Recruiting & Hiring Blog for HR Professionals

The internet is a fast-paced place. Attention spans come at a premium. That’s why transparency is so important, especially in your hiring process.

When you reflect on the hiring process, (i.e. creating a job description, reviewing applicants, calling references, interviewing top candidates and finally making a decision), the part that probably sticks out as the most important is interviewing.

Recruiting is a company’s “circle of life,” when someone leaves, someone new is hired.

While it is typically HR’s duty to fill out the paperwork associated with this process, at times, HR itself is the victim of turnover. If you are the new recruiter, HR generalist, etc., you are going to have to familiarize yourself with the existing processes, procedures, and programs needed to perform the job effectively. 

Recruiting is one of the most important responsibilities that Human Resource professionals are tasked with. Since recruiting is such a top priority, it is important to have a tool you can rely on. As you start writing your job description, keep in mind, you are about to lay the foundation for your entire hiring process. If the foundation of your hiring process is cracked, you will be facing future trouble. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) can be the tool you are looking for to lay a solid foundation for your organization.

We all know the importance of writing a job description properly. If you fail to have a top notch job description, you can attract the wrong candidates to your position, which does not benefit your company.

Let’s face it, recruiting is a race. You have to pace yourself so that you don’t fall behind at the beginning and don’t lose your steam at the end.

Humans are creatures of habit, we all have heard it before (and definitely will again). We tend to lean on the side of continuing the same old processes, even if we know it is not necessarily the best method. Why? Perhaps it could be because we are better at being reactive rather than proactive.

The workplace tends to move (at what seems to be) a hundred miles per hour. Since we are moving so quickly it can be easier to do damage control rather than take time to plan how to avoid mistakes. The good news is the proactive steps have already been taken - especially when it comes to streamlining your hiring process.

The recruitment process is generally thought of as applicants competing to get hired by an employer. This is usually the case, but there is another competition occurring behind the scenes: Employers facing off against one another to attract top talent. 

When openings become available in your company, you want to shout: “We are hiring!” far and wide. But before you start yelling from the mountain tops, take a step back and ask yourself: “Where should I start looking for candidates? Should I look internally or externally?”

HR has not typically been responsible for a sellable “brand” for applicants. In many respects, creating the company brand is something that largely falls on the marketing or public relations department. We have all heard of a video going “viral” and an average person shooting to instant Internet stardom. However, actions of the HR department going “viral” can have negative effects.

Social media has now turned the tables on employers. Millennials (who tend to be stereotyped as demanding in nature) grew up with the Internet in ways Baby Boomers and Generation X did not. They expect to have a lot of information available on the Career’s page, and they prefer updates throughout the recruitment process.

So with the stage set, and the stakes high, HR needs to create their own brand that offers value to potential applicants. The question is: How do you build a solid talent brand?