What is the goal of recruiting?

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Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Rachel Blakely – Content Writer at Top Echelon. Her opinions are her own.
Are you making time to set goals for your recruitment process? If not, you might want to take a step back, look at your current accomplishments, and think of what you want to achieve. Establishing recruitment goals, recruitment metrics and objectives is essential for developing successful strategies.

There’s no place for a stagnant hiring strategy in recruitment. You might be successful using your current recruitment process. But, if you don’t continually set goals and keep up with changing recruitment trends, you could fall flat.

Knowing how to set the right recruitment goals and objectives might be difficult, especially when you don’t want to get behind on your responsibilities.

Read on to learn how to set recruitment goals.

Key Takeaways:

• Focus on reducing new hire failure rates from the start of the recruiting process.
• Figure out how to optimize your process so your speed-to-hire doesn’t slow down.
• Don’t make goals too abstract—implement SMART goals to stay on track.

How to set recruitment goals and objectives

The recruitment process revolves around receiving a job order, sourcing top-notch candidates, screening applicants, bringing them to your clients, extending a job offer, and successfully placing a candidate. There are many goals for recruiters you could set to improve this process.  

Reduce new hire failure rates

As a recruiter, you want to make as many placements as you can. But, the placement process doesn’t end when the candidate is onboarded at your client’s company. In fact, part of the placement process is employee retention.

New hire failure rate is something many businesses struggle with. In fact, about 46% of all new hires quit or are fired within 18 months of getting hired. It’s not enough to get a candidate in the door at your client’s business—you need to keep them there to satisfy your client. If a client is not satisfied with your results, they won’t want to hire you in the future.

How do you reduce the new hire failure rate? Simply put, there isn’t one direct answer to this question. But, taking a proactive approach can help you work on achieving this goal.

• Spend more time screening and interviewing candidates to learn what their career goals are.
• Listen to what your client is looking for and communicate that to the candidates.
• Take notes.
• Be reliable so you build a strong relationship with clients and the candidates you source.

Before you pass candidates along to your client or to the hiring manager, make sure they will be a good fit. On top of looking at their skills, education, and experience, get to know them. Determine if they would jive well with the culture at your client’s company.

Keep your speed-to-hire strong

Depending on the client, industry, and number of candidates you source, you might see the hiring process drag on. But, long placement processes are one reason that candidates reject job offers. To prevent low acceptance rates, make sure the hiring process stays focused.

• Stay organized and adapt to current industry trends to prevent lag.
• Do your research before you start sourcing candidates.
• Look up comparable positions to see the average salary and qualifications.
• Then, base the job description off of these industry averages to attract the right people.

Getting overloaded with resumes is one reason recruiters spend more time on the hiring process. You can streamline your process by using recruitment software to keep track of applications, schedule appointments, and source candidates from your database.

Don’t let your speed-to-hire slow down because your recruiting process isn’t adapting to current industry standards. Do your research before posting a job opening.

Foster good communication with candidates throughout the process. Keep them posted on where they stand.

Make sure your client stays on track with hiring as well. Screen and interview candidates on behalf of your client to speed up the process.

Implement SMART goals

Above all else, the goals you set should be strategic. Before you set a goal, make sure it is SMART:

• Specific: Define the goal you want to accomplish and why
• Measurable: Be able to quantify the goal
• Achievable: Determine if you have the ability to accomplish the goal
• Reasonable: See if the goal is worth your time
• Time-based: Establish a timeframe for reaching the goal

You don’t want to set goals without developing a plan for how you will achieve them. The plan you make should list a specific and relevant goal you can measure, how long it will take you to reach it, and how you plan on achieving the goal. If you can’t measure your goal, you won’t know if you reach it or not.

For example, your goal might be to improve the number of placements you make. Last year, you made 10 placements. Take a look at how using the SMART goal strategy will help develop your goal:

• Specific: Make 11 placements this year
• Measurable: 10% increase
• Achievable: Yes—one study found that 56.4% of recruiters make 11 or more placements a year
• Reasonable: Yes—will increase salary
• Time-based: 1 year to achieve goal

As you can see, the goal is planned out before it is implemented. It is specific, measurable, attainable, worthwhile, and the timetable is appropriate.

Goal setting for recruiters: Is it worthwhile?

A good recruiter will acknowledge there is always room for improvement. You might meet all the criteria for being a successful recruiter, but you need to challenge yourself and strive to set goals to improve your processes.

When you set goals, think of how they will help your candidates and clients. And, the goals should have a positive influence over your recruiting strategy. You might consider setting little goals every day.

Even though setting goals might take some time, you will find that it can encourage you to improve your recruiting process. When you spend time evaluating and coming up with ways to change your current strategies, you could see higher placement rates, faster speed-to-hire, and more satisfied clients and candidates.