Nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies. Persistence and determination are not executed by the plan; they are executed by people. Effective recruitment of such people is critical to growing a prosperous business. An effective recruitment strategy is to plan and execute hiring with minimal input and maximum output.

Traditionally, recruiters have taken pride in being able to identify the exact match from a big list of candidates. They are the sharp shooters who help identify and target the best from the talent pool. Then if the recruiters are adept and good at sourcing CVs of potential employees, why is filling up positions still such a challenge for most companies? That’s because majority of the recruiter’s time (67 per cent) is spent in follow up and administrative transactions. Most time is spent on the science of recruitment, which is processing the CV, and very little time is spent on doing what they are good at i.e. sourcing the CV, which is the art of recruitment. We will have to move away from traditional models and towards building a more effective recruitment engine by segregating the art and science to get maximum output. The three simple steps are 1. Establish Sourcing COE, 2. Create Impression Center and 3. Leverage Technology.

The first step is to establish a Sourcing COE, a center of excellence group with clear focus on identifying the exact source of the candidate. Dedicated focus should be on hiring through non-paid channels. Technology acts as an enabler by integrating with social media. Examples include online internal referral programs, social media integrated sourcing and crawlers on the net to flag matching candidates help fish out the passive candidates. General Job boards are dying; we need to go niche to get what we want. We need to be visible everywhere online. Dive into mobile marketing (mobile is not just a phone, its text, e-mail, video and web), get a corporate Facebook page (believe it or not, this is the best way to connect with people), start a LinkedIn group, be accessible though instant messaging on your website, create free whitepapers, eBooks and PPTs, host an online video show on YouTube (talk about your employer branding), run referral programs online, build a better career site, use your company blog to drive talent, get on the micro blogs… especially twitter, automate your sourcing efforts through web crawlers, conduct virtual job fairs, stay active in specific industry online groups, host free webinars on hot topics.

The next step is to enhance optimal results from the CV pool and enhance the people experience in the process. Break down the process into various steps: CV shortlisting, assessment, line interview, HR interview, reference check, documentation, offer and joining. Once the steps are identified, then establish the Turn Around Time (TAT) for each of these steps to get better results. After which technology enables us to create Impression center. A 1-800 number, which connects candidates and interviewers, helps create easy access to information on one call. An online assessment engine and video interviewing tool gives candidate easy access to complete interview rounds. Customer satisfaction, team hours saved through technology intervention and constant measurement of TAT at each process step will lead to lean and controlled recruitment operations, also enhancing the customer brand in the market. The endeavor is to reduce time spent on transaction based activities on non-qualified candidates.

All the re-engineering and breaking down of process steps would not work without the backbone of technology. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) will help get all the different teams on the same platform and minimize transmission loss by automating the recruitment workflow. ATSs also work as a connector with all the various technologies in the process. A cloud platform, which can easily integrate various sourcing tools and assessment engines and also seamlessly reach out to all stakeholders through social media, is the need of the hour.

Now you are all set to move to version 2.0 of your recruitment process. Happy recruiting.