. Newly formed firms really need to make recruitment a pillar to building an effective company. There are very few things that have as much potential to affect the immediate fortunes (or misfortunes) of a new company as adding new talent into that organization, so hiring the right people is critical.
So what can startups and smaller companies do to improve their recruiting function? Here are a few ideas to help improve the process:
Broadcast your Company Culture
Set a plan for creating a company culture you wish to cultivate, and encourage that culture through your internal and external communications. When recruiting, focus more on the people whose personality fit the company mindset more than looking at particular skills and qualifications.
Advertise the company brand. When sending out job postings and other external communications, make sure those communications have a uniform message. Include your company logo, have a brief company introduction and summary, include taglines if you have them. In this day and age, presentation like this goes a long way to attracting quality talent. If you don’t devote time and effort on promoting your company, then you are going to attract people that care little about it as well.
Inject Employer Personality
Whether you have a ‘quirky’ office, an office that works and plays together, or is deadly serious, you will want to convey that aura in your communications and job descriptions to applicants. This not only helps to enforce your company vision, it also attracts jobseekers that fit the character of your organization.
Include a Careers Section on Your Website
Devote a section of your website to Career Opportunities. This is yet another place to incorporate and define the company culture. Talk about the benefits of working there, include employee testimonials, promote special events or parts of your company that your employees. Even if you don’t have current openings, include a place for potential applicants to submit a resume for future consideration. Creating a candidate pool can help prepare you when those openings do occur.
Target Your Job Openings
Have a number of internal and external sources to advertise your positions to. Your advertising strategy should vary depending on the type of position you are hiring for. One job board might work great for one type of position, but be ineffective for a different job type. Have a way to track where your quality applicants are coming from, and tweak your overall advertising strategy based on those results.
Have an Effective Recruitment Management System
Are you using email, spreadsheets, and printed resumes with notes all over them to manage your applicants? If so, you are making the recruitment process harder than it needs to be. There are effective, affordable software management options to sort, track, report and store your incoming applicants, making it easier to select the right candidates. Of course, we know a great option.
Incorporating these ideas can go a long way towards improving your recruitment, and ultimately the success of your organization. So don’t wait, the time to start improving your recruiting is now!
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