best practices

Six moves for recruiting managers to build a talent powerhouse

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Best Practices: Six moves for recruiting managers to build a talent powerhouse

As a recruiting manager today, youre judged by the quality of your candidates. However, getting the right talent is a tricky business. There are so many ways to reach applicants nowadays social media, mobile, job boards, referrals. With all the tools available to you, why is it so hard to source great candidates?
There is little room for error. Because companies continue to keep head count low, the expectation is to nd the perfect person to ll every position. And on top of the pressure to meet quality demands, applicants themselves have changed the game. Applicants share every detail of your recruiting process online, and companies offering the best candidate experience end up collecting the best talent. If you cant adapt to the changes in the recruiting game, you could nd yourself benched. Stay ahead of the pack by frequently adjusting your recruiting plans to help ensure success for your company and your brand. Technology is the big game changer. And technology can tilt the odds back in your favor, connecting you with top-quality candidates if you make the right moves. Six moves you should make today include: 1. Work with the systems. To get quality candidates, you must start with quality descriptions. Applicant tracking systems and keywords are being scrutinized in the business press for ltering candidates based on criteria that are too narrow, resulting in a black hole effect for applicants. Ideal candidates may not game the systems keyword listings, resulting in a kicked-out rsum.1 To avoid screening out ideal candidates, you should weigh how you search for and collect the right words and entries to get a more accurate ltering process. For example, applicants can use a menu to check off critical skills in the application, pre-qualifying applicants more directly than just searching rsum text. You can also calibrate your systems to make it easier for quality candidates to get through to an interview. That means using the same interview questions and providing training for interviewing consistency. Leggett & Platt, an S&P 500 diversied manufacturer, partnered with SuccessFactors to exceed its goal of 75 percent A-Player hiring.2 By using recruiting management tools, the HR talent groups focus shifted to more-strategic initiatives, leading to longer-term talent planning and targeting the right talent. 2. Use social tools to stay connected. Applicants use social tools to search for jobs, but which tools are they using? Job boards? Social media? Referrals? Most likely, its a mix of channels. CareerXroads indicates that 20.1 percent of external hires come from job boards, but the applicants path to the job board or your website includes social media.3 Buzz about your company as an employer typically starts on social media channels. Applicants then go to the boards or your website for specic listings. Understand this path, and look at the channels that most affect your hiring. Combine your social media strategy with your talent acquisition goals, then test the strategy for a short time before committing to it on a large scale.4

Applicants share every detail of your recruiting process online, and companies offering the best candidate experience end up collecting the best talent.

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Weber, Lauren. Your Rsum vs. Oblivion. The Wall Street Journal. 2012. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204624204577178941034941330.html SuccessFactors Customer Spotlight: Leggett & Platt Crispin, Gerry and Mehler, Mark. 2012 Sources of Hire: Channels That Inuence. CareerXroads. http://www.slideshare.net/gerrycrispin/2012-careerxroadssource-of-hire-channels-of-inuence Jones, Katherine. Using Social Networks: How Global Recruiting Tools Help Attract Top Talent. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase the report, visit http://www.bersin.com/practice/Detail.aspx?id=14770

Best Practices: Six moves for recruiting managers to build a talent powerhouse

3. Manage recruiting on the go. Social isnt the only technology that is speeding up recruiting. Talent acquisition tools are going mobile because response time matters when pursuing top talent. With mobile options, you can keep up with requests, stay on top of applicants, and move talent through the hiring process.5 Social tools also link applicants with mobile options. Smartphones place power in applicants palms, allowing them to receive notications, apply to jobs, and check on application status. These devices encourage applicants to proactively interact with your recruiting process. Are you responding? 4. Anticipate and forecast your needs. By the time a job is posted, the hiring manager needed it lled yesterday. To beat your competition, you must understand the long-term strategy of your rms talent needs.6 Analytics will be key to your preparation. Through workforce planning, you can identify trends and future skills needs. You can also evaluate your data against the external inuences that are changing the supply of talent in your market.7 Knowing the numbers will help you map your next recruiting steps. 5. Partner with Learning & Development. Youve heard it before: Your company is facing major skills gaps. Get proactive and partner with your learning managers. Through forecasting and mapping, you can develop collaborative programs that address the gaps. We all know that there are major costs and productivity losses when an employee leaves, not to mention the expense to replace them.8 Your learning peers can help identify the competencies needed for success in your organization. Use the proles of top performers as a guide and align your recruiting efforts with the training needed in the organization. You can then proactively search for talent that matches the competencies the business wants. 6. Think about the brand. Everyone is a marketer in this day and age. The experiences your applicants have with your company can end up at the top of every news feed online. Are those comments glowing, or are they scathing? Applicants are using sites such as Glassdoor.com and social tools to uncover the nitty-gritty on a companys interview process, from the actual screening questions to candidates experiences with your companys culture.9 As the recruiting manager, you have to be on top of the reputation your company is building as an employer. Partner with your marketing team to ensure that your processes are showing off your brand in the right way. Employer branding is also established through current employees. Theyll talk about work and the company online, so encourage them to share positive feelings about the company.10 Through recruitment, you can help your company build a great name in the market. When it comes to talent acquisition expertise, SuccessFactors has the tools to bring together recruiting marketing, management, and onboarding. Contact SuccessFactors to learn how we can put recruiting excellence to work in your business.

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SuccessFactors. Winning HR Strategies: A SuccessFactors E-Book. PWC. 15th Annual Global CEO Survey. 2012. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey OLeonard, Karen. The HR Factbook 2011: Benchmarks and Trends in HR Spending, Stafng and Resource Allocations. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase the report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=14059 PWC. 15th Annual Global CEO Survey. 2012. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey Sullivan, John. 10 Predictions for 2012: The Top Trends in Talent Management and Recruiting. http://www.ere.net/2011/12/05/10-predictions-for-2012-the-toptrends-in-talent-management-and-recruiting/ Jones, Katherine. Using Social Networks: How Global Recruiting Tools Help Attract Top Talent. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase the report, visit http://www.bersin.com/practice/Detail.aspx?id=14770

About SuccessFactors, an SAP Company

SuccessFactors, an SAP company, is the leading provider of cloud-based Business Execution Software, which drives business alignment, optimizes workforce performance, and accelerates business results. SuccessFactors customers include organizations of all sizes across more than 60 industries. With approximately 15 million subscription seats globally, we strive to delight our customers by delivering innovative solutions, content and analytics, process expertise, and best practices insights. Today, we have more than 3,500 customers in more than 168 countries using our application suite in 35 languages.

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