“Agile” is a buzzword that has been thrown around casually for, at minimum, the last ten years, in pretty much every industry. Agile project management was born of the software development industry as a way of continuously improving and evolving a project to be the best iteration of itself possible. Put another way: agile is a strategy that supports constant, efficient improvement through collaboration, flexibility, and communication. 

Recruiting is an area of business that can really benefit from an agile strategy: increasing communication and collaboration in order to modernize processes and remove barriers early on in the project lifecycle. But what does it really mean to have an agile recruiting strategy? And how do you go about implementing it? Let’s take a look at some ins-and-outs of agile methodology to get a better idea of how to associate the two seemingly different worlds of agile and recruiting. 

What does agile mean in practice? 

In theory, it sounds great: fewer meetings, less bureaucracy, more efficient processes, less miscommunication between teams. But in practice, adopting agile methodology involves cutting smaller pieces of more manageable process pie. Those small slices are then arranged into intense, short-term work cycles, generally called “sprints”.  

Sprints are the building blocks of agile. A sprint is a short period of time set aside for a team to accomplish specific, measurable goals. After the sprint is over, the team connects to discuss what went well and wrong, how the processes could be improved, and where the current strategy is lacking or succeeding. The goal of the sprint isn’t to end the job, fill the position, etc., but rather to find and eliminate potential roadblocks and misunderstandings, and to fine-tune what your deliverables are. 

Slicing your work into small steps, giving your team members agency over their part in the process, and stopping after each sprint to discuss how it can be improved based on direct, actionable feedback is what makes agile so successful.  

How do you implement agile? 

Tasks & Sprints 

Start by taking larger projects, breaking them into individual tasks, and prioritize them. Then arrange strings of small tasks into sprints. The idea is to plan a set amount of productivity into a specific period of time, and get as close as possible to meeting your sprint goals by the deadline.  

As an example, “Executive Director” is the recruitment project; sourcing, feedback, and retargeting are the tasks of the first week-long sprint. Sprint two might be: outreach, initial screening, and feedback.  

Schedule Standups 

Both of the above examples include feedback as a task. This is because communication is the backbone of agile project management, and the reason it allows for faster iteration.  

Standups are daily standing meetings (although they have shifted to virtual groups since COVID) that are short and rapid-fire. You go around the group and lay out your priorities, roadblocks, and concerns one after the other; think a couple of sentences each. These standups keep communication flowing and keeps the group engaged, while only taking 10-15 minutes maximum out of the day.  

Retrospectives 

After every sprint, schedule a discussion with the team about what went wrong and how to avoid those complications in the future. This isn’t a meeting with finger-pointing or blaming - it’s a frank discussion of what could have made the sprint run more smoothly. Was it a miscommunication out of the gate? A less-than-communicative client? Was there a delay on one part of the sprint tasks that led to a delay further along down the line? Brainstorm how you can prevent these issues from occurring on the next project. 

Use the Right Tools 

Project management tools for agile abound, and more seem to be popping up weekly. Monday.com, Asana, Trello, and hundreds more all promise to make communication and collaboration among team members easier and more efficient, but not all of these will work for your team. It’s important to trial several options to find out what works best, and is budget-friendly, for managing your agile recruiting projects.  

Agile project management could be a golden ticket to productivity and efficiency among your recruiting team, but it doesn’t work for everyone. It takes a fair amount of trial and error to find the strategy that will take your recruiting game to the next level, but agile is as good a place as any to start. Take some time to implement some of these strategies among your team and see where it leads. If you’d like help auditing your existing recruiting strategy, contact us today! Best case scenario: your recruiting efforts become more efficient, and you find the quality talent you need more quickly. 

By Jessica Palmer