On paper, most recruitment processes look pretty similar: create a job description, attract candidates, go through a series of interviews to figure out who’s the best fit.
But what seems like a simple process, can easily go wrong. Underestimating the recruitment process can lead to a bad hire, high turnover, and a lot of wasted time and money.
Here’s how to go beyond the fundamentals of the sales recruitment process to boost your chances of finding the perfect new hire.
Thinking time
The most important part of the hiring process starts before you’ve even written a job description.
As well as defining the role and recruitment process in detail, invest time thinking about skills gaps and perspectives you’re missing in your team.
Think about the types of challenges and ways of working that your new team member will need to enjoy, as well as any shared values you want to see.
Having that clarity before you start the process will enable you to recognise the perfect person when you meet them, leading to faster, better decision making.
Research the market
Before going live with your vacancy, spend time understanding how your role, salary, and job title compare to the rest of the market.
Not only is it a useful sense check, it will also help you understand how you can present and differentiate your organisation in order to attract top talent.
Job ads that emphasise work-life balance, for example, have increased by 65%, with vacancies that mention culture, flexibility, and wellbeing receiving three times more views and twice as many applications, according to data from LinkedIn.
Set aside enough time
Recruitment is time consuming, and HR Directors spend about a month (27.59 days) recruiting for open positions.
From reviewing CVs to arranging convenient interview times, make sure you and any other key stakeholders set aside enough time to manage the recruitment process successfully.
If that’s not possible, look for a trusted recruitment partner with expertise in your sector to ensure you can focus only on the most promising people and that candidates have a positive experience that protects your employer brand.
Target passive candidates
If you’re relying on exactly the right person finding your job listing at exactly the right time for them, you’re going to be severely limiting the pool of potential candidates and missing out on talking to people who could be a great fit.
Across the workforce, passive candidates make up 37% of the US job market, rising to 45% in the UK. Engaging passive candidates is especially important when you’re hiring for senior roles where there’s less turnover.
Reaching out to passive candidates is time intensive, so allow extra time in the recruitment process for outreach and work with employees and specialist recruiters to tap into existing networks.
Be prepared to act quickly
Top candidates will quickly find themselves in multiple recruitment processes, and leaving too long between rounds or taking a long time to make a decision risks losing out to competing firms.
Half of all candidates have turned down a job offer because the recruitment process was too long, with as many as two-thirds of employers saying they missed out on their top candidate because they moved too slowly.
If you talk to someone that ticks all the boxes and you’re already imagining them in your next team meeting, make that offer quickly to avoid missing out.
Though the stages of the recruitment process are simple, getting it right can be hard and a bad hire is a serious drain on energy, time, and budgets.
From defining who you’re looking for to reaching out to passive candidates, you’ll need to ring fence enough time throughout the recruitment process to give you the best chance of finding your ideal candidate.
We’ve invested 20 years in understanding the market and building a network of top Fintech talent, getting to know the people behind the CVs and the culture behind the companies. Then we find the perfect match.
Fintech sales hiring is what we do, what we know, and what we love. Find out more about how we create efficient, successful recruitment processes that help your business grow.
