There is Kaizen, Scrum, and other agile working methods to be listed to reach the sky. Is there an agile recruitment process, method or style? I haven’t run across one yet.

From the point of an external recruiter I have to say that I have often felt bad for the candidates I have presented to the clients. It’s because a variety of reasons such as slow process, unrealistic expectations, not seeing the possible potential in future for the person, bad communication from client side, etc.

As a recruiter I have often struggled with getting the attention of the clients focused to certain candidates or even just pay enough attention to the whole recruitment. There is a correlation that seems to escape so many companies these days. The war for talent as people call it as in how to get the best candidates to apply. Still these companies neglect a majority of the recruitment process. Answering to the applicants and keeping good relations with all of them. I have addressed this before in my blog post about Destroying an Employer Brand by Recruiting. Losing potential future client or superstar by not answering can be at worst a really destructive habit.

To adopt Agile mindset for whole recruitment you need to rethink how to integrate the future superstars to your company in a flexible way as well. Many of the IT companies work already in Agile methods but don’t have agile recruitment process. Doesn’t it kind of undermine them saying that they are an agile company?

Is that due to the fact that projects are so deadline oriented that there isn’t time to get a new person up to speed with it? Is this agile once again? Not having time to do anything extra such as take a new person in who’d in the end would end up saving time and divide the workload in the team.

They might be having few days a year when they take in people to ensure group feeling for the new people but that is often a fleeting feeling for some of them as they relate with the senior people easier.

Some might say that it’s too much work but isn’t every single company’s main point to recruit brilliant people to ensure their growth? Why so little attention is paid to the recruitment process still?

I have a few suggestions that would enable you to see a glimpse of the skills people have regarding the requirements of the positions and to see their potentiality for future. All of them might not work for your exact niche but will hopefully give you a sense of direction on where to go from here.

Application Task

Some people have portfolio already as with that you can see how good they are. For people who don’t have the necessary things to showcase you can ask them to do an assignment to show their skills. Some companies have already taken this method to great extent by hiring almost purely on skill and personality instead of experience.

Interviews

Passion. That is the one thing that can differentiate a great hire from an average one. How to identify that person isn’t just portraying great passion towards the field in the interview only but has it all the time. This is something that should be tackled way earlier than when you start thinking about recruitment. The people who take this into account are the ones that count in the end.

Potential of the Talent

How to spot the talent who has the greatest potential of them all? This can be related to passion towards the industry as well. People with high potential for growth have generally been interested in the industry since young age or if this isn’t the case then how are they portraying it currently? Who has been your greatest successes’ in recruitment in the past? Can you spot the factor that all of them had in common? Look for it in your future candidates!

Student Engagement

How to engage the right students? How to get students engaged and excited about your company and/or industry? These are all in your knowledge already. Your organizational culture and your industry is your specialty. Showcase them and have for example a workshop with them. Some of the students might fall in love with what you are presenting.

You might think that this isn’t agile method when you look possibly years in advance. Let me argue you on it. Is preparing for future a bad thing? You might think of this the same way. Having a student who is graduated but hasn’t been suitable for you at graduation might be a perfect match later. He or she has most likely kept up to date with the industry and your company during the “silent time” and will jump on the opportunity = fast recruitment. Ideal scenario, isn’t it?

In the end recruitment is hard work and affects everything. Make it as easy-going and agile as possible to reap the benefits. Maybe we can help you with this?

Download our Lean Recruitment e-book – A Modern Business Approach to Lean Recruitment