6 Essential Elements in Pre-Recruitment Planning

Onboarding the perfect candidate contributes to the success of your company. Acknowledging this fact, makes effective recruitment planning an indispensable part of Human Resources. Pre-recruitment planning takes center-stage in the hiring process thus contributing to a major chunk of workforce competence. It encompasses the necessary processes to be dealt with before embarking onto the recruitment platform.

1) Funding

At the core of recruitment planning, funding provides a clear heading on the level of efforts needed to run the entire hiring process. The allocation of a budget will outline the course of the recruitment campaign from the very beginning. Various factors one should consider are: agency costs, advertising, travel expenses, accommodation during the selection process etc. Past recruitment budgets can be reviewed to ensure that the funding provided is realistic and adequate.

2) Time Frame

A timeline must be clearly defined for each activity between the moment a recruiter posts a job to the onboarding stage of a fresh hire. Failure to commit to the specified timeframe will reflect poorly on the recruiters and hamper workforce efficiency. A good timeframe includes well-calculated buffer times in the case of any unforeseen circumstances.

3) Forecasting

The best way to ensure that work goes undeterred, is to have an accurate forecasting model to gauge the possible vacancies in a given year. A part of this task can be attributed to the individual department managers who might be in a better position to assess their staffing needs for upcoming projects. Forecasting is a key support to budget planners who can make their decisions accordingly.

4) Position description

Prior to commencement of any recruitment process, a position description should be developed to reflect the current and future requirement of the position. This also includes, salary, experience, skills, position type, other allowances or benefits. These should be identified and determined prior to recruitment. This helps hiring managers decide the scope of work they can expect from a certain employee. It also allows recruiters to pitch the job better to potential recruits.

5) Recruitment method

Determining the recruitment method will eventually prove to be beneficial during the hiring and post-recruitment process. These are mainly three recruitment methods and you should opt the one which would work for your organization:
a. Warm Body Recruitment: Used when you need a large number of candidates having minimum qualifications
b. Targeted Recruitment: This method is for recruiting candidates with specific skills
c. Concentric Circles Recruitment: Onboarding candidates who are directly or indirectly in contact with your organization.

6) Advertising

One of the most important factors to be considered while planning for pre-recruitment process. Well targeted advertising helps you gain traction on inviting the best candidates in the market. Extensive posting about the job opening on social media platforms and job portals also contributes to the diversity of candidates you expect for the interview.

There are various corporate recruiting tools that can help a recruiter with the hiring process. One way to optimize pre-recruitment planning is through the use of data and analytics to sift out weak decision making. Actionable insights can bring clarity on previous hiring cycles and even provide a recruitment analysis of competitors, thereby guiding recruiters towards more cost-effective and time-saving pre-recruitment plans.