ZoomInfo Technologies : How to Improve the Recruiting Process

Recruiters face a multitude of challenges. From building and maintaining a talent pipeline to targeting passive candidates, the hiring process can feel daunting.

However, improvement in areas such as targeting candidates, hiring for more diversity, and enhancing the interview experience can have a significant impact on your talent pipeline and company culture.

What's Happening with Recruiting?

Research from the Society for Human Resource Management showed that recruiting and hiring were the top concerns for HR professionals going into 2021. This is due to several factors:

• The pandemic impacted the size of talent acquisition teams.
• Hiring teams had to adjust to virtual recruiting and onboarding.

And on a positive note:

• Many employees are quitting their jobs to seek out ones with fully remote opportunities and better work-life balance. Surveys show that up to 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs.

'Safety and job stability are at the top of mind for the job seeker now - and that changes what they want in a job. Businesses will have to become employee-centric as well as customer-centric,' says recruiting strategist Jack Whatley in an interview with Forbes.

How to Improve the Recruiting Process

Below are some of the key challenges recruiters face today, as well as possible solutions.

The Problem: Targeting Passive Candidates

Targeting passive job candidates - people who are employed but not actively seeking new opportunities - has been a long-time challenge for recruiters. According to LinkedIn research, 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive talent.

'Building a skilled pipeline is a highly complex undertaking in any situation, but particularly in today's competitive landscape where often the best and most loyal talent are passive candidates who aren't actively searching for jobs,' says Findem CEO Hari Kolam.

The challenge is sourcing the right passive candidates with the right skills and ensuring that they're a good fit for the company. Couple that with other recruiters vying for the same talent, and it's no easy feat.

The solution:

• Improved recruiting tech stack: A high quality recruitment management platform can increase the speed and efficiency in which you source candidates. This allows you to easily filter candidates based on location, industry, skills, and other criteria.
• Leverage automation: Use automated, personalized emails and drip campaigns sent to passive candidates that describe the opportunity and express your interest in connecting.
• Conduct regular staffing assessments: Regularly identify current and anticipated knowledge and skill gaps in your company's workforce. This allows you to determine which passive candidates to target.
• Simplify the application process: Passive candidates won't want to put time or effort into a cumbersome application process. Tailor the application and interview process to their needs.
• Use an applicant tracking system: From automated candidate matching, to a centralized database of candidate info, applicant tracking systems such as ZoomInfo Recruiter accelerate the hiring process and improve overall candidate experience.

The Problem: Hiring for Diversity

A recent Findem recruitment study found that increasing diversity in recruiting is a top challenge. Unfortunately, eliminating bias ranks lowest among the areas of improvement for talent leaders.

'This year, 70% of job seekers said they want to work for a company that demonstrates a commitment to diversity and inclusion,' says Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence.

The solution:

• Reconsider job requirements: Leave out arbitrary requirements that would discourage certain groups of people from applying.
• Train to spot bias in the screening stage: Consider deleting a candidate's name - either manually or with the help of tech - to remove potential bias when looking at resumes. And removing addresses can prevent discrimination based on perceived socioeconomic background.
• Work towards achieving a more balanced slate: For example, if you're looking to hire more women, don't identify four men as your top four candidates. Bring in a balance of two men and two women.

The Problem: Attracting Top Talent

A 2020 survey conducted by XpertHR found that attracting top talent is the most difficult challenge in the world of recruitment. And while part of that may be a skills gap, another factor is your overall recruitment process.

The solution:

For 65% of candidates, a bad interview experience makes them lose interest in a job. This can result from lack of clarity around the job description, but more importantly, failing to connect the candidate with other members of the team.

Company culture plays an enormous role in a candidate's decision to accept a new position. A Glassdoor study found that 77% of respondents look at a company's culture before applying for a position and 56% said culture was more important than salary.

A clearly defined, authentic culture can engage and improve the overall candidate experience. A great way to do this is through social media, employee referral programs, and workplace policies.

Recruiting for Relationships

Today, recruitment has to be more about people and not just filling a seat. Companies should start engaging people sooner, more thoughtfully, and with an emphasis on what employees actually value most in a new position.

'Recruitment is all about relationships. The human element is how companies will make the best impression on their potential candidates and create a lasting impression about the company as an employer,' says Whatley.