It’s time to transform the recruiting process

“We don’t need to overhaul our recruiting process.”

I have a lot of prospects and clients in the talent industry ask me how to know it is time to transform the recruiting process. I recently posted about the 4 Dysfunctions of Recruiting and the 5 Signs Your Recruiting Process is Broken. Both posts created a lot of interest from recruiting and business leaders concerned about their ability to recruit efficiently.

Do you know what it takes to completely the recruiting process? I am not suggesting the organizational equivalent of dropping a bomb in your recruiting practice. Small, calculated steps is the best way to transform the recruiting process in any organization.

Why? Here are some reasons to consider.

The System is too Intertwined

Many of recruiting processes I review are systematically dysfunctional. I find it hard to evaluate, measure and improve the process when it so intertwined with other people and departments. The process starts out as a simple idea, but quickly becomes complex and hard to follow.

It’s also incredibly hard to transform the recruiting process when you still have the constant emergencies. These are more typical in the more traditional recruiting models.

Solution: I realized it was time to transform the recruiting process in 2017 after I went through Agile training. One of the benefits of agile recruiting is the opportunity to transform the organizational mindset one sprint at a time. During the sprint, your goal is to force the prioritization of roles. This will ultimately give you time to actually identify how you want to transform the recruiting process. The daily stand up meetings and retrospectives during sprint will help you focus on iterative growth.

By focusing on the process and its performance, you will be able to create an environment of continuous improvement. This mindset will help you transform the recruiting process.

In turn, this leads to more effective recruitment practices and ultimately a better candidate experience for everyone involved. Once you create your sprint routines, you will be able to review your results more frequently and make data driven decisions.

Ultimately, iterative growth through shorter sprints provides a platform for teams to experiment with different ideas. This often will lead to tangible results in their recruiting practices. There is also an opportunity for team members to learn from one another, leading to better collaboration and camaraderie. With the right guidance and support, teams can leverage this approach to develop their skillset in a way that is both productive and enjoyable.

Lack of Standardization makes it hard to transform the recruiting process

Your recruiting process is a series of steps taken by both recruiters and candidates alike. Without standardization from the start, you can never expect to set up efficient recruitment processes. Without standardization, it is nearly impossible to measure performance and improve recruitment processes.

Solution:

I built Agile Recruiting to be a recruiting process that is detailed, organized but also highly adaptive. It provides a framework for you to bring structure and standardization to your recruiting process. With Agile Recruiting, every role is assigned a prioritization measure every sprint. This ensures that everyone involved in the recruitment process understands what needs to be done, when it needs to be done by and how they are measuring success.

Additionally, by using the same process for each sprint, it also allows recruiters to measure performance on an ongoing basis. This provides feedback loops that allow your team to learn and improve in real time. Finally, Agile Recruiting provides a platform for you to collaborate with other departments. This keeps everyone informed of progress and can understand how their own roles fit into the bigger picture. Agile Recruiting is a streamlined way to manage your recruiting process and ensure everyone is working towards the same goal.

Sometimes you have to cut off the exits

Everyone is resistant to change at some level. When transitioning to a new system, you’ll often find yourself dealing with resistance. This is especially true of stakeholders when they think can “go back to” the system or process you had before.

Solution:

I’ve found that once teams commit to implementing Agile Recruiting, there has to be what I call a “Cold Turkey” day. That is the day we agree that Agile Recruiting will be rolled out throughout the organization. More importantly, this is the day there’s no turning back. It sounds scary but the iterative growth mindset becomes instilled in the team and the clients throughout the implementation process. By the time you get to the Cold Turkey date, it’s usually a non-event.

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The key to rolling out Agile Recruiting (aka Sprint Recruiting) is making sure the team understands why you are making the switch, that it’s in everyone’s best interest to do so. I believe as a leader, you have to help your team understand why it is so important to transform the recruiting process before launching a transformation project. Investing in a new system or process can be daunting but with the right guidance, success is attainable.

In addition to explaining the background and why it’s beneficial, it is important to prepare for the transition process. Just because you think it is time to transform the recruiting process doesn’t make it automatically easy. Make sure everyone has access to training materials, resources, and guides. If possible, you should set up a system where team members can ask questions or provide feedback in real-time so that any issues are dealt with quickly.

By understanding the background, being prepared for the transition, and having a plan in place, rolling out Agile Recruiting can be a successful experience for the whole team.