Job reqs are boom or bust, so you’re either scrambling to cover everything or worried about proving your team’s value. Every hiring manager has different expectations on compensation and time to hire, and when they change their mind, you always feel like the last to know.
To break the cycle, what you need is a robust recruitment planning process. A full recruitment plan should include an agreed-upon workforce plan, hiring approach, and marketing strategy. If you don’t have time for the full process, you can also do a quick-and-lite version if needed, though we recommend going through all the steps eventually.
A proactive recruitment plan is the first step to becoming a true strategic partner in the organization. You can get ahead of hiring manager requests, set clear expectations, and demonstrate how critical talent is for achieving the broader goals of the business.
We’ve asked our own recruitment team, as well as experienced recruiters from a range of industries, how they do recruitment planning. Here’s their step-by-step guide, along with the real templates they use every day as part of their recruitment strategy.
Ask each team to share the roles they plan to open this year, and how each role supports their team’s annual goals. For example, this can help you understand which roles must be hired by a certain date, and which roles are more flexible.
You need to understand what the company is trying to accomplish, how that rolls down to [each] department, and then how they see all these hires contributing to that.
Mike Bradshaw, PHR Head of Talent Acquisition, PinpointStart by auditing your core metrics. Check internal reports and your ATS’s reporting for core hiring metrics, including:
Then move on to qualitative materials, such as:
And take a look at your current candidate experience, including:
Have an open-ended conversation with your stakeholders about how they think hiring is going. Consider requesting feedback from:
Where do they see untapped potential? Where do they want to see improvements? What attracted them to the company and what was their candidate experience like?
As you review all this information, look for signs of issues and potential opportunities. It’s also helpful to write down your baseline in each area so you can track improvements over time.
Typically, the opportunities you find will fall across three areas: Talent sourcing, employer brand, or new hire onboarding.
Finding talent: Are there untapped opportunities?
Branding: Are you selling your company?
Onboarding: What happens after a candidate accepts your offer?
Now that you have context, data, and feedback on previous hires, you can start planning for the future. The more an organization invests time into these exercises, the easier and more likely it will be to meet recruiting goals on time and within budget.
Organizational goals are driven by your employees. Meet with senior leadership and department heads to discuss company goals for the year. Is this a year of growth, or efficiency? Are there certain departments or regions we want to develop? Answering these questions will help your team to be aligned with leadership on the hiring mission and messaging.
Give department heads the opportunity to design their ideal team to reach that year’s goals, budget notwithstanding. This will grant you greater visibility into their vision for the department, and what skills they want on the team.
Then, help department heads refine each job description and prioritize each role, based on actual needs and realistic expectations. Some roles may be less vital this year, or could be solved without a full-time hire. In these conversations, you can help shape the plan for each department, manage expectations around hiring, and avoid frustration later on.
Internal alignment on levels ensures your hiring plan is both competitive and equitable. In a competitive labor market where remote work opens up more opportunities for employees, it is even more important to offer the right rate to hire the right person at the right level.
At the same time, you want to avoid overpaying or overpromising. Not only will this impact your budget, but it could contribute to internal equity issues, which disproportionately affect women and people of color .
Outline what is required at each level and define salary bands to mitigate the risk of some employees being unfairly valued. If it becomes harder to hire people at the right level because of pay, then it may be time to reassess trends in the market and adjust compensation levels accordingly.
Tip: Salary transparency attracts quality candidates. On Pinpoint, companies that include salaries in their job descriptions move 15% more applicants to the interview stage
Depending on the size of your organization, there are two ways to approach leveling:
Determine what makes sense for your organization based on your size and complexity. If developing levels from scratch, the process may take upwards of 9 months, but it will give your whole organization greater clarity.
In addition to new hires, you’ll also need to plan for people who are leaving their roles to minimize the impact of losing skills or capacity on the team. To anticipate backfills, consider past year attrition and industry benchmarks along with current economic factors (growth in the sector, recession, etc.).
Then, look at your current team to understand who is at risk of leaving their role due to performance, attrition, or promotion. Meet with managers to understand who is on track to be promoted and when so you can plan for their backfill. Be conservative with your budget and resourcing plans so you aren’t surprised when the needs arise.
With defined level expectations and a conservative hiring plan, it will be easier to set budgets for new hire compensation. To stay on top of industry trends and remain competitive, we recommend these resources:
Include a budget for the resourcing you will need to reach hiring goals. It can be difficult to anticipate how challenging it will be to hire certain roles, and your talent team may be impacted by attrition as well. It’s possible you will need to increase the capacity of your talent team with new hires or external support from contract recruiters, recruitment agencies, or recruitment process outsourcing provider (RPO).
Any budget proposal will inevitably result in pushback. By working through these steps, your plan should already be aligned with company priorities, but you can make your case even stronger by:
A workforce plan will set you up for success, but won’t be set in stone. Shifting priorities, feedback from hiring managers and candidates, and macroeconomic factors will alter your plan over time. Regularly report on data, solicit feedback from stakeholders, and realign on goals to stay on top of these changes. How often you should check in on this plan will depend on your team size and existing processes, but here is an ideal cadence:
Manage expectations for your team and increase the likelihood of hiring people on schedule by setting estimated timelines. Outline the process for hiring managers and any other stakeholders to ensure they know what is required of them, like submitting requisitions in a timely fashion and allocating time in their schedules for interviews. When recruiters and hiring managers know what actions they need to take and when, your team will be able to respond quickly when strong applications come in.
To set timelines, refer to historical hiring data along with industry benchmarks . Keep in mind that other economic factors may impact timelines. For example, post COVID-19 and the Great Resignation, more people have reevaluated their priorities and found that they could find better options that fit their values , meaning employers have had to act fast to land top talent.
For hiring managers, the wait always feels long. Be upfront and provide a detailed timeline so they can see what is involved in the hiring process and feel assured that work is being done.
At Pinpoint, we dedicate a section of our internal communication tool to share documentation on the recruitment strategy and approach so the whole team has visibility. We also share reports from our ATS to keep hiring managers and senior leaders up-to-date on the status of open roles.
