Back in the day, Paul Hawkinson published the 30 recruitment process steps (or the recruitment process) in The Fordyce Letter. Any recruiter who has been in the business for a considerable length of time will remember both Hawkinson and TFL.
Hawkinson was as “old school” a recruiter as they came. Forget the Internet, smartphones, and texting. All this guy needed was a telephone. Even though he was basically retired and ran TFL full time, he worked in the trenches once a year and reported on his experiences with the hiring process steps.
At one time, “anybody who was anybody” subscribed to The Fordyce Letter. It was THE publication for the recruiting industry.
The recruitment process steps justify the fee
However, time keeps on slipping . . . into the future. Hawkinson is now fully retired, and TFL no longer exists. But some things never change, and those things are the steps involved in the recruitment procedure.
At one point, Hawkinson condensed his original list of steps from 30 to 26. His rationale was as follows:
“The original article listed 30 steps in the process rather than 26. The process has been shrunk to a key 26 rather than the original 30. Many of those steps had to do with internal things, such as sending an invoice, etc.”
Then Hawkinson advocated something that was genius. Whenever a hiring manager asks a recruiter for a discounted fee, he suggested sending them the list of steps and asking which of the steps they would like eliminated in order to justify the discounted fee.
With a tip of the cap to Paul Hawkinson, The Fordyce Letter, and every “old school” recruiter out there, below are the 26 steps in the recruitment process:
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1. |
Coordinate the job description. |
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2. |
Interview hiring manager for clarification of real needs. |
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3. |
Research the real benefits and attractions of the company to entice the candidate |
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4. |
Research to locate logical talent pool. |
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5. |
Check existing resume database for leads. |
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6. |
Source to narrow research results. |
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7. |
Recruit. |
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8. |
Qualify candidates by initial telephone interviews against the necessary job essentials. |
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9. |
Sift the potential finalists from the window shoppers, tire-kickers, and under-qualified. |
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10. |
Perform in-depth interviews with potential finalists. |
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11. |
Reference check performance with former supervisors and colleagues. |
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12. |
Check and verify candidates’ credentials. |
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13. |
Test, rank, and evaluate chosen nominees. |
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14. |
Arrange and coordinate interviewing schedule. |
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15. |
Prepare and counsel nominees for interviews by spelling out company needs, culture, organizational fit, hiring authority personality, etc. |
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16. |
Prepare client for interviews by providing full pre-interview information as well as results of reference and credential checks. |
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17. |
Debrief candidates after each interview, answering unanswered questions, etc. |
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18. |
Ask recruiter questions for hiring managers after each interview, assessing strengths, weaknesses, incompatibilities, etc. |
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19. |
Coordinate with hiring manager on possible offers to be made and set the stage for acceptance. |
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20. |
Participate with company in providing the necessary information required for negotiating an acceptable offer. |
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21. |
Reconcile any differences with successful candidate to smooth way for offer acceptance. |
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22. |
Arrange with Realtors, Chambers of Commerce, relocation consultants, moving companies, etc., to assure that candidate (and spouse) is aware of details in new location. |
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23. |
Provide candidate with housing location assistance, school information, community integration |
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24. |
Assist successful candidate in cleanly terminating current position. |
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25. |
Work with spouse placement (if necessary). |
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26. |
Follow-up after the employee placement process to assure new employee integration. |
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(Matt Deutsch has been a writer, marketer, personal branding guru, and business development enthusiast at Top Echelon for 13 years. To see what he did before this, check out his LinkedIn profile.)