Recruitment Policy: What Is it & How to Build One

In this blog post, we are going to share with our readers what is recruitment policy, and offer step-by-step instructions on how to build a recruitment policy and procedure in the company. We will take a short overview of each step and will also emphasize readers’ attention on how recruitment platform can help with recruitment policy realization. 

What Is Recruitment Policy and Why Is It Crucial? 

A recruitment policy in HRM is a set of rules and guidelines for a business's recruitment. Such a policy determines the main areas of work with personnel, as well as the methods of this work, allowing a company to create a highly productive cohesive work team.

For the recruitment policy to meet its purpose, it must meet several requirements, namely:

• be closely related to the current and strategic goals of the company.
• be developed as a result of discussions and consultations at different levels of the company.
• be formulated clearly and concisely and cover the main areas of work with personnel.
• be communicated to all employees of the company.
• contain specific practical steps for its implementation.

Separate areas of hiring procedure should be interconnected and complement each other. 

A company's success hinges on its ability to attract and retain the right talent, and having diverse types of recruitment policy in place is instrumental in achieving this goal.

- Organizations can adopt various recruitment policies based on their unique needs and industry standards. Some may opt for an internal recruitment policy, emphasizing promotions and lateral moves to fill positions from within, fostering employee growth and loyalty.

- External recruitment policies, on the other hand, focus on hiring candidates externally to infuse fresh perspectives and skills into the organization.

- Hybrid or mixed policies strike a balance, leveraging both internal talent development and external hiring strategies.

Whichever approach is chosen, a well-defined and adaptable recruitment policy ensures a streamlined and fair hiring process, contributing to the overall success and sustainability of the workforce.

What Are the Benefits of Having a Clearly Defined Recruitment Policy?

A clearly defined recruitment policy serves as a cornerstone for organizational success, offering a multitude of benefits. First and foremost, it provides a structured framework for the entire hiring process, ensuring consistency and fairness. By clearly outlining the steps involved in sourcing, screening, and selecting candidates, it establishes a transparent and accountable procedure.

A well-crafted recruitment policy also contributes to the development of a positive employer brand, showcasing the organization as a desirable workplace. Furthermore, it aids in aligning hiring strategies with broader business goals, enabling the acquisition of talent that complements the company's vision and mission.

From a compliance standpoint, a defined policy helps ensure adherence to legal and ethical standards in recruitment practices.

Overall, a robust recruitment policy enhances efficiency, reduces hiring costs, and fosters a dynamic and diverse workforce, ultimately propelling the organization towards sustained growth and success.

How To Build a Recruitment Policy in Your Company?

This is an integral part of the company image. According to the LinkedIn survey, 75% of applicants are looking for information about a company and want to know more about it before responding. To interest a candidate, it is important to properly maintain a company account on Facebook or Linkedin, show job seekers your philosophy, and give them the opportunity to look into the work process and corporate culture of the company.

The effectiveness of recruitment policy in the HR management largely depends on whether the basic principles of working with personnel are observed:  

• Efficiency
• Complexity
• Consistency
• Innovation

Step 1: Think of hiring philosophy 

Hiring philosophy is the general vision of the entire hiring process in the company and the major idea behind it. The success of each company as a social entity depends on its own culture, which has certain parameters due to the specifics of its activities and management processes. Everyone's goal in the company is to have like-minded people, so the hiring philosophy should meet all areas, as well as the norms and values of the company.

Your philosophy should demonstrate the tone of your recruiting approach. For example, you could define the main corporate and ethical principles, such as diversity policy, paid traineeships for students, or free training programs for employees).

Answer several questions that will help you to form your hiring philosophy:

• What are the key values of your ideal candidate? (f.e. Are you looking for a perfect team player or an individualist?)
• In which way are responsibilities distributed? (f.e. recruiters post job offers and do phone screening while hiring managers and project managers conduct the next interviews.
• What search channels are used to look for candidates? Is there a special system of referrals for employees?
• Do recruiters and hiring managers have enough flexibility? Or are they obliged to follow strict policy rules?
• What are the major recruiting tools? (f.e., define whether an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a necessary tool to streamline your hiring).

As you can see, the hiring philosophy is the basis for the policy since it encompasses fundamental issues. Building the company's hiring philosophy requires the involvement of both the HR department and the marketing team and company management. This is not only a matter of recruitment, but also of general employer brand and company vision.

Step 2: Set hiring standards 

Hiring standards comprise the rules your team should stick to under the above-mentioned hiring philosophy. 

Hiring standards have to indicate all the points of the recruitment policy and procedure that are important for your company. The qualities of the employee required for the relevant activity should be clearly stated. Some companies pay attention to different criteria when hiring. Some take into account to a large extent the educational background of the candidate studied and the previous work experience, while others pay more attention to how effectively the candidate shows his work enthusiasm during the interview.

Your hiring standards must intend transparency, compliance, and adherence to labor laws and legislation. 

Examples of hiring standards: hiring biases, illegal interview questions, data protection policy, and the confidentiality of candidate data.

All other disputable issues should also be included into hiring standards, such as hiring relatives of existing staff or the first preference to existing employees when a new vacancy comes up.

Step 3: Define hiring policy and procedure

When you have already developed the hiring philosophy and standards, you should define a detailed hiring policy and procedure. 

We can point out 8 steps in a recruitment and selection process in terms of hiring policies and procedures:  

1. Development of a search strategy

The recruiter has to develop the key points of a search and determine the places where the most targeted target audience is.

2. Posting vacancies

Posting vacancies on job sites, corporate sites, social networks, messenger groups, and profile job boards (online job search platforms).

Now you can publish vacancies on the auto-generated pages directly from an Applicant Tracking System and share it with candidates via unique links.

3. Direct search and work with reviews from the channels where the vacancy was posted

At this stage, the recruiter compares the CVs received with the profile vacancy and either transfers them to the next stage or rejects them.

4. Phone screening and vacancy information

‍At this stage, a short screening of professional competencies is carried out, and hard skills (skills required for a specific job) are specified.

5. Interview on competencies or values

‍It is in this interview that one can understand how the candidate's behavior coincides with the company's corporate culture. After this stage, the recruiter decides for himself whether to transfer the candidate to the next stage.

6. Hard skills interviews

Interviews about special soft and hard skills needed for work. It is usually conducted by the project manager or the head of the department that will set the task.

7. Final interview

‍The goal is to make sure that the candidate meets all the company's values. It is often conducted by one of the company's top managers.

8. Job offer

Models and stages of interviews in companies are slightly different. For example, the first stage here is a phone or online conversation with an HR, and the final is an interview with the customer of the project. That is why it is important to develop detailed guidelines to fully comply with the company's recruitment policy.

What Is a Recruitment and Selection Process?

The recruitment and selection process is a critical component of human resource management that encompasses the systematic steps involved in identifying, attracting, evaluating, and hiring candidates to fill organizational positions. This multifaceted process begins with the identification of staffing needs and the creation of detailed job descriptions. For a practical example of how to write an effective job description, take a look at our article on the Job Description for Sales Assistant. Recruitment strategies are then employed to reach potential candidates through various channels, including job postings, online platforms, and networking. The selection phase involves screening applicants, conducting interviews, and assessing candidates based on predetermined criteria. Throughout this process, organizations aim to identify individuals whose skills, qualifications, and cultural fit align with the company's values and objectives. The recruitment and selection process plays a pivotal role in shaping the composition of a workforce, contributing to organizational success by ensuring the right individuals are placed in the right roles.

How Can the Recruitment Platform Help With the Recruitment Policy Realization?

A recruitment platform is a software used to market your jobs and your company so that you can attract candidates and convert them into applicants and new hires. Online recruitment software is a great tool to automate hiring policy and procedure to save a lot of time when recruiting. Thanks to the recruitment platform, the recruiter can view statistics on vacancies, as well as see from which search channel the candidate came.  With its help, it's much easier to build a recruitment policy of a company.

The main benefits of the recruitment platform are:

In combination with other tools, the recruitment platform will enable HRs and recruiters to track problem areas in the hiring process, change tactics and accurately predict the outcome.

Thus, creating a recruitment platform is a task with a long-term perspective. Decide on the recruitment platform development and enjoy its benefits!