Modern recruitment: 6 outdated hiring practices you might still be using

Gone are the days of simply putting a “we’re hiring” sign in the window and waiting for the applicants to walk right in. In fact, gone are the days of being able to post to just one website and see applicants flock to you (more on that later).

Nowadays, hiring involves a little more thought and planning. But, the good news is that if you can master the new hiring process, you’re on the verge of hiring top-quality talent, from all over the world.

So, to kick you off on the right foot and ensure you’re making the most of the new hiring landscape (and not stuck in old routines), we’ve put together this list of outdated hiring practices. And, if you find you’re still using some of these, we’ve included tips and tricks to help you enter the world of modern-day hiring.

1. Doing all your recruitment manually

Let’s start with something you’ll be glad to hear. In modern-day hiring, not everything has to be done by hand! If you’re not already automating your recruitment process, then it is time to start doing so.

With the right recruitment automation tool, you can:

• Get automated job board suggestions for your role
• Automatically sort candidates into suggested qualified and unqualified buckets
• Respond to candidate applications with automated emails
• Sort candidates based on other criteria, such as location
• Forward candidate applications to relevant hiring managers
• Notify hiring managers if a candidate completes a certain action, like a task
• Provide candidates with interview slot suggestions

Of course, having a tool in place to automate these actions will cut down on the time you need to spend doing admin work. This means you’ve got more time to spend strategising, developing your own skills, or—if recruitment isn’t your main role— getting back to your day job.

Sounds good to you? Check out our article on how to automate your recruiting to get started!

2. Posting your advert in one place

As we mentioned in the intro, the days of posting your job advertisement to a single job board or website are over. In modern recruitment, you need to post to a bunch of different places to increase the chances of making a talented hire.

Luckily, there are plenty of different job boards out there to help you find the person you need! From diversity job boards that can help you improve the diversity of your team (which is something you absolutely need to be doing) to niche job boards that focus on concentrated talent. There are plenty of options that help you cast a wider net.

And, don’t worry about manually posting your ad to every board. Multiposting tools (such as JOIN) conveniently take your ad and post it all over the internet with just one click!

3. Hiring people who ‘fit in’

Hiring for culture fit is one of the most outdated techniques in the recruitment industry.

It has been proven time and time again that having a diverse team, full of individuals who think in different ways and have different backgrounds makes for a more successful business. Not only that, but ethically (and in some countries, legally) it is essential to have a diversity recruiting strategy in place.

In modern hiring, having great business morals and values is super important. Entrepreneur reported that two of the biggest factors Gen Z consider when accepting a job is the company’s ‘mission’, which needs to be meaningful, and a healthy working environment.

Therefore, ensuring your employer branding and values are up to scratch is essential. For more help on diverse employment, check out our glossary articles on equal opportunity employers and employee resource groups.

4. Dragging the hiring process out

Are you still taking months to make a hiring decision? If so, you need to know that this is an extremely outdated hiring process.

In the modern working world, only one in four Gen Z employees plan to stay in their current job for five years or more. What does this mean? There are plenty of roles opening up for talented individuals at all times. So, if you want to be able to snatch up top talent, you need to speed things up.

This can be incredibly difficult, especially if you don’t have a dedicated HR department. However, with the help of the previously mentioned recruitment automation, you should be able to cut your hiring process timings down dramatically.

Need more help hiring as a small business without an HR department? We’ve got an article that can help with that!

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5. Asking for too much

In the past, making applicants jump through hoops to send a simple application might not have been that big of a deal.

Less advanced technology, a less hectic recruitment market, and less access to global positions meant that you could get away with a more demanding application process.

However, in modern hiring, with more advanced recruitment technology and applicant tracking systems (ATS), you simply don’t need to have candidates repeat themselves. Most tools will be able to extract the key points from a CV and show you the highlights of an applicant. This means trying to avoid having a candidate send a CV, input work experience, and then repeat themselves in the screening questions too!

And, when a candidate can attach a portfolio of their work, as well as answer some key screening questions, is there still a need for a cover letter?

In short, the less work you require from a candidate to apply, the more applications you will receive. After all, when your competitors may be offering a one-click application process, you need to ensure you can keep up!

6. Overpaying for a recruiter

When you’re a small business, hiring a recruiter to help gain talented employees is a tempting offer. But, in modern recruitment, it isn’t always necessary. With the rise of talent acquisition tools, ATS tools, and other helpful recruitment tech, you might not need to spend valuable budget on a recruiter!

Our hiring process blog articles, hiring templates, and in-depth hiring guides can help you gain the knowledge and confidence you need to get started with hiring on your own. And, of course, with a tool like JOIN, a lot of the work is done for you automatically.

Need some proof? Check out how our customer DRDOG used JOIN to hire without an HR team! And, if you still aren’t sure whether you need to hire a recruiter or not, we’ve got an article that can help you decide.

Hiring is unique to you

You may of course, be reading some of these points and think, “but I do that, and it works perfectly for me!” And, that’s great! If asking for a cover letter or using a recruiter is working well for you, of course, don’t feel pressured to change this right away.

It is, however, important that you keep analysing your recruitment to be sure that this doesn’t change. And, if you notice a fall in performance, you’re now well-equipped with the knowledge you need to make a change!