How to Use Agile Recruiting – 3 Tips to Improve Hiring

Processes in the workplace are constantly changing due to the digital transformation and must be continuously adapted.

In order for companies to continue to prevail in the competitive recruiting environment, the hiring process must also be designed in an agile manner.

We'll explain what's behind the term agile recruiting, which agile methods exist and how your company can also benefit from them. In addition, we reveal a few tips that will make it easier for you to implement the new methods.

The term originally comes from software development and refers to four guiding principles and twelve principles that were summarized by experts in a manual, the agile manifesto. With these guiding principles, software development should become more productive and developers should be guaranteed more freedom to develop creatively.

The four guiding principles are as follows:

• Individuals and interactions are more important than processes and tools.
• Functioning software is more important than comprehensive documentation.
• Collaboration with the customer is more important than contract negotiation.
• Responding to change is more important than following a plan.

How Agile Methods Can Be Used in the Recruiting Process?

It is easy to imagine how the guiding principles are implemented in software development, but how exactly do agile methods work in employee recruiting? In order for the recruitment process to be as efficient as possible, fast processes, well-structured groups, and smooth communication between teams are necessary.

In a traditional recruiting process, once a job has been approved, a job advertisement is created and published by those responsible in the HR department.

Afterward, it is hoped that enough people will apply to select the best candidate. One problem that often arises with this approach is that the person in charge does not have enough information to design the job ad in detail. In addition, they know little about how the team works and their approach.

In agile recruiting, the team from the department in which the vacant position is located is included in the recruiting process. The team is involved not only in the selection of the candidate, but also in the writing of the job offer.

This makes the job posting much more realistic and applicants know exactly what to expect in their new job.

With a detailed job description, you also automatically improve the Candidate Journey and thus prevent applicants from rejecting the job.

In agile recruiting, the team itself takes center stage in the final decision about the candidate to be hired. This task was traditionally performed only by the supervisor.

The Process in Agile Recruiting

Having discussed the importance of agile in recruiting, let's now outline the agile methods and apply them step-by-step to the application process.

These methods make the hiring process more effective for both the candidates and the company.

The hiring process for companies starts with advertising the job through multiple channels. As mentioned earlier, in agile recruiting, the team has a large say and is involved in the design of the job posting. While traditional job postings, contain general information about the company and the job, an agile job posting includes information about the team and their way of working.

Thus, candidates can immediately decide whether they can identify with the team and the company culture.

The pre-selection in agile recruiting lies with the HR department, just as in the classic approach.

The difference only becomes clear in the next step: The applicants' information is stored in a digital database or even a talent pool, to which all employees of the company have access.

Employees can view the profiles and evaluate the skills of the applicants. As soon as a team is looking for additional staff, it can use this database to write directly to applicants and invite them for an interview. This way, promising candidates may be approached by more than one team. This speeds up the talent search considerably.

During an agile interview, the conversation does not take place between the recruiter and the candidate as usual, but rather it serves as a first meeting with the team.

Here we talk about how to work with team members and what qualities are required for successful team performance.

The candidates are expected to be able to contribute to an agile company, function well in a team, be creative, and be adaptable to change.

The selection of a candidate is made by the team and not by the manager.

In some companies, however, the supervisor has a veto right and can vote against the hiring. The HR department still takes care of the formalities, such as drafting the employment contract.

The onboarding process is made even more successful if the team of the respective department helps with the setup.

Agile recruiting is still new territory for many companies and the implementation seems complicated at first. With the following tips, your company can also make the hiring process more agile:

1. Improve the communication within the team and between the teams

Since the team's opinion plays a key role in the hiring process, employees should be able to leave and share comments and reviews about candidates at any time. This is best done via dedicated software where they can view profiles and post messages. This way no information is lost and is all in one place.

2. Set up a well-organized system

Information about candidates should be well organized and accessible to everyone. In order to stay up-to-date, the system should be subject to regular updates. It is also important to keep in touch with candidates when they are created in a talent pool. This prevents them from looking for new jobs and your company from losing talented candidates.

3. Analyze and optimize the process

A continuous analysis of strategies is important to find out which methods bring the desired results and which do not. For example, you can statistically record which channels your company uses to attract particularly large numbers of applicants and which do not reach the desired target group. After the analysis, the optimization of the process and a restructuring of resources begins.

If your company follows an agile organizational style with teams that highly value alignment, accountability, transparency, and collaboration, then your hiring process should be designed accordingly. The chance of a successful hire is increased with agile methods, and you save time and resources.

However, agile recruiting makes perfect sense for traditional companies as well, because team members know best about the position to be filled and the work climate. Involving employees reduces the risk of candidate mismatches.

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Agile recruiting puts employee opinion and participation first and actively involves them in the hiring process. The respective team members provide input on the design of the job posting and the onboarding process, are present during the first meeting and even have a say in the decision to hire a candidate.

These methods ensure that candidates are the best fit for the team and can develop to their full potential. Candidates get a better insight into your new workplace and tend to stay with the company longer if they fit in well with the team.

If your company is also looking for promising talents, TieTalent can help you. With us, you can easily find qualified personnel, especially in the field of IT and digital marketing. Thus, your company can save a lot of money and time in recruiting and minimize the additional bureaucratic effort a lot. Register now!