What’s involved in a successful recruitment strategy?

Every switched-on company knows that their people are the reason for their success. Even more so for start-ups with smaller teams, where each employee is instrumental in making sure the business flourishes, not flops, in its initial years.

As a start-up, you get that. You’re now in a position to recruit la crème de la crème to drive your business forward. And as recruiters who are used to working with start-ups, we’re here to tell you this: to stand the best chance of hiring success, role after role, it’s essential you focus on the long term.

Time to strategize!

The best recruitment strategies are proactive. That means they run year round, even when there’s no hiring demand. They focus on sourcing, engaging and attracting talent ahead of vacancies, so that when an opportunity comes up, you can respond fast (read: before the competition).

But the key word here is ‘strategy’. Putting together a strategy takes time and patience. It needs to be structured and take into account all the unique needs (hiring and otherwise) of your start-up. There’s no such thing as a successful one-size-fits-all strategy in the world of recruitment.

Think of recruitment as a recipe, if you like. Each ingredient has a vital part to play in making that dish or drink taste downright delicious. Skip the sugar on your Viccy Sponge, leave out the lime in your Mojito (now we’re talking…) and it’s just not going to hit the mark.

To give you a flavour of what’s involved in an effective long-term recruitment strategy, you’ll need to…

● Articulate a well-defined Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and make sure it’s communicated effectively across all relevant channels.
● Build and nurture your own talent pool, using tech to automate communications between you and potential candidates.
● Create job ads that engage and inspire candidates to apply for a job at your start-up.
● Identify and gain access to the best sourcing tools and advertising platforms.
● Identify how you’ll reach out to, and engage, passive candidates.
● Track data to evaluate recruitment processes and inform decisions, doing so in a way that’s GDPR compliant.
● Create a slick application process that delivers a fantastic candidate experience from start to finish, using tech for effective applicant tracking.
● Manage the interview process – either in person or online
● Deliver prompt candidate feedback
● Create a successful on-boarding strategy for successful applicants.

*Gulp*

A lot of work, right? But it’s not enough to dip in and out – you need to be doing all of these things, all of the time. Without them, it’s like having a car with no engine. It may look great on the surface, but it’s going nowhere fast! And start-ups like to move fast.

If the very thought of juggling a long-term recruitment strategy with the many other daily duties involved in running a start-up makes you break out into a sweat, don’t worry, you’ve got options.

The first is to use an agency to source candidates role by role, but the costs of this approach soon add up and therefore, might not be so savvy for a small operation with limited cash flow. The alternative? Recruitment as a Service (RaaS).

Our RaaS model means you pay a fixed monthly fee (based on approximate number of hires) for our recruitment support and expertise.

We promise you serious bang for your buck, with the price including the development of a long-term strategy, an experienced consultant embedded within your business, use of our CRM tool, access to all job boards, ready-made talent pools and much more.

Don’t struggle alone. Let us take the strain. Get in touch today!