Long gone are the days when companies create a job post for a role and sit back and wait for applicants to trickle in. 

Now, there’s a whole world of science in effective recruitment, and one of the best, all-round approaches is something called “full-cycle recruiting.”

Today we’re looking at full-cycle recruitment and laying out 6 actionable steps to help you get it right. 

What exactly is “full-cycle recruiting”?

Recruiting is the process of actively seeking out, finding, and hiring candidates for a role in your company. Every company has its own recruitment practices and principles they follow.

“Full-cycle recruiting” is a more modern, holistic approach to hiring new staff, and its results are speaking volumes. SMEs (small and medium enterprises) are seeing the value in full-cycle recruitment. Startup HR departments are focusing on holistic hiring practices that suit their shifting working style.

Large enterprises too are finding that one dedicated full-cycle recruiter helps them headhunt and stand out in the talent acquisition world.

A company following the principle of full-cycle recruiting might enlist outside help from recruitment agencies and experts. It’s not impossible to perform full-cycle recruiting in-house, but it certainly takes a lot of manpower and resources to get it right. For this reason, most companies choose to use dedicated full-cycle recruiters.

The full-cycle recruitment is generally broken down into 6 recruitment steps so that a company can make sure they’re hitting every base when they hire someone new. These 6 steps are as follows:

• Preparation
• Sourcing
• Screening
• Selecting
• Hiring
• Onboarding

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To understand full life cycle recruiting, it can help to consider it as the opposite of standard recruiting. The opposite of full-cycle is partial or specialized recruiting. In specialized recruiting, each stage of the recruiting cycle is handled by separate individuals or teams.

This might mean that one team focuses on sourcing candidates, while another handles the interview stage, and a third team is in charge of onboarding, and so on.

Now we’ve laid out these terms and perks of full-cycle recruiting, let’s get into the swing of things and show you a 6-step plan to get it right in your company.

Steps to the full-cycle recruiting process

Here’s what we see as the ultimate 6-step plan for optimizing full-cycle recruitment.

1. Preparation

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. This old adage represents the importance of the very first step in full-cycle recruiting: preparation. Before a full-cycle recruiter begins thinking about candidates from the outside, some time and effort must go into internal tasks.

There will generally be at least 2 steps involved in the preparation stage:

Requirements of the new candidate: The company leader should take time in the first step to figure out exactly what the new hire must bring to the table. This is going to include things like their skills, experience, cultural fit, personality, extra-curricular skills, and capabilities. There really is no point in skimping out on the exact type of person you need for the job - the more specific the description, the better.

Crafting the perfect job description: Once the candidate description is done, you can share part of this in the job post itself, as well as the full job description. Working together with the full-cycle recruiter, the manager must create a job description that is crystal-clear to the eyes of candidate readers. 

Make sure you’ve spent some time with your recruiters and HR department getting completely to grips with the internal needs of the company before searching externally. It takes honest review and reflection, so don’t be afraid to ask your recruiters for their own expert input too.

Now your company is armed with two things: a clearer vision of the candidate you want, and a strong job description to help the candidate better understand the role.

2. Sourcing

Sourcing is the second step, and it involves casting your recruitment net as far and wide as possible. There are many different ways to source candidates, with some of the most effective being:

• Job board postings
• Employee referrals
• Social media vacancy postings
• Targeted recruiting

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Sourcing the right candidate in full-cycle recruiting means aiming for the best of the best through multiple recruitment channels. Depending on the position and global level of your company, consider sourcing across cultures and continents. These days, talented individuals from around the world are arming companies with new, cutting-edge skills.

Full-cycle recruiters should use all recruitment channels to create a large, strong talent pool. These recruiters are skilled in “headhunting” and high-level talent acquisition. Long gone are the days of hiring just to fill a current vacancy, full-cycle recruitment is dedicated to finding experts at every step of the hiring process.

As an extra tip, consider consulting with as many staff in the HR department as possible. Your HR department might know of candidates outside the traditional pool or hiring channels. You’ll be showing trust and giving power to HR workers who might return the positivity later.

Maximize your efforts in the sourcing stage to ensure you’re attracting the best candidate in the world for the current position. Time and dedication now will pay dividends in the future, especially for boosting company branding and reputation.

3. Screening

So now you should really have a large, gifted talent pool of candidates ready to be selected. But truthfully, more does not always equal better. There is value in spending time screening your talent pool for more detailed requirements and removing people who don’t quite meet the mark.

You need to get into the meat and bones of their qualifications, experience, and cultural fit. Think about it, there’s no point in hiring someone with amazing skills if they aren’t going to gel with your company culture, right? Office culture is something you’ve worked long and hard to cultivate, and it can’t always be easily quantified or measured. So start with skills and experience that you can measure in your pool of candidates.

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Let’s say, for instance, you’re trying to cut down a list of 100 candidates to 10. Many high-level recruiters will even include up to 5 steps for the screening process, such as:

• Review resumes for minimum qualifications: Globalized workforces mean that recruiting is now incredibly diverse. You need to check bare-basic requirements like legal status for working in your country and years of experience.

• Check with references: Now might be a great time to look up your candidates' references. Not to assume the worst in people, but quite often, references are not checked by employers and this can be exploited by overly eager candidates. Verify all claims.

• Research online: Your full-cycle recruiters might spend a bit of time background-checking applicants for their public online presence. They may have received public awards in the past for their achievements, or have glowing reviews from previous employers. The more you know, the better. 

• Look for “nice-to-haves”: Here’s the time when you should look for extra skills and expertise in your new hires. This could be extra-curricular skills like captaining a weekend football team, or the ability to speak another language. Language skills in particular are fantastic “nice-to-haves,” just in case you’re expanding into new markets and cultures.

• Arrange a pre-screening interview: For the final step of the screening process, some in-depth recruiters opt for a pre-screening interview. This might be a good option if you still have too many candidates to choose from, who all meet your minimum and preferred requirements. 

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Hopefully, with this level of scrutiny, you can easily whittle your 100 applicants down into 10. Full-cycle recruiting requires attention to detail at every stage. It's vital to get the screening right to avoid losing the perfect candidate by not fully reviewing their qualifications. 

4. Selection

Now we’re over the halfway mark, and your full-cycle recruiters have kept a watchful eye on every step of the process. Now you’ll be working with them closer than ever before, to make your final selection among your refined talent pool. 

As a quick side note, we here at Surf Office love “culture interviews” that go a little deeper than your average interview session. We understand the strengths of a truly globalized workforce, yet we still strive to make sure that candidates who are interviewed align with the values we hold dear to our hearts. If company culture is crucial for you, consider doing the same.

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So now you’re ready for the interview process to hone in on the perfect candidate for the job. Of course, each interview will differ, depending on the job offer, but here’s a checklist of advice and tips that recruiters love to cover in interviews:

• Start slow, safe and personal: A great way to kick off the interview is with a personable, but light question. Something like “Where did you grow up?” or “What was your first job out of college?” You’re helping the interviewee to relax and are setting up a personable atmosphere.

• Coax, don’t hammer: There’s a soft skill that effective interviewers wield effortlessly, and that is to have a certain amount of ”come on, you can tell me” style of questioning. That’s not to say you’re asking for secret information, but for many people, they will only really open up when they feel they can trust the interviewer. Work on this.

• Craft some open-ended questions: Of course, every interview needs some specific questions that get answered with narrow data points, like “What was your last job title?” But these questions only answer a limited amount, and your candidate might not have the chance to truly shine. Try questions like “What is your vision for the organization five years from now?” or “Do you worry about any unintended consequences from the work you’re trying to accomplish?” This way, you’re providing thoughtful questions that can open the door to deeper conversations.

• Ask what you don’t know: In the legal world, there’s a lawyer’s tip that says you should only ask the witness questions that you already know the answers to. Well, an interview isn’t a court of law, so if you’re anything like us, you sometimes like asking questions about topics you really don’t know the answer to. There’s no harm at all in this, you’re setting an amicable atmosphere by being honest about areas you are not an expert in.

• Listen, really listen!: One of the most powerful skills you can demonstrate when recruiting is simply the ability to listen. This doesn’t mean nodding along with every line your candidate utters, it means being present in the interview and taking note of the person in front of you. Make sure they feel heard.

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Use a few or all of our advice points, and the stage is set for a stellar interview. Remember the simple fact that the interview is about the person in front of you, not about you. It’s your job to set the stage and help them reveal themselves in a genuine way, not to build them up or cut them down. Best of luck with the interview and selection stage!

5. Hiring

So this is the first post-interview stage, and it involves getting the actual hiring process right. Full-cycle recruitment places as much emphasis on the last stage of recruiting as the first, and it ensures your new hires start off on the right foot. So, now that it’s boiled down to hiring, have you ensured you’re getting the job offer right?

One aspect to consider when hiring world-leading talent is that they won’t be around for very long. You’ve got to strike while the iron is hot, and if you wait too long, the opportunity might be lost. Recent research has shown that top candidates stay on the job market for only 10 days. Then they’re gone, for better offers. 

Here’s a short checklist to make sure your job offer has all bases covered for bringing in top talent:

Pitch the salary right: There’s no way of denying it. If a candidate has several job offers to choose from, the salary offer is going to be a huge deciding factor. You might think your offer is the one that stands out the most, but how can you know for sure if you don’t analyze the competition?

Demonstrate job security: Another area of increasing importance for young workers is knowing they’re entering a very secure role with your company. Some might see stability as even more attractive than salary, in the long run, so display this as best you can. 

Create an inviting company culture: Company culture is an aspect of organizational management that should never be overlooked. It is crucial to the skeleton of the business. as data shows as many as 2 out of 3 employees who rate their company culture as poor have looked for a job elsewhere. Display your work culture loudly and proudly in the hiring phase.

Non-monetary bonuses: So on top of the salary offer, non-monetary rewards are becoming increasingly attractive in the eyes of young, new hires. Rewards separate from money, like paid time off and work retreats are classified as “intrinsic rewards,” and many of the world’s top talent see them as equally important with monetary rewards. 

Time is of the essence: The choices you make and actions you perform after the interview are just as important as what you do during. World-leading candidates highly respect quick responses and follow-up questions after the interview is complete. Prompt and efficient correspondence makes it much more likely for them to accept your offer, not to mention the fact they might get snapped up elsewhere if you take too long!

So there’s the 5th step “hiring” in full-cycle recruitment. Now comes the final step.

6. Onboarding

So now we hope you’ve drilled down and found that one, perfect candidate for the vacancy. Now this is where full-cycle recruitment can really shine: the onboarding phase. Most companies already have some form of onboarding, which welcomes new hires into their roles for 3 to 6 months.

There are however some shocking statistics that show many companies simply don’t have a structured onboarding procedure for new employees, and that’s as many as 36%. This is bewildering, when you consider other research shows that 81% of employees “feel overwhelmed” throughout the onboarding process. Companies need to start getting this right if they wish to retain world-leading talent.

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We see onboarding as the main spearhead in a trident of 3 critical steps for helping new hires acclimatize to their new role. Let’s break these 3 down:

• Preboarding: Before a new employee starts at work, welcoming them with “preboarding” is a surefire way to get things off on the right foot. Preboarding can involve gift packages to welcome the new recruit and make them quickly feel like part of the team. Another great tip is to ask the new recruit for a little bit of unique information about themselves. Then, if they’re comfortable with it, add it to a lovely welcome announcement message in the group chat as you add the new member.

• Orientation: Another part of welcoming new recruits is through “orientation,” and this is generally the very first day for the employee in the office. Getting first impressions right is extremely valuable for your new staff, as it can make or break the entire experience. 

• Onboarding: If preboarding is like an appetizer in a welcoming meal, then onboarding is the main course! Onboarding usually lasts anywhere from 3 to 6 months, with some companies opting for even longer. The onboarding process benefits greatly from an onboarding buddy, so consider this system if you really want to help your new staff integrate quickly.

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By paying extra attention to all 3 aspects of welcoming your new recruit, your full-cycle recruitment is likely to stand out. They’ll be left with an extremely positive impression of their early days in the employee life-cycle, which in turn positively affects your company. 

Nothing creates a stronger first impression than solid preboarding, onboarding, and orientation when you hire someone new. We see nothing but smooth sailing ahead for your full-cycle recruitment process!

So there we have it, 6 steps to perfection in full-cycle recruitment. Follow as many steps as possible and you’ll be attracting and retaining leading talent from around the world in no time!

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