Why Your Organization Should Have an Employee Recruitment Strategy

The goal of employee recruitment is to hire the best and brightest candidate for any given role that is vacant in your organization. Sounds clear-cut. But is it? How does recruitment strategy play a part in the success of an organization? According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) “Talent Acquisition: A Guide to Understanding and Managing the Recruitment Process,” employers who excelled in recruiting experience 3.5 times more revenue growth and twice the profit margin of other employers. For human resources professionals, having a seat at the executive table and understanding the short and long-term goals for the organization is paramount to employing an effective recruitment strategy. If you do not currently have this kind of access, begin by asking questions and meeting with the primary stakeholders to glean information that you can use to develop a strategy to meet organizational hiring needs. Once you know the goals for an organization, you can establish labor, manpower and professional recruitment objectives. For example, is your company opening a new location? Is it adding new service offerings? What is the knowledge base needed for an entry-, mid- and experienced-level employee? Once you have answered some of these basic questions, the next step is to review and update the position descriptions within each area of your organization. This will serve a number of purposes, including making sure that if and when you need to fill a position, both HR and the managers know the skills and experience needed to fill a vacancy. With an up-to-date position description, an HR professional will then be able to determine how to fill it. Developing a recruitment strategy to fill a job opening also includes understanding the current labor market. In 2021, this no longer includes geography as a consideration, since work from anywhere has taken hold for a large percentage of the workforce. Information you will need to continue with your recruitment plan includes who are you targeting (entry-level, experienced, skilled)? What do you want a candidate to know about the position and the company (your message)? How will you get the message to viable candidates (your target audience)? And what is the timeline for this process? With this project plan in place, the next steps include establishing application screening, interviewing and offer processes, all of which involve working closely with the hiring manager to ensure an effective and ideal outcome. Human Resource professionals now, more than ever, need tools to improve and enhance their recruiting and hiring efforts. Employing a recruitment software solution such as LightWork® Recruit and Onboarding can increase your success in the marketplace. It is a powerful and flexible applicant tracking and recruiting software with quick and easy setup and implementation. LightWork Recruit allows HR to post openings to job boards and social media and track applicants through the interview process. It works to improve your online reputation and streamline procedures. Once an applicant is selected for hire, LightWork’s module assists with the administration and compliance concerns of onboarding a new employee. It also covers tax credit processing. Attracting and hiring top-level talent has never been easier or more efficient than with LightWork Recruit and Onboarding. To learn more about the value of a centralized recruit system, click here.