Anybody in the recruitment game will be well aware by now of the struggles faced when recruiting in a candidate-driven market.

The opportunity pool is outweighing the candidate pool and competition for the ‘best catch’ has never been more intense.

We understand the difficulties in-house talent teams are facing and the current state of the market has highlighted the importance of the constant need to review and adapt your recruiting processes to ensure those ‘unicorn’ candidates don’t slip through the net.

We have compiled a selection of our top tips to follow when streamlining your hiring tactics:

Don’t drag it out!

Where you can, shorten your process timeline. In a market with seemingly endless opportunities, good candidates won’t be waiting around. They also won’t be thrilled about going through 5 phases of interview – especially if they proved their worth in the first one! Try to keep it as short as is feasible. Don’t let your candidate be snapped up by someone due to a lack of urgency. 

Stop ‘umming and ahhing’

If you think you have found the ‘perfect’ candidate, then you probably have. So stop there. Don’t tell a candidate they look like the perfect fit but you’re going to interview a handful more ‘just to be sure’. Nine times out of ten that perfect candidate won’t be waiting there for when you inevitably circle back to them. It’s a fast-paced market – keep up!

Embrace flexibility

Now, this isn’t applicable or viable for everybody. But where possible, try and offer flexibility to your candidates. If they are after a hybrid approach or potentially fully remote and you can provide this, then don’t limit yourself from obtaining top talent by geographically excluding them or cutting them due to commitments they want to balance with their work such as childcare.

Be a ghostbuster!

If there is one thing that is never going to serve you well as a recruiter, it is definitely ‘ghosting’ your candidates. Now we know it can be difficult to let down candidates, especially after you have connected with them, and even more so if it is a candidate you have been nurturing for a while. However, one little ‘ghost’ or ‘forgotten response’ could lose you that candidate that may be the perfect fit for your next vacancy! Please just be courteous and a no is never the end, so keep that candidate relationship rolling!

Utilise your Tech

Advancements in tech are amazing and I know we may be biased but we think there is always a place for it in our recruiting plans! We see the tech test as a big bone of contention – we’d recommend a technical interview consisting of a pair programming exercise/code review above a take-home test. It takes less time and is less disruptive to the candidates’ work-life balance. You also get a much smaller dropout rate.

Brush up on your pitching skills

The best candidates are the ones who have clearly done their homework before attending an interview and ensure they show why they should be the one who receives the offer. The same should go for you. In a market where opportunities are piling up, you need to ensure you make it clear why they should want to work for you over anybody else. Tighten up that EVP.

POV: You’re a candidate in your process

Where possible, trial all parts of your process yourself and conduct a quality check. If you can’t even get through your own process, whether that be due to poor job adverts, lengthy and confusing applications, or accessibility issues with your website or platform, you can’t expect your candidates to either! Being aware and informed of the reality of your hiring process is so valuable in order to see where the problems lie, allowing you to make better decisions when it comes to improvements.

So, all in all, it’s about ensuring your recruitment processes are accessible, straightforward, and effective. For candidates, moving jobs or seeking a new career opportunity can often be stressful so be the one to take that stress off their shoulders. Keep them informed, engaged, and excited about your process (over anyone else) so hopefully, they will want to stick around until our favorite part … OFFER stage.

Good luck and happy recruiting!

Still struggling?

Let us help! We understand that making the decision to outsource your recruitment can be difficult, let alone trying to navigate ‘who’ in the saturated recruitment market you can really rely on.

At Ada Meher, we aim to revise people’s perspectives on recruitment companies and deliver transparent, ethical, and honest recruitment services for all our clients.

Trust us. We’ll deliver.

Get in touch now!