People

Lean Hiring Practices Could Lead to Better Hires, Cost Savings

Cat DiStasio

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Moving toward a lean hiring process can help HR leaders control costs, improve the recruiting experience for all involved and make better hiring decisions that will benefit the organization for years to come. Here's what organizations should be doing to improve the hiring experience for all involved.

Today's tenuous talent market requires employers to be more savvy, creative and strategic than perhaps ever before to attract talent, identify top candidates and land the best employees. Most HR professionals are at least anecdotally familiar with the notion that a "bad hire" could set their organization back considerably, but Harvard Business Review warns of an even bigger expense: "an excessively bureaucratic hiring process."

Complicated hiring practices take resources away from employers in many respects, particularly in terms of time, effort, increased candidate ghosting and difficulties with hard-to-fill positions. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be this way.

Tiffanie Ross, Senior Director of AIRS, powered by ADP, shares valuable insights to help HR leaders streamline their hiring processes, control costs, improve the recruiting experience for all involved and make better hiring decisions that will benefit the organization for years to come. Here's what to know.

Why lean hiring practices matter

In the changing economic, social and cultural climate of the workplace, lean hiring practices are crucial to both survival and success. "An efficient and effective hiring process, often referred to as 'lean hiring,' is no longer a nice end goal; it is an organizational imperative," Ross notes. "To compete financially and for top talent, continual analysis of data related to recruitment is critical to help identify opportunities to eliminate wasteful time, effort and results."

While the motivation to move toward lean hiring often stems from internal benefits, it's something candidates want too. Ross explains that "candidates expect an organization's hiring process to be reflective of the employee value proposition and showcase factors such as a focus on excellence throughout the process, communication and the overall experience. A perceived lack of attention to the employees at the candidate stage is often reflective of a larger issue."

How organizations can start evaluating processes

The most effective way to begin streamlining the hiring process is to understand the starting point. "HR teams should begin with outlining and auditing the existing process, including the strategy that drives the process," Ross says. "This will help identify inefficiencies — including wasted/ineffective steps, points of confusion and overlap — and help drive the discovery and building of a framework for changes."

According to Ross, it may be necessary to audit one step of the process at a time or focus on areas that stand out as significant issues based on feedback from candidates or stakeholders. Once HR leaders have a good understanding of their existing hiring process and the documentation to support that, they can begin to look for opportunities to improve. Ross suggests exploring the following areas:

• Time to move through the recruiting process. Are there roadblocks/hurdles that can be removed to help candidates move through the process faster? Evaluate each step for opportunities to make updates, including time to post a job, accessibility of the hiring manager, the approval process, interview scheduling and candidate review.
• Quality of candidate pipeline. Would the candidates who are applying for your positions make good additions to the organization and to their respective roles? Look for ways to source talent proactively and augment any tools and technology with talent pipeline building, employer branding, employee referrals and sourcing passive candidates through professional and social media.
• Communication and expectation setting. Are candidates contacted in a timely manner, or are delays causing them to fall out of the process and seek other opportunities? Explore opportunities to decrease delays at each stage of the recruiting process, including application, screening, testing, background checks, interviews, reference checks and hiring manager review.

Leveraging the speed of technology

Employing the right technology can help to speed up the hiring process, make it more efficient and reduce the administrative load of recruiters and hiring managers, Ross notes.

This review should include the following questions, according to Ross:

• Is technology yielding candidates who are moving through the process to the hiring stage, or are they falling out of the process early?
• Are there tasks that technology can automate to provide hiring stakeholders with more capacity for meaningful and less repetitive work?
• Are stakeholders relying on technology and not augmenting with sourcing, networking, referrals and other passive candidate search methodologies?
• Is the organization investing in technology instead of people and missing opportunities for training and development across stakeholders?
• Does technology support timely communication with candidates, effective scheduling and feedback mechanisms, or are your tools slowing things down?
• Is the hiring process dependent on technology for forward movement, or is technology a part of the process that can be replaced if needed?
  

Protecting the candidate experience

Incorporating technology to improve efficiency is only a worthwhile move if your tools also help you deliver the candidate experience that top talent is seeking. "The candidate experience is core to a successful hiring process, and a key component is communication," Ross explains. "Candidate and hiring manager communication throughout the hiring process helps to ensure that business requirements are central to the hiring decision, and that a candidate will enhance the role."

To keep candidates engaged and efficiently identify the right person for each opening, recruiters and hiring managers need to follow a simple roadmap. First, clearly explain the job in a manner that entices candidates. Next, offer a simple and clear application process, followed by effective and streamlined interviews. Finally, employers need to provide an onboarding experience that is engaging, robust and meaningful.

"Leaning into the candidate experience while evaluating and improving current processes will help maintain employer brand and enhance the candidate pipeline," says Ross.

Other considerations to keep in mind

Change management is an important step in the journey toward lean hiring practices. "The process of moving to a leaner hiring process should start with a solid foundation of preparation," says Ross. "It's important to understand that there may be resistance to changes, as processes may be built into the fabric of the company's culture, views on success, attitudes and roles. It's helpful to weave the desire to drive effective and efficient processes into the organization's culture and hire talent that will foster that vision as well. Being transparent about changes and engaging stakeholders to assist with driving meaningful and lasting change can help keep positive momentum."

Leaning into efficiency

One of the biggest benefits of a leaner hiring process is that it affords leaders the ability to be more proactive and nimble in their approach to hiring. "This includes relationship building, networking, training, development, talent forecasting and pipelining," according to Ross. "Prioritizing a focused vision, eliminating tasks that are not yielding meaningful results, continuing to monitor the process and using key recruiting metrics should help drive engagement for teams impacted by changes."

Ultimately, effective management of any changes, a renewed focus on communication and enhanced engagement in the process are needed for organizations to drive lasting and meaningful changes. Organizations that begin moving in this direction may quickly see improvements in the overall recruiting experience for everyone involved.

Learn more

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