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Recruitment is a complex function. It calls for a set of intricate capabilities
that include a macro view of the business, a deep understanding of
organizational philosophy and goals, domain knowledge, marketing aptitude,
negotiation skills, reliable intelligence on market conditions, and the ability
to align recruitment processes with organizational imperatives. Amidst this,
recruiters must be able to identify the best talent, ward off poachers, and keep
processes flexible and their motivation high. Recruitment as a profession is
tough, unrelenting and constantly changing. And the lack of efficacy of
recruitment has an immediate impact on organizational productivity. Is it any
surprise that organizations are looking at ways to overcome these challenges?
Over the years, the number of channels available for recruitment has grown and
the pace of recruitment has increased. Time available for recruitment has begun
to shrink. And talent quality is on the decline. This has created three distinct
issues for organizations attempting to scale: It is difficult to ensure quality
talent; recruitment costs are increasing; and, recruitment time and recruitment
rate are unable to match requirements.
The Top 3 Recruitment Pain Points
It has become almost impossible to meet recruitment goals without bloating the
HR and recruitment team – a fact that can be troublesome during lean business
phases. Smart organizations have begun to look outwards for solutions. And their
focus is on three key aspects of recruitment and their solutions:
• Bringing predictability to talent selection;
• Predictability in cost of recruitment; and,
• Improved selection rates and selection time.
The Magic Solution: Pre-Selection
In an age when talent comes at a premium and lead times for fulfilling talent
gaps have shrunk, it is imperative that organizations have a strategy to manage
effective and efficient recruitment. It is time for organizations to focus on
their core business and let specialists and professionals do the recruitment.
This can be achieved through outsourcing of the recruitment function – a fact
that will keep HR teams lean even while creating the ability to scale
recruitment when necessary. The goal of the outsourced recruitment function is
to ensure a predictable talent pipeline through pre-selection. Pre-selection is
a powerful tool that can bring predictability to talent selection, increase
throughput and reduce cost of recruitment.
The ideal outsourced recruitment partner should be capable of defining
recruitment profiles and have access to all the recruitment channels. When
applications come in, the recruitment partner should have a scalable pool of
certified domain experts and consultants available to screen the applications
and shortlist candidates. One of the most frustrating barriers to smooth
recruitment is the inability of the organization to bring short-listed
candidates for interviews before busy Subject Matter Experts (SME) who are
unable to devote time to recruitment from their organizational roles. Even when
the SME is available to interview candidates, there can be potential conflicts
of interest that result in the SME rejecting candidates that are suitable for
the job. In short, objectivity is sacrificed and the organization suffers.
Understanding the Path Breaking 6-Step Pre-Selection Processes
The 6 Step Pre-selection Process requires careful assessment of the client
needs, role and job descriptions, benchmarking, market conditions, resources to
assess talent and continuous improvement in process management.
Requirement Gathering: This involves an account manager who works with
the client, domain experts or function specific technical panels, to understand
and define client’s needs, an Operations team to manage recruitment channels,
applicants, applications, client expectations, logistics, calendaring, setting
up interviews, availability of experts and panels, follow up with candidates.
Critical to Process: The Process should be scalable, domain expert and
functional teams should be certified and available across goes.
Interview Panel Calibration/Detail Job Description: The client’s
technical panel calibrates outsourced recruitment partner’s domain experts and
functional teams. Complete Job Descriptions are created for Outsourced
Recruitment Partner to fulfill.
Critical to Process: There must be complete business alignment between
client and outsourced recruitment partner.
Assessment Approach: The Outsourced Recruitment Partner should understand
and be able to identify ideal candidates, have a clear interview and process
methodology, freeze topics to cover in the interview, capture skill weightage
and define selection criteria.
Critical to Process: The Outsourced Recruitment Partner should maintain
complete transparency in interview process. Interviews should be recorded and
available to client teams and client teams should be present for a pre defined
percentage of random interviews.
Assessment Form for Interviewer: Document approach/interviews and
outcomes into forms for assessment and review by client.
Critical to Process: Maintaining consistency across the interview process
should be the primary objective.
Pilot Interviews: Client’s technical team to monitor pilot interviews,
observe selection rate (throughput), and Turn Around Time.
Critical to Process: The pilot interviews should be objective with no
conflict of interest.
Improve Pre-selection: Bridge process gaps, bridge operational gaps,
bridge skill/technical gaps.
Critical to Process: Inputs should be used for continuous improvement of
pre-selection process.
Bring Predictability to Talent Selection
A good outsourced recruitment partner will have a pool of domain experts
available simultaneously in the geographies where interviews need to be
conducted. In order to maintain transparency, all interviews should be recorded
and made available to the client’s team when required. And an objective, domain
expert driven selection process is likely to increase the number of short listed
candidates. Once candidates are short-listed, the organization’s HR and
recruitment teams can evaluate and select candidates, taking over the process of
making offers and subsequent on boarding.
Bring Predictability to Recruitment Costs
An outsourced recruitment process must use outcome based pricing to maximize
results. Organizations can choose from a variety of pricing models depending on
their circumstances and needs. These could include per selected candidate
pricing, throughput based pricing, or interview based pricing. Each of these
models has a set of challenges. But between them, they can address every
possible need. All that remains is for organizations to find their comfort level
with the appropriate model.
Bring Predictability to Selection Rate and Time
Outsourcing recruitment to capable organizations that have the tools, processes
and people to manage your requirements will ensure a predictable selection rate.
Outsourced recruiters are more in touch with the realities of the markets,
understand industry needs and have the capability to scale operations in order
to meet Selection Rate and Turnaround Time criteria.
Conclusion
Recruitment is becoming a specialized task. With uncertain business conditions,
it is almost impossible to keep costs down and recruitment teams lean without
impacting the quality of recruitment. It therefore means that organizations must
sooner – rather than later – work with specialist recruitment partners to meet
talent gaps and improve the talent pool.
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