Recruitment Life Cycle or full life cycle recruiting refers to a comprehensive recruitment process that begins with vacancy intake and candidate sourcing and ends with the extension of a job offer and onboarding of a candidate. It includes all the phases that the hiring manager and a recruiter undergo.
One of the primary functions of the HR department is recruitment. And since it is critical as well as extensive, it can essentially be broken down into 7 stages. The whole life cycle recruitment process follows the company's need to fill a gap, discover a compatible candidate to fill that job post, and all the phases of interviewing, finding the best job applicant, selection, and onboarding.
What Is the Main Goal of the Recruitment Life Cycle?
If done right, staffing an organization entails more than merely accepting applications and completing a few background checks. Before a new hire is hired and assigned to a position inside a company, certain procedures must be followed.
The major goal of the recruiting life cycle is to attract the greatest talent possible in order to close a job agreement between the organization and new employees. It is not a simple procedure, and if it is not handled properly, it can devolve into anarchy.
Further Reading: Common Challenges faced during the Recruitment Life cycle.
Various Stages of a Recruitment Life Cycle
1. Understanding the specifications and requirements
The first stage starts with getting information from the hiring manager about the vacancy and requirements of the job role, which in simpler terms can also be called understanding the ‘ideal candidate persona’. The first step in developing a successful recruiting strategy is to define your candidate persona. Personas can assist, guide, and simplify your recruitment process from start to finish. It covers a candidate's required skills, function in the team, personality, and capabilities. This can essentially be called the ‘Planning’ stage of the recruitment life cycle.
2. Crafting a job description
Creating a job specification involves drafting a comprehensive job description for examining the vacant position, outlining its major and minor responsibilities; the skills, experience, and qualifications needed; grade and level of pay; starting date; whether temporary or permanent; and mention of special conditions, if any, attached to the job to be filled.
After the description, the job posting based on the job description is written. The job posting, often known as a job advertisement, is the piece of information that candidates will see on the internet.
3. Attracting and sourcing candidates
Professional recruiters utilize a variety of techniques to find talented applicants. During the sourcing process, the recruiter is in constant communication with the hiring manager to keep them up to date on the progress.
It is sometimes not enough to just advertise job opportunities on job boards or career sites in today's environment of strong demand for talented workers. You can take inspiration to stand out with your advertisements from here. This is due to the fact that more than half of the candidates are passive. That is why, in order to locate applicants, modern recruiters use innovative ways such as in-house recruiting, web sourcing, recruiting from social platforms, and referral programs.
There are broadly two kinds of sourcing categories: passive and active. Candidates who are actively looking for a new job are targeted via active recruitment. They could be job seekers or employees who are unhappy in their current position. They want or need new employment, regardless of the circumstances. Candidates who are not looking at all are targeted by passive recruitment. According to statistics, 73% of candidates are passive job seekers.
4. Application assessment
The process of screening candidates or application assessment is one of the most grueling stages in the recruitment life cycle, mostly because it is critical and will set the tone for the rest of the process. In this step, recruiters accept and examine applications and resumes in this step to discover which candidates have the necessary qualifications and skills required for the position.
This stage consists of various sub-stages, namely, initial screening (resume screening), written test, telephonic interview, and a face-to-face interview.
- The purpose of resume screening is to identify individuals who will best fit the job opening.
- The examinations are frequently utilized for functions or roles with a large number of applicants so as to narrow down to the best lot.
- Telephonic interviews help to align the candidate's and the employer's expectations.
- A face-to-face interview provides a more in-depth understanding of the candidate's abilities to reply to questions on the spot. They must be able to think on their feet and still remain relevant.
None of these steps are mandatory, the recruiter has the right to decide which ones to include based on the role requirement.
5. Selection
The most important part of the full cycle recruiting process is selecting the best candidate. Seeing potential candidates in person, no matter how wonderful they appear on paper, is the best way to discover if they have the right mix of knowledge and abilities you are looking for. Your prerequisites will differ depending on your industry and the position you are applying for.
All decisions are based on the results from the screening stage. However, before deciding on the ideal applicant, this stage of recruitment life may also include a background check of employees.
6. Recruiting
Recruiting or hiring is the next step in the hiring process. This is a particularly delicate aspect of the entire life cycle recruitment process, so proceed with caution. After looking over all the facts and insights again and having a debate with your hiring manager the final choice is made. This is the stage where you invite the candidate and make a formal employment offer once you have made your selection. You may include any hiring criteria, such as pay, timetable, working hours, etc during the final communication.
The final decision is in the form of an offer letter to the prospective employee. You may also conduct additional background checks or levy any other checking mechanism after they accept the offer. The background verification procedure becomes critical to ensure that the influx of talent is as beneficial to the organization as possible.
7. Onboarding
The final stage in the recruitment life cycle, Onboarding, sometimes also referred to as induction or orientation is when the candidate is inducted into the organization and starts their new job. Ensure that you have a robust onboarding strategy in place because this is a critical stage that can influence whether or not an employee wants to stay with the organization. With a warm welcome and a team introduction, create an engaging and informative onboarding experience. Remember, ‘First Impressions Last. Make them Count’.
Read here about how you can create an effective onboarding experience for your new employees, and that is agile.
Who Is Responsible for the Recruitment Life Cycle?
With increasing firm growth, the responsibility for a complete life cycle recruiting process frequently shifts between different roles. Many companies also choose to outsource the entire recruiting process or key portions of it.
- In small-sized businesses, one individual called the ‘Full Life Cycle Recruiter’ oversees the whole process. He/she performs all the stages single-handedly.
- In mid-sized businesses, an HR department with an HR team is commonly present where each member of the team is usually assigned to a specific stage of the recruiting process.
- In large companies, whole HR departments and teams are dedicated to a single stage of the recruitment life cycle.
The role of a recruiter and in fact of all the people involved throughout this life cycle is very demanding as well as critical. To have a forward-looking perspective, read here about how the role of a recruiter will evolve in the near future and what will be important to keep in mind while making this advancement.
Conclusion
It is just not sufficient to know how the recruitment life cycle works, but what are those small nuances that can make this process effective is more important. Read about the Top 10 Recruitment Strategies to Attract Talent in 2022. The end result of your entire recruitment life cycle process should be an employee who is eager to begin working since they have all the relevant knowledge about their job.
To accelerate your pursuit of finding the best talent and providing them with a seamless experience that translates into excellent work check out the Recruitment suite from Darwinbox.
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