After a long year of hiring, it’s time to start preparing for the new year. Every hire is important to the present and future of your company. Not only are you trying to get the right people on your team, you are also competing with other brands that are looking for top talent as well. With so much at stake, it’s important to have an optimized recruiting process. Here’s how to audit your recruiting process.

Make a map of a candidate’s journey from first contact reading a job ad all the way up to the onboarding process. Look at the entire application process from the candidate’s point of view. Think of every touchpoint you have with a candidate during every part of the process. By mapping their journey, you will have a clearer view of what candidates experience during the process and how your internal processes relate to their journey.

A huge part of the audit is reviewing your internal recruiting processes. Just like you did with the candidate journey, map out every action taken when there is a position you need to fill. Start with the process of writing the job description all the up until your established onboarding process. Think of the actors in each part of the process. Who reviews the resumes? Who does the interviewing? Who is in charge of the final decision to hire? Who takes the lead in the onboarding of the candidate?

Think of the communication tools and processes you have both with the candidate and internally with your team.

Once you have mapped out the candidate journey and your internal processes, you probably will have identified problem areas in your processes. For example, if you see a drop off of candidates after they have applied and before they get in for an interview, there may be a problem with how you communicate with them. You may find that there are places in the process where you can be more efficient or ways to decrease your time-to-hire.

Data is power. Gather as much data as you can about the candidate experience, your internal processes, what your competitors are doing, and what the market looks like. What are your competitors doing that you could implement in your processes? What does the market say about how your compensation offers stack up against the market?

Once you have identified pain points and looked at the data, it’s time to gather qualitative data from your team. Ask for inputs from HR, the hiring managers, newly hired employees, and other members of your team that participate in the recruiting process. Maybe some members of your team have ideas on how to make your processes more efficient. Newly hired employees can give insight into how good their candidate experience was and provide recommendations on how it could be improved.

Now that you’ve learned how to audit your recruiting process, if you need extra support, please contact us by clicking on the button below.