How to set good recruitment goals for 2024

Setting personal goals for the new year is a long tradition. Why not expand on that tradition to include business goals?

A good place to start is setting recruitment goals for 2024. The new year, not to mention the new decade, is a natural time to review processes, determine what’s working and what isn’t, then refine your strategy for attracting top talent to your organization.

Reduce new hire failure rates

The better your employee retention, the less you need to stress about hiring people. By some estimates, replacing an employee costs a business the equivalent of six to nine months of the former employee’s salary in lost productivity and recruiting costs. Turnover is a more significant disruption to business than you may realize.

Investing more time at the beginning of the recruitment process screening and interviewing candidates will help you find talented people who value stable employment. Use questionnaires and phone interviews to spot red flags before introducing the candidate to the team. Take the time to thoroughly check references.

A simple and effective way to get good candidates is to encourage your trusted employees to recommend them. Your team will only recommend people they believe will reflect well on them in terms of skills and as a teammate.

Accelerate the hiring process

Candidates start to wonder about the company when a position is open for a long time. Does the organization scare away talented people? Did job seekers spot red flags and walk away?

The hiring process will move a lot faster if you’ve done your homework. Post the minimum qualifications you need in a promising candidate instead of discouraging good applicants with a wish list of every possible combination of skills and experience. Know the comparable salary and benefit packages expected in your industry, and don’t try to “low ball” candidates.

You’ll have more time to screen and interview candidates if you’re as efficient as possible with the rest of the process. Using software to scan resumes for keywords is one way to streamline your process.

Never underestimate the importance of communicating with candidates throughout the process. If the manager they’re supposed to meet is out sick, let them know so that they don’t waste time coming in. Treat them with respect. Then, even the people you don’t hire will have only good things to say about how you treat them. You should never lose a candidate to another company because they assumed you lost interest in them.

Set SMART goals

Make sure your recruitment goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, and Time-Based. For example, let’s assume it typically takes you three months to hire someone. Your SMART goal would be “Hire new employees for open positions within two months of the request.” This is specific and measurable. It’s also achievable and reasonable; the average time to hire is 42 days.

Another SMART recruitment goal for 2022 is to increase the response rate to your job posts. Quantify the number of responses to your job posts and consider specific measures, such as a more sophisticated SEO analysis of the posting or emailing it directly to past applicants, to improve the response rate.

Setting good recruitment goals for 2024 will help fill the roles key to growing your company. By setting attainable goals and systematically tracking and measuring progress, you can continually improve your recruitment process.