Recruiter should be able to sell
Recruiting today uses many channels to find and attract candidates. When searching for highly qualified specialists, one of the main problems is the high competition of employers for each worthy candidate. Therefore, for a modern recruiter, valuable skills are the ability to attract the attention of candidates, quickly assess the candidate's skills and conduct it through the selection process as quickly as possible. All this can be learned from sales - sales specialists.
In this article, I share my vision of the funnel of hiring and offer my recommendations for more efficient hiring.
My name is Igor Sheludko.
I have been an entrepreneur in software development and sales since 2000. I have a higher technical education. I began my work activity as a programmer, also led small teams, was engaged in both product and custom development. I have repeatedly hired IT specialists for my development teams. About a year and a half ago, I started commercial recruiting of IT specialists - that is, not only for myself and my projects, but in favor of outside companies. During this time, I submitted several hundred candidates for consideration by employers and received feedback on them. Since I understand software development and programming in several languages, for many companies I also carried out an initial check of candidates 'qualifications in order to supplement the candidates' resumes with reliable evidence of their qualifications. This saves both the employer and the candidate time, avoiding unnecessary meetings, interviews and test assignments.
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I think it is now difficult to meet a person who does not understand what a sales funnel is. The hiring funnel is about the same thing, only instead of buyers, we process candidates. Let's see what the funnel of hiring looks like (in my opinion).
As can be seen in the figure, the funnel narrows from top to bottom and consists of stages, each of which is a trapezoid. This means that more candidates come to the top of each stage than come from below. The ratio between released and entered is called funnel or stage conversion. Conversion takes values ​​from "0" to "1". “0” means that at this stage no one came out. "1" means that all who entered, successfully out. Conversion "0.5" means that every second candidate who entered this stage has moved to the next selection stage.
Where do candidates go when the conversion stage is less than “1”? Either they lose interest in you and stop communicating with you, or you consider them “unworthy” and refuse to go to the next stage. Each recruiter dreams that the candidates themselves "did not fall off" and the conversion depended only on the desires of the employer. I will write more about the measures you can take to improve the conversion and reduce the number of self-falling off candidates.
In the picture above the big funnel there are two small ones. I will call these small funnels the search funnels, and the large funnel below the search funnels will be called the selection funnel. Search funnels are funnels of the search channels of candidates. There may be much more than two. I drew two, because there are 2 main, differing from each other, search scripts and attracting candidates - active search and placement of vacancies.
So, on top we have search channel funnels that form a stream of resumes of interested candidates. That is, such candidates who are already familiar with your vacancy are interested in and are ready to continue to communicate with you. Next begins the selection process, which consists of a series of stages. In different companies, the selection is different, so I depicted a generalized selection scheme. The main thing is to understand that selection is a series of successive stages, after each of which there are fewer candidates. Either you refuse them, or they refuse you. You can improve the conversion at the stages of selection without losing the quality of candidates, if you reduce the number of those who refuse you. Next, I will talk a lot about how you can achieve this.
The total funnel conversion is the product of the funnel stages conversion. This is obvious, but not everyone understands it right away.
Increasing the number of candidates at the entrance of the selection funnel is almost always an additional cost to find candidates. To find 20 candidates instead of 10 and submit them to the entrance of the selection funnel, you will have to work at least 2 times more or have to increase the budget for posting vacancies. It will also take more time to search for twice as many candidates. This path is longer and more expensive. But this is not the only problem. More importantly, it is not always possible to solve the problem with additional expenses. Sometimes it happens that there are simply no more candidates in the market and the additional costs of the search will not help you. In this case, only optimization of the funnel of hiring will help you.
Improving the conversion stages is the work with existing candidates, aimed at eliminating the independent outflow of candidates from the selection funnel. Ideally, we need to ensure that only those candidates that we refuse to “fall off”. This path is difficult because it requires self-improvement and changing the selection processes of the employer.
Work on yourself is always difficult and sometimes even painful. But this is how you achieve hiring efficiency - reduce the cost of finding candidates and increase the speed of hiring. You are faster and cheaper to find, attract and hire good specialists. And this effect is long-lasting - once introduced, useful changes to workflows are beneficial in the future.
In sales there is such a rule - the funnel begins to be optimized from the bottom (last) stages. To understand the logic of this rule, let's return to our example.
I hope I convinced you that you need to work on improving the conversion funnel hiring. If I did not convince you, and you think that you first need to continue to look for new channels to search for candidates, then you can stop reading.
A recruiter has some budget for finding and attracting candidates. Depending on the budget, the recruiter uses a number of channels. Channels are paid and free. Free channels are, for example, ask your friends, write a post on your social network page, etc. Paid channels - this is when you pay for the placement of your job anywhere or buy access to the database of resumes and contacts of potential candidates. Paid channels are paid because they have a much larger capacity and it is almost guaranteed you can find someone suitable. If there were no suitable candidate, no one would pay. Involving a recruitment agency in the search process is also a paid channel. Paid channels usually allow you to quickly find a certain number of candidates, but besides money, you will likely also need to devote your time to the search process.
Whatever channels you use and in what quantities, they will eventually give you a summary of interested candidates. That is, such candidates who are already familiar with your job and are ready to continue to communicate with you.
The main tool that influences any search funnel is the text of your job description that you post or send along with the job offer. Consider an example.
Let's look at the figure depicting the stages of the selection funnel. Each stage is a contact with a candidate and some time passes between the stages. During this time, the candidate does not sit on hold, but communicates with other employers. If the other employer has a shorter funnel and the candidate moves along it faster, then they come to the offer more quickly. Someone who first makes a good offer to a candidate has a better chance of getting him into his team. Therefore, the first thing to do to increase the conversion funnel selection is to think hard and reduce the number of selection stages.
A common practice is to combine the stages of clarification of information and the initial assessment of competencies, the implementation of this combined stage in remote mode (without a personal meeting). To chat with a person by phone or skype, you can ask him to fill out a questionnaire. Make it much easier than pull him to a personal meeting. If you insist on a personal meeting in your office, then be sure that you are guaranteed to lose a certain number of good candidates and make your selection worse.
The second direction for optimization is to reduce the number of interviews and implement them in the remote format. It often happens that the company's regulations imply 2-3 interviews with various specialists. For example, to test technical skills and a spoken foreign language. In such cases, you can try to arrange these two interviews at an adjacent time so that the candidate comes to your office once. Or one of the interviews conducted remotely.
Test assignments are one of my favorite topics. I am convinced that in the selection process there is no more harmful practice than the test task before the interview. Many companies in the old-fashioned way try to give test tasks almost immediately, almost in the job description. At the same time receive a conversion of 10% or less and do not see the problem. From the point of view of modern recruiting, this approach is extremely flawed. In order for a candidate to want to do your test task, he needs to talk with a professional from your company, get answers to his questions about projects, technologies, tools and workflows, see your interest in him. After that, the candidate is much more motivated to do a test task. But even in this case, you need to understand that the candidate spends his personal time on the test task, which he could spend on recreation, socializing with family and friends, playing sports, etc. It should be understood that, on average, candidates can give your test task no more than 2-3 hours per day. Therefore, I recommend choosing such a volume and complexity of the test task so that the average specialist suitable for you can make it in 2-3 hours. In my experience, a tendency to abandon test tasks is developing. Already, about 30-40% of companies do not practice test tasks, replacing them with the study of the candidate's portfolio before the interview and a deeper interview.
There is such a common opinion among employers - it is better to let the candidates do the test tasks and fall off, than we will set aside time for our responsible employees to conduct interviews with unpromising candidates. I think this position is wrong, because it deliberately puts the candidates below the employer. This is not good both in terms of ethics and in terms of the funnel of hiring. In order not to waste time on interviews with unpromising candidates, it is possible to strengthen the stage of initial competency assessment. About the methods of such an assessment, I will write and publish a separate article in the near future. Tests and questionnaires do an excellent job with the filtering function of unpromising candidates and at the same time do not take a lot of time from candidates and evaluating employer specialists. As an example, I usually give an exam for a driver's license. This is a good example of building a skill assessment system with a huge stream of passing candidates. First, a theoretical knowledge test is conducted - 20 questions in 20 minutes. Then practical driving, the analogue of which for us is a detailed and deep interview.
The final interview is usually conducted to get acquainted with the top manager of the company. Often at this stage salary expectations are discussed. Personally, I find it more ethical to discuss salary at the very beginning, because from the point of view of a candidate it does not make sense to spend time passing through the selection stages if the company is not ready to pay as much as the candidate wants to receive. Accordingly, an invitation to an interview means that the employer agrees with the candidate’s claims. Many IT companies (more than 50%) no longer practice this selection stage.
At the stage of the offer, candidates fall off mainly for three reasons.
Sometimes (very rarely) it happens that a candidate “falls off” after accepting an offer. The most common reason is that he received a more interesting offer in the period between the acceptance of the offer and the exit to work. With this, perhaps, nothing can be done.
Also sometimes there are situations when the candidate refuses to work during the first few working days. A common reason for this is the discrepancy between the expectations of the candidate and the real world. To eliminate this situation through the fault of the employer, it is worth being honest with the candidates from the very beginning and not mislead them.
So, if you already have a certain flow of candidates, but you cannot select and hire the specialist you need, then you have two main ways. First, you can increase the budget for the selection and connect more search channels. And secondly, you can review the recruitment funnel and optimize its stages in order to reduce the number of candidates who refuse you. In fact, you need to become more loyal to the interests and convenience of candidates. Personally, I am a supporter of the second approach, as it improves your selection processes and it gives a long-term effect, it works not only for the current vacancy. In addition, it usually leads to saving time and resources spent on selection.
In this article, I share my vision of the funnel of hiring and offer my recommendations for more efficient hiring.
About myself
My name is Igor Sheludko.
I have been an entrepreneur in software development and sales since 2000. I have a higher technical education. I began my work activity as a programmer, also led small teams, was engaged in both product and custom development. I have repeatedly hired IT specialists for my development teams. About a year and a half ago, I started commercial recruiting of IT specialists - that is, not only for myself and my projects, but in favor of outside companies. During this time, I submitted several hundred candidates for consideration by employers and received feedback on them. Since I understand software development and programming in several languages, for many companies I also carried out an initial check of candidates 'qualifications in order to supplement the candidates' resumes with reliable evidence of their qualifications. This saves both the employer and the candidate time, avoiding unnecessary meetings, interviews and test assignments.
')
Funnel hiring
I think it is now difficult to meet a person who does not understand what a sales funnel is. The hiring funnel is about the same thing, only instead of buyers, we process candidates. Let's see what the funnel of hiring looks like (in my opinion).
As can be seen in the figure, the funnel narrows from top to bottom and consists of stages, each of which is a trapezoid. This means that more candidates come to the top of each stage than come from below. The ratio between released and entered is called funnel or stage conversion. Conversion takes values ​​from "0" to "1". “0” means that at this stage no one came out. "1" means that all who entered, successfully out. Conversion "0.5" means that every second candidate who entered this stage has moved to the next selection stage.
Where do candidates go when the conversion stage is less than “1”? Either they lose interest in you and stop communicating with you, or you consider them “unworthy” and refuse to go to the next stage. Each recruiter dreams that the candidates themselves "did not fall off" and the conversion depended only on the desires of the employer. I will write more about the measures you can take to improve the conversion and reduce the number of self-falling off candidates.
In the picture above the big funnel there are two small ones. I will call these small funnels the search funnels, and the large funnel below the search funnels will be called the selection funnel. Search funnels are funnels of the search channels of candidates. There may be much more than two. I drew two, because there are 2 main, differing from each other, search scripts and attracting candidates - active search and placement of vacancies.
So, on top we have search channel funnels that form a stream of resumes of interested candidates. That is, such candidates who are already familiar with your vacancy are interested in and are ready to continue to communicate with you. Next begins the selection process, which consists of a series of stages. In different companies, the selection is different, so I depicted a generalized selection scheme. The main thing is to understand that selection is a series of successive stages, after each of which there are fewer candidates. Either you refuse them, or they refuse you. You can improve the conversion at the stages of selection without losing the quality of candidates, if you reduce the number of those who refuse you. Next, I will talk a lot about how you can achieve this.
A bit of math and logic
The total funnel conversion is the product of the funnel stages conversion. This is obvious, but not everyone understands it right away.
Example:If we need to increase the number of hired specialists from one to two, then we can either submit more candidates for entry into the selection funnel, or improve the conversion of selection steps. Consider both options.
For simplicity, let us assume that in the selection funnel there are 3 stages — the study of the skills of the candidates indicated in the resume, the interview and the test task. Suppose that at the entrance of the funnel received 10 candidates. At the first stage (study of the resume), two of them refused and 8 candidates remained. Conversion stage 0.8 (8/10). Then, at the second stage (interview), out of 8 candidates, 4 were left, the conversion stage was 0.5 (4/8). At the third stage (test task) out of 4 candidates 1 remained, the conversion of the stage was 0.25 (1/4).
The total conversion funnel 1/10 = 0.1.
Multiply the conversion stages of 0.8 * 0.5 * 0.25 = 0.1.
Increasing the number of candidates at the entrance of the selection funnel is almost always an additional cost to find candidates. To find 20 candidates instead of 10 and submit them to the entrance of the selection funnel, you will have to work at least 2 times more or have to increase the budget for posting vacancies. It will also take more time to search for twice as many candidates. This path is longer and more expensive. But this is not the only problem. More importantly, it is not always possible to solve the problem with additional expenses. Sometimes it happens that there are simply no more candidates in the market and the additional costs of the search will not help you. In this case, only optimization of the funnel of hiring will help you.
Improving the conversion stages is the work with existing candidates, aimed at eliminating the independent outflow of candidates from the selection funnel. Ideally, we need to ensure that only those candidates that we refuse to “fall off”. This path is difficult because it requires self-improvement and changing the selection processes of the employer.
Work on yourself is always difficult and sometimes even painful. But this is how you achieve hiring efficiency - reduce the cost of finding candidates and increase the speed of hiring. You are faster and cheaper to find, attract and hire good specialists. And this effect is long-lasting - once introduced, useful changes to workflows are beneficial in the future.
In sales there is such a rule - the funnel begins to be optimized from the bottom (last) stages. To understand the logic of this rule, let's return to our example.
According to legend, we were going to hold 8 interviews and in the end we selected four candidates who were asked to do a test task. The finished task was fulfilled well by one candidate, and he was given an offer which he accepted. I did not mention it above, but suppose that of the four candidates, only two sent the finished test task. Thus, two more candidates fell off. Perhaps they simply did not find enough time to complete the test task. Or maybe they found the test task too big or uninteresting. If we change the test task - we make it less capacious, more interesting, or we give several options for choosing a candidate, then we will surely achieve more completed tasks and be able to choose more than one candidate. By changing the content of the stage, we can double the conversion or tripling.
If we go up to the stage above - for an interview, then we also have opportunities for optimization. Of the eight invited for an interview, we selected four people. However, suppose that we had not eight interviews, but less, because some candidates could not come to the office. If we offer a remote interview option, for example, via Skype, the number of successful interviews will increase, say from 4 to 6. However, unlike the optimization of the lower stage, we will have to hold more meetings and conversations. That is, for a better result, you will have to make more efforts and resources. And if you do not optimize the bottom stage, then six candidates who have been given a difficult and long test task are not required to convert into two hired specialists.I believe that it is not necessary to strictly adhere to this rule. I think it is more appropriate to optimize the stages where the conversion is the lowest. In our example, it still turns out to be the lower stage (test task).
I hope I convinced you that you need to work on improving the conversion funnel hiring. If I did not convince you, and you think that you first need to continue to look for new channels to search for candidates, then you can stop reading.
Search funnels
A recruiter has some budget for finding and attracting candidates. Depending on the budget, the recruiter uses a number of channels. Channels are paid and free. Free channels are, for example, ask your friends, write a post on your social network page, etc. Paid channels - this is when you pay for the placement of your job anywhere or buy access to the database of resumes and contacts of potential candidates. Paid channels are paid because they have a much larger capacity and it is almost guaranteed you can find someone suitable. If there were no suitable candidate, no one would pay. Involving a recruitment agency in the search process is also a paid channel. Paid channels usually allow you to quickly find a certain number of candidates, but besides money, you will likely also need to devote your time to the search process.
Whatever channels you use and in what quantities, they will eventually give you a summary of interested candidates. That is, such candidates who are already familiar with your job and are ready to continue to communicate with you.
The main tool that influences any search funnel is the text of your job description that you post or send along with the job offer. Consider an example.
Suppose you paid for access to a resume database (for example, hh) and found 100 resumes suitable candidates for you. To attract them to participate in the further selection, you need to send them a proposal or call with a proposal to consider your job. Personally, I never call right away. I usually send suggestions to the e-mail specified in the resume and then, the next day, I call those candidates who did not respond to the e-mail. In the conversation, I introduce myself, I inform you that I sent a proposal to an e-mail and wondered if the candidate saw my message. If the candidate is busy and is not ready to talk on the phone now, then the conversation ends. If the candidate is ready to talk further, then we understand the situation, why he didn’t see my message, if he was interested in my proposal, when he was ready to phone for 15-20 minutes to clarify information in the resume, what ways of confirming skills are convenient for him. Thus, the first thing the candidate contacts is your job description text. This is the first tool that determines the conversion of the search funnel and the entire funnel for hire.Your search funnel conversion is also influenced by your perseverance in trying to reach the candidate and your communication culture. If you sent an e-mail, called you, but never received an answer, you can try to contact the candidate in other ways. You can send an SMS or find a candidate by phone number in WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, ICQ, etc. For these channels of communication it is worth using short texts of the job description. The culture of communication is manifested in not being intrusive. If you conveyed to the candidate a message about the essence of your vacancy, made sure that he received your message, but then he does not answer you, then you should not pester him with calls and messages. Most likely the candidate is not interested in your vacancy, and your excessive perseverance can lead to a deterioration in the reputation of your company as an employer.
Selection funnel
Let's look at the figure depicting the stages of the selection funnel. Each stage is a contact with a candidate and some time passes between the stages. During this time, the candidate does not sit on hold, but communicates with other employers. If the other employer has a shorter funnel and the candidate moves along it faster, then they come to the offer more quickly. Someone who first makes a good offer to a candidate has a better chance of getting him into his team. Therefore, the first thing to do to increase the conversion funnel selection is to think hard and reduce the number of selection stages.
A common practice is to combine the stages of clarification of information and the initial assessment of competencies, the implementation of this combined stage in remote mode (without a personal meeting). To chat with a person by phone or skype, you can ask him to fill out a questionnaire. Make it much easier than pull him to a personal meeting. If you insist on a personal meeting in your office, then be sure that you are guaranteed to lose a certain number of good candidates and make your selection worse.
The second direction for optimization is to reduce the number of interviews and implement them in the remote format. It often happens that the company's regulations imply 2-3 interviews with various specialists. For example, to test technical skills and a spoken foreign language. In such cases, you can try to arrange these two interviews at an adjacent time so that the candidate comes to your office once. Or one of the interviews conducted remotely.
Test assignments are one of my favorite topics. I am convinced that in the selection process there is no more harmful practice than the test task before the interview. Many companies in the old-fashioned way try to give test tasks almost immediately, almost in the job description. At the same time receive a conversion of 10% or less and do not see the problem. From the point of view of modern recruiting, this approach is extremely flawed. In order for a candidate to want to do your test task, he needs to talk with a professional from your company, get answers to his questions about projects, technologies, tools and workflows, see your interest in him. After that, the candidate is much more motivated to do a test task. But even in this case, you need to understand that the candidate spends his personal time on the test task, which he could spend on recreation, socializing with family and friends, playing sports, etc. It should be understood that, on average, candidates can give your test task no more than 2-3 hours per day. Therefore, I recommend choosing such a volume and complexity of the test task so that the average specialist suitable for you can make it in 2-3 hours. In my experience, a tendency to abandon test tasks is developing. Already, about 30-40% of companies do not practice test tasks, replacing them with the study of the candidate's portfolio before the interview and a deeper interview.
There is such a common opinion among employers - it is better to let the candidates do the test tasks and fall off, than we will set aside time for our responsible employees to conduct interviews with unpromising candidates. I think this position is wrong, because it deliberately puts the candidates below the employer. This is not good both in terms of ethics and in terms of the funnel of hiring. In order not to waste time on interviews with unpromising candidates, it is possible to strengthen the stage of initial competency assessment. About the methods of such an assessment, I will write and publish a separate article in the near future. Tests and questionnaires do an excellent job with the filtering function of unpromising candidates and at the same time do not take a lot of time from candidates and evaluating employer specialists. As an example, I usually give an exam for a driver's license. This is a good example of building a skill assessment system with a huge stream of passing candidates. First, a theoretical knowledge test is conducted - 20 questions in 20 minutes. Then practical driving, the analogue of which for us is a detailed and deep interview.
The final interview is usually conducted to get acquainted with the top manager of the company. Often at this stage salary expectations are discussed. Personally, I find it more ethical to discuss salary at the very beginning, because from the point of view of a candidate it does not make sense to spend time passing through the selection stages if the company is not ready to pay as much as the candidate wants to receive. Accordingly, an invitation to an interview means that the employer agrees with the candidate’s claims. Many IT companies (more than 50%) no longer practice this selection stage.
At the stage of the offer, candidates fall off mainly for three reasons.
- The employer offered conditions worse than the candidate expected - this is what happens when at the very beginning you misled the candidate about the working conditions (for example, the possibility of remote work was initially discussed, and the office was prescribed a job in the office).
- The candidate went to quit his current job and was offered to improve conditions so that he would not quit. It makes sense to speak this situation at the very beginning of communication with the candidate. If a candidate allows such an outcome of events, then you should not consider him the main candidate, despite all his merits. It makes sense to stock up on spare candidates.
- You have prescribed a long enough period for reflection in the offer, as a result of which the candidate went with your offer to other employers in order to fill his price. This situation is corrected very simply - indicate in the offer that your offer is valid for a period of not more than three days. This will spur the final decision by the candidate. You may have other, spare candidates. What is the point of waiting for one candidate for a long time if you can make an offer to others?
Sometimes (very rarely) it happens that a candidate “falls off” after accepting an offer. The most common reason is that he received a more interesting offer in the period between the acceptance of the offer and the exit to work. With this, perhaps, nothing can be done.
Also sometimes there are situations when the candidate refuses to work during the first few working days. A common reason for this is the discrepancy between the expectations of the candidate and the real world. To eliminate this situation through the fault of the employer, it is worth being honest with the candidates from the very beginning and not mislead them.
Results and conclusions
So, if you already have a certain flow of candidates, but you cannot select and hire the specialist you need, then you have two main ways. First, you can increase the budget for the selection and connect more search channels. And secondly, you can review the recruitment funnel and optimize its stages in order to reduce the number of candidates who refuse you. In fact, you need to become more loyal to the interests and convenience of candidates. Personally, I am a supporter of the second approach, as it improves your selection processes and it gives a long-term effect, it works not only for the current vacancy. In addition, it usually leads to saving time and resources spent on selection.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/447826/
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