1/ I find that recruiting, much like sales and a lot of other things, looks like a funnel. A funnel where clear goals and measurable results on a regular basis, are critical.
2/ A funnel should have several steps to it. In the case of recruiting I have found these to be effective: a) outreach, b) first conversation, c) onsite, d) offer, e) conversion. We have found that adding more layers is counterproductive for us. I like to measure weekly.
3/ Regardless of your funnel – add/subtract layers because the data provides insights into your process. For us, if we see a big drop off between 2d and 2e it might mean we aren’t providing market comp, not doing a good job of selling the candidate, etc.
4/ If our conversion at each step seems reasonable but we aren’t hiring at the right pace, perhaps issue is the flow at the top is too low (2a). Key is that if you track performance, and have clear goals each week, it allows you to quickly narrow on problem areas in the funnel.
5/ Common pushback I hear from hiring managers is that they don’t want to track because of the operational burden or because having outreach goals will lead them to focus on quantity over quality. I think both excuses are complete garbage.
6/ Excuse 1: If there is too much operational burden in tracking who you are reaching out to, you’re not using technology and you’re just not organized. Sorry- that’s just true. Lets have a conversation about what needs to change.
7/ Excuse 2: If you are so short term focused that you would reach out to X people in a given week, regardless of quality, just for outreach goals that week- it will become apparent the following week when you have a lower conversion rate deeper down the funnel. +other problems
8/ The most effective hiring managers I’ve ever seen run their recruiting process like a sales funnel. Those that don’t are less efficient, less transparent about how a search is going and ultimately less successful.
9/ If your hiring manager doesn't use a funnel, that person is more likely to say things like "I'm working really hard, it is just a really competitive market." Or point to one off examples like "well one candidate we liked got offered more by Google. Maybe we should pay more?"
10/ The hiring manager that uses the funnel can diagnose the problem with data, leaving little ambiguity to the issues. The transparency will leave you and the hiring manager happier with the process.
11/ Clear goals and metrics allow for hiring to look much more like a science and much less like luck.
