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Don't Leave Your Recruitment Up to Luck

March 31, 2017
 
iCIMS Staff
3 min read

Finding and hiring all-star candidates shouldn’t be taken lightly. In fact, the price of a bad hire is steep, costing companies at least 30 percent of an employee’s salary due to turnover. While it may seem like the easy way out, don’t leave your recruitment up to luck in finding your next shining star. Execute a timely, effective recruitment strategy to reach more applicants and find your organization’s next new hire. Here are three tips to get you started:

Better Identify Top Job Candidates

Technology can help separate the wheat from the chaff in as early as the application process.  Add pre-screening questions to your applications so applicants can quickly translate their experience and help you decide if they’re suited to move on. Better yet, include weighted knock-out questions which automatically eliminate unqualified candidates from the running. This saves time and narrows down your talent pools so you can focus on taking one step closer to finding the right fit for that open role.

Once you’ve identified your top job applicants, use the interview process to empower your hiring decisions. Though traditional interview strategies have their benefits, use unique approaches to better recognize your best job candidate — not your best interviewees. Have your candidates deliver a sales pitch or complete a writing test so you can get a realistic idea of how they work. Another option is to host interviews offsite, away from the office. Changing up the environment can impact the way interviewees present themselves and interact with team members, so you’ll have a better chance at seeing if they’re a good fit.

Make Soft Skills A Top Priority

Although experience and functional training are important factors in the decision-making process, don’t pass up on soft skills. Eighty-five percent of job success comes from having stronger soft skills, such as teamwork and communication, as opposed to technical and learned capabilities. While vetting resumes and screening job applicants, be on the lookout for qualities like strong communication skills, critical thinking, and conflict resolution. Ask behavioral questions during interviews to better gauge how your candidate works with others and reacts in certain situations. Additionally, use technology to zero in on job candidates with the specific soft skillsets you’re looking for. A powerful Candidate Relationship Manager (CRM) software, like iCIMS’ Candidate Relationship Management, offers users an effective way to search for candidates based on skills, experience, and more using candidate tagging. This will make finding stellar applicants streamlined and simple.

Foster Relationships with Passive Candidates

Keeping a happy healthy candidate pipeline or talent pool is an easy way to find great candidates faster, yet only about 52 percent of U.S. companies consider it a top talent acquisition priority.  Leverage a robust CRM to get in touch with candidates who are interested in your company but might not be ready to apply just yet. Using automation and recruitment marketing tools, offer interested candidates the option to subscribe to your corporate talent pool, then automatically serve up relevant job recommendations based on their interests and qualifications. Eighty-four percent of employees would consider leaving their current jobs if offered another position in a company with an excellent corporate reputation — it’s best to build your company brand presence and show off your open positions to make a better hire when the time is right.

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