Bring Recruiting Operations into the Future with Everytalent

Are you finding it increasingly difficult to recruit the right talent for roles within your organization? You’re not the only one. There is a talent shortage in the job market, as well as a demand for better working conditions and company cultures. This affects retention and the way companies handle recruiting in the digital age.

The labor market is tight, with many organizations now vying for the same candidates, pushing recruiters and HR experts to become more effective at talent attraction and retention.

This is where recruiting operations (recruiting ops) come into play. Although there’s no standard definition of what this process is or entails, it covers the function of recruiting and onboarding in an organization. Its purpose is to reduce the struggles and stress in the hiring and recruiting process. The end goal is that recruiters and HR teams are working as efficiently as possible and maximizing their time, money, and talent so they can meet organizational needs.

The future of recruiting is digital. It is a streamlined, personal, and efficient process which will give you the best chance in a highly competitive market to attract the top talent and clients. First, though, you have to take the time to learn about what’s currently going on in recruiting operations and how you can harness that for your own needs. 

Beyond the Buzzword

Although “recruiting operations” has become a bit of a buzzword, it has a real place in the business model. This is part of the talent acquisition process and needs to be tracked and managed to ensure that recruiting is happening in the best way possible. Recruiting operations refers to everything except actually finding the talent. Organizations will apply business operations strategies that are designed to attract talent and monitor the talent acquisition process.

Recruiting operations has its own processes and data which can help HR recruit and hire more effectively, ensuring that the resources are getting the best use possible both in and outside of the HR department. Recruitment operations is essentially preparing the organization for the future of work. That can take many forms, but today, it is about being agile and finding cost-effective hiring practices that stick.

Defining the Hiring Process

You have to define the hiring process, including the steps where areas of improvement could be made. It’s important to know how long the recruitment funnel takes: from the job posting submission to the offer of employment and acceptance. That will help you streamline things even further and make sure that you’re staying on task and moving things along at the right pace.

Companies need to measure the time of each sub-cycle, or step, so that they can shorten the hiring cycle and stop losing good talent because the recruiting process took too long.

There’s no single definition or plan for a hiring process. Each organization has its own, and the ultimate goal is finding the right talent and delivering the best candidate experience. It needs to be a seamless experience. Screening, interviews, and even onboarding need to happen quickly and without incident. Companies need to be proactive and can no longer afford to sit on recruitment hoping the right talent comes along – the competition is already out there snatching that talent up.

The Checklist 

For those who want a glimpse at an example of what the recruitment process should look like, here’s a simple checklist that you can keep on hand to ensure that you cover all the bases. Bear in mind that you can modify this list as you see fit:

• Make sure a hiring plan is in place
• Identify sourcing channels
• Create and publish the job posting
• Make applications easy
• Promote the position 
• Screen and shortlist candidates
• Prepare for and schedule interviews
• Conduct interviews
• Assess candidates
• Close deals and make offers
• Prepare training materials
• Conduct onboarding and training 
• Analyze the results of the process 

That last step is important because it will give you the chance to review the recruitment process in real time and decide whether it needs to be changed in any way. The most important thing to note about this list is that it is intended to provide a streamlined, seamless experience when it comes to hiring and to bring in the best talent as quickly as possible before your competitor gets to the candidate first.

Remember, recruiting operations is focused on everything leading up to the sourcing and onboarding of talent to create a cost-effective and efficient solution for bringing people onboard to help the organization grow and thrive. It’s important for each organization to take the time to evaluate their own recruiting operations and make necessary changes as they see fit.

It’s also critical to educate everyone involved on the duties and expectations of a recruiting operations team. Let’s look at these responsibilities and then we’ll talk about other innovations like virtual career fairs and how they can help your business find the best talent. 

The Duties of a Recruiting Operations Team

There are four sections of a recruiting operations team: the business side, the strategy side, systems management, and the reporting team. Each has its own dedicated role and duties in regard to the recruiting process. 

In business operations, recruiters manage budgets, spending, and ROI. They also manage the operational aspects of the recruiting process, finding places where efficiency can be improved. They train and hold people accountable, educate and prepare interviewers and hiring managers, and help build relationships across departments through collaboration. They’re responsible for ensuring that the operations part of the recruiting process is working like a well-oiled machine.

The strategy side is focused more on the research and strategic process of recruitment. It will be concerned with market conditions and business growth targets, as well as how to manage change and communication, drive global recruitment, and even scale recruitment to the needs of the organization. It should help lead, develop, and manage a solid recruitment process that delivers the ultimate candidate experience. It should also use candidate and business feedback to identify opportunities for improvement.

All this falls into place because the systems management team has created the right tools and resources for digital employee management and recruitment operations. Systems management will also be responsible for building and maintaining relationships with vendors, third-party suppliers, and agencies. These are the behind-the-scenes people that make sure that operations go off without a hitch because they’ve done their part in the recruiting process.

Then, we arrive at the reporting team. The reporting and analytics part of recruiting operations focuses on using data to identify new technology and tools that can improve operations, as well as optimizing the recruitment processes of an organization. They also identify, monitor, and report key metrics of the sourcing platforms and productivity tools so that all aspects of the recruiting operations process have been checked and verified for efficiency and effectiveness.

Together, when all of these elements are performing as they should, they create an efficient recruiting operations team that is taking it all to the next level to deliver for potential candidates and clients alike.