Achieving the Most Critical Recruitment Metric

Hiring talented workers has become so competitive that organisations need to constantly be on the lookout for unique ways to meet their talent needs. HR teams are grappling trying to understand how they can meet these talent needs of their organisation in the most efficient manner. The hunt for talent starts from sourcing, screening, and finally selecting the right talent that will perform optimally while being invested in the company for the long-term. The talent market is continually becoming competitive. Hence, employer brand distinction, unique talent acquisition strategies and technologies, candidate experiences and the communication of core company culture and values are now more important than ever. Studies have revealed that 82% of companies don't believe they recruit highly talented people.

But do organisations really pay as much attention to hiring the right people as they should? While that’s a valid question, a better question would be- What gets in the way of organisations and the right talent?

GIGO - Garbage In Garbage Out

How are we sourcing candidates?

GIGO is a computer science acronym that implies bad input will result in bad output. Teams start their hiring process with the age-old practice of CVs. Although the document is treated as the ‘go-to’ requirement for being shortlisted in a recruitment process, it has quite a few fundamental issues. Being a practice dating back to 1482, CVs cannot help the HR teams of today to fill vacancies with the right candidates within tight deadlines. Given that on average HR teams look at a CV just for 6 seconds, it is imperative that teams adopt a better way to source candidates.

ATS attract padded CVs, which usually are from candidates who are desperately seeking job opportunities. There’s always a chance that these candidates have overstated their skills to impress the employer. But ATS is not an intelligent tool and selects CVs that are stuffed with the “right” keywords. With many free online services that let individuals “optimise” their CVs with the right keywords, it leads to many CVs looking similar. Thus, the ATS pulls a large number of CVs that still need to be looked at by HR teams. ATS is not a reliable option anymore.

Needle in the Haystack

Moving on from CVs

With each job post attracting quite a few so-called suitable candidates, it’s time to move on from the CV, and simply ask candidates the most relevant questions. Smart application forms not only save time but also standardise the recruitment application process. Hence, it’s not surprising that 65% of employers prefer application forms to CVs, as these forms guarantee consistency, quick filtering and the uniformity of questions make it easier to understand which candidates stand out.

Probe beneath the Surface

How are we screening candidates? While CVs will reveal the obvious job description parameters like academic qualification, experience, skills etc, HR teams need to learn more about the candidate as opposed to characteristics that are more easily identified. The ATS fails to measure behavioural attributes, and have undermined the importance of cultural adaptability, creative intelligence and problem-solving skills in a real work situation.

We need to narrow the funnel by filtering applicants through ‘smart’ application forms. Usually the shortlisted candidates are asked to appear for skill, aptitude, domain-knowledge, and even psychometric tests.

Traditional job assessments are passé.

Skills are important, but conducting traditional assessments is not easy when teams are pressed for time. Not only does preparation of such tests take time, but getting candidates to respond to emails, or come over to the company office physically can be a daunting task, especially when the hiring volume is large. Hence, talent acquisition teams need a tool that not only helps them create the most suitable assessments but also makes it easier for candidates to take these tests, on the go.

With more than 73% of candidates seeking a job passively, it’s imperative for companies to make assessments more accessible with an agile platform that is seamlessly synced over multiple devices and allows candidates to have a compelling candidate experience that is mobile-enabled.

HR teams will also need to understand that skill or cognitive assessments are only half the picture. Organisations need to hire not only for skills that match the present job role but also non-cognitive traits that will enable candidates to adapt to the company’s culture, learn new and future skills and behave positively in the face of change. Therefore, HR teams will have to employ smart assessments that give them a well-rounded view of the candidates. Using third-party assessment tool is not an option as HR teams need to tweak their job assessments based on their job role and their organisations’ core values.

Online assessment tests also need to be proctored to safeguard the integrity of assessments that now can be conducted remotely.

The Litmus Test for Identifying the Right Candidates How are we selecting candidates?

After, candidates have gone through the assessment tests they are shortlisted for the interview. Interviews are one of the most critical interactions between the candidate and the employer. The HR understands how the candidate talks, behaves and reacts to stimuli and candidates can also get a fair idea about the organisation’s culture from the quality of the interaction with the interviewer and the convenience of the process. The interaction helps both parties make informed decisions. But even here, HR teams often struggle to make the process more effective. While face-to-face interviews seem important, they are time-consuming, hard to schedule and can be a tiring experience for the candidates, if they have to travel, which in most cases means that they have to take off from work. Given the following problems with face-to-face video interviews, HR teams resort to phone interviews and free video calling software. But phone interviews can be extremely harmful to your talent strategy and free video calling software are not really free. Even if we overlook the interview frauds perpetuated by these tools, the results of the interviews are ad hoc and in silos. HR teams have confessed to have nested biases which have lead to wrong judgements. Considering that this is the last lap of the hiring marathon, this can be a fatal mistake.

Therefore, a ‘smart’ video interviewing platform that helps HR teams do away with scheduling headaches, removes biases, and brings consistency and collaboration in to the hiring process is becoming critical day by day. Video interviews can help HR teams weave highly engaging candidate experiences while helping them gain insights about their candidates that can be made accessible to all the decision-makers.

Rethink Your Recruitment Metrics?

With teams constantly looking for the most relevant recruitment metrics, making the right hiring decisions is the most important recruitment metric. In fact, it is the only recruitment metric companies should be thinking about.

With digital transformation of the recruitment cycles and adoption of online assessments and interview tool, the cost of hire has reduced. Time to fill is no longer a metric as hiring is no longer reactionary. Talent acquisition is strategic. The mission is to hire top talent as an ongoing endeavor, and is no longer an activity to fill a vacancy. Talent acquisition is an ongoing process. Organisations that only engage in active hiring for open job positions will miss the opportunity to acquire good talent . Their process have remained largely unchanged, since there is no metric to prove the (lost) opportunity cost of this method. Organisations that fail to have an ongoing interaction with the talent market and evangelising their brand, miss the opportunity to attract the best talent.

People Are Not Your Most Important Asset. The Right People Are.

To attract and acquire the right talent, HR team need an ‘unified’ platform that enables them to perform all the above activities, consolidate and compare the results. The platform must allow them to build an ongoing hiring funnel. But the services and features mentioned above are often provided in silos, or as separate services without any integration. So where can talent acquisition teams find a consolidated solution?

The answer lies in our fully integrated platform that is agile and seamlessly synced across devices. To improve your hiring metrics you need a smart solution that not only increases the effectiveness and productivity of your HR teams, but also helps you build a talent pipeline to tap on when the need arises.

The best talent don’t actively look for new opportunities on your hiring timeline. To build a talent pool please write to us today.