Recruitment Farming: From Seed to Hire

The farming industry, just like many others, has changed a lot of the years. The basic principles are the same; plant the seeds, water the plants, collect the yield and sell to the public. However farming is not that simple. There are many things that could affect the crops which are out of the farmer’s control, primarily the weather. Farmers anticipate the changes in the climate in order to know when to plant and harvest. Previously, we taught a recruiter to fish, and now, we are going to examine recruitment farming: from seed to hire.

Farming is the way we sustain life on this planet. There are many people who rely on farming because they maintain a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Having supplies and sources of organically grown, natural, plant based foods allows for a healthier society.

Just as farming is vital for us to survive, recruiting is vital to an organization’s survival. It has been said that recruiting is the most important function of human resources; without recruiting a company will not have the people it needs to provide the services, products and goods necessary to be successful. Similar to farming, having a sustainable talent pool is critical to overall success of the organizations’ lifecycles. Without harvesting there is no hiring. 

Think of a major league baseball team. They have a multiple farm teams (A, AA, AAA) to develop their own talent and acquire new talent that can hopeful make an impact on their major league team someday. Within the MLB, teams are making thousands of trades and waiver claims each year. Each team wants to be known as organization that players would be honored to play for.

Companies must have all the tools to create a robust farm system of talent and that includes a holistic approach to the candidate experience. The candidate experience is the process in which potential hires are treated through the recruiting cycle. It truly begins whenever one learns about your company; think of your seed as the moment a potential hire learns about your brand. What type of plant can that seed become?

Once an applicant submits their resume to the company, you are entering candidate relationship management (or CRM).  A lot of touchpoints impact a candidate’s decision; that includes the follow-up email, phone screening, face to face interview, salary negotiation, and the job offer. Most candidates are somewhat sensitive and the slightest mistreatment can cause disengagement and generate bad word of mouth for the company. 

There are many types of tools to help, a platform like SmartRecruiters will store a database of all candidates in the history of the company. As you can imagine CRM and the candidate experience are part of the farming processes, however there is one more component: cultivation. You don’t want to forget about your existing employees.

You need to know who could happily step into a leadership or accept additional duties. Companies should also be looking for new talent and thinking about how to replace talent if necessary. Internal recruiting is final piece of recruitment farming.

Once you develop your recruitment strategy you can define your company culture and incorporate that into your company website, app and career page. First you widen your funnel by marketing a great employer brand. Next, you create the process in which candidates are treated from expression of interest to hire. And finally, once they are employees, the talent management continues by keeping them engaged with opportunities to grow into future roles.

That’s how to grow your recruitment farm.