The Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions every Recruiter should make in 2019

With the New Year only a few days away, it’s that time of year to put your feet up and look back on everything you’ve done (or haven’t done) over the past 12 months. It’s always good to reflect and even better to start thinking about how to up your game for the following year! 

Did you know, on average it takes three attempts to successfully complete a New Year’s resolution – and almost two in five have never successfully fulfilled one. With this in mind, below are our go-to New Year’s resolutions every recruiter should make and how to achieve them to successfully bring in 2019.  

#1 Be more creative

Are you guilty of having a super lengthy recruitment process? Could it potentially be prohibiting finding the exceptional from the average?

With the best talent being placed in as little as five days, getting the recruitment process right is key. At the end of the day, you don’t want it to be your process rather than your ability being the reason why you lost to the top candidates. Knowing that 1 in 3 candidates drop out of the application process due to its sheer length and complexity, 2019 is the year to get down to the nitty-gritty and perfect your recruitment process.

Here are just a couple of ideas you could try to steer away from the traditional, bog-standard process:

• Add more of a personal touch by sending out flyers to clients. From selling pages to market updates or salary surveys, separate yourself from the competition.
• Send out complimentary gifts to show your gratitude. If that’s congratulating a candidate for being offered a new role, or to a client for thanking them for their partnership.
• Host an event to attract new candidates
• Or even try recruitment “speed dating”!

The more you step outside of the box, the more creative your candidates are likely to be!

#2 Take risks

As the digital era continues to boom, why not reassess your tech footprint and try something new. The benefits technology brings to any recruitment strategy can be endless, it’s finding what works for you and your industry that’s the difficult part.

By diving deeper behind the data, introducing algorithms and objective data into the recruitment process will ensure unconscious bias is significantly reduced and guarantee a better job fit. Win-Win for everyone!

#3 Break away from the job board addiction

The power of LinkedIn and other job boards alike are a success story for many recruiters. But it’s blinding recruiters from its one, crucial flaw – it only truly attracts candidates who are actively looking for a new role. The top talent is often still in work. So how do you attract these candidates?

The answer: adopting a new approach to finding talent and managing them. It’s all about driving traffic to your social profile or website. From ensuring content is relevant and consistent, to being involved in valuable and thought-provoking events and insights - all the little things add up to engage and start to build strong relationships, laying the foundations to turn them into potential candidates. 

Read here on how to create a killer LinkedIn profile.

#4 Make ‘ghosting’ a thing of the past

As much as many recruiters say they respond to all candidates, statistics do suggest otherwise. It’s one of those things’ recruiters know they should be doing, yet the dynamic world of recruiting has a persistent habit of falling back into the trap of sometimes becoming MIA.

No matter what the outcome, either being offered the role or falling at the first hurdle, communicating with candidates builds your brand and creates a positive perception of professionalism and compassion. Maintaining the relationship instead of burning the bridge may come in handy in the future, as you never know when the candidate’s CV may drop into your inbox again.

The best way to ensure you meet this New Year resolution is by setting a routine you follow daily. Schedule 1-2 hours of your day aside, say first thing in the morning or towards the end of the day (whatever suits you best), dedicated solely to following up with candidates by email or phone call. Or even set yourself some strict rules to abide by:

• All hopefuls to receive an email to confirm application or to let application rejects know their stance.
• All candidates who have had some type of interview, whether that’s a phone, video or face-to-face receive a call to let them know whether they have made it to the next stage or been rejected, along with three points of feedback.

Setting a strict routine that you actually stick to will make responding to every hopeful no longer something you hold off from.

#5 Hire, hire, hire!

The last New Year’s resolution for everyone hiring in the New Year is to invest in top talent. Make sure you’re devoting time and resources into new hires to make 2019 a big year for business growth. And once your hire has started, your role doesn’t stop there, in fact, it’s only just begun.

Ensure they receive relevant training, congratulate them on achievements made and re-recruit them. If they are great and have made a real difference in their role, why not promote them? Small incentives and rewards like this will make new employees feel valued and special, which will more than likely guarantee they stay put instead of moving shift to big competitors.    

Read here to find out how to make an employee’s first day a success.

2019 is the time to act. Recruiters have more leverage than you think in every aspect of the recruitment process, so make this year truly count by outdoing yourself from last year. Set yourself higher targets, look to grow your team and make 2019 a fundamental year of growth for you!

Merry Christmas and have a great New Year!

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3Search is an award-winning UK recruitment consultancy, specialising in marketing, strategy & transformation, and tech positions. Whether you’re seeking new talent or looking for your next career move, we can help. Learn more at 3search.co.uk.