A Guide To Understanding Recruitment Cycles

Categories: Recruitment Advice, Trends and Learning

How long does it take to hire someone? How can you predict the hiring cycle? Are there processes we can use to create an effective recruitment process? 

Recruitment is a complex process that involves multiple stakeholders. The length of time it takes to hire depends on several factors, such as the type of position being filled, the company size, and the availability of qualified candidates.

It is best to start looking for potential employees a few months in advance, as the recruitment process requires a degree of admin processes, which, can be streamlined with a step-by-step recruitment process, but can still take up some time depending on the size of the applicant pool. 

There are phases to a recruitment cycle, each phase has its own challenges and opportunities. This article provides a detailed look at each stage of the recruitment cycle and how human resource management uses the cycle recruiting stages. 

What Are Recruitment Cycles

Simply put, recruitment cycles are the different steps taken throughout the complete recruitment process, this can also be known as life cycle recruiting or cycle recruiting stages.

Recruitment cycles make finding the best candidate to fit the position easier and more structured in the HR world, with candidate interviews, a candidate shortlist, internal recruiters, virtual recruiters, and more. 

Recruitment cycles help identify qualified candidates and give hiring managers a better overview of potential candidates and how they could contribute to the company, making the hiring decision or approval period more streamlined. 

Recruitment cycles have been around for decades, but their stages have evolved and become more focused on a candidate’s experience, skills, and background, and the world of the remote hiring process has impacted the recruiting process tremendously. 

What Importance Do They Have In HR? 

Many HR-related tasks involve handling the recruiting process, assisting with selection decisions, pre-boarding period, approval period, as well as keeping the image of the company in mind when it comes to candidate searches and approvals. 

There are three main reasons why recruitment cycles can assist a hiring manager and stay in line with eligibility requirements that are important to a company. 

1. Gather Talented Candidates 

Looking for talented candidates is the most important stage of the recruiting process.

Recruitment cycles make the selection process of finding the ideal candidate more reliable and provide a wider selection of qualified applicants that are more likely to be of interest to hiring managers and higher-level managers. 

2. Streamlines The Hiring Process

Having a recruiting process that involves as few complexities as possible is the goal for HR departments and recruitment cycles help streamline the hiring process from start to finish. 

Hiring managers have said that recruitment cycles provide a greater sense of control over the recruitment process, therefore leaving less room for error that could extend recruiting. Some great HR tools that help to simplify the hiring process include flair and Remote.io. 

  • flair is an HR platform that focuses on making HR activities as seamless as possible. The platform provides a wide selection of helpful features like Time tracking, Payroll, Recruiting, Shift Planning, and more. 
  • Remote.io is another HR-focused platform that provides a platform for job seekers and employers to find career opportunities and candidates. The platform also provides informative content on some of the best remote tools to use for your company.

3. Faster Hiring Process

This ties in with the above, but with some standalone points. Having a recruitment cycle that works well for your company, is going to make hiring faster and more effective. 

Having a step-by-step process also allows a hiring manager to create a candidate shortlist of the applicant pool more effectively and move straight on to the final tasks and stages of the interview process. 

The 6 Most Important Stages In A Recruitment Cycle

Now let us dive a little deeper into the important steps that make up a time-saving and quality-driven candidate selection process within full-cycle recruiting.

Preparation 

In order to find potential candidates, you need to advertise what you are looking for. This stage focuses on sending out a job advert on a variety of job search sites and social media sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, Facebook, Instagram, and many more. 

A recruiter can make their company’s job ad stand out by placing an emphasis on company culture and work-life balance. People are looking for jobs, but they would also like to work in a space that supports them and encourages fun team-building exercises. 

This stage also involves working closely with the HR department and owner or head of management of a particular company in order to find the attributes that a potential candidate should have for a particular role or industry of focus. 

Sourcing 

Sourcing is a vital step to effective recruiting. This stage is all about keeping track of applicants and new applications coming through for a job position and possibly employee referrals. 

The sourcing stage allows for a glimpse into what a potential candidate could offer the company and the variety of skills they could produce and expand on should they be hired. 

This stage is where hiring personnel take a closer look at the volume and quality of applications that are being submitted, as well as where in the world and from who they are being sent.

This information proves useful when making a hiring decision further down the line. Hiring managers usually keep up with employment trends and ensure that they are always keeping up with new developments in applicant tracking platforms and strategies.

Screening 

During the screening process, hiring managers will meet with candidates face-to-face, either in person or online for formal candidate interviews. 

Before the interview and sometimes during an interview, a hiring manager will read and refer to some points made within the candidates’ resume, to gain a better understanding of the candidate’s experience and how they may fit in with company culture. 

Hiring personnel also looks if a candidate has a multitude of skills and the ability to learn new skills within the business. The development of skills within a candidate is essential when considering the eligibility requirements for a specific role. 

Informational interviews assist with the hiring decision towards the end of the process and is a vital part of the entire recruitment process. 

Selecting

The selection process is the stage when hiring managers may work alongside their managers or even the owner or CEO of the company to assist with selecting a final candidate in an interview process, usually deciding from the candidate shortlist.  

This stage is an integral part of an effective recruitment process and involves more interviews with each active candidate.

This helps to gain a more focused idea of how the candidate is going to help achieve the company’s goals and how candidates will apply their skills in the position. 

It is important to note that this stage is not just limited to one or two people, interviewing candidates is a collaborative effort between all members of staff involved in the recruitment process. 

Hiring 

Success! This stage in the recruitment process is letting candidates know that they have been selected for the job and reference or background checks may be conducted by hiring managers during this stage for candidates before telling them the good news. 

When a recruitment decision has been made, the new employee will likely be sent their contract and any other important company documentation to sign electronically or offline and be notified of employment policies by their hiring manager. 

They will then begin working with their new team and start building relationships with colleagues and clients, which ties in with the next stage.

Onboarding  

This last stage of the recruitment process is one of the hardest and most time-consuming of all the others, but it is essential and helps your new employees to feel welcome and supported. Onboarding can be virtual or physical, depending on the company. 

Onboarding consists of introducing the online platforms and schedules your company uses to complete tasks, navigating different work systems, and understanding and interacting with clients on a professional level.

It is also when new employees get to meet the rest of the team and start getting acquainted with their specific team members in their industry of focus. There are usually helpful and enjoyable team activities hosted by coaching staff that help new hires feel comfortable. 

There is usually a coaching staff that gets assigned to help new employees feel at ease and help make sure that their tasks are understood and who they should go to if they have any questions on specific tasks. It also allows employees development of skills in certain new areas. 

The Future Of Recruitment Cycles

Within the world of recruiting there are constantly evolving employment trends that need to be taken into consideration when working in an HR department. 

Some prominent trends that we are already seeing in 2022 include: 

Candidate Experience

More companies are placing candidate experience at the top of their hiring list as it is such a crucial part of a job.

In the past, the experience needed for the job was often included at the end of a job ad, whereas nowadays, it is one of the first questions asked or statements made as the first requirement in a job listing. 

Working Remotely

This definitely became the norm in 2020 and beyond, but it seems like being able to work remotely is a valuable skill that employers are looking for.

Companies and virtual recruiters have started reaching out to a wider global candidate pool and have realized that most work tasks can be completed remotely, and effectively.

The cycle recruiting process can function offline and online and is one of the more popular forms of recruiting nowadays. Online platforms like Zoom can also be used by a hiring manager to interview candidates while maintaining a professional interview process. 

Using Social Media To Recruit

This is a large trend that probably won’t have an end in sight, at least not in the near future. Social media is one of the best platforms for virtual recruiters to post a job advert, reach a larger audience and possibly gain more job offers than traditional job sites. 

Social recruiting has become increasingly popular amongst hiring staff and allows a company to reach a diverse candidate group and accomplish effective recruiting goals. 

There are likely going to be more forms of recruiting trends that pop up in 2022 and beyond, but for now, these are some of the predominant ones to keep an eye on and incorporate into your recruitment cycle in order to achieve a successful and effective recruitment process with human resources professionals.