Mastering Your Hiring Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide for Companies

Hello dear readers,

Recently, I have been analyzing the requests I receive from companies, and the most popular ones were "how to hire people" and "how to increase the quality of hiring." Both sides feel frustrated when it comes to hiring: candidates don't know how to build a strategy for job hunting and how to effectively present their skills, while companies struggle with what to ask and how to ensure a good match.

We have spoken extensively about hiring for individuals, and now it's time to address the needs of the companies. Today's post will focus on how to establish a strong hiring strategy within a company, and in the upcoming week, we will discuss other related topics, such as improving the quality of hiring, what to do after hiring a new employee, and so on. I believe these insights will be helpful for everyone, including job seekers.

Let's dive right in!

Firstly, let's distinguish between Hiring Strategy and Hiring Process.

Hiring Strategy refers to a clear, formal plan that outlines how your business will attract, hire, and onboard talent. It should align with your overall company objectives and encompass talent requirements, skills gaps, headcount planning, employee value proposition, recruitment marketing strategies, selection criteria, tools or technologies to be utilized, succession plans, and the recruitment budget. Your recruitment strategies should be achievable and easy to communicate. Using the SMART method of goal setting can be highly effective, ensuring each aspect is well-defined and associated with measurable numbers and timelines.

In other words, the Hiring Strategy serves as a roadmap for the entire hiring process and helps the company build a strong foundation for acquiring the right talent.

The Hiring Process, a vital part of the Hiring Strategy, is a specific set of steps and activities involved in finding, selecting, and hiring new employees. It is a more focused and tactical approach to recruitment, concentrating on the day-to-day tasks and actions required to identify and hire suitable candidates. The Hiring Process typically includes activities such as job posting and advertising, candidate sourcing and screening, conducting interviews, performing background checks and reference checks, making job offers, and onboarding the new hires.

After understanding the base concept, we are getting closer to the main goal - setting the Hiring strategy. To have a more detailed plan, we will briefly outline each point and categorize them into domains. Hiring Strategy consists of:

1. Hiring Process:

A) The hiring process begins with a thorough analysis of your existing team, dividing them into 9 groups based on the Performance and Potential Matrix, for example.

The Nine-Box Grid for Talent Management helps you evaluate talent in your team by categorizing people based on their (past) performance and (future) potential. This helps you think about how to train and develop individual team members. As well, you can address the main soft and hard skills for each group and determine the personal qualities to look for while selecting candidates to have successful hires.

The grid's nine categories are:

1. Star Performer (high potential, high performance).
2. Rising Star (high potential, average performance).
3. Potential Star (high potential, poor performance).
4. Key Contributor (moderate potential, high performance).
5. Core Team Member (moderate potential, average performance).
6. Underperformer (moderate potential, poor performance).
7. Trusted Team Member (limited potential, high performance).
8. Adequate Performer (limited potential, average performance).
9. Problem Team Member (limited potential, poor performance).

To use this model effectively, analyze team members objectively, using the same scoring criteria for each person. Also, remember that this is just one approach you can use to develop and hire your people.

NOTE: To optimize your workforce's potential, it is crucial for HR and hiring managers to regularly review their team's performance. This ensures that each team member is working effectively and efficiently. Consider the following questions: Are employees performing at their best capacity? Are they provided with adequate training and development opportunities? Is the team structure conducive to fostering growth and success?One more effective method to facilitate this process is by using a talent / skills matrix. This tool allows managers to assess their team's capabilities and identify areas for maximizing potential. It provides valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, enabling targeted efforts to enhance their skills and contributions.

B) Next, set clear selection criteria for each existing position (base for the Ideal candidate profile), and identify the soft and hard skills needed for your organization's growth and success. Here is an example of an ideal candidate profile and what you should include in it:

1. Work Experience
2. Qualifications / Education
3. Specific Skills: Soft Skills
4. Specific Skills: Hard Skills
5. Career Goals
6. Optional: Interests / Hobbies, Location, Objectives.

NOTE: Never add criteria such as gender, race, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital status, or having children. Not only is it ridiculous, but it is also illegal and goes against principles of fairness and equal opportunity.

Additionally, create a "Hiring Forecast" to estimate the number of new employees needed in the future to achieve your goals. When forecasting for your future hiring needs, it is essential to consider both external and internal influences. Take into account aspects from business trends to planning for the unknown, and pay additional attention to:

• New Divisions: If your company is expanding into new divisions or areas, consider the staffing needs for these ventures.
• Upcoming Contracts and Business Wins: Anticipate future projects and contracts that may require additional workforce.
• Skills Gaps in Your Business: Identify areas where your organization lacks the required expertise and plan to address these gaps through hiring and training.

By carefully analyzing these factors, you can make informed decisions about areas of your business that may need workforce expansion or downsizing to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Now it's time to plan how, where, and what you will offer candidates as a company.

C) EVP (Employee Value Proposition): EVP is a vital part of your HR strategy and HR Brand, representing everything of value your company offers its employees. Highlight your company's culture, work-life balance, career growth opportunities, and other perks that set you apart from competitors.

Engage your teammates in internal research, asking them "WHY are you working HERE / WHY did you apply to work at this company? WHAT are the most valuable BENEFITS for you? WHAT skills do you think help you succeed in your job?", and "WHAT part of your job do you ENJOY most?" Their answers will provide valuable insights.

D) MarHR & Recruitment Marketing Strategies:

This block focuses on the actions that will help you attract candidates effectively. Decide on the channels to reach your target candidates (social media, job boards, employee referrals, etc.) and tailor your messaging to resonate with your ideal candidates and communicate your company's values and culture. Continuously develop your HR Brand to maintain a strong employer brand in the market.

E) Combine the information and build the following selection process: To build an effective selection process, it's not enough to know how many and who you are going to hire; you need to have a vision of how you will achieve this. Thus, you need to:

1. Build a Recruitment (HA) Team: establish a dedicated team responsible for the recruitment process. This team will handle sourcing, screening, and initial assessments of candidates. They will play a crucial role in finding the right talent for your organization.
2. Select Interviewers, Reviewers, and Hiring Managers: Carefully choose individuals from different departments to be part of the interview and review panel. Include hiring managers who understand the role's requirements and team dynamics. Having diverse perspectives during the selection process can lead to better decision-making.
3. Training and Standardization: Provide comprehensive training to the interviewers, reviewers, and hiring managers to ensure a consistent and fair assessment of candidates. Training should cover interview techniques, avoiding biases, evaluating skills, and understanding the company's values and culture.
4. Job Description and Interview Materials: Develop and maintain up-to-date job descriptions that accurately reflect the roles and responsibilities. Use the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to highlight the company's unique offerings to potential candidates. Prepare a set of standardized interview questions tailored to each role, ensuring that they align with the job description and required skills.
5. Feedback Templates: Create standardized feedback templates for interviewers and hiring managers. These templates should capture specific strengths, weaknesses, and overall fit of candidates. Consistent feedback allows for better comparison and evaluation of candidates.

F) Tools: This point is often overlooked but is crucial. Plan in advance where you will collect your TA base (existing employees and potential candidates). Utilize Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to streamline candidate management, saving time and resources while improving the overall candidate experience.

G) Budget: Determine a reasonable recruitment budget that aligns with your company's hiring needs and resources. The budget should cover recruitment team salaries, external recruitment resources, recruitment marketing, technology investments, internal hiring manager training, and any other expenses related to talent acquisition.

H) Processes improvements and monitoring: Having a written Hiring strategy doesn't mean you won't need to evaluate and tune it. Continuously develop it by implementing key performance indicators (KPIs) for your recruitment.

Base indicators are:

• Time-to-fill: The time that elapses from the job advertisement to the final filling of the position.
• Cost-per-hire: The costs incurred for filling a position.
• Quality-of-Hire: How well do new talents fit the job.

Additionally, you can add some other metrics such as:

• Source of hire: Determining the best recruiting channel for attracting candidates.
• Rejection rate: Reflects the quality of recruiters' sourcing and indicates the percentage of applications that are rejected immediately (e.g., due to not meeting minimum requirements).
• Offer-Acceptance-Rate: The percentage of candidates who accept a position after receiving an offer.
• Cost-of-Vacancy: Calculates the cost of an unfilled position.
• Hiring-Manager-Satisfaction: Measures how satisfied hiring managers are with the recruiting process.
• Candidate satisfactions: Assesses how satisfied applicants are with the recruiting process.

To further enhance your hiring process, you can add as many parameters as needed to ensure that you have enough data to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments. This continuous optimization will lead to a more efficient and successful recruitment process.

To illustrate this better and share tips: To begin the process of improving your hiring strategies, start by assessing your turnover rate. If you find that you are frequently hiring for the same positions, it may be an indicator that your business is not experiencing the desired growth. In such cases, it's essential to delve deeper and address potential issues. Consider the following questions:

1. Do you need to enhance your employee value proposition to attract and retain top talent?
2. Is your candidate offering attractive, but you are not effectively communicating it to job seekers?
3. Is your online presence strong enough to reach potential candidates?

Once you have identified areas for improvement, outline clear and achievable goals for enhancing your hiring processes. Simultaneously, consider broader objectives that align with your organization's growth and success.

2. Onboarding and Integration. This should be another block of your Hiring Strategy. It consists of:

• Developing an onboarding process: After the selection process of top candidates, you must have an onboarding plan for the shortlisted candidates. Prepare their offer letter and terms and conditions for their onboarding process, along with a welcome kit (if possible).
• Consider providing onboarding training during the first few days, where complete information about the company, policies, procedures, and work culture is provided through an orientation program.
• Additionally, assign a buddy/supervisor to assist the new hires in a smooth transition and answer any questions that may arise.
• It's also important to set meetings with the HR team and Supervisors (Director, Lead) to ensure that everything goes smoothly and to identify areas for improvement.

The essential HR metrics here are:

1. Early turnover: The count of talents leaving during the onboarding phase.
2. OPL (Optimum Productivity Level): The total cost of bringing someone up to speed, including onboarding, training, supervision, and related expenses, along with a percentage of the employee's salary until they reach full productivity.
3. Employee Satisfaction: Measured by the number of employees who recommend the company as a good place to work versus those who wouldn't, reflecting overall satisfaction.
4. Retention Rate: Calculated by dividing the number of employees who remained over a period by the total number of employees.
5. Retention Rate per Manager: Breakdown of retention rate by individual teams and managers.
6. Talent Turnover Rate: The rate of turnover among high-performing and high-potential employees.
7. Total Turnover Rate: Calculated by dividing the number of employees who left within a period by the average total employees, then multiplied by 100 to determine the percentage.
8. Voluntary Turnover Rate: Focused on employees who leave voluntarily, excluding other forms of turnover.

3. Finally, the last block of a strong Hiring Strategy and one of the first blocks of a competitive HR strategy is.... Performance review and people development.To avoid losing strong employees, you should focus on their professional development and review their performance (with further salary review and material/non-material motivations :) ).

Wow, that was a lot of information! I hope you found it helpful and not boring to read :) Individuals can now compare how the strategy works in their companies (and if not, do you really want to work there?) while companies gain a vision on how to make things work and build their strategy.

See you next Monday! Have a great week!