Join JD Conway from BambooHR as he shows you four different hiring processes that your talent acquisition team can deploy in order to maximize your pipeline for long-term ROI. Learn how to decrease your future time to hire and build long-term demand by leveraging your brand, and join JD as he talks about building new quality processes for excellent future talent pools.
In this webinar you will learn how to:
- Maximize your talent pools
- Decrease your time to hire
- Build long-term demand for your brand
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4 Strategic Hiring Processes at Play
1-866-387-9595
Advantages
• Applicants come to you
• Front-loaded work
• Short time-to-hire
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4 Strategic Hiring Processes at Play
1-866-387-9595
Considerations
• Potential for unqualified applicants
• Lots of screening time
• High time investment from several
parties (although temporary)
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4 Strategic Hiring Processes at Play
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called lengthy applications
the most frustrating part of
the application process
42%
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4 Strategic Hiring Processes at Play
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64%Candidates who plan to
increase their relationship
with hiring organization
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4 Strategic Hiring Processes at Play
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Advantages
• Fewer applications to screen
• Time to be selective
• Proactive searching
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4 Strategic Hiring Processes at Play
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Considerations
• Active, time-consuming
effort for recruiters
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4 Strategic Hiring Processes at Play
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Technique
51%employees actively looking
or passively watching for
new opportunities
It’s no secret that the job market is becoming more and more of an employee’s market. More positions are opening than hires being made. Stellar candidates with a solid resume and sharp skills often have multiple offers to consider. If you drag your feet during the hiring process, your organization will lose out on the best and brightest candidates because the swift and agile competition will have already scooped them up. And the longer a job goes unfilled, the more time, money, and effort that empty position costs your organization.
On the other hand, you can’t focus solely on speed during the hiring process. If you’re more concerned with getting a body in the door than you are with the quality of a candidate, you risk making a bad hire. Which is a costly mistake. According to a CareerBuilder survey in 2016, the average cost of a bad hire can be as much as $11,000 in small businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and up to $24,000 in large businesses with more than 1000 employees.
It’s clear you need to be very mindful with your hiring process to find the best employees. So today we’ll be talking about the four different hiring processes that you might use when filling almost any position at your organization. For our anglers in the audience, you can think of these as four different types of fishing. Each type of fishing, from trophy fishing to ice fishing, has gear that is uniquely suited for its job. Ice fishing rods are short and flexible to fit a confined hole in the ice; fly fishing line is heavier for casting a lightweight fly. Experienced anglers don’t grab just any old rod and reel and hope to catch fish. They match their gear to the demands of the fishing trip.
Likewise, these four methods are most effective when used for the right hiring situations. What might work like a charm for bringing in new customer support specialists probably won’t work as well for finding a sales team manager. But don’t worry—we’re also going to help you figure out when to employ each one for maximum efficiency. Let’s get started.
The first process we’re reviewing today is high volume. This is when you receive a large number of applications, but you also need a large number of hires. You might use this process when hiring for retail, hospitality, customer service, or seasonal positions. For example, customer support positions usually fall into this category. These may also be naturally high turnover jobs, which is why you need to consistently hire so many people.
This process is similar to fishing with a cast net. You toss out a large net to catch several or even dozens of fish at once. The placement of the net doesn’t have to be very precise because of its large radius, and the technique is fairly straightforward. High volume hiring requires a wide, robust funnel for candidates so that you can fill the large number of positions available. It’s less about precision and more about efficiency.
One of the advantages of using a high volume hiring process is that, most often, applicants are coming to you. According to Jobvite, the average high volume hiring process attracts more than 250 applicants. To put that into perspective, the average job posting in general attracts less than 50 applicants.
Your recruiting efforts can be front-loaded by perfecting your funnel, so as candidates enter the funnel, there’s very little you have to do aside from selecting. The process is also rapid. Your organization benefits from a short time-to-hire, and open positions don’t stay vacant for long.
However, this style isn't’ without its imperfections. Because you’re receiving such a large number of resumes and applications, you’ll spend most of your time screening piles of resumes rather than interacting with potential hires. And it’s not just HR’s time or recruiter time that is required. Such a high volume of new hires will also demand the time of hiring managers, coworkers, training managers, and others. So while the process itself has a short time-to-hire, the temporary demand on everyone’s time for screening and hiring so many people is considerable.
To build an efficient, effective high volume hiring process, you need to start with an excellent job description and job ad. I want to remind you that these things are separate, even though people often use them interchangeably. A job description is what you create with the hiring manager or managers to help decide what kind of candidate you’re seeking. A job ad pertains to the placement and style of the actual job posting.
The reason the job description and job ad are so important to a high volume hiring process is because they can take care of a lot of the screening for you. When you build a job description that includes the most important qualities and experience a candidate should have, and then create a job ad that will be accessible and appealing to the candidates you want to attract, then you can cut out a huge chunk of 100% unqualified applicants. Instead, potential candidates will do some self-screening. They’ll ask themselves if they can do this job and then if they want to do this job—but they can only do so when they have the right information.
Beyond the job ad, you need a streamlined pipeline that can handle that volume of applications (and rapidly). You don’t want any unnecessary hoops that candidates have to jump through or you’re going to lose them along the way. According to Indeed, 42% of job seekers found lengthy applications the most frustrating part of the application process.
This is probably why McDonald’s has adopted “Snaplications” for this summer. With a ten-second video via Snapchat, users can apply for a job. McDonald’s plans to hire 250,000 employees this summer using this strategy. Talk about a swift pipeline! We aren’t suggesting that everyone take to Snapchat to hire their next batch of employees, but there’s a valuable example there: If the process takes too long or some of the steps aren’t user-friendly, it’s as if you have holes in your net. You may have cast it in the perfect spot, but the fish slip out left and right.
If you’re doing the first two things well, then the last element, creating a positive candidate, should be simple. In 2016 the Talent Board report found that 64% of candidates who report a great hiring process say that they planned to increase their relationship with that organization. And we aren’t just talking about the people who were hired. Most of those candidates weren’t even hired at the organizations they’re talking about. If you can maintain a positive relationship with almost two thirds of all your candidates, including those you don’t hire, do you know what that gives you? One heck of a talent pool full of candidates who are already screened, qualified, and interested. That means you could potentially cut your time-to-hire way down for future jobs.
If high volume hiring is casting a net, then source-heavy hiring is like fly fishing. It involves a much lower volume of applications and open positions, and it usually requires a more active recruiting process. In fly fishing, you don’t set your pole up by a river and leave it, hoping to make a catch. It’s much more active than that. You’re constantly casting and reeling, trying to land the right fish. You also tend to choose very specific flies for the fish you’re trying to attract; because of this, you probably won’t catch as many as you would with a large cast net. This hiring process works best for positions where there is more demand than supply, such as roles in technology.
The main advantage of source-heavy hiring is the power you or your recruiters have over exactly which candidates enter the pipeline. Since you aren’t being flooded with an enormous number of applications, you have more time to screen carefully and handpick the best candidates. Not only that, but recruiters can actively pursue people who may not have even applied. They can be proactive in finding a perfect fit for the job instead of waiting for the candidates to come to them.
The flipside of an active recruiting effort is a greater time investment for your recruiters. Instead of passively allowing applications to come into the pipeline (or waiting for the fish to bite), your organization must make a focused effort to find candidates. In fly fishing, you are constantly casting and re-casting, changing flies, finding a new spot to cast from, etc. in order to attract and land the right fish. Your recruiters will need to make a similar effort, and for an unspecified amount of time. Sometimes you will land the perfect hire in a matter of weeks, but more often it can take months. It’s difficult to plan around an unknown timeline.
Experienced anglers know not to yank on the line as soon as they feel a nibble. Sometimes the fish will nibble a few times before either swimming away or striking, and a smart fisher won’t start reeling in until the fish bites. In recruiting terms, this means you often need multiple touch points with potential candidates before they become interested enough to apply. Many of the professionals a recruiter will contact may already have jobs. Gallup found in their 2017 State of the American Workplace report that 51 percent of employees are either actively looking for a new job or watching for openings. That’s a huge pool of potential candidates—but they might require some warming up to the idea of your organization. To recruit passive candidates like this, recruiters must build a personal relationship with them before “making the catch.”
Creating these touch points and building interest usually takes time. And that’s exactly what you need to offer to potential candidates—time to opt in or out of the process. Like I said before, some fish will nibble once then move along. Many candidates will do this too, so you need to provide chances for self-selection, meaning chances for them to decide if they can and want to do this job. This comes back to the job description and job ad that I talked so much about in the high volume section. The difference is that the self-screening might not happen all at the beginning of the process. As candidates learn more about the position and your organization, they might decide it’s not for them. And that’s good! You don’t want to spend more time than you have to on applicants who aren’t going to work out.
Finally, to execute source-heavy hiring well, you need to plan your timeline accordingly. Like I already mentioned, it could take weeks or months to get someone in the door. Workable reported in 2016 that the benchmark time to fill for various positions was between 30 and 50 days. Teams should have a plan for both the short-term and long-term, so they can be prepared no matter how long the process takes.
If high volume and source-heavy hiring are at two different ends of the spectrum, then mixed is right in the middle. As the name implies, it is a mix of a high volume of applications and an active recruiting effort to find the right hire. I like to compare this to ocean fishing. Many anglers lay multiple lines at once as the boat moves slowly on the water--a process known as trolling. By baiting several lines, you have better chances at getting a bite. Typically, you’ll bait your lines or use lures to target a specific species of fish, say tuna; but with so many species in the ocean, you’ll probably catch quite a few other types as well. This means you may have to play catch-and-release for a while as you seek the perfect fish.
It’s the same way in a mixed hiring process with your candidates. You’ll need to lay several lines in the water by using multiple channels to gather candidates. These channels include the job ad, referrals, and recruiter sourcing. When you keep so many channels open, you will likely have quite a few applications in the pool. But you’re looking for a specific type of candidate, so you’ll likely play the catch-and-release game until you find the perfect match. This is useful when hiring for a position that requires a general skill set that many people have, but you’re looking for a specialization within that skill set. For example, if you need for a graphic designer, you will probably have quite a few applicants; but if you’re looking specifically for someone with web design experience, you will need to be selective or even pursue your own candidates outside of the applicant pool.
The best thing about a mixed hiring process is the opportunity to find a great candidate in very little time. How? Well, when so many channels are working for you, you get access to a large, diverse candidate pool. Some are referrals from current employees, some may be sourced candidates that your recruiters found, and others may be talented individuals who found the job ad on their own. With all those lines in the water, you’re bound to hook a great fish.
That being said, balancing all of those channels can be tricky. You want to avoid investing too much time and effort into a single channel while avoiding spreading yourself too thin. In fishing terms, if you have multiple lines in the water at once, you don’t want to spend all of your time at one and ignore the rest. But you also can’t just sit back and watch it all happen. This kind of process demands time from recruiters for sourcing and the HR team for screening incoming applications, so the key here, as in so many other aspects of life, is balance.
There are a few avenues you can take to create an effective hiring process for mixed positions. We’ve already mentioned that you will likely receive a large number of applications, so the job ad must encourage self-selection. That is, the job posting should allow applicants to decide if they are a good fit for the job from the very beginning. You do this in the same way that you would for a high volume process, which we’ve already talked about. Take the time to build a specific, clear job description that then becomes a targeted job ad. If you’re seeking a specific set of skills, let potential candidates know exactly what that is.
Next, you’ll need to put some effort into sourcing candidates. I recommend gathering or having your recruiters gather potential candidates for the few weeks before you post the position. Make sure everyone involved in these efforts has a crystal clear idea of the type of candidate you’re looking for, which again comes down to an effective job description. Then, once you have posted the job, reach out to those candidates, sending them the link to apply. You’ll find that a handful of these candidates will apply on their own simply because you showed them where to go. Of course, others might need a few more points of contact to warm up to the idea.
Finally, and most importantly for this type of hiring process, you need to make it easy and rewarding for employees to make referrals. Garnering employee referrals is a more efficient hiring strategy than other traditional channels. According to SilkRoad’s 2017 Sources of Hire report, employee referrals accounted for just over 20 percent of interviews as compared to Indeed, which accounted for over 40 percent. Despite the lower number of interviews from employee referrals, they made up over 30 percent of hires, beating out Indeed as the top source.
As another example of the efficiency of employee referrals, SilkRoad estimated that there are about 33 external applications for every 1 candidate who gets an interview; however, the ratio for internal applications (including employee referrals) is only 9 to 1. A great employee referral system has the potential to streamline your hiring process for countless positions, especially when you’re dealing with the high volume and applications and the targeted sourcing efforts of a mixed process.
The last hiring process we’re going to discuss today is the discovery hire. I’m comparing this one to fishing from the shore, where you depend much more on the right fish swimming by at the right time. Most of your effort is in the preparation: researching which lakes or rivers have been stocked, which baits to use for the target species, and so on. When you actually get to the body of water, it’s a much more passive effort; you might cast your line into the water, set up a chair, and read a good book while you wait for a bite. You’re playing the long game.
Of course, you’ll probably be a little more proactive in your hiring efforts than a fisherman who sits by the shore all day. In a discovery hiring process, you often start by sourcing a handful of highly qualified candidates, and holding several “soft” interviews before the job has even been posted. When one qualified individual doesn’t work out, ask for referrals—chances are, that qualified person knows a few other qualified candidates. Don’t be afraid to cycle through these steps several times with new candidates. The emphasis here is to find the right person for the job, rather than to fill the position quickly; you should be prepared for the long game. The types of positions that might require a process like this are executive spots or roles with specific and rare skill sets.
The nice thing about this kind of process is that you have complete control over the timeline and the amount of energy you devote to finding candidates. Your focus is finding the right person rather than filling a position quickly, so you’re freed up to be selective, even if that means the search takes months. Likewise, hiring managers won’t need to devote a lot of time to the process until the final stages, so there’s not as big a time cost on their end as well.
Finally, hiring this way allows you to build substantial relationships with the candidates you meet. These contacts can become valuable connections down the road, either for filling future positions or referring other high quality candidates.
Of course, when you’re searching for a discovery hire, there’s no guaranteed time-to-hire. You could be looking at several months in many cases, so it’s difficult to plan on when a position may be filled. This can be taxing to your organization if you’re trying to fill a vacated role, since everyone will need to adjust to fill the gap in the meantime. Likewise, if you’re trying to fill a new role, then those who are currently handling the extra load will need to keep it up until further notice. While these issues might be tough for your organization, I remind you that this kind of hiring process is all about finding the right person. There’s no point to all of this drawn-out effort if you’re going to settle on a subpar candidate just for time’s sake.
That being said, you should develop an effective process so that you don’t delay making the hire any more time than necessary. For this kind of job, you probably won’t receive very many external applications with a simple posting. You need to rely on your recruiters to source the most qualified candidates after several points of contact. These candidates will need to be warmed up to the position, and you’ll need to build a real relationship with each of them. Contact individuals and hold soft interviews in batches, a handful at a time.
Create a positive candidate experience by providing a clear picture of the process. Let them know upfront how long the entire process may take and what the next steps; you might be surprised by how many candidates will stick with you despite the long timeline because they can see the end goal. According to the 2016 Talent Board research report, 17% of all the candidates who reported having a negative experience with an organization’s hiring process withdrew their applications due to disrespect of time. On the other hand, of all the candidates who reported having a great hiring experience, only 1% left due to disrespect of time.
I know I’ve already mentioned this, but I want to emphasize again how important it is to foster relationships with candidates throughout this process. The candidates you’ll contact in this process more than any other will be valuable additions to your network. If you build that rapport with someone who is skilled and experienced in their field, they will be more willing to send other contacts your way. For example, [JD you should fill in an experience here]
At the end of it all, these processes are all about making the catch for your organization. The reasons for using different fishing methods seem obvious to us, don’t they? You wouldn’t go fly fishing if you’re hoping to catch a shark in the middle of the ocean. So why do we often mismatch these hiring processes to the jobs we’re trying to fill?
In today’s competitive job market, you need your processes to be efficient and effective. You can’t afford to waste time fumbling with the wrong bait or a broken net. Hopefully my overview today of these different styles of hiring will help you identify what your organization does, what it needs to do, and how to fill those empty positions with the best fish—or candidates—you can find.
