Developing a Clear Recruitment Plan
By: Stacey McCreery, President & COO
Organizations that consistently hire high-performing employees have at least one thing in common: they are intentional in their recruitment processes. Having a clear plan can mitigate the risk of reactive panic-hiring when a team member leaves. It can also cut down on cost-per-hire, improve employee retention, and protect company culture.
Now that we’ve covered the “why” behind developing a recruitment plan, let’s get to the “who,” “what,” “where,” and “how” that make up the actual plan:
1. WHO do you need to add to your team?
The first step in your recruitment plan should be conducting a workforce gap analysis to take stock of the team’s future needs and/or skill gaps. Take the time to think through upcoming retirements, planned promotions, and departmental growth. Analyze your current team members’ strengths and any technical or soft skills they lack. This part of the plan should include clear headcount numbers for full-time, part-time, or contract workers needed.
2. WHAT will they be responsible for?
An important part of finding your ideal candidate for an open role is creating a clear, realistic job description. Focus on the impact the employee would make on the team and define what success would look like in the role. Prioritize your must-have qualifications versus nice-to-haves. Avoid listing an overwhelming number of requirements that make the role appear unrealistic or unattainable.
3. WHERE will you find candidates for open roles?
To find the right fit for your team, adopt a multi-channel sourcing strategy. Post your roles on specialized industry platforms rather than just generic job sites. Find passive talent that may not be actively looking for new opportunities but would be an ideal candidate for your open role. Build talent pipelines of impressive connections from previous hiring rounds.
Sourcing can seem overwhelming, but this is an area where a trusted recruitment partner with experience in your specific industry can be very helpful.
4. HOW will you conduct the interview and selection process?
When you find promising candidates for your open role, don’t lose them in a long, messy interview process. Lock in a timeline for interviews to avoid the process dragging out. Make sure each team member participating in the interviews understands what they are specifically there to assess (technical skills? culture fit? leadership potential?) and develop a scorecard so candidates are evaluated on the same scale.
Bonus: HOW is your plan going?
Once you have your recruitment plan in place, you’ll want to continually gauge how things are going. A few metrics can help you:
- Monitor “time-to-hire” to prevent losing great candidates to faster competitors.
- Calculate “cost-per-hire” to see which approaches yield the best return on investment.
- Review your “offer-acceptance rate” to see if your salary or benefits are missing the mark.
If you are unsure of how to get started with developing a recruitment plan or need help implementing your existing plan, the ROISG team would love to help!
Stacey McCreery
President and COO
Stacey McCreery is a writer, a speaker, and the founder and COO of ROI Search Group.