With the U.S. unemployment rate the lowest it has been this century, implementing creative recruitment strategies to attract the best and most qualified talent is imperative. As the labor market becomes more competitive in every industry, talent acquisition and HR professionals need to update their recruitment processes accordingly.
With so many jobs for candidates to choose from, it is essential that companies looking to recruit top talent go to lengths to stand out and capture their attention. There are dozens of tactics that internal recruiters, hiring managers and HR professionals can leverage to increase their talent pool for open positions—the more creative and unique your team can be, the better—but here are five strategies that have been proven to work.
Five creative recruitment strategies for your next hire:
1. Meet Employees in a Relaxed Setting
After initial interviews, no one wants to meet their potential new colleagues in the middle of a workday. Instead, arrange a time and place away from the office where potential hires can get to know your team.
If you have a great company culture, your employees could be all you need to sell the position to potential candidates. If everyone gets along and are committed to creating a supportive environment that encourages growth, your new candidate will be able to dive right in at the deep end. If you sense that a candidate is having reservations, take this opportunity to address them before wasting time and money recruiting a candidate who may leave within six months.
2) Be Proactive and Reach Out to Dream Candidates
You probably have a list of potential candidates you would love to hire. The only problem is they may already work for a rival company. For some companies, this means they never really get the talent they want. Take the leap and utilize networking sites like LinkedIn to reach out directly and start up a conversation.
Reaching out to passive candidates, either yourself or through a recruitment agency, will show just how willing you are to have them as part of your team. This kind of engagement can be incredibly effective and could open the door to a discussion about joining your team.
3. Go to Industry Events
Forget about job fairs; decent candidates probably don’t need to attend them to find their next role. Industry events, on the other hand, can be a great way to meet hungry and aspirational candidates and spread the word about your company.
If you need to make a particular hire, say for a marketing manager role, look out for nearby marketing events to attend and network with the attendees. These events are the perfect scenario to talk to people, with a specific industry or role in mind, and make them aware of opportunities.
4. Advertise Where Your Ideal Candidates Are
You may not be able to afford an expensive billboard ad on the highway or in your local shopping mall, but utilizing online advertising services such as Google Ads, AdRoll, Facebook and LinkedIn is an affordable alternative. For example, if you are looking to hire people who are interested in a particular piece of software or niche, purchase ads that will appear when they search on Google for keywords related to these areas.
Online forums and communities on sites like LinkedIn and Indeed are also excellent places to advertise openings in your company to a pool of interested candidates.
5. Change the Way you Communicate
Phone interviews might be perceived as old school by some candidates. If you want to show you are a forward-thinking company and make candidates excited to come and work for you, trade calls for video conferences.
Conducting the initial stages through video will show your company is on top of the latest technology, making candidates more engaged. A face to face conversation (even virtually) can also help to speed up recruitment.
These helpful recruitment strategies are tactics to improve the way you find top talent, but you might not always have the time or resources to conduct these searches. Working with a recruitment firm like Sparks Group is another simple way to increase the quality of candidates while saving time and effort.
At Sparks Group, a national staffing and recruiting firm, we understand that people power your business. Our staff of experienced recruiters partner with internal HR teams to find and recruit the very best talent that aligns with your business vision and goals.
Connect with a staffing and recruiting expert to find top talent in your industry and hire talent 3x faster than the national average.
Sources:
1. http://fortune.com/2018/05/04/unemployment-rate-century-low-percent/
