The Recruitment Funnel: A Comprehensive Guide

Recruitment is one of the key operations for any organization, and finding the right talent has always been the biggest challenge.

To simplify this process and make recruiting easier, organizations follow a structured framework known as a recruitment funnel. This helps organizations to visualize and optimize various stages of the hiring process.

This article will outline everything about the recruitment funnel, what it is, why it is important, what the metrics, stages, and importantly, how to create one.

What is the recruitment funnel?

The recruitment funnel is a structured framework which outlines every key stage of the hiring process from the creation of a job description to onboarding. It shows how a person goes from the job market to being hired by your company. Optimizing this funnel allows organizations to streamline their hiring process and acquire deserving and more suitable candidates. A lot of people go in at the top, but only a few and the best matches come out from the bottom. The future of IT staffing or any other industry demands a perfect recruitment funnel to find quality talent.

Key Metrics to Track in a Recruitment Funnel

There are various numbers involved to track the recruitment funnel, metrics that are used to compare, measure, and optimize the funnel. Here are all the key metrics

Understanding these key metrics will help organizations spot the problems and find a reliable solution to them. Using these metrics, companies can strategize different strategies for contract staffing vs permanent staffing.

Why is a recruitment funnel important?

• It brings structure to the hiring process, this reduces the guess work of what to do next everytime when you reach a goal.
• Allows organizations to focus on skill-based recruitment, leading to better fit hires.
• It saves a significant amount of time for organizations by reducing the time they spend on the wrong candidates.
• Improves the overall quality of the resources by filtering out better candidates.
• Allows organizations to improve their hiring process by segmenting the entire process. It allows organizations to track and solve the problem faster.
• A defined recruitment funnel allows everyone in the organization to follow the recruitment process.
• Hiring a manpower consultancy can help you structure a refined recruitment process funnel that can help organizations find the right candidates.

Recruitment funnel stages

1. Awareness

• This is when people first hear about your company or job opening.
• It might be from job ads, social media, referrals, or your company website.

2. Interest

• Candidates start looking into your company and the job.
• They might read your job description, look at your reviews, or explore your website.

3. Application

• Interested people apply for the job. This is where you collect resumes and basic info.

4. Screening

• You review resumes, maybe do a phone call or test to narrow down the list.
• This helps you find people who meet the basic requirements.

5. Interviewing

• You talk to the shortlisted candidates in more depth, face-to-face or online.
• This helps you understand their experience, skills, attitude, and fit for the team.

6. Evaluation and Decision

• You compare candidates, check references if needed, and decide who’s the best person for the role.

7. Offer and Hiring

• You send out an offer to the chosen candidate.
• If they accept, you close the deal and onboard them.

How to Create and Optimize a Recruitment Funnel

1. Know who you need to hire

Analyze the organizational manpower hierarchy, talk to your team, and get clear on which skills and what kind of person you are looking for. We recommend that you not use any old job descriptions, because they may be outdated or incomplete.

2. Create a Job Description

Always remember that a job post should be as simple and easy to understand as possible. Make sure that you don't miss out on these key details: what the person will do, skills needed, salary range, location, and benefits. Highlight what makes your company a good place to work, grow, and all sorts of things.

3. Choose the right platforms

Post JDs on all the relevant portals like Naukri, Indeed, LinkedIn, or others. Analyze the number of applications you receive, track where your best candidates are coming from and focus on that particular platform. It is highly recommended that organizations hire a talent recruitment agency to mitigate the challenges of staff augmentation.

4. Screen applications effectively

Screening of the applications is the backbone of the recruitment funnel; make sure it's perfect. Define multiple parameters such as qualifications, relevant experience, and location preference etc. Also, add a skills test or questionnaire to filter talented candidates.

5. Shortlist and interview

List out all the finalized candidates and schedule video or inspiration interviews for the first round. We recommend you ask the same core questions of all the candidates to compare them easily. Compare all the candidates, ask about notice periods and always keep a backup candidate for future interviews.

6. Onboarding

Create an offer letter to the finalized candidate and explain the onboarding process and next steps in detail. Try to finish the boarding formalities as soon as possible, as it can give the candidates a sense of loss.

7. Track, measure, and improve

Tracking helps you optimize the funnel better and improve the quality of hires. No process is right from the beginning, so note how many applied, how many got interviewed, and how many accepted. Use these insights to fix all the bottlenecks in the hiring process. If you are experiencing fewer applications try ads or different platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions