Ten Steps to Optimize Your Talent Acquisition Process

We continue to navigate through a “candidate-driven” market where the number of job opportunities far exceeds the number of job seekers to fill the roles. This gives top-tier candidates the most leverage for the best opportunities.  It is critical for an organization to stay ahead of recruiting trends in order to have competitive access to a new generation of talent. Now is the time to analyze and improve your talent acquisition process, and below we’ll share how to do exactly that.

How to analyze and optimize your talent acquisition process

We’ve identified the following questions to evaluate the most critical parts of any talent acquisition process that should be routinely assessed to ensure an organization’s effectiveness to compete for talent.  They are as follows:

1. Employment Brand and Candidate Experience: Do we have a strong employment brand and do we provide a positive candidate experience? These are two separate concepts but are dependent upon each other to give you a competitive edge to attract and hire top tier talent. The success of all of your talent acquisition processes are dependent upon the strength your employment brand and the experience that the candidate has interacting with your organization during the recruitment and hiring process. Check out our suggestions for how you can improve your candidate experience.

2. Careers Page: Does our Careers page include mission/values, employment news, testimonials, benefits/perks, and videos? Your Careers page should be the landing spot for candidates as they navigate through job boards and social media pages that you have created. Candidates want to see a realistic picture of what it’s like to work at your company. They want to know about the culture and how it is lived every day. They also want to see what role your organization has in their connection and commitment to the local or broader community.

3. Online Reviews (Google/Facebook/Glassdoor): Are there reviews of our organization posted online? Part of having an online presence means managing reviews to protect your company’s reputation from outwardly harsh or inaccurate comments. Reviews by current and past employees can often make or break a candidate’s interest in moving through the application process. Candidates can find reviews in several different locations, whether it’s Indeed, Glassdoor, Google, or Facebook. While you can’t control exactly what your current or past employees post, you can control how you respond.  It’s important to respond to both positive and negative reviews.

4. Job Posting Templates: Are we using best practices when creating job ads? The goal of the job ad is to create a post that is engaging, interesting, and accurately reflects the company culture. You should include the values or perks of working for your organization. Job ads should include links to your career page or other social media to promote the employment brand and should be formatted to best fit the type of social media being used.

Also, some sites, such as ZipRecruiter and Indeed, boast a percentage increase in the number of views and applications a position can receive if salary information is included. In this tight market, it makes sense that more and more employers are including those numbers in their posts to attract the right talent.

5. Job Posting and Sourcing Resources: Are we utilizing the best posting and sourcing resources for our positions? It is always important to have a strong workbench of resources to promote and post your positions. Do not rely on just one resource to post or source for your positions! Depending on the type of position and industry, there are thousands of resources that are often free to post your position and/or to create a network of candidates.

6. Social Media: Do we have a strong social media presence? With the average time Americans spend on their phones increasing year over year, it makes good business sense to ensure your social media presence is as up-to-date and fleshed out as possible. It’s a free opportunity to drive traffic back to your carefully crafted website and your exciting careers page!

7. Application Process: Do we have a quick and easy way for candidates to apply for positions in our organization? Can candidates apply using mobile devices? A 2018 survey conducted by SilkRoad and CareerBuilder found that “one-in-five candidates give less than 10 minutes to a job application, or two to three pages on a mobile device, before dropping off.” The survey also found that 43% of candidates have applied for a position via the use of a mobile device. That number is quickly increasing. 

8. Applicant Tracking System: Does our applicant tracking system (ATS) meet the hiring needs of our organization? There are a wide range of ATS systems on the market today that can be customized to suit the needs of any organization. An effective ATS system can provide a way to automate communications and steps in the recruiting process which can be critical to delivering a high-quality candidate experience.

9. Other Automation Tools: Is it difficult to manage our time to communicate timely and effectively with candidates?  Short of having an expensive applicant tracking system to automate communications with candidates, there are a number of inexpensive, stand-alone tools that can still provide automation to your recruiting process, such as, texting and scheduling platforms/applications. These are great tools to reach the ever-growing population of mobile device users.

10. Onboarding: Do we have an effective offer and onboarding process for our new employees? In this market, candidates will often still have other employers contacting them with other opportunities. It is important to stay engaged with your candidate throughout the entire recruiting and hiring process. A strong onboarding program will: keep candidates engaged, promote better communication, improve job satisfaction, and promote commitment to your organizational goals. After all, a great resource for finding new employees are referrals from your existing employees! If your employees believe in your goals and have had a strong employment experience themselves, they will be more likely to share opportunities with their own networks.

Are you certain that your existing Talent Acquisition process is able to meet your current and future hiring demands? Do you need help reviewing your processes for these and other areas of opportunity? Strategic HR can conduct a “Recruitment Checkup” to do an analysis of your organization and to provide suggestions for improvement that will help you stay competitive in attracting top-tier talent. Contact us today to learn more!