A Great Resource for HR | #hrmanagement #hrexecutive

It doesn’t matter what type of company you run or your line of work. Whether you’re in the car dealership business, construction, food processing, education, governance, or even telehealth industries, you may want to share information about specific areas in the corporate culture, values, processes, updates, and more. The process can feel like a minefield for recruiters if they do not have the appropriate skills and reference points to facilitate interviewing and onboarding. 

According to research by Glassdoor, the average interview process takes approximately 23.8 days in the U.S. This process can be smooth or hectic depending on what the recruiter knows and the availability of a reference platform to sharpen their practice. This is where an internal wiki comes in. An internal wiki is an excellent knowledge base to keep recruiters on top of their game. 

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

What is an Internal Wiki for Recruiters?

An internal wiki is a repository of information within an organization. It allows different types of employees to collaborate on a single platform, designed for a smooth flow of relevant information. Users can access, share information or update the existing one to keep the knowledge base up to date. As a result, internal wikis make work easier and enable organizational improvements. For recruiters, access to a comprehensive internal wiki has many benefits.

How Internal Wikis Help Recruiters

You can set up internal wikis on the office computer or via a centralized cloud service, such as Slack, Trello, or Asana, and make it accessible to relevant users, in this case, recruiters. Let’s discuss in detail how internal wikis benefit recruiters.

1. Provide Greater Transparency

According to international data corporation (IDP) research, failure to share information costs the Fortune 500 $31.5 billion annually. It’s even worse when recruiters do not have enough information to facilitate the recruitment process and maintain a certain quality of hires.

Miscommunications are less likely when recruiters share the same information within a centralized system and carry out the process in the same manner. This also promotes transparency within the organization, leading to fewer disagreements and quicker resolutions.

2. Provide Faster Answers to Common Questions

Internal wikis are an excellent resource for answering specific questions, such as when an applicant asks about the company’s culture and job expectations. It’s like the company’s “Google.” Having particular answers will help a recruiter locate and provide accurate answers at all times.

An excellent internal wiki system should support all kinds of media, including documents, presentations, videos, and audio files, which recruiters can use to get answers to unique questions.

3. Create and Store Custom Interview Questions

Recruiters can use internal wikis to create custom interview templates based on common questions and scenarios. For instance, creating custom questions for specific roles ensures every candidate gets the same question, preventing bias.

Customized templates also ensure accurate information is used and shared during recruitment. Recruiters may be allowed to edit the questions and answers, but editing access should be limited to only senior recruiters to ensure quality entries. 

However, remember that a sound knowledge base system allows the contributions of everyone. This way, every recruiter will have a sense of participation, which improves job satisfaction and keeps them at the top of their game. 

4. A Central Source For Companies’ Culture

Internal wikis help break down the company’s culture, especially for new hires. Recruiters can quickly and easily create your cultural guides using these templates and share them with recruits undergoing onboarding. This ensures that new hires are exposed to the culture even before they start working, preventing culture shock and improving beginner experiences. 

Internal wikis are also helpful for sharing company culture guides with other departments. For example, you may want to share best practices for onboarding new hires with HR or Finance.

5. Save Time

No one likes a prolonged recruitment process. One thing that can make a process long and hectic is the lack of information and systems. An internal knowledge base for recruiters keeps them prepared at all times and facilitates a streamlined process. This is not possible when each recruiter has to figure it out for themselves.

 Internal wikis can save time by providing everyone on the team with the same information at the same time. By accessing adequate company information, a recruiter will always have the company’s expectations at their fingertips, thus saving time.

How to Create an Internal Wiki for Recruiters

You can create an internal wiki in a few simple steps.

• Step 1:Select the best internal software for your company and generate information for the wiki. You can get contributions from existing recruiters and other online resources.
• Step 2: Create and link related pages to let recruiters navigate easily through the wikis.
• Step 3: Include a search button to enable recruiters to search topics by relevance. This saves time.
• Step 4: Configure the access rights for your team members and create an appealing welcome page.

Then, you can bring your team on board by giving them access to the system. Remember, the internal wikis will require frequent updates to keep all information accurate and up to date based on the organizational changes.

Summary

With the help of internal wikis, recruiters will have a great resource to facilitate their recruitment processes. With the available information, recruiters will be able to concentrate on identifying unique talent rather than collecting tons of information for interviewing purposes. Just ensure your internal wikis are comprehensive and up to date all the time. All in all, remember to involve the recruiters in identifying areas of improvement.