Agile Recruiting: what it is and how to introduce it in your company
The recent experience of teleworking and smart working has pushed many companies towards a more flexible management of work processes. Although the Agile methodology is still closely linked to the IT and software development sectors, as highlighted in the 14 annual State of Agile report, its potential and benefits have been recognized by other professional sectors as well. In this sense, we hear more and more often not only about Agile Management, but also about Agile HR and Agile Recruiting. The approach of the Agile philosophy to HR and human resources management is therefore applied to the process of search and selection, encouraging the development of a corporate culture that is more flexible, open to change and able to face the continuous challenges of the sector.
What is Agile Recruiting?
Agile Recruiting was born from the introduction of Agile methodology in the recruiting and Talent Acquisition process. Since its emergence in the early 2000s, Agile methodology has been linked to software development and represents an innovative approach to project and process management in many industries.
In HR, there are several factors that contribute to an “agile” talent acquisition process:
- Increased focus on organization and optimization of activities
- Structured workflow planning
- Valuing and engaging people (teams and customers)
- Identification of priorities
- Achieving objectives on time
In this sense, the study “2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trend” suggests a shift towards more agile working models in the future of the HR world:
embedding collaborative ways of working across the enterprise and the ecosystem, making teams the core unit of analysis and action for performance and management
How Agile Recruiting Works
Agile recruiting changes the traditional way of working in favor of more flexible and efficient systems. Its goal is to meet the client’s need – to hire the best candidate – while simultaneously optimizing job execution and performance.
The Agile approach is committed to identifying and eliminating all those procedures and steps that are not necessary and that actually hinder the correct and optimal performance of the recruiting processes. It works on the planning, constant communication and continuous improvement of activities in order to obtain qualitatively valid results, within the established timeframe and available resources.
This way, for example, a search and selection project can be de-structured and divided into smaller steps (sprints). Under the supervision of the HR Manager, the members of the recruiting team take care of the individual activities, completing them or correcting the course depending on the feedback received or the progress of the selection. This allows recruiters to focus on more circumscribed and quick tasks, meet deadlines, and take better care of the quality of candidates reviewed before moving forward in the hiring process.
When and how to introduce agile working into the selection process
There are a number of methods and tools for making the search and selection process agile. From the best-known frameworks such as Scrum, to the adoption of versatile tools such as Kanban Boards – also recently adopted by In-recruiting-, Agile methodology can be implemented in different ways and to different degrees depending on the specific needs of the company.
Among the most obvious reasons for organizations to opt for a more agile form of work are:
- Lengthy and complex search and selection processes
- Poor team collaboration and communication
- Difficulty in interpreting data and evaluating the effectiveness of selection strategies
- Blocking workflows
- Problems with prioritization and failure to meet deadlines
In order to implement agile working in the recruitment process, it is necessary, first of all, to establish the objective of the search and assess the resources and tools available; then it is necessary to analyze the work team, choose the recruiting strategy and then divide up the activities and identify priorities. The use of special tools such as Kanban Boards also allows you to monitor the progress and advancement of the entire team, as well as identify any obstacles or blocking activities within the process. Agile recruiting also means being able to modulate and adapt to changes: for this reason, metrics analysis is a critically important aspect of a successful recruiting strategy.
Using ATS In-recruiting from an Agile perspective
In order to provide recruiters with the necessary tools for a smoother and leaner recruiting process, In-recruiting has introduced many new features to its Talent Acquisition platform.
1.Hiring Pipeline: the system to track and monitor, even visually, and directly within the software, the status of selections and the progress of candidates towards employment.
- Kanban Board: a tool that changes the way you view candidates. As an alternative to the classic tabular view, the new Kanban view of candidates registered to an ad offers an immediate and comprehensive overview of the status of the selection, sorts and structures the pipeline and allows recruiters to easily move between ad statuses.
- Vacancy list: the new vacancy list provides a clear view of the selection processes carried out and the searches still in progress. This system highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each process: in this way it is easier to identify and intervene on the bottlenecks that hinder the process.
4.Statistics: with a view to providing useful information to guide the recruiting process, the work done on statistics will lead recruiters to adopt a data-driven approach to selection. Alongside the improvement of the metrics already in use, new KPIs will be introduced. We’re talking about data relating to time to hire and time to fill, but also to the status of announcements, the hiring pipeline, the channels from which candidates come, etc.. All of this for a better evaluation of the performance of your recruiting strategy.
The benefits of Agile Recruiting
Although there is still some aversion towards more flexible working models, especially from companies tied to traditional organizational models and more resistant to change, many organizations have already begun to embrace Agile methodology. Among the main benefits of an agile approach to recruiting:
- Faster and more flexible management of selection processes
- Adaptability of workflows according to needs
- Intra-team collaboration and more efficient communication with candidates
- Constant opportunities for improvement thanks to continuous feedback
- More transparency: activities and updates always visible to the whole team
- Definition of strategies and priorities to improve selection performance
- Optimization of working time, faster activities and respect of deadlines
- Talent development and candidate experience
- Increased efficiency and reduced bottlenecks that impede progress
Do you want to make your recruiting process agile? Request a demo of In-recruiting and start embracing a new way of doing search and selection
Digital Marketing presso Inrecruiting