Hiring the right person often hinges on the recruitment process you use. With a world of work that is constantly changing, it is necessary to optimise your recruitment process, particularly to avoid unpleasant surprises. A poor hire can equate to a loss of £42,000. Whether they choose to leave during a trial period or are dismissed, unsuccessful recruitments can have a significant impact on employer brand. Disengagement leads to staff churn, and this is often the consequence of improper recruitment. But what do we really mean by the “right recruitment process”? And above all, how do you know if the one you are using is good?
Anticipation simplifies the recruitment process
In any recruitment process, there are several phases, each of which is important. Before launching your campaign and hiring a profile, some room needs to be made for planning in your recruitment process. This essential step will allow recruiters to save time and not miss potential candidates who correspond to the real needs of the company.
During this phase of organisation, the recruiter or the hiring manager will have to define the recruitment needs and objectives by having a vision of the future. It’s not just about listing technical skills. You need to imagine a “candidate persona” which will be able to adapt to their team and the challenges of the company. Once this is defined, the next step is to create an attractive job description that will detail the qualities and skills sought in candidates.
It is a question of knowing precisely what is sought: in terms of soft skills and hard skills.
It’s then easier to identify and select applications that combine these skills for the next stage of the process: recruitment.
Recruit using soft skills
This isn’t anything new. Soft skills are now a performance factor for 91 % of employers.. These soft skills are increasingly sought after in business, and for good reason. They allow employers to arm themselves with talent who will be able to adapt to the unforeseen external events that any company is sure to face in the future.
Today, more than ever, companies face an uncertain and increasingly competitive environment. It therefore becomes necessary to find candidates who will be able to remain efficient in dynamically changing circumstances. But how can you determine these highly prized human qualities? Don’t panic. We can start by taking stock of current teams to find out if they have relational difficulties, or if their work processes are efficient. We can also list the current and future challenges of the company, and thus determine what are the behavioural skills required to overcome them. Today it is about co-constructing with employees in order to create strong teams. For recruiting – but also for much more – soft skills now play a full role in the development and proper functioning of companies.
Find soft skills corresponding to hard skills
Relying solely on soft skills when recruiting is not recommended. Similarly, it is not advisable to recruit by only reading CVs. You have to find the right balance between soft skills and the skills that a candidate has acquired through past experiences. Soft skills will not replace a candidate’s technical skills. Just as automation can never replace the human qualities of a candidate. It is therefore necessary to imagine the soft skills that correspond to the hard skills necessary for the given position. By having this vision, recruiters get closer to the future objectives of the company.
Recruiting with the help of psychometric tests
Even if you think you’ve found the right soft skills in a candidate, it still doesn’t guarantee their journey through the recruitment process. It’s a good start having a profile that matches. But is it enough to determine if the candidate is the right one? We avoid relying on “feeling” and and instead use psychometric tests. These tests make it possible to accurately identify candidates’ soft skills: personality, motivations and cognitive abilities. Aggregating the test results allow recruiters to understand the candidate’s expectations, work preferences and motivations for joining the company. Psychometric tests are the science of soft skills, and offer a powerful tool to help avoid recruiting errors.
A.I. also serves recruitment
To save time and optimise the recruitment process, HR and hiring leaders can also use artificial intelligence (AI). The data collected is processed objectively: making it possible to determine the best profiles according to the vacancy. A real time saver that excludes cognitive biases based solely on factual and objective data.
As you’ve probably realised, there is no one magic formula for creating the perfect recruitment process. However, these few points can allow you to optimise yours. Nurture your employer brand by making job offers attractive and prioritising the candidate experience during the recruitment process. The recruitment process is a set of steps: each one deserves attention as a company evolves.
