Published: Sep 29th, 2023

Creating and updating a high-functioning recruitment plan is more than just a good idea. It’s your organization’s lifeline to an engaged, committed workforce. A working recruitment plan is vital to making smart hires, remaining competitive, and growing your profits as the economic landscape changes.

Hiring is harder today than ever, thanks to a disconnected workforce and a fast-shifting business world. But an effective recruiting plan is more than just job postings and interviews. It needs to connect company goals, budgets, skill set analyses, and key screening methods to pull the best new hires to the top.

Let’s dig into the best research-backed recruitment methods, from assessing your hiring needs to choosing interview methods and all points in between. Scroll down for a sample recruitment plan that gets massive ROI.

What is a recruitment plan?

A recruitment plan is a proactive roadmap to developing the strategy for your current and future hiring needs. An effective plan demands a thorough assessment of your current hiring practices and processes. You’ll also need to evaluate current and future needs, and build a strategy that supports them.

One bad hire can cost up to 30% of an employee’s salary — or up to $240,000 in expenses. Putting a solid recruiting plan in place saves time, money, and frustration.

Sample recruitment plan

The recruiting plan example below covers the most important hiring plan points. It starts with the job title and continues with the objectives, skills, and recruitment methods for the position. Start with this recruitment plan outline, but scroll down for tips to make it your own.

Recruitment Plan: Company Name

Last Revised Date:

Prepared By:

1. Position(s) to be Filled:
   • Job title, location, reason for job: new/replacement

2. Target Objectives for Job:
   • [Manager/Team/Company] plans to hire x number of FT/PT/Temp/Seasonal people by x date.
   • Hours per week/Budgeted range

3. Target Candidate Details (successful candidates will have...):
   • Skills
   • Education
   • Experience
   • Credentials

4. Recruitment Methods:
   • Posting/Sourcing
   • Screening and Interviewing
   • References?

5. Evaluation and Selection Methods:
   • Offer approval and delivery
   • Pre-employment screening

1. Review your organization’s current hiring practices

What’s your starting condition? Plan a quick meeting or create a shared document with key stakeholders. Be clear on the process and ownership from HR, recruiting, hiring managers, IT, and other stakeholders. In your document, list formal and informal methods of finding candidates and sharing open jobs. These may include social media postings and employee referrals.

2. Determine your hiring needs

Steven Covey says to “begin with the end in mind.” If you don’t start with understanding, your recruitment strategy is doomed to fail. Kick off your search with a needs assessment that covers skills, timelines, and other requirements.

It all starts with the skills your organization needs. Knowing that will help inform your hiring process."

Assess planned growth & skill gap needs

Consider your current and future growth plans, and the ramp-up time it takes to onboard a new hire so they perform at least 85% of capacity. This will vary based on the position. Review open positions created by departures or restructuring. Take inventory of the jobs and skills you’ll need in the future.

You may find that you already have the skills needed in your organization. Or you may be able to provide training and create new positions, backfilling vacant roles internally. Determine your current capacity first. Then identify when you’ll need to hire additional resources to support your targeted growth.

3. Create job descriptions and job postings

Once you’ve determined your gap needs, review and edit current job descriptions. Then create new ones for newly created positions. Partner with HR and the hiring manager (or with someone currently in the role) for their input and review.

Be warned that the job description isn’t the same as the job posting. A job posting is the online ad that makes job seekers want to apply. Job postings set expectations for the job seeker and show what success looks like. Include key information like hours, schedule, location, physical or travel requirements, pay, and any benefits that set your organization apart.

You’ll use most of the information from the job description to create the job posting. The job description is the complete list of essential functions, skills, physical requirements, and responsibilities.

4. Develop your recruitment strategy

Creating a strong recruiting strategy is daunting, but it’s the shortest path to hiring the right talent. Choose between full and part-time roles, create a budget, and select the recruiting techniques that best fit your firm.

Know the kinds of roles you’ll hire for

This next step can help you dodge a costly mistake. What kind of roles will you hire for? Full-time, part-time, or a combination of both? As you increase your FTE headcount, you may change the compliance requirements of your organization — particularly at 50+ and 100+.

Will you need any temp or seasonal help? Could you tap into local talent and create an internship program with a steady pipeline of job candidates?

Create your budget

Overspending wastes money. Underspending can crash your hiring effort. Both create waste — of different kinds. Be realistic about what you can sustain. Recruiting can be incredibly expensive. It’s easy to spend quickly without direction or results.

Choose the right recruitment techniques

To best serve your budget, consider all the possible hiring techniques. Consider using applicant tracking system licenses, virtual platform licenses, job boards, and job fairs. Look into industry memberships with the ability to post or share open positions, resume database licenses, and travel for in-person interviews — not just for job seekers but also for the hiring team.

Also think through the benefits of third-party agency fees, pre-employment screening costs, and any sort of technology licenses you may need for electronic signatures. Don’t forget the cost of the recruiters and hiring teams as well. There are myriad hiring techniques, and not all will make sense for your organization.

5. Decide how you’ll search for and screen candidates

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to communicating with job candidates. While job postings work for some, recruiting, virtual job fairs, or internal hiring are the perfect choice for others. Assess your company's best path to finding the right talent.

Determine your true requirements

If you don’t give careful thought to requirements, you risk settling for what “everyone knows.” Take time to think through the knowledge, skills, and abilities that will map to success in your open jobs. What are must-haves vs. nice-to-haves for target skill sets and qualifications?

What skills are missing from your current teams? Where can you hire for cultural adds, and train the right people? Do you need tech savvy team members? Is geographic location a deal-breaker? Will you want to build self-directed teams?

Decide how you’ll share open positions

When hiring, it helps to use the recruitment methods with the best ROI — and the least flops. Do you have an applicant tracking system? If so, where does it post as part of your license fee? Will you use social media? Which platforms? Are there any you’ll skip to avoid bias?

Will you offer referral or signing bonuses? Are you in a niche industry with access to message boards and job boards specifically targeted to the right kinds of applicants? Maybe you’ll use in-person or virtual job fairs? If so, who will represent the company? You may also want to partner with third-party agencies, or leverage a mix of sourcing and posting.

What timeline are you targeting from posting to hire? What’s your criteria for success, and your clue that it’s time to change tactics? Start by answering these questions before you start posting, and you’ll increase your success rate dramatically.

Understand posting vs. sourcing

Some of your positions won’t be easily filled by posting an open position, reviewing applicants, interviewing, and hiring. You might need to use proactive sourcing as well.

Sourcing is a skill that’s in high demand. It can be as simple as having access to a resume database or a recruiter license on LinkedIn. There are entire workshops and conferences dedicated to sourcing techniques and improving your skills. The #HRTX Hardcore Sourcing conference is an excellent option with a wealth of information.

Evaluate your recruitment team’s available time and resources, and find out how much they can dedicate to sourcing. Once you’ve identified candidates through sourcing, make sure it’s easy to get them into your process in your applicant tracking system. That way, you aren’t managing separate processes.

6. Determine your standards and methods for communication

When candidates are in search, every second counts. Make sure your recruitment plan includes your internal-service-level agreements. Set expectations on communication with job seekers, hiring managers, and anyone else in your process.

Many applicant tracking systems can communicate with the candidate within the system. They can also keep interview notes, assessments, and other pertinent information within the candidate record. Determine your timeline and expected communication before deciding you’ve been ghosted.

Choose effective communication methods

Will you e-mail or use text? Will you make a phone call if the first method of communication isn’t successful? How will you close the loop and document the candidate record to indicate the end result? Set follow-ups to remind yourself to check in frequently with candidates — even if you have no update.

Commit ahead of time to be as transparent in your process as possible. This includes outlining the process and decision-making timeline at the beginning of all conversations. Once you decide you won’t move forward with someone, notify them immediately so they can focus on other opportunities.

7. Clearly define your screening and selection process

Setting up the right boundaries and goalposts can make the difference between a smooth hiring plan and a disaster. Thoughtfully select the elements of your screening and selection process to optimize your hiring outcomes.

Streamline your screening process

Will you do phone interviews? Live interviews? Video interviews? Virtual or in-person interviewing at hiring events? Who will coordinate schedules and send out communication? Decide who will be responsible for updating the candidate record, including any reason for or against selection.

You may need to have a different process for screening and selection, depending on the type of job. You may need to change the process or add/remove steps. What will you do if there are technical difficulties? Be ready to supplement with a phone interview so as not to lose the time devoted to the interview.

Optimize your selection process

What will your approval process look like? What are the conditions that must be met to make an offer? Who will make the offer and how will it be delivered? You also need to know the limitations for a counter offer, and your committed turnaround times? Who will notify the rest of the key stakeholders of the accepted offer and pending new hire’s information? What pre-employment screening is needed? Will you check references prior to making an offer?

8. Putting it all together: Drafting your recruitment plan

You’ve struggled through the tough head-scratching, and now it’s time to put your excellent recruitment plan on paper. Draw up a written plan with input from the right stakeholders. And finally, remember — a recruiting plan is a living document, not set in stone.

Create a recruitment plan structure

Create a written structure for your recruitment plan. Determine if your plan will be for one job — or for an individual team or area. Include the date last updated and the plan’s owner. Clearly outline the needs, process, and any key deliverables, timelines, and deadlines.

Involve recruitment plan stakeholders

To create an effective recruitment plan, identify key stakeholders. These may be human resources, hiring managers, and/or key people from shared or supportive services. Plan to get input from them, along with executive leadership buy-in.

Plan to update your recruitment plan

A plan that isn’t updated is like a disconnected steering wheel. Approach your recruitment plan with a spirit of continuous improvement. Your end goal is a plan that supports the needs of the organization. Those needs will change with time. Keep your recruitment plan in an editable format, and review it regularly.

Make updates and share them with your team, so everyone’s on the same page. Solicit feedback from candidates, new hires, and hiring managers to see where changes are in order. Share also to celebrate areas that have improved the experience.

Why you need an effective recruitment plan

The cost of hiring the wrong person isn’t just a tangible expense. It can also impact culture and morale. By building an effective recruitment plan, you can ensure you’ve clearly defined your needs, process, and procedures. Communicating this plan well will reduce uncertainty with those involved. The end result is a cleaner process and a positive experience for all.