Why Companies Should Value Their Recruitment Processes

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Recruiting (hiring) professionals is part of any company’s growth. New positions are created to solve new problems, new teams and departments are created, and turnover is a reality for every organization.

Recruitment is much more than just making sure a person checks all the boxes on a list of requirements. Recruitment, in its essence, is:

• Making sure the person has a great potential of adapting to their role and the company’s culture, and
• Assess if the company will be the right place for that person to grow and thrive.

Contrary to public opinion, recruiting teams are not only looking forward to “fill a role” or “crunch hiring numbers”. The image of a recruiter eating popcorn while disregarding CV’s without even looking is a myth.

A good recruitment team will not only have their own goals and the company’s needs in mind, but will also:

• Value candidate experience (providing feedback to all candidates, and making sure they follow a consistent hiring process);
• Fight for their candidates (if they feel their candidates have potential, they will be assertive of this when speaking to hiring managers);
• Explore the candidate’s motivations, to make sure the company can provide them what they need.

You can think about a recruitment team as the bridge linking the organization to a group of professionals on the market, who are potentially willing to join that organization.

But why is this approach essential to an organization?

There a few reasons why. Let’s overview them:

1. A recruiter is the first person most candidates meet. If it was your company, wouldn’t you want that first person to make an excellent impression on anyone?
2. A good recruiter will make sure a clear hiring process is being followed. This will save time to any other teams involved, and also make sure any technical skill is assessed properly.
3. Focusing on the candidate’s motivation can sound too much like “roses and flowers” if you’re on the company’s perspetive. However, this is actually one of the most important assessments a recruiter makes. A candidate joining the company with misaligned expectations is very likely to quit after the first three months. And we all know a high turnover rate will mean higher costs for the company. You’ll need someone that recognizes the importance of expectations to explore this with all candidates. It’s not a hard science, but it definitely works most of the time!
4. Candidate experience is a pillar of employer branding. To say it plainly: how you treat candidates not only says a lot about your company, but it also builds an image of your organization out there. Empathic recruiters who are active listeners, who convey a clear message, and that provide feedback every step of the way will guarantee that the candidate has a pleasant experience — even if they end up not getting hired.

To all organizations out there:

• Value your recruitment team. Listen to their ideas and suggestions, and make sure al the teams can cooperate with them when it comes to new hiring processes.
• Put an emphasis in quality over quantity. In a lot of consultancy companies, the focus in on the number of interviews conducted, and let me tell you: it does nothing to ensure the quality of candidates you’ll hire!