Employer Brand

Rethinking Recruitment: Mastering Growth Hiring for Talent Acquisition

growth hiring: the candidate journey and its stages like attraction, application, screening, interview, and onboarding
Flavio Frei
August 4, 2023
|
5
min read

Hello there! 😊 Today, we're diving deep into the world of recruitment, exploring the concept of growth hiring, and how it's changing the way companies attract and retain top talent. So grab your pen and notepad if you like, and let's get started! πŸ–‹οΈ

Understanding the Concept of Growth Hiring: Definition and Evolution

Origins and Inspirations: The Intersection of Growth Marketing and Recruitment

The concept of growth hiring is deeply rooted in the principles of growth marketing and growth hacking. These strategies focus on optimizing every stage of the customer journey, from acquisition to retention. The same principles can be applied to recruitment, with the candidate journey mirroring the customer journey.

The best ideas often already exist in one sector and can be reused elsewhere. This is particularly true in recruitment, where traditional methods are reaching their limits in the face of rapidly evolving candidate expectations and business needs. It's in this context that the concept of growth hiring emerged, drawing inspiration from the principles of growth marketing and more broadly, growth hacking, to revolutionize the recruitment process. This small revolution is shaking up the codes of recruiters to test, innovate, make mistakes (sometimes), but above all, to refine and find the right method: the one that will make your daily life easier and attract top talent. πŸ’‘

The Significance of Growth Hiring in the Modern Recruitment Ecosystem

In today's competitive job market, growth hiring is more important than ever. It's not enough to just fill a position; companies need to hire individuals with the best fit and help them stay ahead of the competition. πŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺ

Growth hiring offers a new way to face the challenges of recruitment. In a world where talents are increasingly difficult to find and retain, growth hiring provides tools and techniques to attract the best candidates, optimize the recruitment process, and improve the candidate experience.

The Benefits of Growth Hiring: Short, Medium, and Long-Term

Short-Term Benefits: Improved Conversion Rates

In the short term, growth hiring can significantly improve candidate conversion rates. πŸ“ˆ By optimizing every stage of the recruitment process, from job posting to candidate screening, interview, and onboarding, growth hiring ensures that no potential talent slips through the cracks. It's about making the most of every opportunity, every interaction, and every touchpoint with potential candidates. This approach can lead to a higher number of quality applicants, a faster hiring process, and ultimately, a better fit between the candidate and the company.

Medium-Term Benefits: Enhanced Candidate Experience

In the medium term, growth hiring can greatly enhance the candidate experience. ✨ By focusing on the candidate's journey and ensuring a smooth, positive, and engaging experience, companies can increase their chances of attracting and retaining top talent. This is particularly important in today's job market, where candidates have more options than ever and are increasingly selective about where they choose to work. A positive candidate experience can set a company apart from its competitors, making it a more attractive choice for top talent.

Candidate applauding the candidate experience

Long-Term Benefits: Building a Strong Employer Brand

In the long term, growth hiring can help build a strong and attractive employer brand. πŸ… By consistently providing a positive candidate experience and hiring individuals who drive growth, companies can enhance their reputation and become known as a desirable place to work. This can attract even more top talent, creating a virtuous cycle of growth and success. Moreover, a strong employer brand can also increase employee loyalty and engagement, leading to higher productivity and lower turnover rates.

Growth Hiring in Practice: Techniques and Strategies

Growth hiring is not just a concept; it's a practical approach that can be implemented using a variety of techniques and strategies:

  • Data-driven decision making: This can involve analyzing data on candidate behavior, application rates, interview success rates, and other relevant metrics to identify trends and make informed decisions. This approach can help companies optimize their recruitment process and make more effective hiring decisions.
  • A/B testing: This involves testing two different versions of a job description, recruitment method, or other aspect of the hiring process to see which one performs better. This can provide valuable insights and help companies continuously improve their recruitment strategies.
  • Personalized candidate communication: This can involve tailoring communication to each candidate's needs and preferences, providing timely and relevant updates, and making the candidate feel valued and appreciated. This can enhance the candidate experience and increase the chances of successful recruitment.
  • Continuous improvement: This means regularly reviewing and refining recruitment strategies based on feedback and analytics, and being willing to innovate and try new approaches. This can help companies stay ahead of the competition and continually attract and retain top talent.

Creating a Remarkable Experience for Talent Acquisition

The Talent Acquisition Funnel

A talent acquisition funnel is a process so appealing that it turns indifferent talents into enthusiasts for your company. So, how does it work?

You need to create scenarios for each persona. The goal is to answer the following question: How to create meaningful interactions that encourage talents to apply and stay engaged in the process while creating a wow experience?

For example, let's consider a funnel for a Junior Software Engineer named Valentina:

For our Junior Software Engineer, Valentina, we will primarily leverage coding forums and online tech conferences. Valentina has a keen interest in data science. Hence, we could post informative articles on data engineering concepts on coding forums like StackOverflow, where Valentina is likely to spend time.

Our article will contain a CTA, inviting readers to an interactive online tech conference. This event will showcase our company's data science projects, future aspirations, and industry impact, conducted by our CTO.

During the conference, attendees will be invited to participate in an online data science quiz. The quiz will help segment participants by experience level. And also, if a participant qualifies as interested in our company, we will gather more information about her background and interests.

Lastly, if Valentina performs well in the challenge, a 30 min call with our Tech team is planned to begin the acquisition process.

Of course, this is a first draft! I can't stress enough that you need to test your campaign and iterate continuously to find the best acquisition funnel. But you see the difference, when a talent is available to change jobs, they will think of you first.

Becoming Unforgettable in the Minds of Your Talents

In an increasingly competitive job market, the experience offered to talents can make the difference to stand out and captivate them. It also acts as a reflection of the employer brand, thus reinforcing the company's reputation and its ability to attract its talents. Finally, remember that the first impression counts a lot: the recruitment experience is often the first significant interaction a talent has with your organization. And a positive experience can leave a lasting impression and favorably influence their perception of the company. πŸ’­πŸ’­

Favorable and lasting impression in candidate's mind

Here are 4 ideas to revamp your hiring process and stay memorable to your talents:

  1. Recruitment through storytelling: Use videos, infographics, or podcasts to tell your company's story and give a more human and engaging image of what it means to work with you.
  2. Reverse interviews: Here, the candidate is invited to conduct the interview. This can help demonstrate that the company values the candidate's opinion and individuality and wants to learn from them.
  3. Immersion day: Invite pre-selected candidates to spend a day in the company to familiarize themselves with the team and the work environment. They could participate in meetings, collaborative projects, or even social activities.
  4. Job "dating" program: Like "speed dating", you could organize a series of short interviews with different members of your team. This can give candidates a broader insight into your company culture and help assess their fit with the team.

The Future of Growth Hiring and Its Impact on Talent Acquisition

Recruitment has always been a cornerstone of any successful business. And as we move forward, we can expect to see more companies adopting growth hiring strategies. We can also expect to see a greater emphasis on employer branding, candidate experience, and talent engagement. It's an exciting time to be in recruitment, and we can't wait to see what the future holds. 🌱

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