5 Ways to Clean Up Your Hiring Process

Your company probably has an existing hiring process, but is it as efficient and effective as it could be? A lot of recruiters and companies set broad, but formal hiring process and stick to it for years to come, with just enough room to make minor adjustments along the way. But, just like any other strategic plan in a business, it needs to be cleaned up and evaluated every so often. It’s time to do some housework and clean up your hiring process with these steps.

5 Steps to Clean Up Your Hiring Process

1. Evaluate your current approach

If you don’t track metrics such as quality of hire, turnover, time to fill, candidates per hire, and hiring satisfaction, it’s time to start. These metrics can give better insights into what’s working in your process and where you can improve. Also, gather information and opinions of employees to clean up your hiring process. Ask what they think could be eliminated or streamlined to encourage efficiency, if the software you use offers everything needed, and how they think it could be improved. Recent hires might have a few opinions on the process, so it’s important to consider their ideas since they just experienced it first-hand.

2. Polish your job descriptions

Many companies and managers just write a brief job description and post it on a job board then never look at it again. If the job descriptions are unclear, it’s likely that you’ll have tons of unqualified applicants and ultimately waste time with interviews that turn into casual chats. Clearly defining the job responsibilities and requirements can make your hiring process more efficient and also help job seekers to know when not to apply. You’re wasting both your time and the applicant’s time by not gearing the job listing to a specific audience. Also, make sure everything in the posting is accurate. If you hire someone that thinks his job will include XYZ, but he ends up being tasked with ABC, it’ll lead to low employee satisfaction and higher turnover.

3. Make sure everyone is on the same page

Educating your team is a great step to clean up your hiring process. Everyone involved in recruiting and hiring should have the same knowledge regarding the process, specific jobs, and HR software. You should even involve more than one person to evaluate applicants past the initial stage to minimize error and get a second, or even third or fourth opinion. Any mistake can set the process back or send it for a loop. Of course, mistakes are inevitable, but it’s better to take more proactive steps than reactive.

4. Use technology

Lots of hiring managers and companies start with a phone interview to get an initial feel for the candidate’s experience and potential. This is more efficient than having each individual prospect come into the office, for what might not be worth it. This is a great way to add technology into the hiring process, but you can even take it a step further. Programs and software for video interviews can drastically help clean up your hiring process. It can be hard for candidates to find the time to make a trip to the office, especially if they are currently working on a different job. So, video chatting allows an easy and efficient way to screen candidates, but also offers a greater human connection with a visual of them.

Also, make sure you are using the best talent management software for your needs. Some even include video interview features and can make the process go a lot smoother.

5. Organize your folders

Whether its physical folders or digital folders, make sure everyone knows where to find important information. This includes any forms or paperwork for hiring, interview questions, job descriptions, and even the hiring process laid out step by step. This ensures that all involved in the process have the resources to carry out the hiring process correctly and as efficiently as possible.