As hiring experts, we know how important it is to make good hiring decisions. Without the right people in the right roles, your business can’t reach its full potential. But in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers are finding it more difficult than ever to fill their open roles. 

Since spring 2020, the job market has gone through dramatic shifts that have, at different times, left both job seekers and employers struggling. As of this writing, it’s a candidate’s market – meaning there are more open roles than there are candidates to fill them – so job seekers have the advantage of being selective about where to work.

With market conditions changing so rapidly, you may want to stop and ask yourself: Is there anything I need to change in my hiring process that would put me in a better position to recruit top talent? 

That’s why we’ve created CareerPlug’s free Hiring Process Grader tool. Answer a few simple questions about the processes and technologies you use to attract, communicate, and evaluate candidates, and our Hiring Process Grader tool will show you areas where you’re excelling – and where you need to improve in today’s competitive hiring market. Click the button below to get started.

The 4 Components of a Great Hiring Process

We measure a hiring process based on the four main components of our own proven process, which has helped more than 12,000 small businesses make the right hires. 

1. Attract

Your job postings should first be distributed to all of the popular job boards where candidates are looking. You should also go one step further and recruit from sources outside of the major job boards, like employee referrals and smaller job boards that are niche, industry-specific, or local. We’ve found that these sources produce the highest quality candidates overall. 

Finally, employers that perform well in this category do a great job of enticing candidates to apply by showcasing their workplace culture, benefits, and employer brand on their own unique company careers page. 

2. Communicate

Our data shows that candidates consider communication one of the most important aspects of a great candidate experience. They want employers to respond quickly after they apply and continue to be responsive throughout the hiring process. Remember that a great hiring process centers around the candidate experience. 

Create interview invitation templates you can quickly send to let candidates know you’re interested, as well as rejection letter templates in case you decide not to proceed with them. To reach candidates quicker and more reliably, consider using text recruiting in addition to email. The average response time for an email is 90 minutes compared to just 90 seconds for an SMS text message. 

When candidates are on the job hunt, they’re typically pursuing multiple opportunities at once – if you wait too long to communicate your interest, they could have moved on to another opportunity by then. 

3. Evaluate

The only way to make great hires consistently is to evaluate consistently. One of the biggest mistakes hiring managers make is failing to create an ideal candidate profile before they post a job. This can be a simple document to help employers identify the skills, behaviors, and traits necessary to be successful in the role so that they know what to look for when evaluating candidates. Download our free ideal candidate profile template by clicking the button below.

A strong evaluation process should also include: 

• Having pre-screening questions in the job application
• Requiring candidates to complete assessments to demonstrate their fitness for the role
• Creating a standard set of interview questions designed to reveal the behaviors you’re looking for
• Conducting reference and background checks to verify your hiring decision

4. Automate

A great hiring process should work like a well-oiled machine while producing predictable results. By automating tedious and repetitive hiring tasks, employers save time and create a consistent and positive experience for candidates. Businesses that score well in this category use tools that automate the publishing of your jobs across multiple job boards at once, send them alerts via email or text anytime a qualified candidate applies, automatically remove unqualified applicants, and send new hire paperwork and onboarding materials.