Talent, who isn't looking for it! You have satisfied customers, are working on product development, maybe even secured an investment and you want to increase your impact. You're looking for the best people to take your organization forward and grow. But where do you find them? Here are five steps to make your recruitment process the best it can be.

Step 1 - Make internal recruiting part of your recruitment process

Start the recruitment process within the organization itself. Start with the talent that is already there! After all, your best employees can also be enticed by another employer. 

• Look at the potential of your current team and how they can be part of the growth. What roles can they fill now or in the future that are hard to find in today's market? Wondering how we helped a client with this? Check out this link!
• Use your top talents in transferring knowledge and training your juniors. This way, your juniors become the new top talents and you can look for new juniors in the job market. They are easier to find and offering a training and development program is an attractive condition of employment. 

Find more tips on how to engage and captivate your employees here. Or curious about the power of a unique job posting? Then listen to this episode of the Work Professor podcast. 

Step 2 - Find your sweet spot

Competencies and skills are not the only requirement for your best employees. A third and perhaps more important component is culture fit (check out our business case to see how we helped SADC with this challenge). Your top talent has the right skills and fits your company culture. 

• Create your story towards your target audience in the job market. A candidate will choose the story that inspires and the club they want to be a part of.  
• Involve your current best people in creating this story; they breathe the culture and have answers to why they love working for you. Make your culture concrete and translate it into core values and behaviors that describe it. 
• Invest in a way of selection during the recruitment process that objectifies the cultural click and fit with the role to avoid any biases. This can be done by presenting a case where you can choose between different strategies and investing in an assessment.

Step 3 - Take care of your ambassadors

A great way to find and attract new talent is to use your current people! After all, they already know how much fun it is to work for your organization and can convey this like the best. So a large part of your future talent will be found in the network of your employees. This group is even larger if you include your former employees and the people who have applied for jobs with you. So it is extra important to retain them as ambassadors as well.

• Make your employees part of the growth ambition. Explain why you are looking for people and who they are, give interim recruitment updates and let your people think about it, and ask them to actively share social media posts. Make recruitment a shared responsibility. 
• Make the application process a good experience. Make sure your process and roles are clear. Train your people on how to conduct a well-structured interview so they can use the right questions to understand whether the candidate and organization fit together. Both on skills and culture. Make sure every candidate, even if they are rejected, is treated with care so that they too speak positively about your company. Receiving a thank you from an applicant for a rejection, it really does exist! 
• It may happen that an employee seeks a challenge outside the door. Support your people in this, no matter how unpleasant it may be, make sure you say goodbye so that they too remain your ambassador. 

Step 4 - Fill your pipeline 24/7

Do you start your recruitment process the moment you need people? Then you're too late. Finding talent is not something you do occasionally; it requires constant attention. Build a talent pipeline so you can approach people directly the moment you have a job opening. 

• Continually stay visible to your target audience through social media and events. It works even better if your employees themselves actively share content about your product, customer or a social event.
• Be sure to stay in conversation with people in your network or as soon as they show interest in your organization.  
• Ensure that each executive devotes at least one half-day per month to recruitment. Set yourself a goal of speaking to at least 2 potential candidates per month, for example.

Step 5 - Use HR Tech tools when setting up your recruitment process

There are many HR Tech tools that make different processes in your organization more efficient and enjoyable, including the recruitment process. Make use of the right tools to improve the process and relieve your people of administrative issues. An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is really a must-have, otherwise you will never beat the competition:

• You optimise the candidate experience;
• You get a better understanding of the recruitment pipeline of different roles, so you know exactly where and when to take action.

If your recruitment team is professional, they can use analytics to predict how long it will take you to bring in your new top talent. Easy predicting!

Good luck with your talent hunt and let us know if you need help! And be sure to take a look at our HR Tech Community.

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