Hiring and Recruiting Checklist Every Defense Recruiter Needs on Their Desk

Hiring and recruiting in the defense industry requires strategy in today’s competitive market. And a great staffing strategy means you’re organized. So, whether you are a seasoned recruiter ensuring consistency across your requisitions, or if you are a greener recruiter looking to make sure you’re checking all the blocks, you need some key reminders and strategies at your fingertips.

Recruiting Checklist for the Defense Recruiter

Here is a recruiting checklist that every defense recruiter needs on their desk:

⬜ Put a hiring plan in place and schedule a strategy call.

• Set up a planning meeting with the hiring manager and anyone else who may be involved in recruiting to review the job opening, the specific hiring process and obtain input and agreement before moving forward. Ask yourselves these questions: What sources will be used? Any special certifications required not listed in the PWS? Who will do the screening? Are there extra conversations needed before submittal to the government? What channels for interviewing (in-person or video) are preferred? Clearance level? Start date? Other keywords to help you in your search

⬜ Identify your main sourcing channels, which recruiter is taking lead, which is assisting and how often you will send status updates to the team. Just like real estate, rely on your fellow recruiters to see if they have a candidate in mind that can fit the billet.

• Is there a niche industry associated? Are there membership organizations you need to tap into for help? Do you have the budget to use a staffing agency? Does your organization have partnerships with professional, diversity and educational organizations to reach diverse audiences with these specialized skills? What other sources are a part of your toolkit (like an employee referral program, social recruiting, ClearanceJobs, etc.)?

⬜ Create and publish your job description.

• Ensure that this is OFCCP compliant and published to all of your recruiting platforms and job boards through an RSS feed. Creating effective postings to attract the best talent is an art and a science – here are a few things NOT to say.

⬜ A post and sit mentality is no longer ok. You need to post, actively promote and source candidates for your opening these days. Download our recruitment marketing guide, but here are a few tasks to put on your calendar:

• Send to your marketing / social media teams so they can post the opening on your corporate social media accounts.
• Post opening on ClearanceJobs.com if you do not have an activated scraper.
• Share on your personal recruiter social media accounts.
• Send to your employees announcing the opening and the company referral bonus policy.
• Post to any social media niche groups that are applicable.
• Reach out to your network announcing the openings and any referral fees your company pays.
• Automate any marketing communications to your listerv (if you manage those types of databases) about the openings.
• When sourcing candidates, put in a few of the minimum requirements to weed out those not interested (location, start date, clearance level etc.

⬜ Now that you’ve posted and promoted your open cleared job, hopefully you have a large, strong pool of candidates to screen and submit to the customer.

• Set up times for the initial phone screen.
• Ask about the hard requirement questions first to ensure you don’t waste your precious recruiting time and ask if candidates are comfortable sharing their social so you can verify their clearance right away.
• Anyone meeting all of the minimum requirements and within the salary range should be sent to your hiring manager right away for initial approval.
• Seriously, follow up. Recruiters hate getting ghosted, so don’t do that to candidates. Let top candidates know that your organization is interested in bringing them in for an in-person interview with a task lead or program manager, or inform them that you are sending them to the prime contractor or government customer for review. Don’t forget the job seekers you’re rejecting, too.
• Communicate with your cleared candidates post-interview – keep candidates engaged and informed even if you have not heard back from the customer yet. Government approval can take time, and you don’t want those candidates to move on.

⬜ Approval from customer! Congrats! Or not approved [go to previous step]

• Next you will want to land on a final compensation package, discuss the negotiation process with your hiring manager (and accounting team if needed) and confirm with the candidate before drafting a final offer.

⬜ Send offer and communicate, communicate, communicate.

• Some candidates may be leveraging your offer, so give them a deadline so your recruiting team is not left hanging. PRO TIP: do not reject other qualified candidates just yet, because your top choice could back out (and probably will). You’ll need others in the hopper, so keep those candidates warm.

⬜ Offer signed, start date determined, and indoc date set. You will want to continue to be a part of the communication process as HR and Security takes over. If you’re a veteran cleared recruiter, you’ve most certainly had someone flake on their first day of work or continue to call and ask you questions until far after they join the company. Expect to still get those calls.

• Now is the time that I would let any other qualified candidates know that you went in another direction – tell them they were a close second and you have other roles down the pipeline that they would be a perfect fit for! Add them to your pipeline list.

⬜ Celebrate 🎉 and let the team know you nailed it.

THE CLEARED RECRUITING CHRONICLES: YOUR WEEKLY DoD RECRUITING TIPS TO OUT COMPETE THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFER.