- June 18, 2009
- 2 Comments
Need More “R” in Your ROI? Optimize Your Recruitment Strategy.
When you look at your recruiting strategy, are you getting the most out of your investment? Are you sure? Unless you’re comparing the number of applications you receive to others in your industry, you might not know the whole story. (Cue “The More You Know” music, fade lights over NBC primetime star, and cut to shooting star Flash image…)
Honestly, though, how do you know if your recruiting process is as effective as it could be if you’re not measuring it against anything? You might have a system in place to measure the effectiveness of your recruitment strategy – perhaps by looking at metrics like number of hires and applications – but if you’re not benchmarking your metrics against the industry, how do you know how you compare to competitors for talent?
If you’re a staffing or human resource professional, you are accountable for the effectiveness of your organization’s recruitment investment, and recruiting is just like any business investment right now, where you need to make sure you’re putting your dollars where you’ll see the greatest possible return.
I realize that’s easier said than done, but there are resources out there that help organizations can better assess how they source and attract talent – and pinpoint exactly which parts of their process need improvement.
One firm that’s doing just that is Personified – CareerBuilder’s consulting arm – which developed its Sourcing Effectiveness Formula based on 14 years of data from over 300,000 clients including 98 percent of the Fortune 1000. This formula measures the effectiveness of a company’s total recruitment strategy, comparing it to the best in class of its industry. Personified even has case studies of customers that have seen 30 percent to 300 percent more for every dollar they spend.
How the formula works…
Say a job seeker is conducting a regular ol’ organic job search… The Sourcing Effectiveness Formula measures the searches where a company’s job listing appears, the number of times candidates click that listing from the search results, and then the number of times those candidates that viewed the opportunity click apply. From there, it counts the actual number of applications that result. Then Personified looks at how this search/application ratio compares to others in your industry.
Clear as day right? No? Fair enough. I’ll break it down…
Search results - Personified starts by measuring how many times your job advertisement comes up in an organic search. If this numbers is lower than that of your industry’s best, it could indicate that the job listing is written poorly, or that it’s not optimized for search engines (which are designed to pick up on certain words and phrases).
Views – Personified then looks at how many times job seekers actually saw your opportunity in their search and clicked on it to learn more. If this number is comparatively low, it could indicate something small, such as, again, the title of the job or the way the job is written. Or, more likely, you need to work on communicating your employment brand. Lower views frequently point to a disconnect with the employment brand as job seekers may not recognize your company or have a predetermined perception of your company as a place to work. (Want to know what makes a good employment brand from job seekers themselves? Check out this article.)
Clicks to Apply – Once a candidate views a job, he or she will make the decision to apply…or not (sad face emoticon). The conversion rate of candidates viewing the job to clicking the apply button largely depends on either the way the job advertisement is written or the company’s B2E brand. And don’t confuse a job advertisement with a job description. Certainly, a job description should be a part of the advertisement, but ultimately you are selling the company, the job and the opportunity, so it should read like a (truthful) advertisement.
Completed Applications – Making the decision to apply and actually completing the application are two different things. Technical difficulties or long or overly complicated application processes can deter job seekers from completing the process. For this reason, it’s important to have an applicant tracking system, or process in place, which can give you insight into if and why you’re experiencing applicant drop-off – and then using that knowledge to improve your process and make sure that you are capitalizing on every opportunity to find the best person for the job.
Competitive Analysis and Consultation – After taking all of the above into account, Personified compares the results to the best-in-class companies in your industry, determining, basically, what these companies are doing right that you could also be doing (but might not have been aware of) and simply need to work on. Personified’s experts not only identify challenges in your recruiting strategy, but they then work with you to improve these strategies – both now and for the long-term.
Whatever formula or set of metrics you use to measure it, the important thing is that you have a way to understand how you stack up against your industry’s best. Especially now, as you look toward economic recovery, plan for the future and begin to think about refilling your talent pipeline. Don’t let those candidates get away. After all, they might your future employees, and that’s your greatest asset. (The more you know…)
If you’re ready to improve your recruitment process and ROI, we’re here to help with a suite of solutions that improve every step of this process. Let us know what you think? Is your process broken? Think you’re at the head of the class for your industry? Don’t really know? Reach out to us and we’ll let you know how you stack up.
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- Categories: Employee Attraction, Employer Advice
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[...] is interesting (albeit a bit shilly): Careerbuilder’s The Hiring Site blog is pimping their recruitment metrics, which you, too, can have access to if you use their [...]
Note: the above link makes a good point about applicant tracking systems; however, the main differentiator here is the competitive analysis to best in class companies. While your ATS has access to a vast amount of information, it does not have access to all the data to make the analyses outlined in this post and can’t tell you where else your applicants are applying.