Your Recruiting System - 5 Tactics to Hire Long-Term Employees [Blog Post]
Implementing a recruiting system will allow you to more fully assess what the company needs in the short term, as well as your own growth potential. Learn how Paylocity can help.
Hiring new employees can be a daunting process. You need to fill the position to improve productivity, but you also need to get the right fit. You don't want to hire someone who leaves in a year or two. Your recruiting and hiring process should be geared to help you find long-term employees. To do that effectively, you need a recruiting strategy that speaks to your company's needs.
The mistake that a lot of firms make is just approaching hiring as a task. They don't invest time to develop a cohesive strategy, understand their own company goals, or the goals that they have for their employees. Great employees aren’t just looking for a job. They're looking for flexible benefits and a position where they can grow. You need to understand what the applicants want, as well as your own company culture to find the right fit.
So, how do you develop the right recruitment strategy to help you find the best employees?
5 Tactics to Hire Long-Term Employees
There are many variables that go into finding the exact right fit. While it might seem overwhelming, there are some strategies you can use to make this process more successful. The interview process is only one of the steps in hiring. Other aspects of
your recruiting process will help you organize and solidify the company's goals. This makes the process of finding a candidate to grow with you far easier.
Here are some tactics that can help you hire better fit employees who are more likely to stay on long-term:
Start with your company.
The biggest mistake that many hiring managers make is not looking at what the company needs or where the company is going. You need to know what your long-term goals are in order to find employees that will flourish with you.
Develop transparent and accurate job descriptions.
This is a huge problem for many companies. If you're using an old job description that no one has ever changed, rethink that. You want your job description and company “about us” to be as accurate as possible so that your applicants have a real picture of the opportunity.
Invest in an applicant management system.
Your recruiting management system should give you all the tools that you need to streamline the entire hiring process. Look for a system that lets you customize your workflows to fit your own needs, whether you want to test employees, use your system to onboard, or run robust reports to help you assess and choose between multiple candidates.
Personality trumps experience.
Of course, you want to hire employees with the right skill set. That goes without saying. But if you have an applicant who perfectly matches company culture, remember that they can often be trained to increase their skills. If they have the basic qualifications but can grow with training, that person may be a better fit than someone who is overqualified but not on the same page as your team personality-wise.
Develop your employment brand and ask employees for referrals.
Your employees can often refer to some of the best talent. Better yet, anyone referred by an employee will be someone who they are comfortable working with, which says an awful lot about the person. Make sure that you accurately portray your company culture and brand on your website and through your employee initiatives. A great brand will attract talent, but it also speaks to high satisfaction among current employees, which is the goal.
The Steps in the Recruitment Process
Your recruitment process can be broken into several steps. Here's a general idea of the process – though you may want to customize it to specifically fit your company and goals:
- Assessment: The first step always starts with your company. Assess what you need, what the job description is, and where you expect a successful hire to go from this position. Applicants want to know about career trajectories with your company. This is something you should think about when putting together the position.
- Writing an honest job description: You want the job description to be as specific and accurate as possible. Traditionally, companies and applicants try to put their best foot forward (whether that's accurate or not). The best way forward is honestly. The better the applicant understands the company and position, the more likely they will be happy once they're hired. They're less likely to be happy in a position that doesn't have the growth potential they expected or when the demands are much greater than advertised.
- Sourcing the best candidates: You can choose different methods to find candidates. You might choose industry-specific or open job boards. You may also put listings on your own website and reach out to people through recruiters.
- Screening and interviewing: This process might vary. You may have applicants take tests or conduct multiple interviews. If you're using a recruiting management system, you will also be able to use the data from screenings to more accurately compare different candidates to make decisions about hiring.
- Hiring and onboarding: Once you find the right candidate, you need to make an offer and complete the hiring process. You'll also want to onboard the new hire to give them the information and training they need for the most successful start at their new position.
Developing a recruiting strategy and implementing a recruiting system will allow you to more fully assess what the company needs in the short term, as well as your own growth potential. When your goal is to hire long-term employees, you want to develop a strategy that will help your hires succeed in the current position and develop with the company. Contact us today to learn more!
This post is locked to comments.
