Capturing recruitment processes, designing and implementing online recruitment solutions, allows me to see first-hand how recruitment practices differ across organisations.
One thing that surprises me, is that whilst there is generally a lot of focus on getting a paper based recruitment process online, there is sometimes less of a focus on analysis of the performance of the system to ensure that it is running as efficiently as possible and delivering the best talent available.
I agree with a recent article by Dr John Sullivan titled “Finding the Failure Points in Your Recruiting Process — Some Final Approaches”. In the article Dr Sullivan questioned why some recruitment managers lacked focus on recruitment efficiency when recruiting process directly impacts business revenue and is at least as important as supply chain, lean production and CRM. All too often recruitment managers rely on a gut feel as to whether the process is running smoothly.
Dr Sullivan continues by suggesting organisations take an evidence based approach to their recruitment processes and identify their failure points. “Failure Point Identification” is a term used in the field of process reengineering for identifying the specific causes of process failure. When a significant percentage of a process error occurs at a single stage or step, it is known as a “failure point”.
There is a lot to digest in Dr Sullivan’s article, but I thought I would cast a spotlight on one key area, which is the cost of inefficiency within the system based on recruitment actions not actioned in a timely manner. Obviously time is money when we consider lags in a recruitment process. An unnecessarily long process (with lags based on inactivity) can cause a number of undesirable outcome not limited by the possible loss of a preferred candidate and the loss of productivity whilst the position is vacant.
When my colleagues and I design solutions in JobOffice and eRecruit, one of the reports we suggest to clients is to help determine where a process bottleneck is occurring. Endearingly termed by my colleagues and some clients as the “Big Stick Report”, it is a report that tracks the time taken across each step of the recruitment process. If a step in the process is not actioned within a determined period of time, a recruitment manager will be sent an email detailing the bottleneck, thus prompting action. With our reporting and business intelligence capabilities each step in the process can be reported on, with push reports sent when time delays occur.
With this type of evidence based approach driving the recruitment process of some of our leading clients, it is obvious that they are creating efficiencies through saving time and money. Perhaps more importantly they are managing the bottlenecks and ensuring that their best applicants do not slip through their fingers.
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