Take the guesswork out of hiring by following the 9 steps of the recruitment process

Are you looking to improve your recruitment process? Would you like to implement a strategy aimed at finding the right profile with greater precision and efficiency?

The right methodology is essential to structure your recruitment management.

In this article, we review the 9 key steps to follow, from defining the position to be filled to hiring, in order to select the best candidates... and put every chance on your side to keep them!

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Summary of the 9 steps in the recruitment process

Step 1: Identify your recruitment needs

First and foremost, you should ask yourself what your company's actual recruitment needs are.

For example, a new recruit should be hired in the following cases:

• the temporary or permanent departure of an employee ;
• new development objectives;
• strong business growth, etc.

This need must be budgeted for, as it inevitably involves costs: mobilization of the people involved in the process, integration and training of the new recruit and, of course, new salary to be paid.

💡 Employers, you should be aware that the French government offers a range of recruitment aids, including a reduction in social security contributions. Check your eligibility on the economie.gouv.fr website!

Step 2: Define the position and profile required

In order to target your search more effectively, analyze the precise needs of the department in question, or of the company in general.

To do this, talk to the operational staff concerned:

• what profile is required?
• What training is required for the position? What other professional experience?
• What level of experience is required?
• What technical skills are essential?

☝️ It's important that the job description clearly reflects the missions, tasks and responsibilities of the person who will occupy the position. Be precise, but be flexible about which skills are essential and which are highly desirable, but not essential. In other words, be realistic!

☑️ Ask yourself about :

• the number of hours required, to determine whether you need full-time or part-time work;
• the type of contract (permanent, fixed-term, temporary, etc.);
• salary range.

Step 3: write the advert

💡 Before writing the advertisement, make sure that there are no priority employees within your organization: returning from maternity leave, moving from full-time to part-time or vice versa, economic redundancy of less than a year, etc.

When writing the job description, use the profile description as a starting point, and make sure to include all the important information:

• job title ;
• company presentation
• nature of the contract ;
• required skills and level of experience, etc.

Make sure you eliminate any discriminatory criteria prohibited by law.

Finally, take great care with the text of your job offer:

• think about the tone you want to adopt;
• be as clear as possible and provide all the necessary information;
• insert essential keywords, etc.

✨ You need to take care of your employer brand to attract talent!

Step 4: advertise the job offer

There are two possibilities here:

• either circulate your ad internally ;
• or turn to the outside world, choosing from a wide range of possibilities:
• Apec, Pôle emploi, press, trade shows;
• multi-posting on the Internet, via channels such as job boards, social networks, etc. ;
• using a recruitment agency or temporary work agency.

☝️ Here, a number of factors will influence your choice of distribution:

• the budget available;
• the urgency of the recruitment ;
• the specific nature of the profile sought.

Step 5: Sorting applications

Once you've posted your ad, the applications start pouring in! 🤩

You then need to centralize their receipt and sort them: those you retain, the "maybes" and those you eliminate.

Analyze the applications received in the light of the job description and the advertisement published, based on the CV and covering letter, or any other support setting out the motivations. Then check references, if any. This pre-selection can be revised and refined at a later stage by the line manager concerned.

💡 S coring and pre-qualifying applications can be greatly facilitated by the use of recruitment software!

Finally, keep the most suitable profiles for the rest of the process, and contact them to arrange an interview.

Step 6: Conduct interviews

Your first selection can be made via a telephone or video interview.

Then, once you've narrowed down your list of candidates, arrange physical interviews. For example, a first meeting, then a second in the presence of other stakeholders: the future recruit's line manager, an employee with key business expertise, etc.

☝️ Before any interview, prepare yourself. In other words, determine in advance the topics to be covered (presentation, past experience, motivations, qualities required for the position, etc.). And don't forget to observe the interpersonal skills of the person in front of you.

Step 7: Confirm with assessment tests

Depending on the profile you're looking for, we recommend that you take a skills assessment or personality test. This is the best way to get a concrete idea of the candidate's professional aptitudes and soft skills!

It's up to you to create the interview/test schedule that's most relevant to the challenges of the position and the market in which you operate.

Step 8: Select a candidate

Once you've completed the interview phase, review the selected profile with the future team, and make the final decision together.

Once you've decided on a candidate, announce the news to the lucky one! A personalized response will also be greatly appreciated by those not selected.

💡 Tip: keep unsuccessful applications for this position in your candidate pool. They may be of interest for future recruitment.

Then complete the formalities involved in hiring:

• promise to hire: commitment by the company to reserve the position for the future employee;
• declaration prior to hiring (DPAE): to be sent to URSSAF or MSA within 8 days of hiring;
• registration of the person hired in the personnel register;
• signing the employment contract;
• schedule the compulsory medical examination .

Step 9: integrating the new recruit

Last but not least, don't neglect to welcome and onboard your new employee. This essential step is an integral part of the procedure and must be thought through in advance.

Do everything you can to help your new employee integrate into the job, the team and the company, so that he or she feels at ease right from the start and decides to stay and invest.

Digitizing your recruitment process with the right software?

When it comes to recruitment procedures, you need to be methodical and sufficiently organized to gain in responsiveness and competitiveness in your target market, and so attract the best talent.

And these days, if you want to succeed, it's hard not to digitalize your operations. Dedicated tools help automate time-consuming tasks, while adapting to your own processes. The result: you save time, money and energy.

🛠️ Some examples of recruitment software:

• Beehire: this simple, intuitive software digitizes and streamlines the entire hiring process. It allows you to post job offers on over 200 sites, automatically pre-qualify applications using a matching index and video, and centralize all applications and communications within a single collaborative tool. What's more, with its dedicated employer branding features (personalized career page, dynamic offers, presentation videos, etc.), it helps you attract and seduce more talent.
  
  
• Beetween: the ATS designed by recruiters to help you recruit quickly and efficiently. With Beetween, you can pool your efforts and save an incredible amount of time: write the ad, select the sites that interest you from among the 150 generalist and specialized job boards connected to the solution. Then click, and it's published!
  
  
• Cegid HR: with this comprehensive talent and training management solution, you can centralize all candidate data and personalize your career pages to strengthen your employer brand. Designed for companies with more than 250 employees, it optimizes every stage of the recruitment process, from advertisement to final selection, thanks to mobile management.
  
  
• Flatchr: multi-post your vacancies with a single click, receive applications on a single platform by centralizing all information, and recruit collaboratively. Employees can write their opinions and share their feedback directly on the platform, streamlining the recruitment process. As a bonus, personalize your career site and program automatic, personalized responses to candidates to enhance your employer brand.
  
  
• JobAffinity: this French tool is designed to automate time-consuming tasks, centralize exchanges with candidates and optimize the entire recruitment process. Designed by HR experts, it is aimed at start-ups and SMEs, as well as large companies, firms and local authorities. Its key features include multi-distribution of job offers, complete application management, creation of talent pools and automated communications.
  
  
• Softy: benefit from comprehensive, customizable and automated HR functionalities (sourcing, career site, CV library, multicasting, application management, etc.), as well as unlimited recruitment tests of all kinds, directly integrated into the tool. In this way, you can identify the best candidates, confirm your choices with world-renowned recruitment tests, and analyze responses via an intuitive tool.
  
  
• Taleez ATS Recrutement: this French recruitment software is built on three pillars: reliability, responsiveness and transparency. Adopted by over 600 customers, it offers a complete ATS for managing the entire recruitment process, from job application to final integration. Flexible and intuitive, it adapts to teams' working methods and simplifies their day-to-day work.
  
  
• Teamtailor: this ATS is designed to streamline recruitment while enhancing the candidate experience and employer brand. Suitable for start-ups as well as large corporations and SMEs, it meets the needs of all structures seeking growth. The platform features advanced functionalities such as job multicasting, a customizable career site, task automation and an AI assistant.
  
  
• Tellent Recruitee: get a centralized, intuitive platform from which to quickly distribute your job offers to different recruitment channels (over 1,450 job boards available, for example). With performance and ad tracking, as well as application analysis, your HR teams can optimize their distribution strategy to target only the best talent.

See all software Recruiting

Recruitment procedure: what's important?

Ultimately, a successful recruitment procedure depends above all on a clear, structured methodology, adapted to each stage.

However, the use of digital tools reinforces this approach by automating repetitive tasks and improving the candidate experience.

But beyond method and technology, the real challenge remains attracting, convincing and retaining talent, all the more so in a competitive market.

The next step? Integrating artificial intelligence more fully into the process, so as to anticipate needs and gain even greater efficiency... without, however, relegating the human element to second place! After all, recruitment remains above all a human adventure, where exchange, trust and corporate culture play a decisive role in the success of a lasting collaboration.