{{1200 post}}

Strategies and tools for enterprise recruitment processes

What is the key difference between a small or medium business and an enterprise? The scale of…well, pretty much everything, from budgets to the number of employees. An enterprise, also known as a large company, is defined as one that employs over 250 people. Enterprise recruitment is quite specific and the responsibility for finding and retaining a large and productive workforce falls on the shoulders of recruiters and HR managers.

The good news is that time-tested hiring practices and modern-day technology make recruiter workflows less stressful and more efficient, even in large companies. This article will go through hiring strategies for enterprises, techniques to optimize the whole employee recruiting process, and how AI recruitment reduces recruiter workloads.

Best practices for your recruitment strategy

In enterprise recruitment you have many positions to close and even more applications to process, you simply cannot afford to play things by the ear. You need to outline employee recruiting strategies designed to meet your business goals. Once you come up with a roadmap, review, revise, and finalize it with your team to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Consider the following practices to include in your recruiting and retention strategies:

1. Focus on your brand

If you put extra effort into creating an employer brand, you will see a difference in your day-to-day work. First, you won’t have to explain to candidates who you are and why they should consider joining your company, as your brand does this job for you. Second, applicants will be motivated to join your organization. As a result, you don’t have to spend time reaching out to candidates; all you need to do is process the applications.

To eloquently explain your brand, make sure that the positioning reflects your culture, objectives, values, etc. Also, share why your current employees decided to start working at your company and how many of them recommend joining it.

2. Tell applicants more about the job

Too many companies are focusing only on what they need when looking for employees; this is the problem. Describe the opening in terms of what you are looking for, but also help candidates understand what’s in it for them. Don’t just list the salary and job responsibilities; enumerate the growth opportunities and the impact the employee will be making. Remember that the employer-employee relationship is a partnership, so it must be rewarding and fulfilling for all parties.

3. Return to your applicant pool

As a recruiter, you’ve reviewed a stack of applications and spent hours on interviews. Unfortunately, there were more great candidates than spots, and some qualified candidates did not receive job offers. But that doesn’t mean you lose touch with them. First, when you inform the applicant that you decided to move on with another employee, let them know that you’ll keep their contacts in your database and keep them in mind for future openings.

And when a relevant job opening comes up, make sure to reach out to these qualified candidates before listing the job. These individuals are already familiar with and interested in your organization. Moreover, you and other decision-makers already know the strong and weak points of these individuals, so you can significantly cut down the recruitment process time.

4. Conduct impressive interviews

You get to make a first impression only once. And this first image of you and your company will stick, defining the recruitment process. So don’t let it flop. Ensure that the environment (either online or offline) is friendly, encouraging, and positive. Ask questions respectfully without putting the candidate in an awkward position. Also, share more details about your organization, the job itself, and the team the new employee would join. Strive to recreate the culture and atmosphere of your company in the interview with small talk, making jokes, and conversational interviewing.

John Sullivan, an HR expert and Professor of Management at San Francisco State University, recommends looking for «curiosity, insight, engagement, and determination…Assume that the person will be promoted and that they will be a manager someday. The question then becomes not only can this person do the job today, but can he or she do the job a year from now when the world has changed?»

Three straightforward ways to optimize enterprise recruitment processes

As a member of the enterprise recruitment process, you know how the hiring process can stretch for weeks (if not months). But how can you address it when there are so many decision-makers? Try these three ways to increase your productivity and shorten the hiring process:

  • Employ checklists. This small change will bring big improvements to your workflow. Just describe the step-by-step procedure for most typical tasks, from screening CVs and cover letters to conducting interviews and giving employee feedback. With checklists, you can easily delegate some of your tasks to your colleagues without detailing what needs to be done.
  • Enhance communication. Stay aware of what you say at every communication stage, not just during screening and interviews. Email templates are one of the most effective things to help you here. Just prepare several templates for different occasions, then use them according to your employment process stage. Be sure to include several fields that are individualized to the recipient, so all your messages look personalized.
    Also, remember that thoughtful communication with purpose helps recruit new workers and is one of the most effective ways to improve employee retention.
  • Test candidate’s skills. Give test assignments to your candidates to check how well they cope with workplace tasks. You may even include less information to check how much guidance the candidate needs and how good they are at research. Use special software and online platforms to assign such tests, especially when recruiting developers.

How to attract the best candidates: screening tips

In the enterprise recruitment process you are interested in hiring professionals with exceptional skills and rich work experience. But it’s quite challenging to find «the one» when you have to process a sea of applications. An effective screening process makes sure you don’t overlook a great fit for your team. Implement the following steps to hire only the best candidates:

  • Prescreen
    This stage will help you focus only on relevant professionals. You will learn about the candidate before having a screening interview. Simply prepare the list of questions and ask a candidate to answer them. Having checked the responses, you will know who to proceed with.
  • Screen CVs
    Resumes present a lot of information. But let’s be honest, not every single point is important to you. To optimize your time hunting for the best candidates, look for the qualifications, skills, and tools they’ve worked with.
  • Review references
    The feedback from the candidate’s previous employers and colleagues will tell you a lot. You will learn not only about their professional side but also their interpersonal skills. This will identify their potential to complete work-related tasks and how well they’ll fit your team.

How to shorten your enterprise recruitment process: automation tools

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how hard a recruiter works. What counts is the result. Increase your performance without sacrificing time and effort using HR automation. Here are some of the benefits of employing such a tool:

1. Cut down the time to hire

Automate pre-screening, assessment, maintaining relationships with the applicants, etc., to find the candidates and go through recruitment stages much faster. It helps dramatically shorten the time you spend on hiring new employees without affecting your workload or the applicant experience. The automation tool will find the CVs that match certain criteria, process questionnaires, and help manage test assignments.

2. Nurture applicants

It is crucial to maintain relationships with your applicants. You can choose the most convenient channels to do so. HR software can help you keep in touch with candidates who might fit the future position by compiling mailing lists and sending newsletters. Also, promoting the business brand to potential applicants enhances recruiter efficiency on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Either way, recruiting new employees among people who already know your organization and are interested in joining reduces the effort needed to close a position.

Make sure to track the volume of candidates from each platform to measure the channels’ performance. Kaitlyn Holbein, CEO and founder of The Employer Brand Shop, says that «it is also essential to track and record which candidates apply to jobs through social media. A candidate may find your posting on social media but apply using your website, so it’s important to ask how they first learned about the listing.»

3. Optimize interviews

Technology-enhanced recruiting is not limited to processing applications and developing relationships with potential candidates; it can also improve interviews. For example, special software records a dialogue with an applicant. Simultaneously, AI-powered algorithms analyze how a candidate presents themselves, how they communicate their ideas, and even decipher their facial expressions. All this information is gathered in a report that predicts how well this person meets the company’s expectations.

Need Employa to advance your tech recruiting?

Whether you need a recruitment service or upgrade existing recruitment software, Employa is ready to help.

All articles