Last week, we urged HR to wake up or face an imminent workforce crisis.

Yesterday the CIPD/Adecco Group released their latest Labour Market Outlook which reinforced the issues facing HR and recruitment professionals with employers struggling to fill the open jobs in their businesses. An estimated 750,000 jobs in the UK are currently vacant.

Managing your recruitment funnel through your HR software will help to effectively streamline your hiring process, build a reliable, regular source of talent for your vacancies and ease the talent acquisition crisis facing your business.  

Here’s how:-

Define the type of candidate you want to attract

Technology supports and streamlines your hiring process but it relies on the information provided by HR. Defining your ideal candidate, including their background, essential qualifications (‘must-have’ as opposed to ‘ideal’) and even down to the type of companies they have worked for will improve your initial screening results. Consider a candidate persona for difficult roles, which requires a detailed analysis of your ideal hire, even down to analysing profiles on social media and LinkedIn, their stage of life, upbringing, background and their work/life balance needs. With today’s multi-generational workforce this is vital to attract candidates with the right culture fit into your recruitment funnel. The importance of soft skills should be also be considered.

Your three part funnel

The recruitment funnel in your applicant tracking software is roughly divided into three parts. The broadest part of the funnel at the top holds the job applicants who have applied to your vacancy. While companies are struggling to fill jobs, the volume of unsuitable applicants is slowing down the process. Over 60% of UK workers apply for jobs they aren’t qualified for. At the same time, the number of job applications are on the rise so candidates in this part of the funnel need to be processed quickly through your applicant tracking software.  

The second (middle) section of the funnel sifts the close-match candidates, according to your company and job specific requirements. Remove graduate filters and incorporate the use of anonymised CVs to reduce bias in recruitment and ensure your business doesn’t miss out on talent with vital skills in your pipeline.

The third section of your funnel is the narrowest, comprising the candidates remaining after applying your screening criteria. These most closely meet the criteria defined by your candidate persona.

Expand your talent pool

As the labour market shrinks but demand for specific skills rises, employers and recruiters are finding it more difficult to source skilled candidates for their vacancies. Expanding your talent pool beyond your traditional sources is essential. For example, 81% of candidates used job boards in the past year but the sheer volume of vacancies on Indeed (one job posted every 8.2 seconds) can make it difficult to attract the calibre of applicants you need. The current drop in EU talent is also forcing recruiters and employers to make contact with Universities to source suitable candidates.

A healthy recruitment funnel draws potential employees from a variety of sources, including social media, employee referrals, job adverts and increasingly, from the open talent in the gig economy.  An ‘always hiring’ approach that allows talent to register their interest ensures you don’t lose out on passing talent by offering a ‘registration of interest’ facility. Broaden your candidate reach by analysing the data in your HR software to identify the sources of your most successful hire.

Streamlining future talent acquisition strategies

In summary, your recruitment funnel operates as follows:-

• Job seekers enter your recruitment funnel through your talent bank, social recruitment, employee referrals and job posting. Employee referrals and qualified employees can be tagged to fast track them through your ATS.
• Automated messaging and updates enables HR to maintain engagement and interest with candidates in the pipeline prior to interview and candidate selection.
• Close-match candidates who are unsuccessful in their application can be transferred to your talent pool. Update the information on the people in your talent pool regularly to ensure availability. If they’ve been in your database for a while they may also have acquired new skills that match your current hiring needs.

The data gathered in your HR metrics will inform your ongoing talent acquisition strategy and enable you to adjust screening filters or diversify recruiting efforts in order to attract people with the appropriate skills.

Ease your talent acquisition crisis with a recruitment funnel supported by world class recruitment software. Start your 30 day free trial with Advorto today.

You might also like to read:-

8 HR Technology Terms Your Business Needs Today

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Recruitment Software?

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