Some of our customers have experienced the process of recruiting themselves either because they do some of their own hiring or they tried to fill a role before reaching out to us. However, lots of our customers only use agencies and don’t really understand the method behind the madness. So many people think about the recruitment process and assume it includes posting an ad and interviewing a few candidates and while yes, we do post ads and interview candidates there is so much more behind the scenes than you would expect.
The Evolution of Recruiting
Recruiting is not a new game, but we are definitely playing by new rules. Year over year recruiting continues to evolve and change. 30 years ago it was as easy as placing a sign outside your building that read “Help Wanted.” 20 years ago the process involved newspaper ads and a quick interview but now with the way that technology has evolved the entire recruitment process is different. Not only are more jobs easily seen by candidates but candidates have the ability to apply for work with the click of a button. This creates what appears to be an employer market when in reality employees have never had more options for work than they do right now.
What Does an Oversaturated Employee Market Mean for Recruiters?
Having an employee market means that while we may get 100 applications for a role about only 10 of them actually qualify for the next step but we still have to work through all 100 to find the 10. For example, let’s say you are looking to hire a AZ driver but you require 3 years of experience. About 50% of the people that apply have less than 3 years of experience. About 20% of the people ended up finding new jobs. Another 10% qualify and are looking for work but they don’t want to work at your pay rate and again, another 10% do not like the duties involved in the job description. That leaves you with 10 drivers but unfortunately after you have gone through the whole recruitment process with them; 5 of them would not fit in the company culture, 3 of them can’t make the hours work for their schedule, 1 of them got too scared to work because of covid and what was originally 100 applicants comes down to just one finalist that we have the opportunity to present to you! We find good jobs for good people, but because of the over saturated market your good employees are one in a million.
So what is the Recruitment Process Actually Like?
Candidate Pool
As an Agency who has acquired candidates dating back to 1966 we have been able to continually grow our candidate pool full of employees who are looking for work in a variety of roles. When starting the recruitment process, oftentimes we can go back into our candidate pool to employees who have either already worked for us in the past or have applied and gone through the full process so we know they are ready to start working ASAP.
Ads
If we get an order that does not fall in line with a current and available candidate we get started on moving further into the recruitment process which most often means placing job ads in a variety of places and talking up the job order with others from the industry who may refer candidates for the job. Oftentimes employers will start working with us having already placed ads but with no return and the difference is that we have a partnership with some of the top job boards in the market today that make your positions more noticeable and attractive to applicants. Along with getting your jobs seen more, because we work alongside candidates every single day we know what the majority of employees are looking for in a position which allows us the ability to highlight the desirable features of the role and make it more appealing to prospective candidates. Sometimes simply how you say what you say makes a significant impact on the results you get.
Read Resumes
Reading through resumes is a large portion of what we do. Oftentimes when ads are placed there is a list of requirements to apply to the role but despite this, it’s very common for a large portion of applicants to disregard the requirements and apply whether they have the right experience or not.
Phone Interview
Once we have read through all the resumes and accepted the handful that are acceptable for the position we reach out to each of them individually on the phone to do an initial phone interview. This is where we walk through their resume step by step and dig deeper into the past positions that they have had.
Application
After a candidate goes through the phone interview and both parties are still interested in proceeding forward we have them apply with us directly. Recently we have created a very user friendly app that allows candidates to go through the application process in the comfort of their own home. This allows us to collect all of the information and documents that we need in one place at the applicant’s convenience.
Training and Testing
Different roles require different kinds of training and testing. We work with industry specific training and testing providers to help us validate candidates’ experience levels and knowledge. We also utilize these vendors to help our candidates upgrade skills or qualify for additional training that helps them improve their skills and knowledge to qualify for additional opportunities.
Background Checks
Background checks are not required for every position but a lot of roles that we hire for have more sensitive aspects involved which require a background check on each candidate to confirm that they are suitable for the position.
Reference Checks
One of the final stages is reference checks. At this point in time we have a fairly good understanding of what kind of employee our applicants are, however by personally doing our reference checks we have a clearer picture of not only what the employees have done but how the employees work. Reference checks offer an inside view into how the applicant has performed in the past and will perform once they are on board and inside your building.
In Person/Phone Interview with Customer
Once the eight steps ahead have been completed we then have the ability to pass along each candidate’s information to our customers. The power is then in your hands, you have the ability to read through the top candidates in our search and choose to pass on them, have them in for a final interview or hire them right away!
Recruiting Is What We Do!
At the end of the day the recruitment process continues to change but the goal remains the same; we find good jobs for good people. While you may be looking for someone asap it is helpful to remember that even though we get lots of applicants and even though we have a great candidate pool it does not mean that we can throw a good employee at you in seconds. As an organization our focus is on fit and finish not first to market. We find employees who want to do a good job, learn and grow in a role and connect them to good employers who see our staff as valuable assets to their team.
