A structured hiring process can lead to the success of any business and a poor one can lead to failure. Effective hiring helps in finding the right people and retaining them for the long term. When a business outsources business activities to an outsourcing agency, this responsibility is upon the agency. Although the partnering business may have requirements for the to-hire employees, the agency is the one that does it all. So, what are the best hiring practices in outsourcing agencies?

5 Hiring Practices in an Outsourcing Agency

a.      Be specific in your vacancy announcements

Many businesses explain the type of business activities they are outsourcing and have the agency do the hiring. The hiring agency then creates a job profile to fit the needs of the partnering company. It is essential to clearly state the qualifications, required skills, job responsibilities, expectations, and the interview process. According to Samantha McLaren, a lead copywriter at LinkedIn, shorter job posts receives 8.4% more applications per view than average. So, the more precise the job description, the less will be the chances of having the wrong people apply.

b.      Designate a person to screen resumes and potential candidates.

Agencies usually deal with multiple companies at the same time and they could be hiring employees for many companies at any given time. If one person screens resume and potential candidates, they will have a good idea of the types of candidates applying to the agency’s vacancies. Hence, if a candidate applied for company A but is not fit for the position, the designated screener can recommend another similar post for him/her in company B or C.

This way, the rate of employability in the agency increases, and the agency’s reputation also improves for looking out for candidates.

c.      Conduct multiple levels of interviews

Although conducting multiple levels of interviews might seem like extra work, it definitely pays off. Having the short-listed candidates from screening, and interviewed by subordinate level team members first, and filtering them out will save time for the senior level members. At this stage, the goal of the interview should be to get to know the employee and introduce the work along with the agency and the company they will be working for. Some important aspects to inspect can be the candidate’s character, learning about their expectations, and explain the benefits they get, etc.

The senior level members can then conduct in-depth interviews with them. The team can test the candidates’ skills, check the quality of work they could provide, present them with challenges and evaluate their responses, look into the relevance and value they can bring from their past experiences, etc.

If more interviews are needed after this, that can be done too. However, it is important to keep the candidates updated at this stage. Agencies should communicate when candidates will hear next from the agency, what the purpose of the next rounds of interviews will be and how long the interview will be, and so on.

d.      Negotiation

After all interviews and evaluations are done, the final step is to make the job offer. When making a job offer, it’s important that the candidate is clear about everything. This includes his roles, expectations from him, salary, benefits, growth path, the deadline for acceptance of the offer, etc. One major thing to be careful about is not to be too rigid with the offer. If the candidate is a perfect fit or someone more than what you are looking for, being flexible with the offer can go a long way.

e.      Don’t forget referrals.

Making a vacancy announcement and hiring is not the only option to have new talents on board. Asking your current employees to refer people is another option to find competent and trustworthy candidates. To encourage referrals, some sort of incentive can be provided to the employees.

Takeaways

Finally, hiring is a process that you need to streamline over time. Only then, you can have and manage a high-performing team. These are the steps we follow at GoCode Solutions and this is what works for us. We’ve honed at hiring people and developed this structured process over the years. This doesn’t mean it will work for every other outsourcing agency. Every agency should make a fair share of mistakes. Learn from them and establish a process of your own.