8 Staff Selection Steps for Recruitment Agencies

There is a hiring process HR consultants use with job applicants to provide them with all the data they require and make the best hiring decision.

If you’re like most employers, HR consultants, or recruitment agencies providing HR services, you probably don’t have the time to get into the specifics of the hiring procedure. But there is always a quick step-by-step guide you can follow to make your recruitment and selection process easier, so you can get that new star candidate on your team. It includes a screening call, an in-person interview, a background check, and, finally, the actual job offer.

Learn everything you need to know to create a successful selection procedure for your business.

Here are the eight steps in the staff selection process and how to approach each one effectively.

1. Application

The first step of the hiring process – where recruitment companies view the application – is the stage of the hiring process as being passive because all you have to do is wait for applicants to respond to your job post. Applications should be used as screening tools to help you categorize people as qualified or not.

You can start with two options to do so: asking qualifying questions or gamification.

Qualification Inquiries

Using qualifying questions at the start of your selection process should be simple if you use software to design your application forms. You can submit two or three inquiries that are pertinent to the job.

Gamification

Although gamifying your hiring process is not a new concept, you may now use gamification tools more successfully thanks to technological advancements. Consider inviting less experienced individuals and those coming from various backgrounds to play online or offline games, particularly during the application period.

2. Resume Scanning

After completing the application stage of the hiring process, you now have a pool of resumes or Curriculum Vitae (CV)to sort through and pick those deemed qualified for a screening call. This is one of the oldest ways of staff selection. You must now carefully review each CV– whether by hand or with the use of tools – to find the best applicants.

By finding and eliminating individuals that don’t exactly suit the criteria you’re looking for, HR consultants save time checking all of the CVs. You can filter the scanning with the most important parts – including resume layout, applicant’s background, cover letters attached, intangibles, and any unconscious biases.

3. Screening Call

One of the early hiring processes is the screening call or phone screen – where recruiters begin to shortlist candidates. The goal of this conversation is to determine whether the applicant is sincere about the position and minimally qualified to execute the job. This step will help save your team time and money by ensuring that only the top candidates advance to the following, tougher and more expensive hiring phases, such as evaluations and in-person interviews.

Organize a Phone Screening.

Because it may be your very first communication with a candidate, the email you write to schedule a screening call with them is crucial. So, this is your chance to establish the tone of your communication with that applicant who might be your potential employee.

Be direct, upbeat, and professional-looking when organizing a phone screening. In order to get to know the applicant better and provide them with information about the position, thank them for applying for your available position and then ask if they’d like to chat with you. Always be succinct and to the point.

Be Properly Prepared in Advance

You might find it challenging to navigate screening calls since you can’t connect with candidates face-to-face and read their body language. There’s also the potential for intermittent bad signal or background noise. The secret is to be well-prepared: before you start the selection process, know exactly what you’re searching for, what you want to discover about each candidate, as well as what information you’d like to express. Take note of your requirements, review the candidates’ resumes, and make sure they’re able to answer basic questions.

Ask Appropriate Questions

Your interview questions should reveal whether an applicant is qualified and enthusiastic about the position. Therefore, be sure to discuss both of those issues on the screening call without going into too much detail in terms of skills as you need to reserve these questions for the later hiring stages.

4. Evaluation Test

Candidates should be further evaluated for their suitability for the position they’re attempting to fill after being screened and divided into “promising,” “maybe,” and “disqualified” groups. These evaluations can occur during the selection process in a variety of ways, including:

• A written or online test that measures things like intelligence, personality, and aptitude.
• A practical skills test evaluates a candidate’s memory, data input speed, and other skills.
• An in-person interview for a role in acting, a sales position where you ask the applicant to present you with a product, or a kitchen post where you ask them to prepare a meal for you right away. This all depends on your industry or niche.

Not everyone feels that taking an assessment test is a good idea. It should be emphasized that personality and culture-based assessment tests are frequently contested as to their usefulness in predicting a candidate’s performance in a particular position.

However, practical skills evaluations are a potent technique to ascertain whether a candidate is indeed capable of performing a job successfully as they have claimed in the earlier stages of the hiring process.

Efficiently Navigate the Assessment Phase

Timing is an important factor in the assessment stage of the hiring process. Candidates need enough time to complete the assessment, so give them three to five business days to do a brief examination. Don’t ask them to finish a difficult assignment in 24 hours, but don’t give them 20 days either. Instead, keep your expectations for them close to what you might expect of them if they were employees of your organization.

Give candidates a clear explanation of the assessment’s scope and aim so they are completely aware of your motivations. You don’t want people to believe you are expecting them to perform free labor.

5. Personal interviews

Now that you have screened applicants, appraised their qualifications, and shortlisted the most qualified individuals, you are well into the selection process. It’s finally time to set up in-person interviews with those deserving prospects and choose who will be your newest employee.

A good interview will enable you to compare and analyze individuals’ qualifications objectively, which will improve your hiring decisions. However, there is more to do than just conduct the interview. To ensure that you ask all the pertinent questions, you must prepare both yourself and the entire hiring team with the following:

• List of job-related questions
• List of cultural-fit questions
• Schedule interviews at least three to five days ahead
• Provide the important information
• Offer alternative days

 

 

6. Background Check

Background checks assure you that your candidates are trustworthy and won’t endanger your business. Employers may perform pre-employment checks, for instance, to ensure that applicants have been truthful in their resumes or do not use illegal substances at present. In actuality, there are various kinds of background checks, such as:

• Crime histories
• Credit histories
• Driving history
• Reports on verification (e.g., identity, education, work history, social security number, national insurance number, etc.)
• Drug tests

These tests are especially helpful throughout the hiring process when there is a high danger of hiring someone who is not qualified for the position. For instance, you probably wouldn’t want a convicted sex offender working at a nursing home or someone with poor credit managing your company’s finances; active drug users would be a significant safety risk as machine operators; and professional drivers with a history of drunk driving would probably not be the best hires.

Therefore, it would be crucial to undertake a pre-employment exam in these circumstances (you could do background checks in other instances too, but there might not be a necessity to do so).

7. Checking References

You could want to collect some references for your top applicants throughout the last phases of the hiring procedure. By doing this, you may acquire opinions about how they performed from people they have really worked with in the past, like previous managers, co-workers, business partners, and clients.

8. Decision and Job Offer

Congratulations! You’ve found your ideal candidate after several efficient selection procedures for hiring new personnel. Now is the time to inform them that you are giving them a job at your business. Don’t forget, though, to let rejected prospects know they didn’t receive the job.

If the job offer procedure is handled properly, you’ll soon be able to welcome your new employee to the workplace. Not only are they possible employees for future positions, but a pleasant applicant experience will do wonders for your employer brand. However, if you overlook something, you risk losing a top applicant and having to restart the hiring process from scratch.

 

Conclusion

By following these crucial steps, you’ll be able to hire an intern for your business, fill positions in your rapidly expanding startup, build out your team, and grow your employee base tenfold.

It’s time to start getting ready for the arrival of your new employee. You may arrange their first day for a seamless onboarding by sending them a welcome email to get them pumped up. To become one of the best recruitment companies, provide your candidates with the best HR consulting services they would recommend to their friends, so you can entertain more employees for the companies you handle.