In our latest episode of Xobin Talks 2.0, we had a very insightful discussion, with Ms. Neha Kothari, HR manager of Applicate AI, on setting up a consistent hiring process. Talent Acquisition and conflict management employee relations were some of the domains that the speaker in this episode 4 touched on.
At Applicate AI, virtual recruitment for a technical position has 4 to 5 steps that are to be sequentially analyzed and completed, both for a fresher as well as an experienced person.
The first step would be assessing the candidates for preliminary screening, the next step would be a complex assessment that involves complex coding questions, followed by a technical interview and concluding with an HR interview. HR interview is an important aspect of the recruitment process which deals with finding the candidate’s cultural and behavioral fit for the organization. Usually, a recruitment process states with attracting huge numbers of applicants, where only 10% of the applicants reach the HR interview.
The case may be slightly different for mid-level and experienced persons, where the assessment step would be cut down and more focus would be placed on technical interviews. Applicate AI has been associated with Xobin for 2 years now to enable them in assessing the candidates for tech-based roles.
The hiring process is tedious and often causes fatigue for both the employer and the candidate. To reduce this tensile nature of the interview process, separate hiring managers are appointed for every job role, which eases up the number of candidates each hiring manager receives. Also, an internal discussion on how to handle the hiring for the specific job role might ease up the situation. An initial HR screening will be the first step in deciding which candidates would go for further assessment and which candidate gets to be sidelined. So proper planning and delegation of work will result in an effective recruitment process.
With the experience of handling recruitments for the same organization both during pre and post-pandemic seasons, the speaker thought that recruitment during both stages has its pros and cons. Pre-pandemic recruitment was done by conducting in-person interviews and assessments, here the turn-up ratio would be a bit less since people who are serious about the job would only turn up but that allowed a more personal touch to the interviews. Post-pandemic the shift in recruitment was a paradigm, where assessments and interviews were all done virtually. Here the turn-up rate was almost 100% most of the time since the candidates had the liberty of attending the interview at their ease.
The colleges that are to be approached for recruitment depend on the organization, the job role, and their geographic locations. Colleges would be categorized as Grade A and Grade B colleges and choosing between them would be a choice that would be made depending on the recruiter and the job role.
Grade A and Grade B colleges where the recruitment has been effective and where Applicate AI had a positive experience are different colleges of Indraprastha University, Bennet university, Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, ABES Engineering College, All three International Management Institutes, Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad and ICFAI Business School (IBS) are few that stands out from the other colleges.
Upskilling the current employees is another strategy to have a proper employee pool. In a small company, especially a startup, the possibility of upskilling is very high, since the reluctance to move out from the company would be very high. Constant employee upskilling is one way to bring down this ratio. Companies should upskill the employees based on their job roles or based on the employee’s interests. But these would happen only if the employee’s interest in upskilling is in line with the company and of course the support from the top-level management. Considering all these factors are available an employee will extend his period of work for the company for a long period. It is always a fact that upskilling always goes hand in hand with employee retention.
Candidates prioritize, a transparent hiring process that reflects the company’s credibility, they also prioritize monetary value and the ability of the company to remain constant at all times even though the market value outside has been fluctuating. A growing company that is in the process of building its brand, but still has not established itself as a big company attracts candidates by being transparent. The customers of the company speak for themselves, this shows that the company is a credible one and is on the way to becoming a self-sustaining brand.
Exposing the candidates to the work environment is a thing of the past since everything related to the hiring process is handled virtually. In some cases even if the person is called for an in-person interview for the final HR round, that would only be to understand the candidate much better.
The metrics that indicate the health of the organization that is to be considered are the performance growth of the candidate, the overall performance of the organization, the number of applicants for the job opening, and repetition in colleges who approach for an interview.
The assessment platform, ATS, and sourcing platforms would come in handy for an HR professional. An ideal recruitment stack for a mid-size company would be reasonable usage of the tools that the HR receives and the output from the tools that the company would achieve. Moonlighting isn’t a good option for the employee and the organizations where you are entitled to a full-time role. It affects the productivity of the company and also affects the work-life balance of the employee. But with proper checks and if the organization allows it might be a possibility but it isn’t always the best option.
