There are no two ways about it — the HR hiring process can be tough. HR professionals are under increasing pressure, and finding the right talent can be an uphill climb.
Looking to shorten time to fill for external workers, and simplify a lengthy and complex talent hiring process? Fiverr Enterprise is a Freelancer Management System that helps you build relationships with available and committed expertise.
To understand the current HR hiring process, and how to modernize and streamline your strategy, keep reading.
This article is part of our guide on workforce management.
What Is an HR Hiring Process?
The HR hiring process may look different for different companies, but its definition is all of the steps involved in onboarding new workers to an organization. Even within the same company, the HR hiring process might vary, depending on the department which has the skills gaps, and the type of role needed. For example, you may need to add steps in vetting and compliance if you’re hiring for a highly-regulated part of the business like Legal, or you may need to think about misclassification if you’re hiring a freelancer as opposed to a full-time employee.
Whatever the steps involved, this is what makes up your HR hiring processes. For some companies, the HR hiring process could be ad-hoc, changing depending on which department is responsible for hiring the new worker, or depending on the difficulty of finding the right person.
The Importance of an Efficient Hiring Process in Achieving Organizational Goals
When your hiring process is not standardized, it can lead to poor decision making. Let’s say for example that the Marketing department needs to hire a graphic designer for a website project. You usually use an agency, or post a job advertisement, but one of the department heads saw someone looking for work on LinkedIn, and decide to give them a go. Without a screening process, the business has no-one to blame but themselves when the work is subpar.
Another example could be the hiring of an Automation expert. The Development team decide to recruit via an agency for the first time, but quickly realize that their additional fees take them over budget for the role. Without a consistent way to approach your hiring process, every hiring decision is prone to high costs or error.
Stages of the HR Hiring Process
To start planning out your own strategic hiring process, think about the following six steps. These make up the normal skeleton of hiring a candidate from end-to-end.
- Planning: Here, you can complete skills gap analysis and other important pre-work that helps you understand which roles you need to fill.
- Recruitment: At this stage, you’re looking for the right candidate. Job boards, agencies, social media, and freelancer marketplaces may be your channels.
- Screening: You’ve narrowed down the search, and need to vet candidates for experience, cultural fit, and compliance.
- Selection: Once you’ve found the right person, you make an offer, or agree to their terms, and let them know they’ve won the position.
- Hiring: What documentation do you need to get them ready to work? This could be anything from VISAs and legal forms to NDAs and IP agreements.
- Onboarding: Your systems and processes will be new to your worker. IT will need to provide access, passwords and any relevant training.
Challenges in the Hiring Process
While the process itself seems self-explanatory, every one of these stages can come with a number of hurdles, and there are many challenges that HR professionals are continually facing.
To start with — sourcing full-time employees is hard! There is a widening skills gap in many organizations, and fierce competition for every talented professional. HR are struggling to fill open positions.
Even if organizations shift their workforce strategy to embrace the freelance revolution, it takes time to find and vet the right talent, from reviewing portfolios and references, to engaging in multiple discovery calls and trial projects. With a tight HR budget, many sourcing channels — especially staffing agencies, can put a heavy strain on resources. In many cases, HR doesn’t own the external hiring journey, which means different hiring managers across the organization are going about hiring in their own way, with inconsistent and often poor results.
Once a person has been chosen for the role, the quality of the talent can be below expectations, especially if they have been lifted from an agency where the pool is limited. And even if the work is strong — communication or commitment issues can lead hiring managers, and HR, right back to the drawing board.
As finding the right talent is so hard, it’s more important than ever that a company has strong talent retention for the workers that they rely on. HR is responsible for utilizing exceptional talent wisely across the business, and keeping them engaged. If freelancers have a complex onboarding process, with disorganized documentation collection, poor communication, or late payments — they will quickly move on to a different client, one who has their ducks in a row.
Best Practices for Improving the Hiring Process with Fiverr Enterprise
If you’re looking to sidestep these challenges when hiring external talent, Fiverr Enterprise is a Freelancer Management Solution (FMS) that offers an automated and tailored onboarding process. Our sourcing experts match you with ideal candidates, and empower HR leaders to let their hiring managers swiftly hire any expertise, without a negative impact on compliance or retention. Benefits include the ability to:
- Hire any expertise, fast: Our sourcing experts present 5-6 qualified candidates with proven experience in your field, in as little as two business days.
- Streamline compliance: Ensure a satisfying and consistent hiring experience, with full legal and tax compliance.
- Find committed talent: Whether it’s a short-term project or a long-term commitment, our freelancers are professional, pre-vetted, and ready to go the distance.
- Build relationships: Keep your top talent engaged and utilized across the business, with complete visibility to availability and skills.
- Reduce costs: At a fraction of the prices of staffing agencies, you can replace outdated hiring practices and channels with on-demand access to a vast talent pool.
Interested? Schedule 30 minutes with one of our workforce experts, and see how it works for yourself.