The start of a new year is always a powerful time for goal setting. With the time crunch (and occasional gluttony) of the holidays over, everyone is ready to reset and look at the coming 12 months with fresh energy.
For the most part, you can predict which goals pop up on the majority of resolution lists. Whether personal (eat healthier, exercise, save money) or business (increase sales, diversify revenue streams, enhance products), many people choose to focus on the same things.
If you’re following a similar path, there may be one critical area of business resolutions you’re overlooking — recruiting resolutions.
Employee recruitment is one of the most important tasks you perform for your business. The cost of hiring and the competition for talent continues to rise, making it more important than ever to get the hiring process right.
Plus, getting recruitment and on-boarding right from the start has a significant and early impact on employee engagement — just a 10% increase in engagement investments can increase company profitability by $2,400 per employee per year.
Recruitment impacts every other goal you may have for your business in 2019, which is why you should adopt these four recruiting resolutions for the new year.
You will reimagine your benefits package
Standard benefits package are just that—standard. Chances are your top candidates can nab a similar set of health, retirement, and PTO benefits at several employers in the running. Some of those employers may even be able to provide benefits at substantially more competitive rates than you can offer.
Lucky, nearly 80 percent of employees report they’d prefer new or additional benefits to a pay raise. This gives you a lot of room to be creative in what additional perks you can offer. Survey your current employees to find out what benefits would be exciting to them.
Summer Fridays, working from home, education reimbursement, bring your dog to work, the meaningful benefits you can offer are almost without limit. Consider your options, get some internal feedback, then make a plan to stand out from the competition.
You will go mobile
Today, 45 percent of job seekers use their mobile devices at least once a day to search for jobs. And these numbers should only increase as younger generations of talent hit the job market.
If your careers pages, job listings, and application process isn’t optimised for mobile, you could be missing out on tons of high-quality applicants. Test your career pages and application process thoroughly on a variety of mobile devices and get input from recent hires.
Then, lay out a strategy for optimising your mobile experience and staying in top of new trends.
Image: Stock Snap
You will voice and take feedback
A whopping 94 percent of talent would like job interview feedback but only 41 percent have ever received it. You can make a big impact on candidate’s opinion of your hiring process in 2019 and beyond by offering these much-desired insights.
Candidates who are not finalists for a role now will think more favourably of you and apply again when a new opportunity becomes available.
But you shouldn’t just give feedback — you should take it. Ask top candidates (those who you made offers to but who turned you down, or finalist candidates who you would like to see again) what they enjoyed about the hiring process and where it could improve.
You can even start this process early in 2019 by surveying employees, particularly recent hires) about their experience. The feedback will vary from person to person of course. But you absolutely will learn something you didn’t know before.
You will try video
Job hunting is an arduous process for the job seeker. Every application is an investment of time and energy, which is why top job seekers are picky about where they apply. Before beginning the process, applicants want to have a decent idea of what the company and culture is all about.
One excellent way to entice applicants is with video. Job postings with video on career sites are viewed 12 percent more than those without and receive 34 percent more applications.
Consider creating a company video in 2019 — not something corporate and stuffy, but something that shows the real people and experiences that drive your business.
A quick note about a key factor in how successfully you follow through on resolutions. You’ve got to build accountability into the promises you make for yourself. Because being a better recruiter is part of your job, don’t hesitate to incorporate your recruiting resolutions into your project management solution.
As you meet the necessary milestones, you’ll be providing company leadership with visibility on your progress.
In Summary
As you sit down to make your resolutions list, don’t forget to add recruiting resolutions to the mix. At the end of the year you’ll find yourself with a stronger talent pool and a more productive and engaged team.
About the Author
Taylor Burke is a writer for TechnologyAdvice.com, covering marketing and sales. She’s passionate about helping brands become more authentic, transparent, and connected with their audiences.
