What Should Your Top Recruiting Priorities Be?

Every company has different recruiting priorities. In our latest blog, we focus on the top five priorities every company should consider in its recruitment strategy.

Diversity Hiring

Diversity hiring is hiring based on merit, with special care taken to ensure procedures have reduced biases related to a candidate’s age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics that are unrelated to their job performance.

There are many benefits of having a diverse team including:

• Increase productivity

• A diverse workplace allows for more diverse thinking and ideas due to a broader range of perspectives.

• Increased creativity

• As various cultures and backgrounds get together, there is a lot of opportunity for increased creativity.

• Improved cultural awareness

• Cultural awareness does not happen when similar people surround you to yourself. Being culturally aware is a significant benefit if you want a thriving international company.

• A positive reputation

• Companies with diverse workforces are often seen to have better and more positive reputations. Potential employees want an employer who accepts and tolerates all backgrounds and treats their employees fairly.

Growing a talent pipeline

Successful recruitment is carried out before you desperately need someone. Companies planning their growth will know they need people to help them achieve their goals. This is why growing a recruitment and hiring pipeline is so important. Benefits include:

• Reducing the time to hire

• A successful talent pipeline streamlines the hiring process and drastically reduces hiring time. By developing and nurturing relationships with qualified candidates, you put yourself in a position to hire more quickly.

• Hire better candidates

• The talent pipeline framework enables you to be more strategic, think long-term, and plan. As a result, you’ll be more likely to hire the best possible candidates.

• Improved candidate experience

• A talent pipeline requires a hands-on approach, as you must develop and nurture candidates throughout their journey to being hired. This is a much more candidate-friendly strategy than the traditional method of posting job listings and waiting for applications. 

Improving the time to hire

Taking too long to fill a role increases the cost per hire and the risk of losing fast-moving (high-quality) candidates.

62% of candidates lose interest in a role if the hiring process is lengthy (Robert Half).

Reducing your time to hire also increases your candidate experience. Suppose an applicant has a faster screening experience. In that case, they will feel more positive about working for your company, which could determine whether or not they accept your offer letter, especially if multiple offers are on the table. Plus, if you’re looking for a job, especially after being recently unemployed, there’s nothing better than a company that reaches out promptly.

Increasing retention rates

It is no surprise that increasing retention rates is a top recruiting priority. No company wants to hire someone who could potentially leave after 6 months. Turnover costs businesses, on average, £11,000 per person; however, it can be considerably more for more senior roles.

Retention rates are influenced by many variables, including management, culture, progression, package, and competition. There is no one fixed solution to increasing retention rates.

Improving the quality of hire

It is no surprise that improving the quality of hires is one of the top recruiting priorities. Quality of hire is defined as the value a new hire adds to your company, specifically how much a new hire contributes to your company's long-term success. Based on this definition, it's obvious why the quality of hire is considered such a priority. In this candidate-driven market, there are many opportunities, and incredible talent is being snapped up quickly.

Quality people want to work with organisations that have great reputations, great candidate and employee experiences, and room for growth. If your business is serious about improving the quality of hires, you need to consider everything that would attract and keep great people.