The best way to understand your recruiting process is to first map out the entire process on a flowchart. A recruitment process flowchart maps out the entire process your team does to find and hire an applicant. You will need to visualize every piece and step within your process to make adjustments and continuous improvements. The point is to make the process most efficient as possible.
What is the Recruitment Process?
The recruitment flowchart also called “recruitment workflow: is each individual step in which it takes to find and hire an applicant at your company. Steps involved getting HR approvals, to posting the job, to screening, and talent sourcing outreach. Every company will do these steps slightly differently. That’s why it’s important to create a mind map to visualize every step. This will help you understand which stage you have problems or issues in. Fix these problems, remove barriers, and adjustments to make your process more efficient. Improve the time to fill, spend less money, and remove unneeded steps in your process.
Here’s what Obstacles Teams Face:
- Human errors
- Poor candidate experience
- Processes taking too long
- Taking longer due to the manual process
- Costs the company more money
- Losing candidates to competitors
- Applicants ghosting the process
- Not finding a Diverse pool of Talent
- Not tracking the appropriate HR Compliance
How to Create a Flowchart Map
First you will need to use a mind map tool I recommend checking out LucidChart. They have pre-vetted Recruiting Flow charts already created for this purpose. The tool allows you to import data from your ATS systems. You can also share and collaborate with other team members within the tool. The tool allows you to save your progress and eventually export the information into a PDF or Slide deck. They have a free plan or a premium plan which costs $7.99 per month which includes more advanced features.
Watch this video to see LucidChart in action:
Here’s what the dashboard view looks like:
Understand Each Step in your Recruitment Process
Download all your data from within your ATS. Understand every step and which person is in charge of it. Understand which step is automated or controlled by a team member. Use the mapping tool to write out reach section within a button. Use arrows to direct each step to the next.
As you go through your recruitment workflow, complete a time-study and see just how long it takes to complete each step. Can you quickly draft a job description, post the job online, and/or schedule candidate interviews? As you evaluate each step, ask yourself:
- Does any one process take exceptionally longer than others?
- Do you rely too heavily on other employees/managers for certain tasks?
- Are there systems that impeded your speed?
By breaking-down each process to it’s minimal required time, you’ll quickly find areas that can be made more efficient.
Below are the steps that you can use for your flowchart:
1. Work with HR to Identify Hiring needs
Have a meeting with HR to identify and understand the hiring needs for that quarter and year. Set hiring goals and understand which roles take priority. Create a budget to hire the needed recruiting team to manage the workloads.
2. Connect with Hiring Managers
Schedule meetings with Hiring Managers to understand which roles take priority. Understand the job descriptions preferred and required skills sets. Conduct an intake meeting to discuss your sourcing plans.
3. Draft a Job Description
Once you get approval from HR and Finance connect with the hiring manager to draft a job description. Once everything is reviewed publish the opening on your careers (ATS) site.
4. Post Openings on Job Boards
Pay to post the job requisition on popular job board sites like Indeed or LinkedIn. Link these job boards into your ATS system. Review applicants and make sure your JD are appropriate and gender neutral.
5. Manage Applicants and Rejections
Once the the role gets posted. Review the applicants screening and rejecting unqualified leads. Email the qualified ones to set up a phone screen interview. Check applicants on a weekly basis.
6. Conduct Talent Sourcing Strategy
Have your recruiting team dedicate sourcing time to each role. Have them track all there outreaches. Talent Sourcing involves research, talent mapping, and searching for passive candidates online. Use Boolean strings and sourcing tools to find and reach out to leads.
7. Build in Sourcing Sprint Goals
Dedicate a certain amount of time to have a talent sprint. Whether you are focusing on a niche role or (BLNA) diverse leads. Have your sourcing team solely focus on sourcing duties. I’ve written a post about building in Talent Sourcing sprints within your process (here).
8. Set up Phone Screens
Schedule time with the qualified applicants as well as sourced leads. Have the Recruiter screen the applicant within a 25-30 minute call. Use the intake notes from the hiring manager and make sure to write and record notes. I wrote a piece about phone screening applicants well (here).
9. Track Submittals
Every applicant should be track within an excel sheet. Every outreach, cold call, email, and inmail should be tracked within this document. You can then asses the number of days it took to bring an applicant through your process. I wrote a piece about recruitment metrics (here).
10. Setting up First Rounds
Once you’ve moved a qualified applicant to a tech phone screen. Connect them with your recruiting coordinator. They will help schedule next steps within the process and get everything set up.
11. Scheduling (Virtual) Final Round Interview
If the applicants passes the first round interview connect them with the recruiting coordinator to schedule a final round interview. Set up a call to prep them on the final round and talk through them how they can prepare further.
12. Construct Interview Team
Work with your hiring manger to create a team of interviewers. Make sure they are calibrated and ready to interview at your company. Have them come prepared with a list of interviewing questions.
13. Conduct Prebrief with Interview Team
Have the interview team meet before the applicants final round date. Have them talk through there interviewing questions and talk over any concerns that they might have.
14. Conduct a Debrief with Interview Team
After the final round date have the team meet again to talk over the applicant. Have them way the pros and cons to each of the applicants answers. From that point have the team conduct a final vote to see if they would like to extend an offer.
15. Present Offer to Applicant
After the debrief reach out to reject or extend an offer to that applicant. Talk through your offer and all the additional benefits.
16. Get Compensation Total Package approvals
Extend the offer once you gain approval from HR and your hiring manager. Talk over the offer and wait for them to accept or reject it.
17. Onboarding Objectives
If the applicant accepts then move them to the hired stage within your ATS. Connect with HR and the hiring manager to create an onboarding (start date) plan for them. Send them merch and additional information to get them excited for there first day!
Recommended Reading:
The Enneagram Personality of a Recruiter
How to Build a Talent Sourcing Sprint into your Process
How to be Successful on a New Recruiter Job
- Unleashing the Power of AI in Talent Sourcing: Meet Noon - May 17, 2024
- Demystifying Natural Language Search: Crafting Effective Boolean Strings - April 26, 2024
- The Art of Context: Why Rushing to Conclusions Can Lead Us Astray - April 25, 2024
The recruitment process can be challenging, and time-consuming, that’s why a recruitment process flowchart is really necessary for recruiters to find the perfect candidates and for candidates to figure out what will happen in each step of the recruitment process. Thanks for sharing this useful blog.
Good post. It is good that you have shared about optimizing the recruitment process. There is so much that goes into recruiting and hiring the perfect candidate. It’s not just a few steps, but many! This will be helpful for both the employer and employee.