In an ideal world the best way to recruit is to fill a post quickly and with exactly the right candidate – but how easy is that to achieve in reality? Often, filling a vacancy fast can end in an unsatisfactory experience for both the employer and the employee, but equally, you don’t want to leave a position empty for too long – after all, you have a business to run!
So when all’s said and done, what’s really the best way to recruit? Hiring someone fast, or hiring the right person for the role?
Here at Human, we’ve learned that you don’t need to make a choice between the two, as it’s entirely possible to do both…
What’s the key to the right hire?
Getting the right person for the job is much more straight-forward, and ultimately more successful, if you take a thorough and proactive approach from the outset. Essentially you’re looking for someone who:
* Has the relevant experience/qualifications
* Is ready to take the next step in their career
* Demonstrates the right employee behaviours
* Shows potential and capacity to develop and grow in the role
* Has references that back up their CV/interview input
What’s the key to a fast hire?
The fundamental principle is to have solid candidates waiting in wings, rather than waiting to act until a role becomes open. This talent pipelining is a much stronger and productive alternative to traditional, transactional recruitment.
To hire fast, you need to:
* Always be recruiting
* Look internally if it’s an option
* Have a clear idea of what skills/experience you’re looking for
* Create a solid, accurate job description
* Advertise in the right places
* Draw on your network of contacts (including recruiters, LinkedIn connections etc)
The best of both worlds – hiring right and fast
Hiring the right person and hiring someone quickly don’t have to be mutually exclusive. If you’re handling the recruitment yourself, it can be tricky to balance other business responsibilities with the focused efforts it takes to get this right, but with the support of a recruitment specialist, you could be ready to welcome your new, brilliant worker faster than you think.
One of the biggest mistakes we see clients make is failing to retain candidate applications and review previous applicants when a new role comes up. We recommend that all businesses keep this information on file and stay in contact with past applicants – something that can be done very simply through a periodical mail shot. Just make sure you manage their details in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Interviews and applications often bring you into contact with real talent; they might not be quite the right fit for that particular role, but they could still be the right fit for you. Just because the time isn’t right now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep the lines of communication open for the future.
Taking a proactive approach
The key to fulfilling both of these recruitment criteria is to be proactive – constantly looking ahead at changes to your employee landscape, changing business needs and the kinds of people who can add value to your organisation.
We find the best way to enlist great new talent is through a continuous recruitment approach – because it means that you’re continually building your talent pipeline, so you have a pool of appropriate, potential candidates to approach as soon as a vacancy arises. By nurturing a relationship with a recruitment company, you can leave this ongoing process to them, freeing up your own time for other matters while you rest assured that future job roles will be filled efficiently and effectively.
So it is possible to hire fast and hire right – just ensure you’re constantly on the candidate trail by instilling a continuous recruitment value into the core of your HR processes.