There will come a time in every business when the need to recruit will arise. For this reason, all types of companies need a recruitment process. Hiring procedures can be daunting, whether the first or one-hundredth time. Increasingly more workers are looking for job changes, so the more prepared a company is to hire, the more likely they will be able to build their ideal team.
A business wants its job openings to stand out against the competition. As the business world has changed, especially in the years following the pandemic, so has the hiring process. Hiring has become more about the candidate's experience. In this article, we will look at the elements of a successful recruiting strategy, the success of the hiring process, and unique and creative recruitment strategies.
Elements of a Successful Recruitment Strategy
There are many strategies to attract top talent to your business, and five are essential to a successful recruitment strategy. The five elements of a successful recruitment strategy are establishing a clear brand, creating job posts, social media, an applicant tracking system, and an interview process.
Clear Brand
Your employer brand plays an essential role in recruitment. It is what can set you apart from competing companies and attract candidates. It can show candidates why they should work for you over another company. An employer brand should reflect a business's mission, culture, and values. You can look at how your business's brand might look to potential candidates by going to an "about" page on your website and analyzing your social media and advertising. You must ensure these elements align with your business's overall brand.
Creating Job Postings
Your job postings are often the first impression a candidate has of your company. It is vital to be conscious of this when listing job postings. You want to ensure your company comes across as organized and professional while still displaying the business's brand. Make sure your job postings are concise, relevant, transparent about salary and requirements, and written in a way that appeals to job seekers.
Having your job postings reflect your brand can be as simple as making your job posting funny, sleek, or whimsical, depending on your company. It will also help you attract candidates who fit your company culture. Along with making the tone of your posting match your company's brand, you can also include your brand's colors, logo, and fronts.
Social Media
Using social media platforms as a recruitment strategy has changed over the past decade as social media have also experienced significant growth and change. You can use social media to find a qualified talent pool, advertise job postings, and communicate with potential candidates.
To successfully use social media as a recruitment strategy, you must ensure that your social media presence reflects your company culture and brand.
Applicant Tracking System
Using an applicant tracking system (ATS) can save your company money and time. An ATS is a software that automates posting jobs and finding qualified candidates. It can look like a one-click job post to various sites, applicant sorting, and scheduling interviews. Many different options are available for applicant tracking systems, depending on what is best for your company's size and budget.
Interview Process
Interviews are an essential part of the recruitment process. It is good to keep in mind that interviewing is two-sided. Yes, you are interviewing your candidate, but they are also interviewing you to determine if your company is the right fit for them. Interviews can be done remotely or in person.
You can also be creative with the interview process. You can hold a group interview if you know your potential employees will work in a group. You can also incorporate your company's culture in the process. When you personalize the interview process to your business, you can find a candidate with the right skills and fit.
Additional Recruitment Strategies
Along with having a clear brand, creating job postings, using social media, investing in an applicant tracking system, and the interview process, there are other strategies to use when recruiting.
Niche Job Boards
Some jobs are more niche than others, and it can be challenging to find talent. Instead of looking at big job market websites, try posting on niche job boards. Smaller job boards and websites are made for specific industries and will have a community of job seekers and recruiters. When you utilize niche job boards, you can find and attract potential candidates you may not have found elsewhere.
College Recruitment
A great place to look for new talent is on college campuses. Recruiting at a college campus can bring in a new talent pool and provide your company with internship hiring opportunities while forming connections with the college. College recruitment strategies can include attending career fairs, job fairs, speaking engagements, or being on campus job boards.
Passive Candidates
Passive candidates are qualified candidates who are current employees for other companies and are not actively looking for a job. Recruitment strategies to attract passive candidates can involve personally reaching out to candidates. When you contact talented candidates, you show them you are personally interested in their talent. Doing so will create a connection and might get them thinking about a job change. A great way to make these connections can be through social media. Making job announcements on social media can attract the attention of those job seekers who may be currently employed but would be willing to change positions if they are presented with the right situation.
Employee Referral Program
Another great recruiting strategy is to start an employee referral program. It is a hiring strategy that encourages current employees to refer interested candidates for open positions. This recruiting tool typically offers rewards to employees as a way to encourage them to refer the best talent. These rewards can look like gift cards, bonuses, or a point system.
Employee referral programs are an excellent way for your workers to refer quality candidates and can also be a way to acquire more diverse talent. Employee referrals can bring in the best candidates because they have personal connections with your trusted workers. Your existing employees know what type of candidate you are looking for more so than other sources. Employees from an employee referral tend to be better hires from the start. It can result in lower turnover rates, reduced recruiting costs, faster time to hire, and many other benefits.
Prioritize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
You can start promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace from the start of your recruiting process. Doing this will increase the diversity of candidates and help eliminate biases during the hiring process. When diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the forefront of the hiring manager's priorities, it will start employees off on the right foot and create a positive experience. It will also let other candidates know that your company prioritizes people-first culture.
Creating Recruitment Videos
Recruitment videos are a great way to display your company's mission, values, and culture. When creating a recruitment video, it is important to include only the most essential information and highlights your company's values and mission. You could also answer common questions for candidates and feature current employees to represent your company. At the end of the video, you can encourage future employees to apply for job openings.
Past Employees
One recruiting strategy that is not often thought of is to reach out to past employees. Every company has former employees that left on good terms and took a new job in a new role. These employees will have gained new skills and experiences that could benefit your company.
Hiring former employees can also benefit your company during the onboarding process. New employees need to be trained, and there is a learning curve, whereas a former employee is more familiar with your company and processes.
Past Candidates
Sometimes you are only able to hire some of the quality candidates that apply to your positions. An excellent hiring strategy is looking at past candidates you didn't hire the first time to see if they fit your current job opening.
One benefit is the applicants are interested in your company and familiar with your organization. Candidates have probably continued to grow and develop new skills since they last applied.
Data and Metrics
Along with all the other strategies, it is good to keep in mind the use of objective measures for recruitment efforts. When you use objective measures that include data and recruitment metrics, you can determine what is working and what is not. You can select the areas of improvement. Using metrics can also take out the guesswork when troubleshooting the hiring process.
The Success of the Hiring Process
How do you measure the success of your recruitment process? You can calculate your success by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs.) These are a way to quantify the success of your recruitment strategies by identifying strengths and weaknesses. KPIs can include the number of qualified candidates who apply, the time it takes to hire, how many applications are submitted, how many are interviewed, how many offers are made from interviews, and how many offers are accepted.
Using KPIs makes it easy to see if you are using effective recruitment strategies by giving you an actual number that is easy to understand. A recruiting team can take that information and improve where needed.
Along with using KPIs, you can set recruitment goals. You can make goals around specific positions that need to be filled or your hiring team's resources. It is essential to establish a timeframe for goals to be met.
Unique or Creative Recruitment Strategies
Suppose you are doing all of the above strategies and still need more success; you might need to get creative with your recruitment strategies. This could look like hosting an event, looking at resumes online, or updating your company's career page on your website.
Host a Meetup
One unique recruitment strategy is to host an industry-related meetup. It allows hiring managers to make personal connections with top talent. This is something online job boards and career pages cannot provide. These events bring in job seekers who want to advance within a given industry. It can also improve employee satisfaction by connecting your workforce with others in the industry.
Career Page
A social media presence and posting on job boards are great recruiting strategies, but focusing on the career page of your company's website can also be effective. If job seekers are interested in your company, they will check out your website and expect to see a "careers" page. You can have open roles listed, share content, and provide information on the company's culture, benefits, and values.
Along with open roles, you can answer common questions of candidates. Most companies will receive similar questions from prospective employees, so it would be easier to post them on your website to answer candidates' questions before applying.
Answering inquiries such as when they can hear back after an interview and specifics about certain roles and benefits can let the candidates know before applying what to expect.
Source For Potential Openings
Recruitment is often thought of when a job opening needs to be filled. However, recruiters can be proactive with their recruiting efforts and get ahead on finding talent for the roles they will need to hire for soon. Having a proactive recruiting strategy can begin by building a persona.
Having a proactive hiring process means that the hiring team has a plan and goals all year long, not just when they have open positions. This kind of strategy gives the company leaders insight into when hires need to be made throughout the year to progress toward company goals. When you know which teams and departments need to grow, you can determine the level and skills required for those positions. When the need arises, you will already have candidates ready to review and potentially hire.
Outreach Messages
Having a large talent pool of qualified candidates also includes engaging with prospective employees. This can be achieved by using outreach messages. It can be viewed as providing customer service for potential candidates. You want your message to target the candidate's goals rather than the company's. This can differ from other hiring strategies by making candidates the priority. When communicating with them, the subject line should stand out so your message will be opened and they will respond. Make personal messages by including relevant information about the candidate, then provide a brief outline of your role and organization. Finally, explain how they could contribute to your team.
You need to know your audience to write a strong outreach message. To increase responses, focus on things that matter to the candidates. Enough information should be given to spark their interest enough to respond, but you want to keep them manageable with details. You can even ask recent hires for feedback and critics.
In Summary
No company is exempt from having to hire, and a thoughtful recruiting process is critical for any hiring team. The recruitment procedure can contain various strategies, from focusing on the employer brand to having compelling job descriptions. These are different and effective strategies to attract top talent. Hiring great employees is much more than posting job descriptions on a job board; it takes creative planning and thinking to bring in the right members for your team to excel. If you’re looking for recruiting assistance, there are great teams of remote and contract employees out there. Talentcrowd can help you find and hire the best talent for your unique needs.
