3 Quick Tips To Help Improve Your Agencies Hiring Process

Author

Nelly

Date

29 Jan 2021

Having worked as a recruitment consultant both agency side and within internal talent acquisition teams; I’m sorry to say I have witnessed some pretty darn awful recruitment processes in my time! No…honestly, some make me shudder just thinking about it!

In the hope of never having to shudder again, I have put together 3 quick tips to help improve your agencies hiring process.

1) Always be prepared to recruit (It sounds so simple!)

You never know when things will take a swift turn in your agency. One minute you are fully staffed or possibly making redundancies and the next minute you are crying out for talent due to that new business win! The key is to make sure you aren’t on the back-foot from the beginning, so think about some ways to get ahead and be prepared.

Do you have job adverts you have used previously that are ready to go?
Do you have job descriptions written and prepared for each position you have within the business?
Do you have previous applicants stored tidily on a CRM /ATS or in a secure file somewhere?
Do you have interview notes from that person who came a close 2nd and would now be perfect for your new role?
Do you have an awesome partner company who can act as your ad-on talent team and support you when you need it…. *cough* *cough*
By simply being organised and prepared it will allow your agency to save time and reduce recruitment costs… it really is that simple! The question is; are you doing any of the above at the moment?

 

2) Dare to be different in your approach!

I’m a fan of being different and granted it isn’t for everyone, but I ask you this… Why should the best talent join your agency? What do you offer your employees which other agencies don’t? What do you do that is different? AND if you talk frequently about how you are ‘creative’ and the ‘most innovative’ agency in the world, then why (for the love of god) are you not showing it at any point in your recruitment process!?

I am not a marketer… I focus on attracting the best talent for my clients, but if you have some fantastic and truly exquisite copywriters in your agency, than surely it’s time to show off their skills by using them to write some superb and fun job adverts that make your business stand out.

If you don’t have copywriters, how about approaching your skills-testing differently? It doesn’t need to be boring, set a technical task that allows the candidate to showcase their abilities in a slightly different way… try and make the task enjoyable and make them feel they can be creative in their approach, who knows what you might discover! (It may prevent death by powerpoint for you too!)

The overall aim is for candidates to feel happy during each stage of your recruitment process. You want them to be ‘wowed’ by the journey you took them on, that way even if they weren’t successful this time, you can bet they will want to apply for your vacancies again! (Which could be good, depending on how they did)

 

3) Get people involved.

I have seen it all too often when just 1 person conducts an interview… please try to make sure interviews are conducted with a minimum of 2 interviewers, but don’t over do it either! (It’s daunting enough as it is)

Ideally in the first stage interview you should have 2 interviewers that are senior to the candidate. By having 2 of you in the process it allows for the conversation to flow more freely and will also allow for one of you to record interview notes during the process, which is great for you to reflect on afterwards.

If the candidate is successful at first stage and they have completed the skills-test with flying colours, try to get 2 different interviewers for the next stage. This will allow for the candidate to meet more of the team and they can consequently get a feel for the culture and different personalities in your agency. It also means you have a few different opinions on the candidates suitability both in-terms of experience and team fit. (Because team fit really is just as important as experience)

I am a true believer in including peers in the interview process, but please be mindful of any conversations that can cause friction such as salary discussions etc. I advise using peers to perhaps carry out the office tour, discuss the social activities your agency carry out or talk about their own career progression successes. By using peers to interview it will also make them feel valued… which is great for morale!

These are just a few simple pointers to improve your hiring process….

My advice is if you aren’t recruiting due to the current global situation (Still not naming it!) than use this time to check what your recruitment spend was for 2019! Where can you reduce these costs? What was your staff attrition like? Does your recruitment process actually work as well as it should?

Pink Giraffe are here to support your agency (should you need us) please feel free to drop us a call or email.

 

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