3 Key Tips for Boosting Your Recruiting Process

Early-stage founders have a lot on their plates, that’s even before creating a solid recruiting process. 

Running a company is incredibly hard and time-consuming. Although, with every new employee, founders can delegate some of their tasks and focus on setting their company on the right course. 

However, this also creates a problem – how do you make sure that these new employees are the right people for the job? How do you make sure that you're hiring people who will take your company to the next level?

The answer lies in having a strong recruiting process, which can serve as your secret weapon to growing your startup.

Our CEO, Michael Varley, talked about this recently in an interview: 

“You can have all the dreams in the world, but if you haven’t got the hiring resources to do it, your employees are going to crash and that’s where the burnout comes.”

Hiring is at the core of everything you do as a business - without quality people, you can’t create a quality company. 

As Martin Janse van Rensburg, Head of People at Prisma, said in our recent Recruitment Report:

“Speaking with a number of founders, they have all said they were shocked at how much time they spend searching, sourcing, and interviewing. 

Get someone really experienced who knows the market and let them find all the top talent for you. That way, you can actually focus on doing what you want to do, instead of being stuck in interviews all day every day.”

This is advice that can save your business. Without a solid hiring strategy, you will be completely at sea once your company starts to grow and develop. 

In this article, we will cover three reasons why you should invest in a strong recruitment process. 

The first should be at the very core of your business ethos. 

1. Tell Your Story, and Tell it Well

Finding a candidate whose skills match the job description is one thing, but finding someone who cares about the mission of your company and wants to contribute to it is a different story. 

We’ve written about this before in-depth - selling your story to a candidate can be one of the most powerful tools in finding the best talent.

To find the right candidate, you and your employees need to be aligned on the mission and the vision of your business. As Nate Guggia, Founder and Head of Before You Apply, summarised:

“If recruiters talked to fewer people but who are more qualified and more educated, those calls are going to be really productive conversations.

I think recruiters spend too much time running through the same checklist to screen a candidate in or out because they have to. “

Not only does this help your company find the best person for the job, but it also creates a solid hiring culture within your business. If someone sees an A-Player, they’re going to bring them into the fold and share them with the company. This way, the recruiting process becomes a shared experience with a collective goal. 

Share your business values with your employees, often, and share them as well with the wider world. The more people see what you’re motivated by, the more people who resonate with your business will find you. 

As Keith MacKenzie, leading content strategist at Workable explains:

“If you hire with an open mind and empathetic ear, and you build an employee value proposition that appeals directly to candidates, you may find that candidate attraction isn’t as much a challenge for you as it is for others.“

2. Be Patient in Your Recruitment Process

Recruiting is an investment that pays back over time. 

One of the best things you can do for your business is hire with care, especially in the early stages. 

As Isabel Strijland, our Head of Talent Acquisition, explains: 

“Hire conversationally. Have conversations with people you hire, really get to know them. Take it slowly and make sure you all share the same vision and they bring a new perspective.”

The first 10 people you hire will influence the next 100 - be meticulous and thorough in who you want to help share your vision. 

Georgia May, one of our Executive Talent Partners, also makes a great point on diverse hiring:

“Understand that diversity hiring in leadership takes longer. If you want to find the right person for your high-level positions, be patient. You will need to pivot a number of times, and it will need a touch of skill in spotting potential, but the payoff is absolutely worth the investment.”‍

3. Create a World-Class Candidate Experience

In Part Two of our Recruitment Trends Report, Liam Morely, Director of Talent Acquisition at Rasa, explained that: 

“Candidate Experience should be number one on every single talent team’s list. 

Collect as much data as you can about the Candidate Experience, and fix it, because every hiring experience is flawed.

You have to think about a low-ego candidate experience. However good you think your process is, there is something you can fix. Track everything, be supercritical, and above all, be honest.”

Understand that to err is human. Candidates who have a stellar interview and application process are considerably more likely to accept a position or continue in the process. Strip down your hiring approach and analyse each aspect - what can be improved? Where are we falling short?

From the first outreach to the final acceptance or rejection, you and your recruiting team need to be fully aware of every step and how to optimise it. 

Not only does this help you attract candidates through a stellar interview process, it also improves your ability to find high-quality talent. 

From extending an offer to deciding how to disclose salary information, it is all vital to your hiring process. 

Key Advice for Your Recruiting Process

For a new startup, every decision, even a small one, can have a huge impact.

Making the right decisions in terms of hiring is especially important, as it will determine who will be working with you shoulder-to-shoulder to make your idea a reality. 

If you don't put enough effort into the process of hiring great people, you can lose them and damage your company's brand. Investing in hiring will pay off. So remember: 

1. Tell Your Story, and Tell it Well
2. Be Patient in Your Recruitment Process
3. Create a World-Class Candidate Experience
   

Additionally, you can find plenty of expert hiring advice in our playbooks, guides, and how-to’s on our website. 

Want to work with us? We're always on the lookout for new talent. You can find all our open roles on the careers page.  

Does your business need help with hiring? Our expert team of embedded recruiters can work with you to find you the right talent with a modern approach. You can learn more about our services here.