Definitions (Flora)

Recruiting is the process of actively looking for possible applicants for a company or business. Recruiting should be beneficial for both sides and is different from hiring. (Smooke 2014) Hiring is the last step of recruiting but is a process as well. It is a more formal part to introduce and create a working relationship between the parties for given work. (Entrepreneur Staff 2014) 

Recruiting vs. Hiring (Flora)

While hiring needs to have a reason such as an available position or replacement, recruiting can happen at any time. It is a way to not only get a new workforce but also to advertise the business and get some attention. Recruiting allows the company to sell itself to the candidates and make sure that when hiring becomes relevant, there is a big enough pool to choose from, and the options are high quality. Although, both of them are very important, recruiting defines the company on a bigger scale as there are more targets of it, so it’s severalfold crucial to do it right. That’s why recruiters are usually friendly, giving out sometimes candies, other times some free merchandise. The point is to make the potential applicants feel good about themselves and the company. Hiring on the other hand focuses on applicants for a specific area of business with specific skillsets for a given position. (Peek 2019) 

Process of Recruiting (Flora)

The recruitment process, just like any other process, can be divided into steps, however, depending on who is asked the number of steps will differ.  

1. Planning 

Although the work is not very specific as the position is not yet available, there are certain aspects of the job that are already present in the recruitment process. For example, an IT firm probably wants to have the majority of the pool to be programmers, software developers, etcetera, instead of having a pool full of accountants, because only a few of those is enough. Having a general job description and an overall ”manual” about who to look for is enough to pull the planning off the list.   

2. Strategize 

When one knows what they are looking for, the next question to be answered is how one will get there.  Recruiting can happen anywhere, but not everywhere at the same time. First, it’s important to decide whether the recruitment happens internally (inside the company) or externally (outside of the company) and what are the used channels. If it happens internally, probably face-to-face discussions and leaflets are used. Externally besides these two, there might be social media or paid advertisement. It is also possible to call people if they were referred or go through interviews from the previous hiring process. 

3. Screening 

When all the possible applicants are in, the screening will follow. It is important to look through all applications. Sometimes companies have standards for educational or professional backgrounds, but it is not the only important thing. Many soft skills and unrelated hard skills towards the position can give that extra push and can get a job right on the spot or later on when a position is available. Applicants can be screened face-to-face as well, in that case, this is the first step when the business is making a contact with a professional background. It has great importance to give a good experience to the applicants as it can affect the company’s (especially start-ups’ or smaller businesses’) reputation. Transparency is also crucial for the same reasons as well as for keeping both parties on a realistic stand.  

4. Hire, bench, or dismiss 

Right until this step the company is looking for candidates. This time a decision needs to be made, however not a very specific one. The options are hiring, meaning offer a position and start the hiring process (discussed below), bench, so put and leave the potentials in the pool (also discussed how to do it well below), or dismiss, politely declining any present and most likely future co-operations. As mentioned before, recruitment happens continuously so that the companies have a pool to choose from. This means that they are going to be in contact with more people at a time than what they can offer positions for. In order to keep the candidates close, these businesses have to keep in contact and create a relationship with the potential workers.  

(Creately 2021; Peek 2019; Sunshine 2022) 

Process of Hiring (Thais)

As explained earlier, the hiring process is different from recruitment. While in the recruitment step the goal is to meet the candidate, in the hiring process, the goal is to hire a new colleague. Digging into it, the process is straightforward. It can be divided into 8 steps (Workable, 2022.) 

1. Application 

An open job position is equal to open doors at a company. When a company has an interesting and rewarding open position, it might be expected from the HR team to receive numerous applicants’ contacts right away. Although, the experience of trying to be reached out by the candidates can be long and frustrating. The way of avoiding it is to plan well this first step of hiring. The best way to retain the candidate through the whole application form is to have quality questions. Qualifying questions means not having too complex answerable questions. The candidate has the option of writing a simple answer such as yes and no or extending your thoughts getting longer answers. Following this pattern, more candidates get to complete the application and it is up to the hiring team to observe the relevance of answer content. 

2. Resume screening 

In the recruitment process screening is a relevant step. In the hiring process it is essential. The resume screening is the moment to match skills, education, or any relevant specification for the job position. It’s the moment of going through the applicants sent forms and determine if the candidate is qualified enough to proceed into the next hiring step (Bahr 2021.) There are many sustainable ways to execute a successful resume screening. The use of software can support the work when there are multiple applications for a unique open position. The content expected to find in the resume variates depending on the job applied for. It can be the experience background, the layout of the application, the attachment of a cover letter or even the cherry on top of sharing the personal interests as hobbies. 

3. Screening call 

The recruiters should work with the assumption that the applications who showed interest in the job position sending the form might have applied to other companies as well. The screening call is the opportunity to find out if the applicant is interested to proceed and an opportunity to check a minimum qualification on communication. The assignment at this point is to schedule a phone call in a suitable time for the candidate and to have in mind that as much the recruiter is observing the possible future employee, the applicant is also evaluating the kind of relationship exists in this possible future work. It means it is relevant to take in consideration during all the call time to have positive attitude and to be transparent. It gives a real overview of how is to work with this new group of people and culture. Besides the phone scheduling and positive attitude during the call, it’s also important to have a minimum preparation checking the candidate’s know content so far and preparing the relevant questions for this case. 

4. Assessment test 

After the screening steps, it is already possible to have the possible new employees sorted by “potential”, “maybe”, and “not qualified” cases. It is time to test the “potential” and “maybe” categorized interviewees. Again, it depends a lot on what requirements the job position requires but it is important to have a practical test before going ahead and investing further time of the team if the applicant cannot execute the assignments. The test could be a product or service pitch if the job position is from the sales field. It could be a logical issue to solve if the job is about software development. It could be recreating the company’s logo concept for a designer job position. Independently on how you want to test the aptitude and skills of the candidate, it is important to allow a relevant time for the person could process the challenge and bring to the table their best result. These hard skills are evaluated in different ways and the company can understand what an okay delivery level is to proceed. For example, a junior developer who did not finish a task but was able to write their logical understanding of the test sometimes is good enough hard skill to continue trying to hire. 

5. In-person interviewing 

While the screening call goal was to check the real interest of the candidate, the in-person interview goal is to evaluate the potential of the possible new employee. At this point, the company already knows if the applicant already knows how to execute the job task. Now it is the stage to understand if first, the soft skills are suitable enough and the person is a cultural fit with the company’s environment; and second if this candidate is the best option among all the other available possibilities. As in the screening call, in in-person interviewing it is again essential to prepare for the meeting. To gather the job-specific questions, the testing soft skills questions, and situational questions beforehand. To ask about the career goals and expectations for the job. It’s the main opportunity to understand the interviewee and get deep into the questions. Worth to make clear that the arrangement of the meeting should be made carefully. The applicant should receive the address and possible dates and times for the meeting at least a couple of business days in advance. An agenda or scope, and the participants who will attend the meeting. 

6. Background checks 

Getting a candidate to the background check means the company is happy and excited to make an offer but it is still important to check all the informed background information. Even if there is trust and the company is happy about the candidate, an official decision cannot be made on the assumption of everything said is fully true. A deeper check-in on LinkedIn is one easy way to check the resume’s reported facts. Still, it is relevant to check at least criminal records to make sure the company is employing someone legally. 

7. Reference checks 

One of the final steps in the hiring process is to check the given reference contacts. It is relevant to learn how the almost contracted employee behaves or has behaved working with others. The best people to share this knowledge are former teammates, managers, or business partners. They would be able to answer about how they take the work responsibility, potential weaknesses which were not necessarily shared during the selection process, or even how does it feel to work on a daily base with this person in question.  

8. Decision and job offer 

It is time to make an offer! If the recruitment team went through all the steps and the applicant succeeds up to this point, it is time to offer to the job position. This step goes around discussing the employment terms and making a non-official verbal offer. It can be a call giving the good news and allowing the candidate to have a couple of days to think and get back with their answer. It is relevant to start with a verbal and non-official offer because it avoids extra work filing and preparing the official offer if the candidate simply says no. Depending on the size of the company, it is relevant to keep the CEO, HR, and finance team aware of the candidate and offer process. 

Once the job offer is accepted the process of hiring is officially ended and it a new process is started as the onboarding. 

Onboarding (Samu)

After the hiring process has been brought to its conclusion and the candidates have officially become employees, onboarding begins. Onboarding is the process of helping the new hires to adjust to the conditions, norms, and culture of their new working environment rapidly and smoothly. The quicker the new hires feel supported, prepared, and comfortable, the quicker they can utilize their competencies and contribute to the company’s mission successfully. The onboarding process is a very vital part of ensuring that the new high-quality employee, that has just gone through a thorough recruitment and hiring process, isn’t wasted. Research and conventional wisdom both suggest that employees get about 90 days to prove themselves in a new job. (Watkins 2003) 

It should always be considered whether the onboarding is dealt in a systematic way or not. Informal onboarding refers to the process by which an employee learns about his or her new job without an explicit organizational plan. Formal onboarding refers to a written set of coordinated policies and procedures that assist an employee in adjusting to his or her new job in terms of both task and socialization (Bauer 2010). Even though research suggests that formal onboarding is more effective, it can’t be generalized to all organizations. Picking the most suitable method has a lot to do with the size of the organization, the number of new hires, and of course the culture.  

Certain building blocks for onboarding can be distinguished, they are called the four C’s of onboarding (Bauer 2010): 

Compliance 

• Includes teaching employees basic legal and policy-related rules and regulations. 

Clarification

• Refers to ensuring that employees understand their new jobs and all related expectations. 

Culture 

• Broad category that includes providing employees with a sense of organizational norms – both formal and informal. 

 Connection 

• Refers to the vital interpersonal relationships and information networks that new employees must establish. 

As with picking the standardized method of onboarding to fit the organization’s needs, the practices which are used to onboard new hires must be tailored to the type of employee he/she is and what role they will possess. There is a clear difference between onboarding of hourly workers and that of managers and executives. Onboarding is generally more developed for employees on higher levels of hierarchy compared to hourly workers. It’s important to get executives and managers up to speed quickly, because they’re in highly visible positions and influence the lower levels of hierarchy more clearly (Bauer 2010). If the executive level manager onboarding process fails, it can cost (depending on the organization, of course) up to $2.7 million (Watkins 2003). However, when it comes to hourly workers, the process of onboarding is often perceived as not as important, and their onboarding costs are notably smaller. The job description of hourly workers is simpler in general, and thus do not require for much tailoring and flexibility of the onboarding program. 

Best practices for onboarding, according to Talya N. Bauer: 

• Implement the basics prior to the first day on the job. 
• Make the first day on the job special. 
• Use formal orientation programs. 

• Develop a written onboarding plan. 
• Make onboarding participatory. 
• Be sure your program is consistently implemented. 
• Ensure that the program is monitored over time. 
• Use technology to facilitate the process. 

• Use milestones to check in on employee progress. 
• Engage stakeholders in planning. 
• Include key stakeholder meetings as part of the program. 
• Be crystal clear with the employees in terms of objectives, timelines, roles, and responsibilities. 

Social media (Thais)

As discussed earlier, social media plays an important role in the recruiting and hiring processes. Aiming to improve the velocity and quality of the recruiting and hiring processes, companies have been using social media to find their matching employees (Ku, 2021.) It is also noticed that LinkedIn for example, is a common and acceptable social media for network and to be contacted by companies.  

Based on the responses of 896 job seekers and 280 hiring managers, Robert Walters gathered the information that LinkedIn is the most common social media to have a profile while unemployed and the most registered account for companies in their online presence on social media (Walters, R. 2013). Figure 1 illustrates that 85% of the unemployed people have an account on LinkedIn. Figure 2 illustrates that 50,8% of the companies have an account on LinkedIn, and also shows that 49,2% don’t have an online presence on any of the social media asked on the survey. 

FIGURE 1. Unemployed people with a social media profile

FIGURE 2. Companies with a social media profile 

There is a whole discussion about the ethics of the use of social media during the hiring process of an employee. Still, at least LinkedIn is well accepted and 100% dedicated to professional matters. It is important for the candidates searching for a job opportunity to be active on LinkedIn and not make concerning declarations. People on social media and especially on LinkedIn need to have in mind their account is being watched by possible employers. The same rule is applied to the companies. To be interesting for the candidates with an active profile and to avoid declaring polemic opinions which could downgrade how the company is seen. Everything on social media is exposed. This information should be always clear before posting anything. 

Reflection / own experience 

Needless to say, the recruiting, hiring, and onboarding processes are implicated differently in every organization. Whereas big companies often have a system made up for gaining new employees, small to medium-sized companies may operate differently. We in SYNTRE Osk got to experience, what recruiting new employees could include. Since we are a small organization, things like hiring strategies and onboarding costs were something we did not have to worry about. What we wanted to do, however, was to put as good of an image of us out there as possible. We were not only interested in gaining new members for the team, but we also wanted others to be interested to be part of our team in the first place. This is something that can be easily forgotten during the process; why should the employee work for you? Unfortunately, though, our recruitment and hiring process fell short, since we didn’t receive any applications. But although we didn’t get the results we hoped for, our short hiring process left a lot to crave for. As seen in this essay, there is much to learn about recruiting and hiring, starting from the fact that they are two different things, through steps and fortes, to tricks and tips that may help. if implemented correctly and supported by quality onboarding, recruiting and hiring processes enable any organization to find members who successfully contribute to their mission. And when SYNTRE Osk gets another shot at this process, we’ll be ready. 

Image 1. SYNTRE Osk’s application form

 – Written by Thais Santos Araujo, Samu Nyqvist and Flóra Lang 

References:  

Smooke, D. 2014. How Do You Define ‘Recruiting’? Read on 25.4.2022. 

https://www.smartrecruiters.com/blog/how-do-you-define-recruiting/ 

Entrepreneur Staff. 2014. Hiring. Read on 25.4.2022. 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/hiring 

Peek, S. 2019. What Is the Difference Between Hiring and Recruiting? Read on 25.4.2022.  

https://www.uschamber.com/co/run/human-resources/difference-between-hiring-and-recruiting#:~:text=Hiring%20and%20recruiting%20are%20not%20the%20same%20thing.%20%E2%80%94&text=Hiring%20happens%20when%20you%20need,top%20talent%20to%20your%20organization. 

Creatley. 2020. 7-Step Recruitment Process to Improve Your Candidate Conversion Rate and Candidate Experience. Updated on 13.8.2021. Read on 26.4.2022. 

https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/recruitment-process-steps/ 

Sunshine, M. 2022. There is a Huge Difference Between Hiring and Recruiting. Read on 26.4.2022. 

https://blog.thecenterforsalesstrategy.com/huge-difference-between-hiring-and-recruiting 

Workable. 2019. 8 steps of the selection process for hiring employees. Read on 29.05.2022. https://resources.workable.com/tutorial/employee-selection-process 

Bahr, K. 2021. Resume Screening. Read on 29.05.2022. https://eddy.com/hr-encyclopedia/resume-screening/  

Ku, D. 2021. Social Recruiting: Everything You Need To Know for 2022. Read on 01.05.2022. 

https://www.postbeyond.com/blog/social-recruiting/#:~:text=The%20Majority%20of%20Companies%20are,use%20it%20are%20planning%20to 

Walter, R. 2013. USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS. Read on 01.05.2022. 

https://www.robertwaltersgroup.com/content/dam/robert-walters/corporate/news-and-pr/files/whitepapers/using-social-media-in-the-recruitment-process.pdf 

Watkins, M. 2003. The first 90 days. Boston, MA. Harvard Business School Press. 

Bauer, T. 2010. Onboarding new employees: Maximizing success. SHRM Foundation. Read on 02.05.2022. https://www.shrm.org/foundation/ourwork/initiatives/resources-from-past-initiatives/Documents/Onboarding%20New%20Employees.pdf