Instead of an introduction

When writing this article, I relied on my experience working in product companies and my experience in building the recruitment process within our EvoTalents team.

Useful recommendations can be found by Recruitment Leads and Recruiters who are tasked with increasing efficiency and streamlining processes within their teams.

The article covers fundamental aspects that are applicable to outsourcing, staffing, product companies, and recruiting agencies. Even if you are working independently as a freelancer, many of these points are relevant to you as well.

By "Hiring Managers," we mean external clients if you work in an agency or outsourcing/staffing, or internal clients (department heads for whom you are recruiting) in the case of a product company.

The article is quite comprehensive, so brew yourself a cup of aromatic coffee and come back to us ;)

Before diving into specific recommendations, let's take a look at who recruiters interact with in the course of their work.

As we can see, a recruiter's work is primarily tied to four groups of people: the immediate manager, the team, hiring managers, and candidates.

To understand which processes need to be implemented or automated, let's analyze the interaction with each group in detail and see which processes are the most critical.

Based on everything mentioned above, you can already start to identify which processes are not working for you, what is hindering your efficiency, and what you should prioritize.

I will provide some key recommendations below that can help you make the recruitment process more streamlined and effective.

Excel or selecting a candidate database?

In fact, this point will help you address many issues related to each of the four groups of people.

Recently, we conducted a survey among IT recruiters in Ukraine and were surprised by the following statistics:

30% of recruiters use Excel as a candidate database.

If you choose a quality candidate database instead of Excel, it will provide you with the ability to:

Organize candidate management:

• Handle candidate communications: Many ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) assist with sending emails, conducting correspondence with candidates, scheduling interviews, and providing feedback through the system.
• Track communication history with each candidate: The job market isn't so large, and sooner or later, you may revisit candidates you've interacted with before. Therefore, it's important to know how your previous interactions ended and whether you're ready to consider the candidate again.
• Store and quickly find candidates in your database, even if they're no longer on LinkedIn.
• Avoid losing information, provide timely feedback, set reminders, and more.

Organize work with managers:

• Your manager can allocate vacancies among the team.
• They can monitor the progress of each vacancy and won't need to ask you for updates every day.
• Managers can access reports and analytics in the database and step in to help in case of any issues.

Facilitate teamwork:

• Distribute vacancies within the team and assign responsibilities.
• You can see who your colleague is communicating with, ensuring you don't reach out to the same candidate simultaneously.
• Plus, if your colleague revisits a candidate you previously interacted with, they will have a history of your communication.

Coordinate with hiring managers:

• Many systems allow you to attach a hiring manager to a vacancy, enabling them to monitor the progress.
• Hiring managers can provide feedback within the system.
• You can send interview invitations and provide feedback through the system.
• Hiring managers can also access analytics and take timely action if anything goes awry.

You can only control what you measure

Once you have organized your work in the database, you can then delve into the topic of numbers and analytics.

How many recruiters are aware of the funnel for each vacancy and can use that information to set estimates and work on their efficiency?

Or do you still believe that recruiters cannot influence the outcome, and closing vacancies is purely a matter of the human factor?

Having a good database will make your task easier and automate analytics on your work.

Here are some things to pay attention to:

1. Funnel (similar to sales): You can see how many candidates you've reached out to, how many responded, how many came for interviews, completed test tasks, received and accepted offers.

Here's an example of a funnel that CleverStaff generates:

Why do we need this information?

Firstly, you can see the conversion rates and understand that to close one vacancy, you need to reach out to 70 candidates, interview 12 of them, and make an offer.

Secondly, based on this information, you can influence your results. For example, you can increase the number of candidates you reach out to at the beginning or improve the personalization of your messages if you see that not many candidates respond.

Thirdly, you can identify problems that need attention. For instance, in the example, there are 4 offers sent but only 1 accepted. It's essential to investigate why this happened and why the previous 3 candidates declined the offer.

I would also pay attention to the fact that out of the 18 candidates sent to the client, only 12 were invited for interviews. It's worth examining in more detail why the others didn't progress further in the process, possibly having a more detailed discussion with the client about their requirements to present the most relevant candidates.

2. Closure Timelines Knowing how much time it takes to close a vacancy allows you to communicate effectively with hiring managers and provide estimates. Plus, it helps explain why it's not possible to close a vacancy "yesterday" and how much time it realistically requires.

3. Number of Vacancies Closed per Month/Quarter Understanding this information allows you to correlate business needs with the efficiency of the recruitment team's work. It provides the opportunity to plan the company's growth, team workload, and assess whether you need to bring another recruiter on board or perhaps consider involving an agency at some point.

In any case, both you and your manager can manage this process rather than constantly dealing with urgent issues.

Goals and Estimates

After reviewing the analytics of your work, you can plan and set goals for closing specific vacancies.

It's important to note that people are most likely to achieve goals they set for themselves.

While there are business goals, it's crucial not only to impose them from the top down but also to ask the team if they are ready to close all these vacancies and in what timeframe.

Unfortunately, this is where we often encounter "urgent vacancies."

I have to disappoint you; vacancies from yesterday don't get filled because recruiting is a process. Therefore, it's much more effective to plan the company's growth in advance. If possible, create a one-year plan, break it down by quarters and months based on priorities. Consider the turnover rate from the previous year and add those figures. Then update this information every month.

Next, distribute vacancies within the team. I advocate for each recruiter to independently handle their vacancies. This approach ensures clear accountability and minimizes unhealthy competition within the team.

Since recruiters are already familiar with the statistics of closed vacancies at different levels, they can provide estimates to management for closing new vacancies. Additionally, they can plan their activities (such as how many candidates to contact each week, present to the client, conduct interviews, etc.) accordingly.

Effective Communication

Regardless of whether you work in an office or remotely, staying connected with everyone involved in the recruiting process is crucial for effective work.

Here are two important points to consider:

1. Instant Messaging App Most likely, your company has already chosen a messaging app for internal communication. Organize this space as efficiently as possible for your team. Consider creating separate chats or channels to avoid repeating the same information to different people.

In our team, we previously used Telegram for internal communication and recently switched to Slack. Each messaging app has its pros and cons. Choose what suits your team best.

2. Daily or Weekly Meetings Also, think about a convenient format for personal communication with your manager, team, and hiring managers. Each team may have something that works best for them.

Perhaps daily brief meetings or calls where you discuss your current tasks, challenges, and whether you need assistance would be helpful. Or perhaps weekly team meetings and one-on-one meetings with a Team Lead are sufficient. This format works well in our team.

And here are a few useful links:

Calendly  — Helps you schedule interviews for multiple people without having to inquire about each person's availability; you can see it in the calendar.

Zoom  — An excellent app for video calls that works well even with a large number of participants. It also allows you to record video calls.

Slack  — So far, among all the tools we've tried, it's the most convenient platform for team communication.