Recruitment is an essential aspect of virtually every organization, and the idea is to attract competent candidates to apply for vacant positions.
The recruitment process is affected by both internal and external factors. To ensure that the recruitment process is effective, it is important for an organization’s recruitment team to understand how these factors affect recruitment processes and be proactive in dealing with them.
Because recruitment functions require a blend of expertise, the ability to attract the best candidates to fill potential vacancies, marketing, and the ability to align an organization’s recruitment process with its goals, you can better appreciate how much work is cut out for the HR team and why they should familiarize themselves with the stages of recruitment.
What are the stages of recruitment?
Before we highlight the stages of recruitment, it will help if we steal a second to mention that the phases of recruitment are knitted into each other. Together, they comprise a workflow that guides the recruitment process.
While you are at it, you should also have it in mind that the size of your recruitment or level of need, the complexities of recruitment, and recruitment frequency are other factors to keep tabs on.
However, if managing recruitment is beyond the capability of an organization, they can always hire an experienced and competent recruitment agency to effectively manage the recruitment process.
Now, let’s touch on the stages of recruitment.
Stage 1. preparation or planning stage
As with every other endeavor, one cannot rule out the need to prepare adequately before undertaking such a crucial task. Yes, recruitment hinges on attracting as many applicants as possible to apply for a vacant position in an organization. However, attracting the right talents/candidates is equally as important. A poorly planned recruitment will most likely result in time wastage or a wrong hire. Wasting time on sifting through the volume of candidates and not getting quality equals unproductive work.
As the famous saying goes, “sharpen your ax before you start chopping a tree.” In this instance, make time to develop a profile for what you consider an ideal candidate. Speaking of the ideal candidate profile, you should be looking out for a candidate that possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities to fill the position and impact the organization positively.
Stage 2. strategy development
Having developed the ideal candidate profile in the preparation stage, the next step is to identify the right strategy to recruit the organization’s best hands-on board.
The strategic considerations include providing answers to important questions like what recruitment method should be used, what demographical factors should be used in selecting the candidates, the source of talents, and the sequence of activities to be followed during the recruitment process.
Stage 3. Searching/sourcing
The purpose and focus of this stage are to attract talents to an organization. While you are at it, you should have it in mind that you could source for talents either internally (from within the organization) or externally (from outside).
In this stage, the recruitment team must be careful not to present the prospective candidates with unrealistic expectations or frustrate them by not communicating or responding to their concerns.
To successfully get through this stage, you should aim to develop an efficient system to help you run a standardized process.
You can adopt strategies that will help you source talents through multiple channels such as social media platforms, websites, and other online channels.
Stage 4. Screening and selecting process
When dealing with screening and selecting candidates, you must be careful not to be seen as being biased. One way to go about it is to set your expectations and communicate them to each candidate. That way, they will have an idea of what is required of them, how they should prepare, what to expect at the end of the recruitment process.
Also, note the requirement for the position to be filled and clearly define the minimum criteria for the job and establish extra-qualifications that will count as plus for the suitable candidate. An automated pre-screening system will come in handy at this point.
Step 5. Onboarding or hiring
Onboarding is arguably one of the most important stages in recruitment. If you don’t take it seriously, you could lose the talent or make them have mixed feelings about staying or taking their leave.
To build a full-proof onboarding program, you can include mentorships, training, or work remotely to give prospective employees a sense of belonging. By working remotely, you could get new hires to sign paper works electronically or arrange online meetings.
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In Conclusion
And there you have it, the various stages of recruitment discussed in quite simple terms. We hope we’ve helped make hiring the right hands much easier with the pieces of information shared. If you’ve got any inquiries or questions, feel free to reach out to us anytime. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.