Recruit Smarter, Not Harder: 5 Steps to Build a Strong Hiring Strategy

By Helen Trainor 

Regardless of business or industry, the frameworks needed to be successful in recruiting remain mostly unchanged.  There are many steps to define and refine a full process, but with this high-level framework, you can start to think through the most important aspects of recruiting and begin to see where you are being successful and where your firm needs to adapt or define a strategy. 

1. Workforce Planning and Role Definition 

Many hiring managers know they need resources, but really defining the needs and pain points within a team/unit will help you shape what roles are needed, when, and why. As a best practice, these points should be considered on a quarterly or annual basis and each team/unit should have a hiring forecast and a skills matrix to see where opportunities for training are and what skills the team is developing or losing as staff grows and retires. 

Points to consider: 

• Strategic alignment with business goals (e.g., headcount forecasts tied to product roadmaps) 

• Clear job descriptions with required skills, experience, and success metrics 

• Prioritization of hires (critical roles vs. opportunistic hiring) 

2. Structured Sourcing and Talent Pipeline Development 

Many industries; Finance, Construction, Engineering, Tech all have highly competitive recruiting environments. Posting roles or passive sourcing is no longer sufficient. Companies need to get creative in their strategy and internal staffing or think about utilizing an outsourcer. Best practices to think about are using tagging in your ATS or tracking sourcing metrics (e.g., source of hire, pipeline conversion rates) and spending the time up front to have a strategy for an outreach campaign for high-demand roles.  

Points to consider: 

• Multi-channel sourcing strategy (e.g., job boards, referrals, LinkedIn, hiring events, speaking engagements for executives) 

• Talent CRM or ATS to build and nurture passive candidate pipelines and stay in contact with candidates. 

• Employer branding to attract top talent (e.g., showcase projects, blog, social media presence, connect with recent grads from schools your employees attended). 

3. Standardized and Inclusive Interview Process 

We have written about the need to keep the candidates' experience positive and consistent.  To ensure fairness, minimize bias, and consistency, recruiters and members of the hiring team need training.  It is important to teach them to assess skills, fit, and capability. Work with the team to design interview stages and questions to assess skills, culture fit, and motivation for starting a new role. 

Points to consider: 

• Structured interviews with predefined questions and scoring rubrics 

• Training for interviewers on evaluation, unconscious bias, and company values 

• Skills-based assessments for technical or higher-level roles (e.g., coding challenges, system design, accounting exercise or a case study presentation) 

4. Efficient and Transparent Candidate Experience 

Candidate experience is here to stay. The experience of candidates you don’t hire is just as important as the ones that you do hire. A poor candidate experience can damage your brand and risk losing a great hire.  It can also cost you future hires. One of the biggest complaints is the time it takes between interviews and making a decision.  Keeping the average time-to-hire under 30–45 days will go a long way.  Providing a single point of contact (recruiter or coordinator) to streamline communication and keep all parties updated and accountable for the process is a best practice firms should implement. 

Points to Consider: 

• Timely communication and clear expectations at every step 

• Candidate feedback collection and analysis 

• Personalized engagement, especially for top-tier candidates 

5. Data-Driven Hiring Decisions and Continuous Improvement 

You can't improve what you don’t measure. Depending on your size and number of roles, holding monthly or quarterly recruitment performance reviews with leadership is a game changer. Being able to assess and address concerns (like a new Glassdoor rating) and successes (like using automation to collect interview feedback) on an ongoing basis will allow you to refine sourcing and interview processes based on data. 

Points to Consider: 

• Recruitment KPIs (e.g., time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, quality-of-hire) 

• Hiring manager and candidate satisfaction surveys 

• Post-hire performance tracking to validate hiring effectiveness 

Rethinking how you recruit, interview, and evaluate employees can make a big difference. When you're open to learning and adapting your strategy, your team is more likely to improve both time-to-hire and employee retention. 

Not sure where to begin? Check out more tips and insights on our blog, website, LinkedIn, or just reach out. TalentRemedy is here to help you build a better hiring process, every step of the way. We support our clients with thoughtful, intentional interview strategies. We help uncover the real experiences and skills that candidates bring to the table, ensuring you make the best hire for both the role and your team. Reach out to us at info@talentremedy.com or 703-362-0175 to explore how we can streamline your recruiting process and help you find the right fit.