7-Step Recruitment Process to Increase Candidate Conversion Rate and Experience

In many companies, expanding candidate flow and conversion rate has become a common challenge. You must have an efficient recruitment process in place to attract the right talent at the right time.

One of our primary objectives for this year is to grow our team. Initially, there was a need to review our recruitment process to see what we could do to improve our candidate conversion rate.

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We began by redefining our recruitment process in response to our hiring requirements. As a result, we were able to successfully improve the candidate experience, which resulted in higher candidate conversion.

In this post, we will share the steps we took to optimize our recruitment process.

Generating a Reliable Recruitment Process

The recruitment process may differ from one company to the next depending on the organizational structure, selection process, nature of operations, and so on. However, any well-planned recruitment process should assist the hiring team in finding the right candidate.

Here’s a seven-step recruitment process to help you find, attract, and keep the right candidates. The steps are as follows:

1. Determine the hiring requirements.
2. Create job descriptions
3. Develop a recruitment strategy.
4. Screen and shortlist candidates
5. Hold interviews
6. Examine and make an offer
7. Orient the new employee

Step 1: Determine the hiring requirements

What are your current hiring requirements? It could be that an employee has recently left or that a new job position has recently opened. Once you’ve identified the open positions, you can define the job requirements such as skills, knowledge, experience, and so on.

Checking your hiring requirements can help you determine what you need

• Any performance, skill, or proficiency gaps that must be filled
• An unexpected increase in workload that your team is unable to handle
• Any employees who are about to leave the company

Step 2: Create job descriptions

Once you’ve identified the gaps in your skills, knowledge, and experience, define the job role, responsibilities, and duties.

A thorough job description informs you of what to look for in potential candidates. It also serves as a checklist for candidates to complete before deciding if they are qualified for the role and apply, resulting in more relevant candidates.

A job description should include the following elements:

• Title
• Responsibilities
• Necessary qualifications and skills
• Compensation, benefits, and perks
• Location

We go above and beyond to create a candidate persona before writing the job description.

The job candidate persona, like the buyer persona, is a semi-fictional portrayal of an ideal candidate for the position you are hiring for.

Constructing a candidate persona assists you in determining what your candidate is looking for, as well as how and where to find them. It also gives you the opportunity to:

• Create more pertinent job descriptions, application forms, emails, training materials, and so on.)
• Determine the most effective recruiting channels.
• Make high-quality, personalized content to attract qualified candidates.
• Comprehend your stakeholders’ candidate requirements.
• In the future, update and reuse

Step 3: Develop a recruitment strategy

This is the stage at which you determine how to retain and attract the best candidates. You should consider whether you can find a suitable candidate within the company or whether you must hire from outside.

Consider the following in your strategy:

• The geographical location you intend to target
• The recruitment strategy (employee referrals, social media, video interviews, etc.)
• Designing relevant job advertisements
• Channels for posting job advertisements (social media networks, job boards, company websites, etc.)

Step 4: Screen and shortlist candidates

Your recruitment strategy was a massive success, and you have a mountain of applications. What comes next?

Here are the steps we take when we face a similar challenge:

• First, we sift through the applications to find those with the bare minimum qualifications.
• The resumes are then separated based on the preferred credentials. We look at the applicant’s experience, certifications, domain, technical competencies, and skills in this section.
• Shortlisted candidates will have the bare minimum of qualifications and credentials.
• If we have any questions about their application, we will make a note of them so that we can clarify them during the interview.

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Step 5: Hold interviews

This is where your potential candidate will make direct contact with you following the application form or job advertisement. So now it’s time to make a good first impression as a potential employer.

And this is where you should be most concerned about candidate experience.

Here’s what you need to do to improve the candidate experience

Interview program visualization

You must visualize the interview process to make it easier for both the team and the candidate. It’s simple and helps to clear up any confusion.

You should include it in the first email we send to our chosen candidate. This allows them to understand the process, how long it will take, and how to prepare themselves accordingly.

Allow them to reserve their preferred time slots for themselves.

Being adaptable and willing to work around your candidate’s schedule is a huge plus for you. From our phone screening sessions to our discussion sessions, you should let the candidate book a preferred time slot (based on availability).

Simply include the link in the relevant email, making the process simple for both of you.

Step 6: Examine and make an offer

It is now time to contact the candidate’s references. And then you can make the offer if everything checks out.

However, there is a chance that the first promising candidate you choose will decline. In that case, you must be willing to extend the offer to the second or third-best candidate.

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Step 7: Orient the new employee

Then there’s employee orientation. This is where you force the new employee to adjust. This goes beyond simply presenting the new employee around the office and introducing them to everybody else.

This includes assisting them in understanding their responsibilities as well as providing the necessary resources and training to assist them in learning. This topic is covered in greater depth in these two resources.

Closing Thoughts

These steps assist you in simplifying and streamlining your recruitment process. But it isn’t finished yet. You should frequently monitor their performance to ensure that it is optimized.

However, because the recruitment process is organization-specific, these steps may not apply to all businesses. However, this does not preclude you from tailoring these steps to your specific needs. Please share any additional steps you take in your process in the comments section below.

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[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]