Recruiting: Definition, Process, Types

Recruiting is the stage of the employee life cycle in which prospective candidates are sourced, interviewed and assessed to identify the best fit for a job opening. This process of identifying who will be hired is typically based on required skills, relevant background and whether or not the person is culturally additive to the organization. In other words, is the person a great fit based on their qualifications and alignment with the company’s values?

How Does Recruiting Work?

Recruiting typically follows this process: sourcing, recruiter screen, hiring team assessment and finally, the offer stage.

Sourcing 

Sourcing begins the process of recruiting, and can be classified as either passive or active. Generally, recruiters will utilize both ways of sourcing.

• Passive sourcing is when a recruiter sources by posting open positions on the company’s career site and various job sites to collect applicants. 
• Active sourcing is when a recruiter directly reaches out to prospective candidates who closely match job requirements for an open position. Recruiters do this outreach over various online networking platforms and social media, as well as during in-person events.  

Recruiter Screen

Once a recruiter successfully sources a candidate, they’ll follow up with a recruiter screen with the candidate. This initial screening phase allows the recruiter to get a sense of the candidate’s background and skills to identify if they should move forward in the process. This also allows the candidate to get more information about the role and the company, as well as ask questions that are important to their decision-making.

Hiring Team Assessment

Candidates that pass their initial screens will make their way to the hiring team interview phase where there is a greater focus on assessing the candidate’s skills. Depending on the role’s required skills, these assessments can vary and include coding assessments, writing challenges, Q&As and more.

Job Offer 

Candidates who are identified to be the best fit for the role based on the hiring team’s needs are extended an offer. In this stage of the process, the recruiter’s goal is to close the candidate and get them to join the team. Recruiters will usually go over the total compensation for the role, including salary, performance bonus, benefits, perks and additional forms of compensation such as stock options.

Why Is Recruiting Important?

As a key part of the HR team, the recruiting function enables the company to compete for and acquire talent that is essential to the success and growth of the organization. An effective recruiting team is able to attract and recruit a diverse pool of candidates for the hiring teams with whom they partner. Being one of the first experiences of the employee life cycle, recruiting is critical to providing an excellent experience for potential employees, while building talent brand awareness for a company.

Types of Recruiting

• Internal recruiting is the act of recruiting by promoting job openings to existing employees as a way to provide career development opportunities and help with employee retention. 
• Technical recruiting focuses on recruiting candidates for technical positions, such as engineering and product roles. Some of these roles may include software engineers, network architects, product managers and QA specialists. 
• Executive recruiting focuses on recruiting candidates to fill executive-level positions, such as CFO, CTO and CEO. Executive recruiters may also work on other senior management roles that may not be at C-level.
• Full cycle recruiting, sometimes called end-to-end recruiting, describes the holistic recruiting process in which a recruiter is not only responsible for sourcing and hiring new employees, but also for onboarding them into the company.

Recruiting Benefits

• Effective recruiting can boost positive brand awareness as a recruiting team’s outreach extends to more people.
• As candidates consistently experience a great interview process, it is more likely for them to engage with the company’s brand and refer others. 

Recruiting Risks

• When ineffective, recruiting can negatively affect a company’s talent brand.
• In cases where candidates go through a bad interview experience, it’s possible those candidates may speak negatively about the company, whether by leaving a review online or through word-of-mouth.

What Is Recruitment 3.0?

Recruitment 3.0 is a blend of strategic employer branding and inbound recruiting designed to capture the attention of passive candidates. It blends traditional recruiting with modern digital and content marketing strategies, enabling recruiters to sidestep conventional platforms and professional networks to connect directly with candidates in a more organic and meaningful way.

Simply put, Recruitment 3.0 reflects two core challenges of modern recruiting:

The most in-demand candidates aren’t browsing traditional job boards for their next opportunity — Traditional job boards are losing their appeal to top talent, with 80 percent of job seekers using social media and 73 percent of job seekers between 18-34 years old finding their last job through social media. Even then, as much as 80 percent of jobs are found through professional networking and personal connections rather than searching online.

Candidates are doing more research than ever before applying — If you are lucky enough to capture the attention of an elite candidate, you better hope your online presence tells a good story. According to an Indeed survey, 54 percent of candidates research every company before applying and 56 percent reference employee reviews found on job sites like Indeed. 

To address these challenges, recruiters must leverage new platforms and techniques to fulfill their obligations. Enter Recruitment 3.0.

The Case For Recruitment 3.0

We’ve covered a few statistics already, but let’s take a deeper dive into the modern recruiting landscape.

The ratio of hires per job posting fell below 0.5 hires per job posting in 2023, meaning one out of every two job postings fails to result in a hire. While trends like ghost jobs could contribute to this drop, these days traditional job boards shouldn’t be the core of your recruitment strategy.

39 percent of job candidates said employers and recruiters gave them misleading information, and 51 percent abandoned the recruitment process due to poor communication. Ask yourself this: Are you providing candidates with the information they need to be informed about the job and the company?

63 percent of employers report an inability to find qualified candidates as the main obstacle to their hiring efforts. Looks like those informed candidates are hard to come by after all.

79 percent of software developers — the most in-demand talent out there — are open to new opportunities. Just one more example of the opportunity that’s out there for recruiters who can find a way to connect with passive candidates.

The average time to hire is 44 days, while the average cost per hire is nearly $4,700. If nothing else can convince management to make recruiting a priority, perhaps the bottom line will.

Candidates trust recruiters less than hiring managers and other employees as sources of information, with 40 percent of entry-level candidates preferring to ask other employees about the culture of the team they’re applying to. Yikes. The average candidate will likely doubt your recruiting team’s credibility. 

Job seekers are 15 times more likely to choose a company that’s been certified as a great workplace by its own employees. Candidates care about a company’s reputation, and they want to hear what employees themselves think about the workplace.

Negative information about a company’s culture would strongly discourage 28 percent of U.S. job seekers from applying and make 42 percent less likely to apply. Job seekers are getting better and better at doing their research. Will they like what they find out about your company?

Employers claim they can’t find qualified candidates, while candidates seem to distrust recruiters. Plenty of passive candidates are open to new opportunities, but recruiters can’t find a way to connect with them. Traditional job boards are disdained by many candidates, but recruiters continue to use them.

And in the midst of this, candidates have become more savvy than ever. From employer reviews to your employer brand, they have access to vast amounts of information, and they’re using it to their advantage.

Frequently Asked Questions