Best Practices in Recruitment, 2007
November 1st, 2007 by adminby Kate Christmas, RN
Vice President, Health Care Division
Margie Kasse,
Vice President, Health Care Division
and
Cathy Swenson, RN, BSN
Vice President, Health Care Division
On a daily basis, our team receives numerous client requests for ‘best practices’ and ’national trends’, which can be used as benchmark guidelines for recruitment and retention. In that spirit, this article will highlight some of the more innovative practices within full life cycle recruitment.
Employer Brand
The first representation of your organization is the employer brand. The goal of the best recruitment communications is to accurately identify and quantify your ‘employer brand DNA’ and leverage it in everything that touches candidates.
An employer brand is not created, it must be revealed. The essence of the brand comes from within your organization. It is how current and past employees feel or felt about working for your organization and it is identified through every interaction that candidates and employees have with your organization.
The employer brand is NOT advertising, a corporate mission statement, a tag line or a slogan. All of these must reflect the employer brand, but they are not the brand itself. And the employer brand is NOT your marketing brand, although it can, and may, build upon it.
Sourcing and Resume Mining
Sourcing is one of the optimal areas for innovation. Effective sourcing can make the difference in how quickly – and how well – you fill positions. A Global Learning Resources 2007 study noted that sourcing enough talent is the top challenge facing recruiters, and another study stated that leading candidates are in the job market for less than one week!
Resume mining can reduce time-to-fill, and decrease overall costs by finding candidates whom you’ve already sourced. It can improve the candidate experience when done quickly, increase internal client satisfaction and increase recruiter productivity.
Most recruiters overlook searching within their own recruitment databases when new positions are posted, but in fact, there may be viable candidates waiting there. Some organizational databases are so large that recruiters do not have the time to search.
But, there are extenders out there to assist if you do not have the time. Our RRx division Search and Send program can provide a dedicated project manager as an adjunct for a specific period of time.
Utilizing this innovative database resume mining service was key in reducing one health care organization’s time-to-fill by 47%, and for uncovering 130 experienced registered nurses in another’s ATS.
When searching outside your own database, employ techniques like Boolean search strings or x-raying to mine within sites and identify talent, or to scan databases such as Career Builder, MedHunters or Monster for viable candidates.
These techniques are not intuitive, and must be learned and updated. There are many sourcing educators out there, (such as AIRS), who provide training in advanced techniques. Our Health Care Division recently partnered with AIRS to provide the first in a series of sourcing webinars for health care recruiters.
Candidate Experience
The next phase in life cycle recruitment is the candidate experience. Each candidate’s experience should be viewed in a holistic manner, beginning before submission of an online application.
Candidate relationship cultivation starts with the candidate’s first exposure to your employer brand. This may occur as they visit your organization, have a loved one in your care, or encounter your recruitment team at a hiring event. Every encounter is critical.
From an organizational perspective, the quality of the candidate experience impacts the perception of recruiter competency and HR’s overall value to the organization. From the candidate’s perspective, the quality of their experience demonstrates the value the organization places on their workforce.
Measuring candidate experiences is a great way to uncover gaps in your process and issues with your web site and applicant tracking system. Bernard Hodes Group’s Health Care Division can provide you this measurement via our Online Candidate Experience Audit and Mystery Shops.
Passive Job Seekers
Although every organization hopes to attract “A” candidates, prime candidates may be highly satisfied in their present jobs and are not job seeking.
Typically, “A” candidates need to be wooed. The best ‘recruiter’ to woo such candidates is a colleague. And how do colleagues meet? Some great settings are at state and national conferences, and at other educational events. Many organizations now offer CE events as a ‘soft’ recruitment strategy, with an eye toward identifying the “A” players in their markets, and creating the opportunity to rub elbows with them.
Sponsoring such events, or having a high profile presence at meetings or conferences are great ways to communicate your culture to passive candidates.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is another way to attract “A” candidates. This tactic allows the opportunity for multiple encounters between employers and candidates. This best practice allows them to know each other well prior to hire.
Each time the organization hosts or attends a career event; a database of attendees can be created and added to the candidate pool.
Names can also be added from other recruitment initiatives such as school career events, responses to job postings, and remaining viable candidates when filled positions are closed.
Another way to add to this database is by adding fields to your career home page so that when a potential candidate enters his/her e-mail address they may ‘opt-in’ to receive e-newsletters. Fields can also be customized to ask candidates to identify themselves by profession, allowing to you later target e-messages to the appropriate audience.
Relationship marketing provides a ‘no pressure’ approach to potential candidates. Happily employed individuals may be interested in certain specialty areas or information, but are not ready for a career move. Relationship marketing allows this type of candidate to stay in touch without the commitment to join your organization ‘right now’.
It is also an effective strategy if you have candidates who are delayed in relocating to your area, such as international RNs. Relationship marketing allows you to ‘stay in touch’ during the process, to demonstrate your commitment and to keep them engaged.
Examples of relationship marketing tools include:
Electronic Postcard Lists
The primary advantage of an electronic marketing campaign is cost, as hefty postal and printing charges are eliminated. E-cards provide a way to customize messaging and marketing tactics. A direct link to the appropriate e-mail address and company Web site is on each e-card to facilitate seamless communication between employer and candidate. A wide variety of electronic lists can be purchased for general and specialty disciplines.
Electronic Postcard Library
A virtual postcard library can house a variety of electronic communication pieces. Organizations may have one e-card for potential candidates, another to promote specific events such as an open House, or a CE event. Virtual card libraries also serve as useful data gathering tools, as respondents can easily be tracked and analyzed.
Internal Tools for Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing can also occur internally. How often have your hiring managers assumed that nothing is being done to recruit for their needs because they did not see the ad on Sunday? Some recruiters use a hiring manager newsletter as a component of customer service. These are monthly communications designed to keep hiring managers current on all of the recruiting activities happening within the organization.
Each issue should feature a balance of essential information regarding internal news and industry happenings. Specific topics should include a ‘dashboard’ of monthly statistics, breaking news and noteworthy facts.
This type of communication is a valuable source for everything a hiring manager needs to know about recruiting and hiring new talent for their particular area and the larger organization.
Employee Referral Programs (ERPs)
Once you had hired great candidates, give them the power and the incentive to bring in others as sharp as themselves. And, as a plus, employee referral programs produce one of the most economical costs per hire.
According to a 2005 CareerXRoads study, with an effective program, employee referrals should average 25.6% of your new hires. Your agency can help you to create a compelling and fun program that produces results.
One caution – if your work environment lacks diversity, ERPs will not typically produce a diverse source of candidates.
Onboarding
Onboarding is attracting a lot of attention as a critical piece of the recruitment continuum, and as an opportunity for best practice. It falls into the end of the recruitment life cycle, and involves the initial communication immediately following the interview process through the employee experience during the first year of employment.
Don’t confuse onboarding with orientation - it is a larger process, although orientation is certainly a significant element.
Exemplary onboarding practices can include web based communication tools that provide an introduction to the organization; ‘branded’ welcome letters and new employee packets that provide directions to schedule pre-employment appointments, or what to expect at orientation.
Onboarding can include internship and mentor programs that help facilitate an employees’ transition to the new environment. Some companies use a carefully structured process to pair up mentors with new employees, using psychological profiles, and other such tools.
In reviewing turnover statistics, successful onboarding programs can result in improved retention and productivity as well as increased employee satisfaction.
In Summary
Best practices in recruitment truly involve a holistic or full cycle, incorporated into a strategic approach – with intense communication. People – relationships, partnerships, and technology all need to be utilized in the most effective manner. Compare your practices with those noted here to see if you have the competitive edge!
Kate Christmas is an RN and Vice President of the Health Care Division at Bernard Hodes Group. She can be reached at kchristmas@hodes.com.
Margie Kasse is a Vice President of the Health Care Division at Bernard Hodes Group. She can be reached at mkasse@hodes.com.
Cathy Swenson is an RN, BSN and Vice President of the Health Care Division at Bernard Hodes Group. She can be reached at cswenson@hodes.com.
Contact the Bernard Hodes Group Health Care Division for assistance with any of the initiatives mentioned in this article.
Call us at 800-582-4668 or email us at healthcare@hodes.com