Whether your company is manufacturing farming equipment, advising Fortune 500 companies, or developing the next healthcare innovation, you know that the success of your business starts with people. Great teams drive great results and to build those teams you need to attract and retain the best talent.
Looking ahead to the new year, as recruiters and hiring managers, you have the opportunity to build on the successes of 2022 and take your businesses to the next level. You may be actively recruiting or taking a step back to reevaluate your firm’s strategic hiring needs for future growth. In either case, use these seven recruiting resolutions to help you rethink, reset, and resolve to make the next 365 days a resounding success.
1. Resolve to Increase Efficiency
Or, put differently, resolve to save your company time and money. Evaluate your recruiting processes from start to finish to better understand where there are opportunities for automation, improved communication, streamlined systems, or increased training.
Some questions to ask yourself in your efficiency audit include:
• How are you posting open positions?
• How are you sourcing candidates?
• How long is the interview process?
• What questions do candidates consistently bring to your recruiters?
• How successful are your new hires?
Answers to these questions will help reveal where you can implement technology and/or an optimized process to achieve improved results in recruiting and retention.
2. Resolve to Expand Your Pool of Ideal Applicants
If one of your company’s goals is to attract more applicants for your open job postings, ask yourself what’s missing from the current pool of candidates. Are you lacking diversity, specific skills or experiences, or backgrounds that would add value? Do you want more candidates to choose from, or more candidates who add something unique to your team?
With defined goals in mind, you can resolve to develop and execute on strategies to meet those goals directly rather than holding more broad events or sending emails that miss the mark. At Harvard Business School, you can access the Resume Databases free of charge to find candidates whose interests and experiences would add to your team. You can also educate students about your company through relevant student clubs.
3. Resolve to Retain Diverse Talent
Organizations stay competitive and innovative when they are committed to recruiting, retaining, and developing talent who bring different perspectives, varied skills, and unique life experiences.
Resolve to do a talent audit. Is your senior leadership representative of your full team and the customers you serve, across race, gender, age, ethnicity, gender identity, physical ability, sexual orientation, etc.? What do your employee retention numbers tell you about who on your team feels supported? Are you actively seeking out diverse candidates, and if so, what do your hiring numbers tell you about bias in the process?
With more data on hand, you can then identify opportunities for your company to improve and resource the departments tasked with executing on those changes appropriately.
4. Resolve to Close the Loop
Clear communication is an important part of any successful recruiting process. Resolve to evaluate where there may be gaps in your candidate communication and how you can efficiently and effectively close those gaps.
For example, is your marketing message strong, but then candidates are unclear about the interview process? Are candidates who are no longer being considered notified, and if so how and when? Communication with candidates at all stages of the process impacts brand reputation and gives potential applicants a window into company culture.
5. Resolve to Train Your Trainers
Make it a priority to hold trainings for your current hiring managers, not just new employees. A commitment to ensuring the leaders on your team have the tools and ongoing professional development to be the best managers possible leads to better onboarding experiences and success on the job for all.
Topics to focus on can include:
• Onboarding process
• Unconscious bias
• Delegation of tasks to new employees
• Establishing trust
• How managers can seek out their own mentors in the workplace.
6. Resolve to Embrace the Right Trends
A competitor is using TikTok to attract new candidates, does that mean you should too? Maybe, and maybe not.
It’s important to stay up to date on industry trends and best practices in human resources while also assessing your individual company’s goals and target audience. Resolve to stay abreast of new trends by listening to podcasts on the future of work, reading an industry blog at lunch each day, attending conferences, or joining a professional organization in your city where you can network with peers. Then take new ideas back to your team to assess where your recruiters’ time is best spent.
7. Resolve to Make the Connection
One “trend” in recruiting has stood the test of time, and that is personal connections. If your recruiting strategy hasn’t included 1:1 connections with candidates then it’s time to resolve to change that in the year ahead.
1:1 connections can include virtual company conversations, introducing candidates to additional members of the team, and connecting prospective team members with other new hires. Find out what your candidates need to know about your company and facilitate the individual conversations that can turn a maybe into a yes.
Or, put differently, resolve to save your company time and money. Evaluate your recruiting processes from start to finish to better understand where there are opportunities for automation, improved communication, streamlined systems, or increased training.
Some questions to ask yourself in your efficiency audit include:
• How are you posting open positions?
• How are you sourcing candidates?
• How long is the interview process?
• What questions do candidates consistently bring to your recruiters?
• How successful are your new hires?
Answers to these questions will help reveal where you can implement technology and/or an optimized process to achieve improved results in recruiting and retention.
2. Resolve to Expand Your Pool of Ideal Applicants
If one of your company’s goals is to attract more applicants for your open job postings, ask yourself what’s missing from the current pool of candidates. Are you lacking diversity, specific skills or experiences, or backgrounds that would add value? Do you want more candidates to choose from, or more candidates who add something unique to your team?
With defined goals in mind, you can resolve to develop and execute on strategies to meet those goals directly rather than holding more broad events or sending emails that miss the mark. At Harvard Business School, you can access the Resume Databases free of charge to find candidates whose interests and experiences would add to your team. You can also educate students about your company through relevant student clubs.
3. Resolve to Retain Diverse Talent
Organizations stay competitive and innovative when they are committed to recruiting, retaining, and developing talent who bring different perspectives, varied skills, and unique life experiences.
Resolve to do a talent audit. Is your senior leadership representative of your full team and the customers you serve, across race, gender, age, ethnicity, gender identity, physical ability, sexual orientation, etc.? What do your employee retention numbers tell you about who on your team feels supported? Are you actively seeking out diverse candidates, and if so, what do your hiring numbers tell you about bias in the process?
With more data on hand, you can then identify opportunities for your company to improve and resource the departments tasked with executing on those changes appropriately.
4. Resolve to Close the Loop
Clear communication is an important part of any successful recruiting process. Resolve to evaluate where there may be gaps in your candidate communication and how you can efficiently and effectively close those gaps.
For example, is your marketing message strong, but then candidates are unclear about the interview process? Are candidates who are no longer being considered notified, and if so how and when? Communication with candidates at all stages of the process impacts brand reputation and gives potential applicants a window into company culture.
5. Resolve to Train Your Trainers
Make it a priority to hold trainings for your current hiring managers, not just new employees. A commitment to ensuring the leaders on your team have the tools and ongoing professional development to be the best managers possible leads to better onboarding experiences and success on the job for all.
Topics to focus on can include:
• Onboarding process
• Unconscious bias
• Delegation of tasks to new employees
• Establishing trust
• How managers can seek out their own mentors in the workplace.
6. Resolve to Embrace the Right Trends
A competitor is using TikTok to attract new candidates, does that mean you should too? Maybe, and maybe not.
It’s important to stay up to date on industry trends and best practices in human resources while also assessing your individual company’s goals and target audience. Resolve to stay abreast of new trends by listening to podcasts on the future of work, reading an industry blog at lunch each day, attending conferences, or joining a professional organization in your city where you can network with peers. Then take new ideas back to your team to assess where your recruiters’ time is best spent.
7. Resolve to Make the Connection
One “trend” in recruiting has stood the test of time, and that is personal connections. If your recruiting strategy hasn’t included 1:1 connections with candidates then it’s time to resolve to change that in the year ahead.
1:1 connections can include virtual company conversations, introducing candidates to additional members of the team, and connecting prospective team members with other new hires. Find out what your candidates need to know about your company and facilitate the individual conversations that can turn a maybe into a yes.
