How To Build a Strategic Recruitment Process

We often hear from clients how much they want to modernize their talent acquisition tactics. But simply wanting to change how you recruit professional talent is easier said than done. You need a strategic recruitment process that:

• Incorporates modern ways of connecting and engaging with candidates
• Adopts direct sourcing and aligns skills and experience to the requirements of the job
• Helps you select people through vetting who are best capable of adding value to your organization

Creating a strategic recruitment process may seem overwhelming on the surface. But the rewards from your efforts will pay off in spades. This article will walk you through some of the basic steps to build your strategic recruitment plan in order to increase the quality of talent you attract to your organization.

Define your goals as an organization

First things first, you need to outline your goals.

We don’t just mean your individual goals as a recruiter; you need to think about the big picture. What does your company hope to achieve within the next fiscal year, and what can you contribute in your role to help move the needle towards that target?

What are growth forecasts for the year?

Has your senior leadership laid out forecasts for the year? If so, review those projections and consult with your sales and marketing leaders to determine where the company is at in terms of reaching those targets.

Then, you should consult with your product and engineering leaders. Ask them about the product roadmap and how things are moving through the pipeline. You want to find out if there are any gaps in production that a new hire or talent on demand could help solve. This is how you can use your position to inch the company further towards those high growth goals.

Review the typical product sprint

Product sprints are how leaders map out the development process of a new product, a new feature, or a whole new platform. They include fixed timelines to complete a series of tasks that collectively contribute to the master project. Tasks are broken down into priorities and anything that isn’t completed in that sprint is moved into the backlog for another sprint.

As a recruiter, the sprints can be your window into what’s missing on the team. Speak with the product leaders and determine if a new hire or a contracted professional could help eliminate items from the backlog. You may even find an exceptionally talented coder for hire who can complete some of the more advanced tasks in the sprint.

Timelines vs. investments vs. support staff vs. productivity

Each of these variables influences your strategic recruitment process. What are the timelines to complete items in the product sprint, and who on the team can get through them?

Budgets are a big part of the process as well. How much money is available to invest in new hires? What’s the productivity of the existing team, and how would talent on demand improve productivity for the whole team? All of these questions will inform how you shape the direction of your strategic recruitment plan.

Forecast future hiring needs

Once you know more about how the company is performing and the resources available on each of your teams to be able to hit target, you can start mapping out your talent strategy. You can review current and upcoming product sprints and start to anticipate where, when, and how the team will need additional support to keep the company on track to meet target.

As you build your own talent projections, consult with your product leaders once again to develop a candidate profile. Similar to how marketing teams create audience profiles to attract the right types of customers, a candidate profile will help you recruit the right talent to support each of your teams.

A candidate profile is your archetype. By building this profile, you’ll have more success at:

• Attracting the types of candidates who will help you achieve your goals
• Attracting fewer of the types of candidates who will add little to no value
• Building out job specifications and the types of people needed for those roles
• Reducing hire times and turnover rates by bringing on only the best suited candidates

Develop your direct sourcing strategy

With a detailed candidate profile in hand, you now have a template to start hunting for the best suited professionals to help scale up your organization. You’re now in a position to build out your direct sourcing strategy and actively recruit new candidates into your talent communities.

In your recruitment process, you can use your resources to build a pool of talent communities that contain new potential candidates as well as professionals who completed past jobs for your organization. This way, you always have a vetted group of engaged professionals who you can rely on in times of need. There may be opportunities to hire long-term candidates or you may only require contracted support for a specific task. In any event, your talent pool community should remain a place for regular engagement to keep people plugged into the trappings of your company.

However, make sure your strategic recruitment process includes talent acquisition software like High5. If you want to fully implement your modern recruitment plans, you should make platforms like High5 integral to your strategy. You’ll be able to use advanced filters to screen out lesser candidates and only connect with professionals who align with your candidate profile. You can also go global and connect with professionals anywhere in the world.

Why limit yourself when there’s no need to sell your expectations short?

Set a realistic budget for your strategic recruitment process

All of your plans are in place and, with platforms like High5, you know there are tools to help you do your part for the team. Only one big obstacle remains; as always, it comes down to money.

You need to convince the people that own the bank to invest in your strategic recruitment process. That means securing money to utilize platforms like High5 and other talent acquisition solutions to ensure you deliver the results you forecast.

Questions you should consider when making the case for a strategic recruitment process budget are:

• How much can you afford to spend on talent acquisition solutions?
• What’s the ROI needed to justify those costs?
• How will you measure the success of your investments?
• Can you increase your budget over time if early results are positive?

If you can demonstrate that the investment will pay off for the company, you should be able to secure all important funding to finance your plans. Once you have the budget, you can start delivering for your team and contribute your part to grow the company to new heights.

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