How the Tech Team Can Boost Your Recruitment Strategy

The "5 Secrets for Success: How Talent Teams Can Learn From Other Departments and Finally Win the War for Talent" Series— Part 1 of 3

The "5 Secrets for Success: How Talent Teams Can Learn From Other Departments and Finally Win the War for Talent" Series— Part 1 of 3

Let's jump in! Regarding engineering teams, they have winning plays that recruitment teams can learn from. Agile methodologies are all the rage with engineering teams, and for a good reason — they help manage projects and plan work like heroes.

And guess what? Recruitment teams can 100% adopt this and others, so let's explore how we can apply this to improve recruiting efforts and set goals.

Develop a Kaizen mindset

But it's not just about the tools; it's also about the mindset — just like engineering teams focus on continuous improvement and learning from their mistakes, recruitment teams can do the same by implementing effective feedback loops and regularly analysing metrics.

This allows them to stay ahead of the game and truly understand what's happening in the market, within the company, and with the applicants. Trust me, the best recruiters stay on top of these things. We'll delve deeper into this in the marketing section, but remember; it's a key component of recruitment success.

Data-Driven Decision Making

But here's the thing, as recruiters, we've all been guilty of relying too much on gut instinct. And if you've only worked in recruitment agencies, chances are you need to get used to taking a data-driven approach to hiring. But let me tell you, gut instinct is great, but it has to be backed up with data to prevent poor decision-making and unconscious bias from creeping in.

That's where engineering teams have figured it out — they use data like a secret weapon. By digging into the numbers and making sense of them, they can spot patterns, trends and areas that need improvement. This helps them make intelligent decisions and develop kick-ass products that customers will love. Plus, by relying on data, they can make unbiased and objective choices, which is crucial to their success.

And here's the thing, recruitment teams can use data to make decisions about recruiting efforts, too — like which recruiting channels are most effective. And just like engineering teams, recruitment teams can use tools and technologies to help manage their work, like applicant tracking systems, recruiting analytics platforms, and recruitment marketing tools. But here's the tip, make sure all your recruitment tools can talk to each other and create an aggregated data set that continuously grows. That way, you will have a Single Source of truth in a database so you can start to see patterns and create tests.

Data can be your best friend. The numbers don't lie and will always help you have better conversations that can be based on facts, and if you set it up correctly, it can make your life a lot easier.

Excellent collaboration and communication

Finally, collaboration and communication are critical for engineering teams, and it's just as crucial for recruitment teams to effectively communicate with hiring managers and stakeholders to understand their needs and priorities. The most important here is the cross-functional way recruitment teams should work with the People Team; too often, the team is left in a silo, and creating those relationships is essential.

A real-life example of this is conducting all-hands catch-ups or daily stand-ups and wash-ups (after the interview processes have finished). You should take these "meetings" to integrate what's happening, prioritise the best action, and act on your environment to ensure you stay on task. I'm not, in any way, suggesting meetings for meeting's sake but use this time to bring people together, align, iterate, challenge and celebrate!

In short, engineering teams have a winning strategy for managing projects and planning work. Likewise, recruitment teams can learn a lot from their approach to agile methodologies, data-driven decisions, tools and technologies, continuous improvement, and collaboration and communication. So let's take a page from their book and start making better decisions, developing better products and improving our recruitment process!

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