5 Ways to Improve Collaborative Recruitment

It’s a brand new world out there when it comes to recruitment. The talent pool is being fished by many competitors, and candidates hold a great deal of power. Collaborative recruitment is swiftly becoming the new standard for competitiveness in hiring.

Multiple parties participate in collaborative recruitment processes: Hiring managers, recruiters, company stakeholders (including lower-level employees), and the candidates themselves. Collaborative recruitment is unique in that it naturally segues to smooth onboarding, and sets new hires up for success.

Getting used to the collaborative recruitment model can be a learning curve. It’s critical to widen the parameters of who should be involved in hiring, to create a smooth path from candidate sourcing to new hire onboarding. Here are five ways to improve collaborative recruitment in your organization.

1. Bring in L&D to participate in the process 

These individuals know where existing and anticipated skills gaps are and can help work with recruiters to create job descriptions that highlight in-demand skills and interests that can help future-proof your workforce. Nearly 25% of L&D professionals already say they work closely with recruiting to identify skills gaps and source candidates for hard-to-fill roles. Meanwhile, 73% of employees say they would stay longer at their company if there were more skill-building opportunities.

[Download: Quality of Hire Scorecard]

2. Emphasize opportunities for growth and upward mobility

Gartner estimates that turnover caused by a lack of future career opportunities costs average-sized companies $49 million per year, plus additional less quantifiable costs of attrition such as the impact on remaining employees' morale and loss of institutional knowledge and the impact on employee morale.  Showing candidates that you promote internally can be a great move: 71% of employees are more likely to stay at a company that promotes from within.

3. Use a multi-faceted approach to interviews 

More than 40% of traditional interviews fail due to unconscious bias imposed by a single individual. While decisioning should still be firmly in the hands of a hiring manager, adding extra employees from both levels above and below the candidate to the interview process can help combat individual unconscious bias and provide a better grasp on a candidate's suitability for the role and the culture. That's not an argument for culture fit; in fact, the power of culture add should be discussed before such collaborative interviews.

[See How to Avoid Unconscious Bias in Recruiting Candidates]

4. Put hiring managers and recruiters on the same page 

Hiring managers and recruiters can benefit from Crosschq TalentWall™, which surfaces the most important factors and data from an ATS and provides a birds-eye view of how hiring is going. The bidirectional updates ensure all data stays up-to-date and improve accountability.

Crosschq 360 turns traditional reference checking on its head, transforming the process into a candidate check that allows the applicant to score their own attributes first, then digitally collects scoring from former peers and mentors across the same attributes.

5. Include candidates in the hiring process

Crosschq 360 is the candidate checking process that is replacing traditional reference checking. Instead of spending hours on the phone trying to track down references and gaining little in return, Crosschq 360 transforms the process into a high-value activity. Each “check” starts with the candidate themselves as they complete a questionnaire tailored to the job requirements. Their self-score is then compared with digital checks performed by former peers and managers, who score the same attributes for a clear picture of candidate strengths and weaknesses. Checks done this way avoid unconscious bias and allow candidates to be compared to each other across a level playing field.

Ready to shift into collaborative recruitment mode? We can help. Request a free demo or a free trial today.