Whether you have decided to take on the task of building out your company’s recruiting program, or have chosen to partner with a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) firm, here are five best practices to consider when you don’t quite know where to start.
Identify Stakeholders & Steering Committee - Recruiting impacts multiple lines of the business. Be sure and identify all stakeholders and conduct a full analysis. Include the participant’s role and impact on the program, how it impacts their department and what they need out of the program. Also, determine who will make up the steering committee. Who needs to be involved in the decision-making steps of setting up the program (someone from the marketing department, workforce planning, training, etc.)? Get feedback from your stakeholders on what they consider to be a successful recruitment program to ensure all expectations are aligned.
Define Success - What does a successful recruitment program look like to your organization? The answer to this varies based on your company’s current situation and long-term goals. Maybe success means lowering turnover. Perhaps it just means not having positions go unfilled for more than six months. Or it could be to increase employee engagement, productivity and overall revenue. It is a good idea to consider both short-term and long-term benchmarks for success. Having a clear understanding of what success looks like will be your “North Star” for decisions throughout the planning phase.
Define Scope - Once you know your end goal, clearly define everything included in the scope of the recruitment program (i.e., review & edit job descriptions, sourcing, interview training, etc.). More importantly, be clear about what is OUT of scope for the program (i.e., conducting new hire training, performance management, etc.) to keep your project on target.
Determine the Right Timeline - I recommend working backward, starting with the date you need the first round of new hire employees to be “on the floor productive.” Determine their start date based on the length of training.
For example, let’s use the following data points:
- Need a team of new hires on the floor: 11/9/2020
- Training is: 6 weeks
- Start date must be 9/28/2020
From there, begin setting the dates of each milestone along the way.
- Plan enough time for processing, still working backward:
- Background checks & drug screens
- Hiring Manager interviews
- Recruiter interviews
- Candidate sourcing
- Set implementation milestones to ensure positions launch to meet the hiring timeline:
- Allow time for change management activities (i.e., training sessions for Hiring Managers and Recruiters)
- Establish all necessary recruitment process documents
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Company Policies
- Process Flows
- Work Instructions
- Job postings, including marketing materials and licenses
- Don’t forget to consider schedule restrictions!
- Holidays
- Pre-planned time off of key stakeholders or steering committee members
- Travel restrictions
Tracking the Details - Most importantly...keep track of the details! Establish an efficient way to track all the moving parts, deadlines, action items, etc. so you know if the project is on track and when to quickly course-correct if needed. Having a reliable system set up on the front end will also help you provide project status updates at a moment’s notice and provide key data points when you get to the end and look back for lessons learned.
If this sounds too overwhelming or you have other things to focus on and don’t have time each day to devote to designing and implementing your recruitment program, consider bringing on a contract project manager with experience in these programs. They should have the tools and expertise necessary to organize and lead the project, allowing you to be involved as little or as much as your needs or schedule allows.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Leslie Minchin, PMP, is the Director of Implementation & Solution Design with Engage2Excel. She is a strategic leader with over 18 years of experience in continuous processes improvements, bringing order to chaos, and delivering high quality results. Leslie has a strong focus on people, partnerships, and process. She is passionate about designing & implementing innovative solutions to complex problems in order to drive best in class practices aligned with companies’ goals and core values.
