Collaborative Recruiting Touch Points

There are many high-impact points in the recruiting funnel where employees and managers can collaborate with recruiters. They are listed below, where they are separated into six categories, with the most impactful actions listed first under each category. 

• Collaborate to create job postings — employees who currently work in the job should be consulted before job postings and job descriptions are finalized. Their role should be to ensure that the best attraction factors are highlighted so that more people apply. Employees can also help to increase applications by posting job openings in their job family on their social media platforms. If the position has high turnover, HR should work with the manager, the team, and their generalist to tweak the job itself, to make it more desirable and effective.

Finding qualified prospects 

• Providing quality referrals — the largest contribution that others can make is by continually acting like a 24/7 “talent scout” in order to generate referrals. If you have an effective referral program, nearly 50 percent of all hires should come from referrals. However, what is needed is not a high volume of mediocre names, but instead only a few referred prospects with exceptional talents in the critical skill shortage areas of the firm. Employees, managers, and corporate alumni should make referrals primarily “for the good of the team.”
• Participate in recruiting messaging — managers and employees should willingly participate in recruiting videos. If they don’t create their own, they should participate in those developed by the recruiting function. Employees should also serve as 24/7 brand ambassadors by telling everyone at gatherings they attend and those that experience their blogs/podcasts about the many benefits of working at their company.
• Convincing conference attendees to apply — when employees and managers attend conferences, seminars, and professional meetings, they should also continually act like brand ambassadors and talent hawks by proactively seeking out and then convincing exceptional talent to apply at your firm.

Help with resume screening and sorting

• Resume screening — when recruiters are hiring for technical positions, they often have difficulty assessing an applicant’s technical capabilities in order to determine if they are qualified for the job. A technical employee from the hiring team can help the assigned recruiter determine whether questionable applicants are qualified. 
• Resume sorting — recruiters also often have difficulty determining the appropriate job for each applicant. A volunteer from the team can help the assigned recruiter direct applications into the correct job opening. 

Help with candidate assessment 

• Use a permanent hiring team — the second-most powerful collaborative contribution that outsiders can make to recruiting is serving on a permanent hiring team. Made famous at Google, they are now used by many other firms. They are effective because unlike hiring managers, hiring team members are not frantic with a selfish immediate need to fill their current job with butts in chairs. A permanent hiring team is more likely to make decisions dispassionately, based on data and in line with the big-picture future strategic needs of the firm. Because they are well-trained and they hire frequently, permanent hiring team members are much more likely to accurately assess and effectively sell candidates, compared to a manager who may only fill one job per year. 
• Involve major customers in selection — when you’re hiring a key person who must effectively interact with a few major B2B customers, some firms have asked an important customer to provide a representative who can informally participate in the interview process. Their input will likely limit the chances that you will make a major hiring error. The invitation alone might show key customers you are committed to continually meeting their needs.

Assisting with selling/closing candidates