Last week, the Smartful team participated in HR EXPO, an event for HR enthusiasts. Our trainers – Helen Pärli, Reelika Jeferjev, Ly Kivikas, and Kristjan Kaskman – led inspiring workshops, sharing valuable insights on recruitment and employee development. Here, we highlight some key ideas that popped up from the discussions.

“How to design an effective recruitment process that brings the best results?”

In this workshop, Helen focused on designing a recruitment process that aligns with your company’s opportunities and needs, bringing in the best talent. If you want to improve your company’s recruitment, here are a few key takeaways:

• Map out your process from the perspectives of different stakeholders. This way, you will have a comprehensive picture and a better overview of the various steps involved in the process, including what is done or left undone.
• Break down the recruitment stages into detailed steps and analyze each one. Are there only necessary steps in your process? Are only competent team members involved?
• Continuously review the process. Identify the areas where you are performing well and the ones you should maintain, as well as steps that need improvement or are missing altogether. Continuous process development is essential because the market, technology, and mutual expectations are constantly changing.

“How to support employee development through combining various development methods?”

Smartful trainers focused on supporting employee development by combining different methods. How can you ensure every employee gets the best support on their development journey? Here are some key ideas:

• Combine various development methods to effectively support employee growth. The main reason why different methods are not combined is the lack of a clear objective. Which change do you want to see as a result of supporting development? 
• Familiarize yourself with the available options by researching different methods. Often, the lack of knowledge about what methods are possible and which are suitable for specific development goals prevents the combination of different development methods.
• To achieve the best results, it is wise to involve various stakeholders. Consider also involving an external partner, such as a learning designer or an interim training manager, who can help map out objectives and choose the appropriate methods.
• Think the development process through. Instead of a one-time training session, a more cost-effective and efficient long-term approach is to move from a single training to a well-thought-out development process – such as identifying development needs, providing initial theoretical knowledge through training, combining coaching to unlock potential, and offering mentoring for less experienced team members. Additionally, you can use various internal company methods; in some situations, for example, job shadowing might be more effective than training.

We are here to help companies continuously improve their recruitment and development processes. If you’d like to discuss recruitment or employee development, feel free to reach out to us at info@smartful.ee!

Photo: Pilleriin Kivisikk