What is Full Life Cycle Recruiting?

By Abhishek Kathpal | Updated 07 August, 2022

Depending on the organizational structure, size, selection process, nature of operations, etc., recruitment tactics vary from organization to organization. The recruitment life cycle is a series of critical steps that must be critically considered before reaching a decision point if hiring new recruits is to be successful. This life cycle includes more than just posting job descriptions and interviewing candidates. In order to help the hiring team locate the best candidate and keep them until term, a carefully thought-out hiring approach called "whole life cycle recruitment" is employed.

What is Full Life Cycle Recruiting

Full Life Cycle Recruiting meaning and definition

Full life cycle recruitment is the comprehensive process of planning, implementing, and continuously enhancing one's talent acquisition strategy to more successfully convert qualified prospects into new recruits. The recruitment life cycle starts at the point when a new hire is needed and ends at the onboarding stage, or when the candidate says "yes." In smaller organizations, the department head or manager often oversees the complete life cycle of recruiting, while larger businesses have separate human resources departments with divisions dedicated to each stage of the full hiring process.

Full life cycle recruitment stages

The whole life cycle of recruiting has six primary stages: planning, sourcing, screening, choosing, hiring, and finally onboarding. Each of these initial phases includes a range of duties.

a) Preparing

The preparation stage is the initial phase of the whole life cycle of recruitment. It requires creating a compelling job description and the applicant's identity. This persona is developed by defining the traits, skills, and characteristics of the ideal hire.

The next step in a full life cycle recruiting is to write a job description that details the role, responsibilities, and obligations of the position. A detailed job description makes it simpler to know what to look for in potential candidates. Additionally, it serves as a checklist that applicants must do before choosing whether they are suitable for the post and submitting an application, which increases the number of qualified applicants.

b) Sourcing

In the competitive job market of today, posting job openings on job boards or career websites is frequently insufficient. This results from the fact that more than 70% of candidates are inactive. As a result, current recruiters use cutting-edge, original methods to find candidates, such as:

I. Internet sourcing

With web sourcing, a single web search searches millions of online profiles to obtain information about passive and active prospects, including email addresses, resumes, and more.

II. Social recruiting

It entails using social media platforms for recruiting, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

III. Internal hiring

Finding outstanding prospects internally, among your current workers.

c) Screening

The goal of this full cycle recruiting step is to choose only the very best candidates from the applicant pool. Analyzing the employment applications, which frequently contain portfolios, motivational letters, and resumes, is the first stage in the screening process. The goal of the assessment of these materials is to identify candidates whose qualifications, talents, and experiences most closely match job requirements. A phone informational interview is the next step in the selection process for qualified candidates. Those that make the cut are invited to a face-to-face interview.

d) Selecting

Selecting the best candidate is the most important phase in the entire recruiting process. The best method to determine whether possible candidates have the ideal combination of knowledge, abilities, and experience the organization requires is to meet them in person, regardless of how promising they may seem on paper. In order to effectively satisfy hiring objectives, firms use a variety of candidate selection processes, such as various types of auditions and testing (psychological tests, programming tasks, custom written assignments etc.).

e) Hiring

The hiring stage is the negotiation stage. It's the deciding point for the recruiter to choose candidate for a job. This is the point where a formal job offer is sent and most likely a phone call afterwards to decided candidates. The job offer is addressed personally and it is detailed with clear recruiting conditions.

f) Onboarding

Onboarding is the final and, probably, most crucial stage of the whole recruitment life cycle. To acquaint new hires with the company and guarantee their smooth transition into the workforce, it entails introducing, orienting, and training them. It has the potential to make or break the entire hiring process because hiring the greatest candidates serves little use if they cannot mesh with the corporate culture. Onboarding therefore serves to welcome new employees and aid them in settling in by helping them build teams with their new coworkers.

Pros and Cons of full cycle recruiting

Pros

a) Accountability

b) Recruiting efficiency

c) Candidate experience

Cons

a) It demands a multitude of skills. That is each stage of the recruitment process requires a specific set of skills and knowledge.

b) It's not suitable for every type of organization

About the Author

Abhishek Kathpal

Abhi is the co-founder at Longlist.io. Funded by US based OnDeck, Longlist is currently enabling 50+ businesses to increase their candidate and client reach outs, automating the workflow across stages.