Tweet

Six bottom-line best practices in recruiting

Written by: Kathleen Quinn Votaw

Article Overview: Recruiting strategies may flex and change with economic conditions and in reaction to competitors in the market. But there are certain best practices that are a constant benefit to every organization that adheres to them, whether the economy is up or down. Recruiting excellence has a direct, and positive, impact on the bottom line. Increasing revenue per employee and saving turnover costs are two important benefits. Here are six recruiting best practices that will make a measureable difference in your business.

Six bottom-line best practices in recruiting

Recruiting strategies may flex and change with economic conditions and in reaction to competitors in the market. But there are certain best practices that are a constant benefit to every organization that adheres to them, whether the economy is up or down. Recruiting excellence has a direct, and positive, impact on the bottom line. Increasing revenue per employee and saving turnover costs are two important benefits. Here are six recruiting best practices that will make a measureable difference in your business.

One-Assess candidate and culture fit.

Go beyond the usual tactical list of competencies and required experience; hire to fit your culture and values. A better understanding of a candidate's personality traits, motivation factors, work behavior and preferred activities is often the most important in determining a candidate's potential success in your organization. Additionally, in making hiring decisions don't give much weight to your personal instincts, which are sometimes accurate, but frequently not. Instead, use assessments to gain insight about candidates and eliminate subjectivity. There are many excellent assessments on the market to measure candidates' character, values and soft skills; and quantify the data to show the cultural fit with your organization. Best practice includes hiring a neutral third party to administer the assessments, and then get a second opinion.

Two-Outsource some of the process.

In recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), an organization contracts with a provider to act as its internal recruitment function for pieces of the recruiting process, or to manage the entire function for a period of time. RPO providers do everything from profiling candidates through on-boarding new hires, providing staff, technology, procedures and reporting. RPOs increase the quality of the candidate pool, improve the time to hire rate, provide metrics, help ensure compliance, and reduce costs. They also allow your managers to focus on the right candidates. Best practice includes making sure that RPO provider and management thinking on recruitment is aligned.

Three-Establish a robust referral program.

Employees usually refer only family and friends they trust and know will fit into the culture of their organization. This makes employee referrals some of the best possible hires. Organizations like Ohio's AmTrust Bank, which won the 2008 ERE Media Recruiting Excellence Award for innovative retention, have found that their referral programs have increased performance and retention. An effective referral program makes it easy for employees to provide information about their organization. Providing a card or flyer that explains the benefits of working for your organization helps. Best practice includes rewarding employees with something they truly value.

Four-View recruiting as a lifecycle process.

Put effective procedures in place to transition people from candidate to employee, ensuring that recruiting and on-boarding processes reflect well on your organization. Get feedback from new employees as they merge into the company culture and continue this dialogue with employees throughout their employment, and when they terminate. Best practice includes a formal and ongoing program for effective employee communication.

Five-Make retention part of your recruitment program.

Turnover is costly, with estimates running from 150 percent of annual compensation for typical employees to 400 percent or more for key people. Use metrics to identify and analyze turnover trends in your organization so that you can better predict recruitment needs and plan for succession. Best practice includes providing managers with a retention toolkit and making retention planning part of every manager's performance goals.

Six-Keep up to date with trends.

Recruitment is riding a wave of innovation. The increased ability to make hiring decisions based on data rather than intuition is helping organizations anticipate and manage future needs and events with greater business acumen. In order to remain competitive today, you need to be creative in incorporating new ideas into your recruiting program. Best practice includes adopting social media and metrics in recruitment and ensuring flexibility in your culture in terms of benefits, work hours, work location and other areas that workers increasingly expect.

Best practices in recruiting cannot stand alone, but they are an effective start in reinforcing your culture and improving your bottom line. Align them with best practices in other areas of your organization and you'll ensure a strong, competitive position in any market condition.

Related Articles
  What Makes You Think You Have a Sales or Recruiting Process?
  Are You Worrying about Retention During the Recession? You'd Better Be!
  A Network Marketing Recruiting System So Simple That Even A Caveman Can Do it.
  Bench Strength - The Key to Replacing Salespeople
  Successful Internet Home Based Business Recruiting Process

Article Tags: candidate pool, character values, economic conditions, factors work, instincts, internal recruitment, list of competencies, motivation factors, new hires, outsource, personality traits, preferred activities, recruitment function, recruitment process outsourcing, second opinion, staff technology, strong one, subjectivity, turnover costs, work behavior
Referred by: http://www.salesleadershipdevelopment.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Network Marketing - [quote="saraloves":3bc8xfg2]I've had a few people approach me for networking marketing opportunities. Most of them sound very unprofessional and seem more interested in recruiting member than selling or supporting products so I think that's why they get a bad rap. [/quote:3bc8xfg2] I only investigated one MLM company, many years ago, and this was exactly the problem I had with them. It was when I was in my twenties, already employed by someone else, and just looking for ways to earn "extra money". A friend tried to recruit me into an MLM company to sell collectible phone cards. But all she ever talked about was how much money I'd make by recruiting other people to recruit other people also - there was never anything about how to actually sell the product. I went with her to a seminar on the company - two hours long - and it was the same thing. How to recruit other people to sell the cards, how much you earn depending on how many people [i:3bc8xfg2]they [/i:3bc8xfg2]recruit, (the typical fancy grades of "diamond, emerald, pearl," for each level of income you got to, etc.) but again, absolutely no advice on how to sell the cards, who produced the cards, the guarantee of if they'd maintain their value, etc. By the end of that seminar I'd been convinced not to try it, for two reasons. Most importantly - although I've become more outspoken and self-confident and professional in the years since then - I did *know myself* at that time, and there's no way I could have approached people - whether strangers or friends - and attempted to recruit them - especially when I didn't believe in the product. And the second reason was I simply didn't believe in the product. If all the time in a seminar is spent not on hyping the product but on hyping the money you'll make by recruiting other people to sell the product, then something's wrong!
Network Marketing - I've had a few people approach me for networking marketing opportunities. Most of them sound very unprofessional and seem more interested in recruiting member than selling or supporting products so I think that's why they get a bad rap. who is a good example Binary guy?
Re: Help me review my report. - Hi Yinka, I enjoyed reading your story of using offline recruiting methods for your Internet business. The info about the mistakes you made in the beginning and how you learnt from them was also instructive. I will read it again and send you a testimonial.
RE: Life isn't fair / 'Ol Boy Network - I certainly won't argue that 'Ol Boy Network practices exist and probably always will to some degree because, yes, people like to work with those like themselves. I am curious, though about reactions to the content and approach of the article itself, particularly given that it is from an HR / Management consultant: 1) What does the phrase "'Ol Boy Network" mean to you? 2) Do readers view his discussion as an impartial observation of the phenomenon or do his comments such as "...is not a bad thing," "it's natural," and "are normal occurences" sound like he's expressing an opinion that the practices are OK to continue because that's how it's always been? 3) Would the nature and direction of the content affect your tendency to hire this individual as a consultant? I tried to explore this with the author himself but he was extremely defensive and somewhat insulting regarding the possibility that his article might be perceived as endorsing the practice. I'm looking for a barometer check.
Re: My Brags: Backlogs & Punitive Refunds - Thanks for the feedback, guys. @Yinka, Nice suggestion, but in most cases, no I cannot or would not do that with "difficult" customers. I will occasionally recommend other suppliers if I cannot fulfill an order. I am beginning to think about recruiting some of my college students as casual labour though...


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Affect

Reverse Mentoring

Making the Most of Your Trade Show Experience

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.