How to hire the right person: A modern approach for enterprise talent acquisition

May 14, 2025

 

Alex Oliver

8 min read

Knowing how to hire the right person can make or break a business. It might sound dramatic, but let’s face it: The growth, cohesion and long-term success of a company depends on its employees.

Right now, many enterprise-level companies are struggling with recruitment. Faced with talent shortages, fierce competition and high candidate expectations, filling open roles at scale has become increasingly challenging.

The positive news? Technology can change all that. With AI, automation and cloud-based solutions here — and continuing to improve — talent acquisition leaders and their teams are turning frustration into fruitful hiring outcomes.

Use this guide to find, hire and retain the right candidates through practical advice, and explore how next-generation solutions, like iCIMS Hire, can transform your recruitment processes.

The challenges of hiring in large enterprise companies

For large enterprises, the stakes of recruitment have never been higher across sectors.

Top talent have no shortage of options to choose from, and the introduction of new digital solutions have profoundly changed the hiring landscape.

The rise of remote work means candidates no longer need to look for work in their own towns and cities. It’s a reality that presents both opportunities and challenges for recruiters — who no longer compete with just local competitors but agile startups, tech giants and global brands too.

To succeed, talent acquisition teams must be strategic and fast and put their candidates first. Embracing new technology, modern workflows and a clear understanding of how to hire for “best fit” can help achieve that.

How do we know who the right person is?

Before hiring the so-called “right people” for open roles, recruitment teams need to get crystal clear on what that actually means.

Talent acquisition leaders should consider these qualities when brainstorming about their ideal candidates:

• Alignment of skills and experience: Applicants whose résumés show a strong match to the role’s technical requirements tend to integrate faster and thrive at their new company.
• Values and company culture fit: Candidates who appear to best align with the company mandate and their team’s working style tend to have higher success and retention rates.
• Adaptability and potential for growth: For rapidly scaling businesses, candidates who show a flexible mindset and problem-solving abilities are well-suited to grow alongside the company and navigate industry shifts.

Key steps to hiring the right person

1. Create a detailed candidate profile

Recruitment is a smoother process when talent acquisition teams know exactly who they’re looking for.

Recruiters should begin by working to develop a detailed candidate profile that includes:

• Technical qualifications
• Role-specific experience
• Required education or certificates
• Soft skills
• Cultural fit indicators

While technical skills are easier to spot on CVs, identifying soft skills — like communication, adaptability and emotional intelligence — can be more elusive.

A structured approach, like using a talent assessment, combines behavioral questions, scenario-based evaluations and reference checks to illuminate these characteristics for better candidate insights.

2. Optimize candidate experience to match top performer preferences

The hiring process could make all of the difference when a top candidate is deciding whether to accept your job offer — or a competitor’s.

Job seekers in high demand will walk away quickly from processes they find frustrating or disrespectful of their time, feelings or personal worth.

Building lasting relationships with candidates matters. Here’s how to achieve that:

• Make it easy to apply: A simple, flexible application process improves odds of winning over top talent. Think mobile-friendly applications and multiple ways of applying, such as quick-apply options, video applications or direct outreach from recruiters.
• Follow up quickly with candidates: Prioritize clear and fast communication at every step of the hiring journey. Keep candidates in the loop, and let them know what to expect, rather than leaving them hanging after each interview.
• Limit the number of interviews: Following a long, multistage interview process leads to more dropouts. Panel interviews that need fewer separate conversations can improve the candidate experience while reducing time-to-hire.
• Improve your digital footprint: Candidates’ first impressions of a company will often be its online presence. Refine digital strategies to attract top talent with smart recruitment marketing, and optimize career sites for an enhanced candidate experience.

Each point of friction removed increases the likelihood that top talent will stick with your process, instead of opting for another company that makes things easier or acts faster.

3. Use structured interviews to reduce bias

Unconscious bias is one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to identifying the right candidate.

Enter structured interviews. Asking identical interview questions to all candidates and using scorecards with defined rubrics can help ensure the hiring team is assessing fairly, with the same standards for everyone.

To be most effective, a structured interview should include:

• Behavioral questions: Ask for examples from past workplaces and experiences.
• Situational questions: See how candidates might handle real-life scenarios.
• Technical questions: Assess if they have the right skills and role-based knowledge.

These standardized evaluations make it possible for recruiters to compare candidates using objective criteria, instead of leaning on intuition and personal rapport.

4. Leverage AI recruiting solutions and data-driven hiring decisions

Many companies are still relying on outdated hiring processes that eat up recruiters’ time and lead to missed chances with great candidates. But artificial intelligence (AI) could give talent acquisition teams a competitive advantage.

Adopting AI recruiting platforms and applicant tracking systems can improve hiring outcomes by:

• Analyzing candidate data to identify the strongest matches.
• Automating manual tasks, like screening résumés and scheduling interviews.
• Spotting hiring trends and improving forecasting.

Hiring solutions, like iCIMS AI, help recruiters maximize their efforts, reduce busy work and time-to-hire, and find high-potential candidates that risked being overlooked.

5. Build an internal mobility pipeline

The perfect person for the role might be already working down the hall.

Building a pipeline for internal mobility can improve morale, retention rates and ROI by encouraging staff to grow and thrive within the company. Talent acquisition leaders should consider adopting performance data and career pathing tools to identify employees ready for a new challenge.

Upskilling initiatives can be invaluable here. By pinpointing skill gaps between current and desired roles, you can develop training programs that set clear pathways for advancement, especially for hard-to-fill positions.

Exploring the benefits of recruiting from within the organization can reduce hiring costs and keep star employees — and their precious institutional knowledge — at your workplace.

Relatedly, leveraging employee referral programs is another way of benefiting from staff’s company tenure and personal networks.

Need help in accelerating this process? Consider looking toward iCIMS’ internal mobility software for a potential answer.

6. Track key recruitment metrics for continuous improvement

By using analytics, talent acquisition teams can refine their hiring practices based on real data to spot bottlenecks and improve processes — even if results are inconclusive at first. Because building a winning strategy takes time.

Start with these performance metrics to drive better decision-making:

• Time-to-fill
• Cost-per-hire
• Quality of hire
• Offer acceptance rates

Over time, talent acquisition leaders will gain the data to confidently refine recruiting strategies and prove ROI to leadership. Performance tracking helps identify what’s working versus what isn’t and create a feedback loop that only gets stronger as tracking continues.

Want to learn more? Visit the iCIMS glossary of recruitment metrics and find out what to track for improving your hiring outcomes.

7. Use enterprise-level hiring solutions

Unlike smaller businesses, enterprise companies face distinct challenges in recruitment that are often best overcome with specialized solutions.

Traditional recruiting methods are limited in their ability to scale, automate and outpace competitors to scoop up talent.

Enterprise-level hiring solutions, like iCIMS Hire, deliver the functionality necessary for large-scale recruitment efforts. These tools can:

• Centralize candidate management
• Automate time-consuming, manual tasks for recruiters and hiring managers
• Use AI to screen, match and prioritize top applicants
• Scale to support the demands of high-volume hiring
• Integrate with existing tech stack

Curious how iCIMS Hire could elevate your hiring strategy? Request a meeting to discuss and explore the AI-powered features that would most benefit your enterprise.

Final thoughts: The future of hiring in large enterprises

Looking ahead, it’s safe to say that AI and automation will continue to drive the future of talent acquisition. LinkedIn recently found that 37% of TA leaders are experimenting with AI or using it to hire.

For large enterprises, failing to evolve will mean falling behind. Staying competitive in this fast-paced job market will depend on a company’s willingness to embrace AI-inspired strategies and scalable, cloud-based hiring solutions.

Turning to enterprise-level recruitment solutions, such as iCIMS Hire, can help your company attract, evaluate and secure top talent with minimal effort — from right now into the future.

Time to modernize your hiring workflows? Book a demo to see firsthand how iCIMS Hire can improve talent acquisition strategies from start to finish.