How you can streamline your recruitment process to retain your top talent?

In the current job market, where the UK faces its lowest unemployment levels since the 1970s, employment is skyrocketing. This is good news for employers as there are fewer roles left unfilled, however, a candidate-driven market often leads to the prospect of employee job hopping.

Companies have been busy recruiting in large numbers, but haven’t taken time to consider just how efficient their recruitment process is. Experts in the recruitment sector have noted that despite the rise in recruitment, the onboarding processes have not been innovated or personalised accordingly, leading to a mismatch between the hired candidate and the company culture. This miscommunication often leads to employee disengagement and eventually, top talent leaving.

So, what are the major problems facing recruitment and how can they be improved?

It’s stuck in the past

Martin Ackermann, the senior director for talent acquisition at Parexel, spoke to Executive Grapevine to state that the reactive nature of recruiters is a major problem which requires immediate change:

"Because business is changing so fast, just filling places because the hiring manager wants a certain type of skills set isn't good enough anymore - because then people will leave after two years because their job changed."

Instead, he suggested recruiters need to be pro-active and forward-facing whilst looking out for candidates who show they can embrace a shifting environment:

"There needs to be a more strategic view to hire people who are capable of dealing with change. That way they will stick with the company who will develop them."

Job satisfaction

Career satisfaction is an important variable that contributes to a successful hire as highly engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave their companies. In accordance with Martin’s observations, one of the great ways to drive employee engagement is through offering incentives such as career development opportunities.

CareerBuilder's vice president of human resources, Rosemary Haefner made a statement on the topic:

"Not recognizing what’s important to employees can translate into more job dissatisfaction, lower productivity, and higher voluntary turnover."

She resolved that employees need to feel valued and rewarded, not just in terms of their salary, but through recognition for their meaningful contributions as well as through a job that allows for a good work-life balance.

Plan long term

Often in politics and business, long-term, high-impact decisions such as major investment in infrastructure, re-balancing the economy and developing international trading relationships are thoroughly planned and negotiated since they are essential to ensure the sustainability of growth.

A similar long-term view should be adopted in recruitment as planning ahead and strategising solutions to potential pitfalls will streamline the recruitment process and ensure company growth. The inability to retain employees will instead lead to wasted company time and money.

The way forward

A Principal Consultant at Marks Sattin spoke of ways to entice the best candidates.

“With increased competition for talent in the market now fiercer than ever, money and lifestyle benefits are not enough to get the best candidates on board. These people need to be genuinely stimulated in roles offering them both a platform to develop from but also to challenge their current capabilities, thus gaining greater engagement from a learning and development perspective.”

In addition, employers will need to analyse the vacancies they are recruiting for and consider the following questions: are we offering the right opportunity and not just banking on salary and work benefits? How innovative are we being? Are we keeping on top of the latest trends?

The difference you see in employee retention and candidate engagement simply by considering candidate career satisfaction and following these tips can surprise you.

Recruitment done right with Marks Sattin

At Marks Sattin, we source, meet and screen all our candidates and offer only the very best talent to fill your job vacancies. For more information about the divisions we recruit for, read about us here and contact us today to see how we can help your business.