9 steps to analyzing your recruitment needs and making a success of your future hires!

Recruitment has never played such a crucial role! Companies are looking to make their processes more efficient and reduce the risk of errors. Applicants expect an irreproachable candidate experience.

Hiring a new employee represents a real investment, both in terms of time and money. Ensuring that no time, money or motivation is lost due to a recruitment error is a top HR priority.

There's a method that makes recruitment more reliable, while maximizing the chances of success: recruitment needs analysis.

Deployed in the early stages of recruitment, this solution enables you to find the talent that matches your specific needs, simply by asking the right questions beforehand: questions that will help you to better define your requirements.

Analyzing your recruitment needs is THE key to increasing your chances of success. So how do you go about it?
Let's take stock!

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First of all, what is a recruitment need?

Recruitment needs: definition

The recruitment requirement is one of the first steps in the recruitment process. Its aim is to define expectations very precisely, working along two lines:

• identifying the reasons for recruitment
• determining the search criteria for the ideal candidate

By analyzing the recruitment needs, we can formalize expectations and set criteria for selecting the candidate who best meets the identified challenges.

Not to be confused with the expression of need

While the needs analysis gives rise to a job description and a job offer, the expression of need takes place just upstream.

This is the stage when we talk to the manager looking to recruit, who describes the context, missions and skills required for the position to be filled.

At this stage, the description remains succinct and is formulated in natural language. It's up to the human resources department to ensure that the position is well defined, and that the profile sought is well characterized. HR also ensures that recruitment meets an immediate need or is in line with the company's medium- and long-term strategy.

Why it's important to define recruitment needs clearly

Whether you're creating a new position or replacing an existing one, it's certainly essential to recruit the perfect candidate persona. In other words, the person who will quickly integrate into your team, while having the required skills.

The recruitment needs analysis is therefore a key step. It has many advantages:

Finding the right profile is easier

Defining your expectations will have a direct influence on the quality of the hiring process. Armed with a clear vision of the desired profile and the detailed recruitment context, you can choose the most suitable candidate without hesitation.

Time-saving benefits

By analyzing and formulating expectations, you save time when sorting through applications: you can discard those that don't match. What's more, throughout the entire process, you'll have the exact profile and skills you're looking for in mind, increasing your chances of finding the right person more quickly.

Strengthen your employer brand as a bonus

Well-prepared, your process is clear and your project well formulated. Your company's communication is enhanced. It's easier for you to answer candidates' questions during the job interview. A well-defined framework and a professional approach reassure them.

This action contributes to the impact of your employer brand (a major challenge in human resources). A nice bonus!

Our 9 tips for optimizing your recruitment needs analysis

1. Rule out any in-house solutions

Before you even start thinking about a job description, check with your manager that all internal solutions have been considered. Sometimes, the need for skills can be met by transferring employees, training existing staff or reorganizing the team.

An employee promoted to a new position can sometimes be a better fit than an external candidate. What's more, the process will be less cumbersome!

2. Canvass the departments and managers concerned

All recruitment starts with the expression of a need, by an executive, a manager or a team. It's the recruiter's role to specify and flesh out the description of the need.

To do this, you can offer to take a step back from the future employee's activities . Ask for a description of a typical day, of the tasks or operations to be carried out, and so on.

In this way, you'll be able to identify the complete list of tasks and responsibilities, while ensuring that you're on the same wavelength as regards the right profile for the position to be filled.

3. Determine your recruitment objectives

Recruiting a new member of staff will help you grow your business. Hiring can support sales growth or free up resources for other tasks.

When analyzing your recruitment needs, it's essential to determine your objectives. And you'll find the right answers by asking a few questions:

• Why do we need to recruit?
• What strategic objectives can be achieved?
• Will the new skills added help the teams achieve their overall objectives?

4. Formalize skills requirements

You don't have the time to carry out a full assessment? Then you'll have to do as much as you can to formalize your skill requirements.

These must be adapted to the needs of the organization, while balancing and complementing the know-how of the current team.

Accompany the manager in drawing up the list of skills required for the position: business skills, technical skills, interpersonal skills and soft skills.

5. Define the profile of the ideal candidate

Defining the profile of the ideal future employee allows you to take stock of expectations and provides a precise framework for the qualifications and personality you're looking for. The objective? To ensure that the new recruit not only fits the job, but also the corporate culture. But what should we look for? 👇

• Technical skills: these are obviously the first criteria to study. Evaluating skills and experience is necessary before going any further in the process. List the knowledge strictly essential to filling the job, but don't overload this list. Candidates are not robots!
• Behavioral skills: what are the soft skills required for the company's activity? It's not everyone who can hold the 17th meeting of the day and stay calm at the same time. Communication, teamwork and stress management can already serve as a basis.
• Alignment with the corporate culture: identifying a candidate who will fit into the work environment while sharing the company's values is a way of facilitating long-term collaboration.

Our advice: to recruit without making a mistake, make an initial selection of profiles before the interview. And on the day, organize an appropriate assessment. Depending on your sector, determine what's essential and offer technical tests, behavioral interviews or situational simulations. There's nothing like the real thing!

6. Write the job description

You're almost there! You've perfectly detailed, analyzed and understood the need. You're aligned with everyone involved in the process. You're now ready to write your job advert.

Now you can create the deliverable born of your efforts: a job description.

It can include the following elements

• job title
• overall objectives
• role within the company, responsibilities, level of authority required
• position in the organization chart / hierarchical position
• skills required for the position: knowledge, know-how, level of training, etc.
• essential skills: interpersonal, writing, physical, intellectual...
• the departments, collaborators and external service providers with whom the future employee will be in contact
• specific tasks and responsibilities
• working conditions: number of hours, working hours, travel, special constraints, location of position, description of working environment
• opportunities for career development
• remuneration and its composition (fixed, variable, commission, benefits).

Your job profile will then give rise to the job advert.

7. Give yourself the time and means to anticipate better

Many companies recruit in a hurry. In such cases, recruitment needs analysis is either neglected or dealt with quickly.

Taking the time to draw up an exhaustive and relevant job description is a good practice that should be implemented as soon as possible!

The next step? Think about GPEC, or Gestion Prévisionnelle des Emplois et des Compétences. This will enable you to build up a pool of resources dedicated to your global recruitment actions, whether they are carried out as a matter of urgency or prepared in advance!

8. Draw up a forward-looking recruitment plan

The recruitment plan is your roadmap for anticipating future needs. This schedule lists all hirings planned for the more or less long term, in line with the GPEC. A quality plan will be precisely defined with the positions available, the profiles sought, the recruitment dates and the budget allocated. A real GPS for the recruiter!

However, to be effective, recruiters need to anticipate the challenges and developments within the company and on the French and international markets. The rapid evolution of certain professions implies constant new adjustments to resources and positions. If you don't keep your GPS up to date, you run the risk of ending up in a dead end... A flexible organization is essential to adapt quickly to the company's development.

9. Demonstrate adaptability

In the face of changes in the market and company needs, and depending on the individual candidate, adaptability during the recruitment process is inevitable. Recruiting for a position is a bit like taking part in a soccer match: it can change direction at any moment! Stay tuned and adjust your aim by a few percent:

• to applications: the perfect candidate matching your search on all points may not exist. 🐑 Some profiles won't exactly match the job description, but may offer maximum development potential. Don't make the mistake of dismissing them out of hand.

• the job market: it evolves very quickly. Certain profiles will be in high demand, while certain sectors will be short of candidates. Take responsibility for adjusting criteria or contract types to the current context.

• the company's staffing needs: a new requirement? A different need? A company's evolution can lead to a new direction and changes in strategy. It's all about adapting to keep ahead of the competition.

What tools can help you?

The recruitment needs questionnaire

To help managers express and formalize their recruitment needs, why not create a dedicated questionnaire?

Here are a few examples of fields to add to the form:

• job title,
• the department and manager expressing the need,
• a summary of the position and the hiring context,
• a list of essential functions,
• prerequisites (experience, training),
• skills and knowledge required.

This document is a good basis for starting the analysis and saving time. Perfect, because it's quick and easy to set up! The HR department receives a detailed and precise request, harmonized across all departments and managers.

The recruitment needs table

This is a more comprehensive document for identifying needs. It can take the form of a needs definition grid. It also helps to prioritize the various actions.

This table will help you answer the questions: who, to do what, how, why and when?

You can put it together in several stages:

1. make a list of existing skills in your teams;
2. if certain skills are held only by one person, indicate whether a replacement system is necessary (Who takes over this person's tasks in the event of absence? Is it possible to train an employee, or is it necessary to recruit?
3. highlight any missing skills. Distinguish between skills that are currently lacking (urgent) and skills that will be needed in view of the company's planned development (to be programmed).

For example:

The role of this table is to help you see things more clearly in practice. However, this table alone is not enough! It needs to be combined with other elements, such as the job description form or the expression of needs form, which are ideal for structuring all job-related tasks in a precise manner.

The recruitment requirements form

Think of the Expression of Need sheet as the first part of your recruitment project, the foundation phase. This preparatory document includes key information about the request:

• the position,
• missions,
• the type of employee required and the context,
• reasons for hiring.

Ideally, it also includes a point on the person's remuneration. It's not systematic, but it's a prudent solution to align with the available budget and avoid wasting time with future talent... whose salary expectations are too far apart.

☝️ Be careful not to confuse this form with the questionnaire, which is more flexible and collaborative.

• In fact, the questionnaire is used by teams to define their specific needs, before being forwarded to human resources management.
• The needs expression form is a more formal document, validated by management, which serves as the basis for the job advertisement.

This crucial stage avoids ambiguities and ensures that requirements are shared by everyone in your company, upstream of the process. Better a clear document than a big lonely moment during the interview when you're asked why the position exists. 😬

Recruitment software

To make your recruitment process easier, more harmonious and more professional, consider equipping yourself with specialized software. These are invaluable time-savers for recruiters, freeing them from time-consuming or repetitive tasks.

🛠 Here are some examples of software that can help you right from the recruitment needs analysis phase:

• Beetween optimizes the entire pre-recruitment phase, and more: Beetween optimizes the entire pre-recruitment phase, and even more: you can communicate directly with the people concerned by the recruitment via integrated messaging, set up recruitment authorization requests directly in the collaborative tool, and stay informed of the progress of your requests via notifications;
  
  
• Taleez automates your job opening requests thanks to a dedicated module: you define roles (requesters/validators), you create templates, you track your requests on a follow-up dashboard updated in real time, and as soon as a request is validated, it is automatically integrated into your ATS.
  
  

Whichever you choose, an ATS allows you to recruit faster and more easily, while centralizing the information you need for the process. And, as an added bonus, these programs offer you the possibility of automating tasks, such as automatically sorting CVs according to pre-defined criteria.

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Let your company's recruitment needs analysis flourish!

In short, recruitment needs analysis is an essential step in your hiring process. If you give it time and attention, it will pay off in spades, as its benefits are many: better organization, obvious time-savings, and good practice to help your employer brand shine.

You'll then be able to calmly get on with the rest of the process: publishing the job advert, sorting through the applications and selecting the best ones, defining who will be in charge of recruitment and what method will be recommended for interviews. And don't forget contract signing and onboarding for a top-notch candidate experience!