Agile recruiting (also known as sprint recruiting) is the key to attracting top talent. The talent market is changing so quickly, recruiters must be able to maintain speed, quality and adaptability to compete. The principles of Sprint Recruiting are based on the key precepts of the agile methodology and help overcome The Four Dysfunctions of Recruiting. Once the four dysfunctions are under control, recruiters can then focus on attracting top talent.
The Sprint creates efficiency
If you want to attract top talent with agile recruiting, you will first need to adopt the sprint method. A sprint in agile recruiting is a time-fixed iteration of one to four weeks. During this period, the recruitment team focuses on completing specific objectives to ultimately achieve the larger goal of recruiting the right talent.
How does this help attract top talent?
Large requisition load bog down a recruiter and cause a lack of focus. The ideal candidate may be quickly overlooked as the recruiter powers through applicants in an attempt to fill as many roles as they can. When a recruiter has time to slow down and evaluate possible candidates, top talent becomes easier to identify.
Agile recruiting also encourages a meeting cadence that is more supportive of an iterative recruiting process. Teams are encouraged to share best practices and obstacles, all of which allow the focus on recruiting top talent to become more executable.
I was amazed the first couple of sprints while creating Sprint Recruiting (agile recruiting). The team naturally began sharing new search ideas or platforms. Top talent that may not work for one division was shared with another division. We were able to quickly identify the key components of and define top talent for key roles. We did all of this while moving faster without sacrificing quality.
Agile Recruiting makes the business define priority
If you want to recruit top talent, it needs to be a priority. Sure, many firms say they want the best in the market but their actions and processes do not support the claim.
In agile recruiting, recruiters force the business to prioritize the roles in the sprint using a point system. (If you would like to learn more on the topic of Applying the Point System of AGILE to Recruiting, click the link.) The points help the recruiter focus in sequential order on the roles most important to the client. As a result, recruiters are able to focus more on top talent within those particular roles.
I have found this particular principle in agile recruiting (Sprint Recruiting) gives recruiters the room to really zero in on top talent. They have more meaningful interviews and provide more enhanced write ups. Recruiters are able to sell the candidates to the hiring managers and increase the number of candidates interviewed. Managers see more candidates and provide more feedback which only increases a recruiter’s accuracy in the process.
If you want to attract top talent using agile recruiting, even if you do not implement the other principles, you have to implement prioritization. Without it, your goal of recruiting the best in the market will not succeed.
Setting Limits to candidates in process
Work in progress limits (WIP limits) refer to the maximum amount of candidates that can be in progress at any given time within a specific stage. They prevent overloading teams and ensure that work is completed efficiently. By placing a limit on the number of candidates in progress, recruiters focus on completing their current tasks before moving on to new ones. This will lead to faster delivery times and improved quality of work.
This was perhaps one of the most eye opening moments when creating this methodology. Limiting the number of candidates allowed in any stage of the process increased output and quality. Managers moved quicker on candidates and the process forced a feedback loop. I was honestly puzzled how limiting the work increased the output.
As a recruiting leader, I use agile recruiting to focus on top talent by limiting the number of candidates managers review. It forces my team to spend more time during the intake meeting to best understand the ideal candidate. Over time, we gain credibility with our clients on our ability to find their ideal candidate. The credibility allows us to move quicker on top talent.
If you would like to learn how prioritization and WIP limits work in agile recruiting, click here.
Faster Feedback
If you want to attract top talent using agile recruiting, you have to address the most painful part of the process. Feedback.
I have written extensively on hiring manager feedback and the importance of speed.
Feedback speed will increase the likelihood of hiring more high-quality candidates. In my experience, there are six reasons why and how speed can help candidate quality:
- Slow recruiting increases top candidates drop out rates.
- This leaves you with the “average” candidates, greatly diminishing the talent’s impact on your business results.
- Fast decision-making attracts the best. Talent typically views fast hiring as a reflection of your corporate culture and your desire to move quickly on top talent.
- Top candidates decide quickly. They will most likely have more offers than the second tier candidates so once they make the decision to leave, they want to make the right decision quickly.
- Fast hiring reduces candidate counteroffers and offer games. If you wait too long, the candidate may receive a better offer from your competition, resulting in a bidding war, thus increasing the salary cost.
- Top diversity candidates are gone quickly. High-quality candidates want to work in diverse workplaces, and if your hiring process is too slow, you run the risk of losing these candidates to a more diverse company.
It’s one of the reasons 48 hour feedback deadlines are one of the four principles of Sprint Recruiting. In the book, I tell how I decided to export candidate data to determine how long it took a candidate to make it through our process. I was surprised that the average was 67 days. Once we implemented agile recruiting, we reduced this average to 27 days in only three sprints.
Find Top Talent Using Agile Recruiting
Agile recruiting, also known as sprint recruiting, is a methodology that enables recruiters to attract top talent. Sprint recruiting is based on the key precepts of the agile methodology and is designed to overcome the four dysfunctions of recruiting. One of the key benefits of agile recruiting is that it creates efficiency by limiting the number of candidates and allowing recruiters to focus on the most important roles. Another benefit is faster feedback, which is one of the four principles of sprint recruiting. By providing timely feedback to candidates, recruiters can reduce the dropout rate of top talent and attract high-quality candidates to their organization.