How Defined Workflows Help with the Hiring Process

As a business, it’s critically important to make sound hiring decisions. Because bad hiring practices, even one bad hiring decision, can be a terrible mistake for a new company or small business. There are many key steps to take when running a hiring process and they need to be followed in the right order. 

To start with, there has to be a need for a particular position. Once this is identified, the roles and responsibilities are defined, as well as necessary qualifications, and how best to advertise the position. Afterward, there is a candidate analysis period to review CVs, contact references, and consider who to call for interviews. From this shortlist of candidates, you need to run your interviews and evaluate each option, selecting the person you want to hire, and notifying the others that they were not selected.

Businesses need to have a workflow in place for this process so that every step is taken in the right order and your company is covered for every possibility. We’ll explore the main reasons for having a defined workflow here.

Collaborate across departments 

Having a hiring workflow will allow you to better structure your collaboration with the necessary departments. If you’re hiring a policy analyst, you need to coordinate the process with finance so they can balance the books and charge the employee’s time to the right department, HR to prepare onboarding forms and payroll, and the policy division needs to be involved for obvious reasons. You can use workflow software to help manage this cross-departmental collaboration to ensure maximum efficiency and transparency. 

Have a clearly defined flowchart process

Developing a strong workflow process can help your business avoid costly mistakes like advertising a job without putting critical qualifications in the requirements. Outlining the entire process in a flowchart will help you see where you are in the process and prevent you from making a hasty hiring decision before completing all the necessary steps.

In fact, Gretta Wineberg, an HR manager at Academized and State of Writing, says that “It also covers your company legally and ensures that you have a consistent and transparent hiring process. Even after your employee is selected and hired, a flowchart can ease the onboarding process for the new hire.” 

Include metrics to improve hiring processes

You should include performance indicators in your hiring workflow which can help you evaluate your process and improve it in the future by maximising your effectiveness. You can get data on how many people applied, how qualified they were, how much they were offered, and whether that employee was a successful hire. These types of metrics are very important for fine-tuning your process. 

Automate where possible

There are so many steps to the process, so any that you can automate will only benefit your company because it will prevent them from being forgotten and take out the possibility for human error. Jay Jenkins, a recruitment blogger at Australian Help and Big Assignments, explains that “If you’re using hiring workflow software, you have the possibility of automating steps like assigning tasks to hiring team members, sending follow-up emails to candidates, sending questions or pre-qualification questionnaires to candidates, and more.

You can also set your parameters so that key departments are notified when an employment offer is accepted so that they set up their onboarding process, which goes hand in hand with the first point on collaboration.” 

Hire strategically

You want to do what you can to avoid hiring mistakes, and the best thing you can do for your company is to get a workflow software. It allows you to keep all departments involved, helps you stay on track and improve your process, and kickstarts the onboarding process as soon as someone is hired. Give your business the best chance of success by being strategic with your hiring.

If you want your business to succeed, every employee counts. To find the right talent and run successful hiring processes, develop a workflow and implement it by using great software. This will save you time, money, resources, and set up your company for success in the future. 

About the Author

Ellie Coverdale, a technical writer and content manager at Essay roo and UK Writings, writes articles to help businesses get started in today’s world by focusing on marketing, software reviews, and good business practices. She also works on business projects on the side and she also can be found teaching at Boom Essays service.