Recruiting Strategy

Developing a Personalized Approach to Your Hiring Process

Developing a Personalized Approach to Your Hiring Process
HireHive Team

HireHive Team

HireHive

There was a time when hiring was simple. Companies posted signs in their window or a short ad in the local newspaper, and candidates flooded in. The world has changed, and so has the way job seekers interact with potential employers. The advent of the internet gave way to online job boards, which evolved into social recruiting processes. Today, candidates expect a personalized hiring approach

Job seekers are looking for companies with a solid candidate experience and a process that makes it easy to apply. They want you to showcase how your company is different, why they want to work with you, and navigate the application easily. How can you do all of that and ensure that your hiring experience is personalized to share what makes your company unique? More importantly, why should you personalize your process? Let’s take a closer look.

The Benefits of a Personalized Recruiting Process 

Why should you create a personalized hiring process? Ultimately, this will humanize your business to create an environment where potential employees want to work. Benefits include: 

  • Sharing your employer brand
  • Increasing retention 
  • Encouraging candidate referrals 
  • Building a future talent pipeline
  • Earning a good reputation

Employer Brand

Your employer brand is different from your overarching product branding. While the two are related, your employer brand explicitly informs your ability to attract top talent. Communication and transparency are two key factors, along with the unique features that make your company a great place to work. 

Retention 

A new employee’s opinion of your company isn’t formed in their first days; it begins during the hiring process. That’s why a focus on a personalized hiring approach will benefit your organization’s long-term strategy. If a candidate feels valued, that impression will follow them when they begin their new job. 

Referrals 

With a focus on a positive candidate experience, a good hiring process will also encourage current employees to recommend jobs to their network. Referrals have the highest rate of applicant-to-hire conversion. They account for only 7% of the applicants but 40% of the hires.  No one will refer someone to a job where they don’t feel like the process is positive, so building a personalized hiring process will help get the word out organically. 

Pipeline

One resource that companies don’t always take advantage of is the pool of previously applied candidates. It’s so common to start over with every new requisition that managers don’t see the assets that are right in front of them. Candidates not chosen for your position are still a great resource to help you fill other roles in your company. 

Reputation

A study by Weber Shandwick showed that only 19% of almost 2,000 global employees felt their experience on the job matched the image promoted during the hiring process. This all ties back again to your employer brand and the community’s impression. With a personalized recruitment experience, word of mouth will be positive and help generate buzz to encourage others to apply with your organization in the future. More importantly, your company needs to live up to your values and ideals.

Recruiting software, such as HireHive, will give you the ability to customize your process and streamline it to ensure candidates have a positive, personalized experience. 

How to Create a Personalized Hiring Process 

COVID-19 fast-tracked some of the most significant changes in recruitment, but they have been on the cusp for a long time. Today’s candidates expect more from potential employers, including a hiring process that’s easy to navigate and leaves them feeling excited about an opportunity. Here are the practical steps you should put in place to personalize your hiring experience. 

Improve Job Descriptions

job description shouldn’t just be a list of duties and the skills you’re expecting someone to bring to the table. Today’s job seekers want to know more about the company to pique their interest in applying for your job. Talk about what makes the job or your environment unique and why someone with the experience you’re seeking would want to apply. 

Increased Diversity Initiatives

According to the Job Seeker Nation Report assembled by Jobvite, 42% of job seekers would reject a job offer if the company did not commit to diversity initiatives or clear goals for improving diversity and inclusion. Working with recruiting software can help eliminate unconscious bias and increase recruitment resources for diverse communities. 

Focus on Communication 

From the initial application to the potential rejection, you need to focus on communication with candidates at every step of the process. In the beginning, an email reply form can keep them up to date about what happens next. As they progress through the process, communication needs to remain a priority. 

Provide Feedback 

When a candidate is not selected for an opportunity, you need to keep the pipeline open for the future. It can be helpful to provide positive feedback that can help job seekers continue their search or improve for positive future opportunities within your organization. 

Create an Easy-to-Use Online Application 

The statistics are astounding. It’s estimated that around 60% of potential applicants abandon online job applications. Most of the time, this is due to the complexity of the process or incompatibility with mobile devices. There was a prevailing thought that applications needed to be thorough to keep unqualified people from applying, but the adverse effects affected qualified candidates instead. 

Develop Passive Candidate Outreach

Passive candidate sourcing has never been easier, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. To reach this potential talent pool, leveraging social media has become increasingly more important. A personalized recruitment process that uses your employer brand and social platforms can get the message out to many more people. 

Make Onboarding Essential 

Your personalized hiring process doesn’t end when your new employee starts the job. Onboarding is just as essential as the recruitment experience. According to a Gallup poll, 88% of employees stated that their employers did not do an adequate job at onboarding. Poor onboarding processes lead to higher turnover. Your personalized hiring approach needs to encompass the entire initial experience with your organization, even after being hired. 

Conclusion: An All-in-One Solution to Personalize Your Hiring Process

A personalized hiring approach will attract top candidates for your open positions. Why not put yourself in the best place to hire great employees? Using recruitment software customized to work for you, your hiring process, and your company culture is step one in creating an employer brand that will work from start to finish. 

HireHive has processed over 1 million candidate applications, and companies have hired over 10,000 candidates using our system. International corporations and organizations make up our satisfied customer base. 

We help busy people hire great people. 

More than 1 million candidates from around the world have applied to companies through the HireHive Recruiting software. Try it for free and learn more today.

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“HireHive makes the team a lot more productive. We’d be lost without it. Team Leaders can do it all themselves if needed or jump in at the right time and know exactly where everything is and what’s happening.”

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Hilary Dempsey Head of HR at Life Credit union

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