What is Full Life Cycle Recruiting and How Does It Benefit SMBs?

Quick look: Many businesses outsource at least part of their talent acquisition efforts, but this process can become messy and inefficient when multiple vendors and stakeholders are involved. Full life cycle recruiting, which can be provided by a PEO, can solve this issue by increasing accountability, streamlining hiring processes, improving the candidate experience, time-to-fill rates, and more.

Recruiting can be difficult for smaller businesses, especially when rivaling with larger companies for the same talent pool. Often, small employers must think outside the box to compete effectively for top recruits.

Many small businesses today outsource parts of their recruiting process to help attract and hire the best talent. The global recruitment industry is booming and is expected to reach a value of nearly $20 billion by 2028. And while outsourcing can be a great solution, it can sometimes cause issues when not properly executed. This is especially true if various parts of the recruiting process are outsourced to different vendors or individuals. Instead, business leaders and HR managers should focus on full life cycle recruiting offered from one vendor or partner.

What is full life cycle recruiting?

Full life cycle recruiting, also known as full cycle recruiting, is when the entire recruiting process—from creating job descriptions and sourcing candidates to assisting with onboarding—is conducted by one person or vendor. Moving to this recruiting model can be extremely valuable to small business leaders.

Full life cycle recruiting includes the following six stages:

• Preparation
• Sourcing
• Screening
• Selecting
• Hiring
• Onboarding

The full life cycle recruiting approach to talent acquisition has numerous benefits and advantages for small businesses, including:

1. Increased accountability

The recruiting cycle is a long, multi-tiered process, and confusion often arises when various parts of the recruiting and hiring process are handled by different people. Even larger organizations that do almost all their recruiting in-house can run into issues because so many people are involved in filling a position.

Small businesses can benefit from full life cycle recruiting because it puts one person or vendor in charge of the entire process. This eliminates the uncertainty over who owns which part of the process and the need to wait for others to move forward with hiring for a position. It also allows for a clear strategy from start to finish.

2. A streamlined hiring process

Another benefit of a full cycle recruiting model is that it allows for a more streamlined strategy. Recruiters can have a greater sense of control throughout the entire process as they are in charge and hands-on during each step of the recruiting and hiring cycle.

Full life cycle recruiting also means that a recruiter can move at their own pace with each role they are filling. And when a recruiter is given more flexibility with their open positions, it increases the likelihood of faster and more qualified hires.

3. Improved candidate experience

Improving candidate experience is a top priority for recruiters at most companies. Not only does it make recruiting easier and improve employer branding, but it can lead to future business growth and success.

Full cycle recruiting gives job seekers a single point of contact throughout the recruiting and hiring process. Communication is often cited as one of the major detractors of candidate experience, with many candidates falling into the recruiting “black hole” and never hearing from their recruiter. Small businesses can eliminate this major recruiting issue and significantly enhance their candidate experience by moving to a full life cycle model.

4. Decreased time-to-fill

The previous three benefits of full life cycle recruiting lead to better recruiting results. One of those outcomes is a decrease in a very important HR metric: time-to-fill. It can cost a company thousands of dollars per unfilled position, so decreasing time-to-fill is a must, especially for small businesses that may have more limited budgets.

Full cycle recruiting allows for increased visibility of job postings, leading to more applicants. In addition, compelling job ads coupled with creative and specific job descriptions help organizations attract candidates who are qualified for the position. This helps decrease time-to-fill and can save organizations a considerable amount of money.

5. Increased quality-of-hire

In addition to time-to-fill, quality-of-hire is another important recruiting metric. Finding qualified candidates for positions is one of the biggest challenges recruiting teams face, and small businesses face even steeper challenges in finding the perfect candidate for an open requisition.

However, with one person overseeing the entire process from start to finish, full cycle recruiting allows for a more personalized and thorough process that helps to identify high-quality candidates. And as quality-of-hire increases, so does business growth and success.

6. Greater recruiting and business results

Full life cycle recruiting is a great approach for companies looking to revamp and improve their recruiting strategy. Improving candidate experience, decreasing time-to-fill, and increasing quality-of-hire all lead to successful recruitment efforts.

As talent acquisition becomes more successful and powerful, small employers are better equipped to compete with larger organizations for top talent and business.

How can you benefit from full life cycle recruiting?

Many small businesses look to outsourcing to help recruit talent. It can be a great business decision that leads to better recruiting results. However, not having a full life cycle recruiting strategy in place can cause you to miss out on the true potential of your hiring process. With a continually competitive war for top talent, having the best possible recruiting strategy and process is imperative.

Luckily, professional employer organizations (PEO) can help. For example, ExtensisHR, a nationally recognized PEO, offers the following comprehensive recruiting services, included at no extra cost within its PEO solution:

• Full-cycle recruiting for most corporate-level positions
• 30-minute phone consultations with a dedicated recruiting specialist
• Job advertisement samples, guidance, and creation
• Salary surveys
• Skills assessments
• Interview assistance
• Talent pool analytics
• Offer letter consultations
• And more

Consolidating your company’s recruiting efforts and relying on one trusted and proven partner can help you hire the best and grow your business. Contact the experts at ExtensisHR to learn more.