What can a company do to make sure it is using the best recruiting method?

7. Expanding your reach on social media

Social media is one of the best ways to recruit employees today. From LinkedIn and Facebook to Instagram and Twitter, you can showcase your workplace culture and give candidates a glimpse of what it’s like to work for your company. 

Inspire candidates to apply using a cadence of posts or targeted ads. Social media is an excellent way to expand your reach quickly and inexpensively. 

8. Creating recruitment videos

Recruitment videos can be a powerful way to show off your company’s mission, values, and workplace culture. Tips for creating a high-quality employee recruitment video include:

• Limiting the video to include only the most critical information.
• Highlighting your values and mission. 
• Answering common questions from candidates.
• Featuring employees who represent your company.
• Ending the video with a call to action to encourage applicants.

Give this recruitment strategy a try – video can be a powerful vehicle for bolstering your company’s brand while recruiting top talent. 

9. Contacting qualified applicants from the past

The candidates you didn’t hire the first time around may deserve a second look for a new and different role at your company – especially in a tight labor market. Revisit resumes from past applicants to find potential talent that has already expressed interest in your company. 

In addition to being familiar with your organization, it’s likely that these candidates developed new skills since you last considered them. That’s why giving them a second look might be a great idea.

10. Reaching out to past employees

Indeed, you’ve got former employees you would not rehire – all companies do. But those who left your company on good terms may be suitable candidates for new roles. In their time working for someone else, they’ve gained new skills and experience that could benefit your company. 

There are other benefits too. According to research, it takes new employees three to six months to become fully productive. When you rehire a former employee, the onboarding process and the learning curve can be much shorter.

11. Targeting passive candidates

Passive candidates are individuals who are not actively seeking a new job. Still, they may be willing to make a career move if the right opportunity is presented. In fact, Indeed reports that 75% of employees say another employer has approached them about a new position.

Finding and engaging passive job seekers is a necessary tactic if you want to remain competitive, especially when the talent market is tight. Social media platforms, recruiting databases, and AI automation tools can help you find passive job seekers.  

12. Recruiting at colleges and universities

College recruiting continues to be an excellent way to find fresh talent for entry-level positions and internships. Undergraduates may also have new skills that more seasoned employees do not. 

There are many ways to reach these job seekers. Participate in campus recruiting events, feature open positions on online job boards, and contact career services at local colleges and universities.  

13. Hosting or attending industry-related meetups

Industry meetups offer a unique opportunity for making personal connections with potential candidates that no job posting website can provide. Hosting or attending these targeted events can be more effective than job fairs because they attract job seekers who want to advance within the industry. Tighten up the hiring process by going to the heart of the talent pool and bringing in applicants from there.

Hosting these events is also a great way to improve employee engagement by allowing your workforce to connect and network with other people in the industry.

14. Implementing an employee referral program

Nobody knows your organization better than your employees. Tap into this resource when new job postings become available. Encourage your workforce to refer quality candidates with a referral program that offers bonuses and incentives. This will:

• Expand your local applicant pool.
• Provide pre-screening for your hiring team.
• Increase employee investment in the hiring process.
• Improve overall team dynamics.

Incentivizing referrals can turn your entire workforce into a recruiting team, which means the talent pool you have access to is exponentially larger.

15. Improving the hiring process with data and metrics

There’s a significant human component to finding suitable hires, but don’t forget to use an objective measure of your recruitment efforts. Include data and hiring metrics to identify what’s working and where there are opportunities for improvement. 

Recruiting metrics are helpful to your search for top talent, including those that calculate the cost per hire. Take time to learn about these metrics so you can remove some of the guesswork when troubleshooting your hiring process.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for recruiting

A great way to measure the success of your hiring process is through the use of Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs. KPIs are methods of quantifying your recruiting efforts’ success and identifying both its strengths and its weaknesses. Some of the most significant recruitment KPIs that organizations are using today include:

• Time to hire
• Number of qualified candidates
• Submit to interview ratio
• Interview to offer ratio
• Offer acceptance rate

Using simple equations, recruitment KPIs will make your recruiting process tangible and easy to understand so that you can hone it into a well-oiled hire-finding machine.

Setting recruitment goals

Another way to clarify the recruitment process is to set specific goals following the ‘SMART’ framework, which stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. Some ways that you can set SMART goals for your recruiting process include:

• Determine the specific positions that need to be filled
• Incorporate relevant recruitment KPIs
• Ensure your hiring team has the necessary resources
• Set a timeframe for the goal to be accomplished

Using the SMART system, you can take a relatively nebulous process and transform it into something usable for all members of your hiring team. A well-constructed process is the difference between failing to find qualified candidates and finding the perfect fit for your organization.

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Where can you source the right candidates for your roles?

If you don’t already have the necessary talent for your new vacancy internally, you may decide to recruit externally.

With so many different external recruitment methods open to you to attract top talent, selecting the right one to provide you with the best candidates for your vacancy and for your business can be challenging.

In this article, we examine some of the most popular external methods in more detail, including their pros and cons on the overall recruitment strategy. Each has its own merit depending upon the type of vacancy you are hiring for, your business environment and the method’s appeal to the kind of candidates you’re looking for.

Not sure where to start? We've put together a checklist for you that tells you, step-by-step, what to do to find the right candidate for your business.

1. Company websites

Your company website can be a powerful recruitment tool that attracts prospective job candidates. As most candidates check out a prospective employer’s website before applying, including a dedicated vacancies section demonstrates that you’re a business looking to grow. The information that you provide on this page must make it easy for search engines to understand what your page is about, in order to direct the right traffic to your site.

You want to be able to tell jobseekers about your company and culture, as well as about the roles you are recruiting for, so the page needs to be captivating. It also needs to have social media follow buttons to further engage potential candidates, even if you don’t currently have a role to suit them. To create your own candidate database, you can encourage visitors to sign up for vacancy alerts, ensuring you never lose a great potential employee.

Pros:

• Minimal/no cost
• Many candidates prefer applying via company websites
• Showcases your company and brand

Cons:

• If your vacancies page isn’t easily searchable, candidates will never find your jobs
• Must be kept current
• Vacancies posted are not confidential

2. Employee referrals

Depending on the size of your business, you may decide to incentivize your workforce to make referrals when you’re hiring new staff. Your current employees know your business, so will know the types of candidates that will fit and make a positive contribution. Most won’t risk their reputation with you by recommending someone unsuitable for the role.

Employee referral schemes are common in many businesses where recruiters tap into the friends and connections of their current workforce to source new employees, knowing that they will essentially “screen” candidates before referring them.

Pros:

• Current employees know your business needs
• Can be time and cost effective
• Can increase employee engagement

Cons:

• Can limit the talent pool
• Can lead to cliques forming
• May have a negative impact on the referrer

3. Job boards

Job boards are websites that display job vacancies across a wide range of sectors, although you can choose specialist industry-specific job boards to target people with the specific qualifications and skills you need.

When you place an advert for your vacancy on a job board you are reaching thousands of active jobseekers. Some job boards offer applicant tracking systems for receiving and managing applications, others redirect interested candidates to your website to complete the application process.

Costs for advertising on job boards vary. There are some that do not charge the hiring company, but most do. Pricing structures usually include either a price per posting, monthly subscriptions, or a fee per online click to your company website.

Pros:

• Wide range of active jobseekers
• Can be cost effective
• Many have searchable CV databases

Cons:

• Can be time-consuming
• Applications from people who are not suitable
• No guarantees

4. Networking

Many professionals are using networking as a tool to identify their next career move, so using professional networks to source new employees can be effective. Whist people you are networking with may not necessarily be actively looking for a new role, your job opening may just interest them enough to make a move.

Most professional networks, whether face to face or online, are populated by industry or role-specific attendees, such as Directors, Small business (SME) and Freelancers, and members often bring opportunities for partnerships, projects and jobs to share with the network’s community.

Pros:

• People you meet may be able to help you source candidates
• Local networks lead you toward local candidates
• There’s high impact in face-to-face networking

Cons:

• Can be time-consuming
• You reach relatively few people
• You can become a target for unsuitable jobseekers

5. Job fairs

Usually, third-party organizations, such as Jobertising and JobFairsIn, as well as colleges or universities, organize job fairs to provide employers an opportunity to showcase their openings for new recruits. The size of a job fair can range from under twenty potential employers to many hundreds, depending upon the event and venue.

Job seeking attendees will normally come armed with multiple copies of their CV/résumé to hand in to exhibitors that interest them as potential employers. You may have the chance to have an informal chat with prospective candidates or, if you have the resources, you may be able to conduct interviews there and then.

Recently, there has been an increase in virtual job fair events, which tend to attract high-quality candidates, as organizers target invitations to specific potential candidate profiles.

Pros:

• Attendees are usually actively seeking a job
• Opportunity to informally meet prospective candidates
• Indirect marketing for your company and brand

Cons:

• Chances of missing out on the right candidates
• Competition is high
• Requires effort and time commitment

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6. On-campus college recruiting

Campus recruitment involves sourcing, evaluating, and hiring college and university students and/or recent graduates for early career internships or entry-level positions. Recruiters often work with college/university career services to meet in-person with students and recent graduates to discuss the career options for them in the recruiting company.

Many companies will provide work experience internships during the student’s course of study with a view to hiring the student on a permanent basis when they graduate. As entry-level positions are often the hardest to fill, a large talent pool, such as that provided by college/university career services, can be a real benefit to sectors where competition for new talent is fierce.

Pros:

• Allows you to connect with potential candidates early
• Enables you to source qualified candidates for entry-level positions
• Enhances your business name and brand in the job market

Cons:

• Candidates may use their first role as a stepping stone
• Recruits will require opportunities to develop their professional skills
• High competition from other recruiters

7. Print, radio and TV advertising

Placing job adverts in industry publications can be an excellent way to find lots of suitable applicants. These publications are often read by people already in your industry or are searched out by people looking to work in a specific industry or field.

Large organizations with many vacancies to fill often use radio and TV recruitment campaigns to attract applicants. They serve to showcase their organization as the employer of choice. If you don’t have the huge budgets that these larger employers have, local radio can be a cost-effective option to capture a local audience for your vacancies. Another alternative is producing an advertorial — an advertisement in the form of editorial content — for your local paper, focusing on your business and detailing openings for staff.

Pros:

• Can be industry targeted
• Wide audiences
• Can target your local area

Cons:

• Advertising can be very expensive
• Time consuming
• May receive large numbers of unsuitable applications

8. Social media

Using social media as a form of online recruitment to let people know you are hiring can tap into a pool of ideal candidates that may not be actively looking for a new job. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 9 out of 10 recruiters have turned to social media for at least some of their new workers. With jobseekers reviewing company social media pages to gain insight into what a company is actually like, social media has become one of the best recruitment methods.

Professional social media sites, such as LinkedIn or Xing, boast access to millions of members worldwide. Other sites, such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, can prove just as effective for targeting particular role specialisms, demographics and skillsets.

Pros:

• As many as 80% of jobseekers use social media
• You can reach passive jobseekers
• You can target your preferred demographic

Cons:

• Text-heavy posts won’t engage audiences on some platforms
• Content has a short lifespan
• Competition can be fierce

9. Recruitment agencies

Established recruitment agencies with a well-developed reputation can draw on their existing candidate base, as well as advertise for additional candidates, to help you connect with top-caliber jobseekers.

Many agencies specialize in a certain industry or recruit for specific sectors and may even be able to headhunt for your perfect candidate. So, to benefit from their specialist knowledge, choose your agency carefully to suit your business and roles. When using an agency, you should build a good working relationship with your consultant so that they know who the right person for your business will be.

Recruitment agencies can also tell you what the job market currently looks like, and provide information, such as salary expectations and availability of certain skills, which you can use to adjust your offer to attract the best candidates.

Pros:

• Faster process
• Sifting and shortlisting is done by the agency
• Only pay for successful hires

Cons:

• Can be expensive
• May miss candidates not registered with an agency
• Lack of in-depth knowledge of your business

10. Professional associations

An excellent source of highly skilled, professional candidates can be professional institutes and trade associations. Many professions require that those who qualify in the field register with the appropriate professional association, so you may be able to gain access to their membership directories to target potential employees.

Listing your professional roles with these associations and organizations can put you in touch with top talent. Many associations circulate newsletters and journals amongst their members and incorporate current vacancy sections in both. They also hold local and national meetings and events where hiring businesses can announce their openings.

Pros:

• Membership allows you access to directories
• Can target to specific professions
• Raises your business profile within specific professions

Cons:

• Can be time consuming
• May have to rely on an employee’s membership to gain access
• Association memberships can be expensive

Final thoughts

The recruitment process can be costly and time-consuming. You can maximize the return on your time and financial investment by choosing your external recruitment methods carefully. Take into account the type of roles you are recruiting for and think about which methods your ideal candidate might use.

All recruitment and selection methods have pros and cons. The trick is to keep up to date with all these methods in order to engage with your potential employees if you want to find the best candidates for your vacant role and for your business.

CareerHunter analyzes users’ interests, skills and personality, as well as their analytical, numerical and verbal reasoning. You’ll get detailed insights to help you decide if they’re the right candidate.

What methods did you find most successful when you were recruiting? Did you try something else that lead to great candidates? Comment your recommendations below!

This is an updated version of an article originally published on 24 June 2019.