Recruitment Process: Key Steps & How to Optimize Your Strategy

Whatever your organizational reality, here are the recruitment process steps that are crucial for attracting qualified candidates and making the best strategic choice for your company:

Before sharing job openings with potential candidates, conduct a strategic analysis of your internal recruitment needs. Begin by discussing with the key recruitment stakeholders (HR manager, department head, team manager, etc.) to define their expectations and priorities. Key questions to consider include:

• What are the main qualities you seek in a new hire?
• Which technical and non-technical skills are lacking in your organization and team?
• What organizational need does the hire fulfill? Is the recruitment urgent, or can it take more time?
• What is the maximum salary you can offer the new hire?
• Do you want the recruitment to focus on cultural fit with the company?

This first step enables you to create a clear job description and determine the limits, expectations, and timeline for recruitment. Even if the hire is urgent, take the time to ask these questions to set up an effective recruitment strategy and save time later.

Now that you have a clear idea of the desired profile, you can write and share your job posting with potential candidates. Post it on your website’s career page and on career sites or social networking sites that are relevant to your industry (LinkedIn, specialized recruitment sites, etc.). Focus on online platforms where you’re most likely to find suitable candidates, and ensure your job specifications include:

• Expected technical skills and relevant experience;
• Job title, responsibilities and tasks associated with the job position;
• The job’s location and specific working conditions;
• The work environment and employee benefits offered by the company;
• A short description of your organizational mission and values;
• Details on the next steps in the recruitment process.

Your job openings are a great opportunity to showcase yourself as an employer of choice: don’t hesitate to detail the job vacancy to attract high-quality candidates!

Once you receive a sufficient number of applications in response, it is time to review each resume and cover letter to determine if they match your previously defined needs.

This stage is also ideal for inviting relevant candidates to participate in various assessments based on the position and your requirements (such as technical, language, IT, or writing skills tests or pre-employment checks). It’s also helpful to conduct an initial phone interview to outline the next steps and evaluate the first interaction with the potential hire. Insights gathered during phone screenings will also guide your interview process.

While it’s crucial to carefully select the list candidates you’ll meet, consider arranging multiple rounds of interviews with different profiles to ensure you don’t miss out on the best talent. These meetings, be they in-person or video interviews, let you assess the candidate’s personality, soft skills, professional values, and cultural fit with the organization.

The selection interview also provides an opportunity to conduct additional assessments if needed (psychometric tests, scenario-based exercises, etc.). Be prepared to ask the interview questions that are most relevant to your company and the position, and set up a strategic and constructive discussion to determine which candidate you want to join your organization.

At last, the D-day has come: you have now found the best fit and are ready to send them a job offer letter. Ideally, your first choice will accept your salary offer as it is, allowing you to promptly send their employment contract. In some cases, more in-depth discussions and further negotiations will be needed.

In all cases, it’s important to communicate with the new employee’s future team to prepare for their onboarding into the company. Don’t forget to explain the next steps in the integration process to the new employee and to inform unsuccessful candidates of your final decision.

As you can imagine, strategic recruitment requires a great deal of time and energy. Companies often don’t have the resources to ensure an efficient process at every stage of the hiring process. Fortunately, there are ways to simplify the essential steps of your recruitment process:

Did you know that one of the most time-consuming recruitment tasks – namely, gathering and sorting resumes – can be automated?

Using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) allows you to centralize your CV database and simplifies candidate profile analysis. What’s more, these platforms automate recruitment emails sending and job interview scheduling.

Many recruitment software solutions also offer multi-posting capabilities on numerous job sites and social networks, as well as synchronization with your career page.

If you regularly recruit new employees to your company, it can be a good idea to create job description templates to save time on the job posting creation stage.

These templates can include a description of your organization and its mission, highlight your corporate culture and the benefits you offer your employees, and illustrate your brand image for quick recognition by potential candidates. Afterwards, you’ll only need to modify a few key points on each job description, saving you precious time on your hiring processes.

While application management software often offers collaboration features for recruiters, you can also encourage teamwork on a recruitment mandate by using a project management platform.

This way, resources who have more time to complete a key step in the process can take over, avoiding delays and oversights in your recruitment.

If you regularly use tests in your hiring process, it may be a good idea to automate their delivery to the candidates you’re interested in when the time comes. With an effective applicant testing solution, you’ll be able to send the pre-selection test to the talent in just one click, and be notified of the results directly by email.

This optimization is particularly relevant if you regularly recruit candidates who have to meet the same technical, linguistic or behavioral requirements.

Having a good understanding of your strategic needs and requirements can enable you to create a standardized, company-wide candidate scoring grid. By doing so, you can save time in your selection processes by determining whether the candidates you assess and interview match your list of pre-established criteria.

Of course, not every position requires the same skills and qualities, but you can customize your scoring grid where necessary to remain efficient and make strategic choices quickly.

A good recruitment process takes time and is essential for attracting and retaining talent. Even if your hiring needs are urgent, it is crucial to follow each key step to make the best decision for your team and company.

Modernize your recruitment processes with our comprehensive ATS solution: from multi-posting features to intelligent CV sorting and candidate communication automation, Folks ATS saves you time and increases the efficiency of your talent acquisition strategy!