In the second phase of the Employee Life Cycle, the focus is recruiting. Attracting applicants is mainly passive, whereas recruiting is more active. Most companies have dedicated or outsourced recruitment, but some don’t, and everyone helps with recruiting. Depending on your budget, you may be able to afford lots of advertising, or you might want to take a less expensive, more organic approach. In this blog, I’ll list out some traditional methods and then dive into ten more ways to recruit potential new employees.
Traditional Recruiting Methods:
As in the previous blog in this series, the following list includes the most common types of activities used to recruit potential job candidates. Many of these have hard costs, but some don’t require any money; instead, they rely on internal resources to spread the word. I won’t dig into any details on these, but be aware of the methods your company uses for recruiting:
- Post Job Online (job sites, social media channels)
- Advertise in conventional media formats (newspapers, magazines, posters, signs, etc.)
- Attend Career Fairs
- Sponsor booths at trade shows or other conferences
- Spread by word-of-mouth
- Ask for employee referrals (with no incentive)
- Open opportunities internally first
Other Recruiting Approaches:
In addition to the traditional recruiting methods, there are many other things you can do to actively locate people who might be ideal for your open positions. Like the previous list, some do have a monetary cost, but many are low- or no-cost. The key with recruiting is to use every available resource at your disposal and to be creative about how you do it:
Offer a referral incentive to your employees
If you request referrals from your employees, but you don’t give them any reward, then what’s in it for them? Why would they go out of their way to help you find people to hire? Try offering a referral bonus incentive. The amount can vary by role or be contingent on whether the referred employee stays at least 90 days, but considering the other costs of recruiting, this is relatively inexpensive. Not only that, but referrals from your employees are more likely to be quality, skilled candidates; they’re known entities. In my experience, you find the best new employees through referrals.
Grow and leverage your LinkedIn Network
If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, you don’t exist in the professional world. So, assuming that you have a LinkedIn profile, you should leverage it as much as possible – whether your job is as a recruiter or an employee helping to recruit. I have spent many years building out my network, and I have over 1,500 followers; I have no idea how many direct connections I’ve made. If you want to make the most out of LinkedIn, you can upgrade your account. There are different account types based on your goals. If your primary goal is recruiting, and you upgrade, you have special privileges that other users don’t. I’m not entirely sure about the details (because I’m not a recruiter), but you can check it out on LinkedIn’s website.
Stop using robots to find candidates – look at submissions
Many organizations rely on bots to perform optical character recognition, and scan submitted resumes to look for keywords. While this is cool and probably a huge time-saver, it doesn’t do what human beings can do. People can read between the lines, draw conclusions, connect the dots, and infer things that computer AIs are not capable of (to my knowledge). This technology also dramatically dehumanizes the process of hiring. Who wants to be treated like a number instead of a human being? Not me. I would prefer that an actual person look at my resume and make a personal judgment call on whether I am a potentially good candidate. So, use these tools if you must, but remember that people best perform some tasks.
Use social media for a two-way dialogue with candidates
Most companies post their job openings on social media and forget about it. Doing this defeats the point of a “social” media channel. If no one is actively monitoring and engaging on these channels, you risk losing potential candidates because you didn’t respond to them in a timely fashion, or maybe not at all. Use this medium as a two-way communication tool to learn more about potential candidates and for them to learn about your organization. It does take time to do this work, but it can reap the rewards.
Pay for sponsored jobs for more visibility
If you blast a job posting out to a whole bunch of job sites but don’t pay extra to sponsor them, they might quickly fall to the bottom of the search results list. It’s unfortunate (because you pay for the basic service), but it’s often true. If there are specific jobs that you urgently want to hire for, it might be worth it to pay the extra cash to bring your job posting higher up or even to the top of the search results list. It would be best to experiment with this to see how much effective sponsoring job postings is versus not. It may be a good investment if it makes financial sense or gets you candidates more quickly.
Ask your employees to do outreach to their networks
You’re not the only one with a network. Ask your employees to do their part and share company hiring messages. It’s not a hard thing to do – the employer has done most of the work – all you’re asking your employees to do is hit the “Share” button and maybe include a comment or two. Depending on how many people you employ, the multiplication factor of sharing can get your job posting far-reaching exposure. You wouldn’t be able to get your message to that many people on your own. So, leverage your employees. If they like your company and are happy with their jobs, they should be willing to help grow the company.
Minimize auto-responder messages – establish a human connection
Like not relying solely on AI to scan resume submissions, auto-responder messages are impersonal. When they receive a canned letter, people are keenly aware that no human being was involved in the process. I know it’s a lot to ask, and it seems to reduce efficiency, but if you’re serious about bringing someone in for the next steps in your hiring process, a form letter won’t do. Respond personally and with genuine interest. People will be able to feel the difference.
Respond quickly to candidates
If you have reached out to a candidate and they respond, you should reply as soon as possible. Speed is of the essence in today’s hiring market, so don’t delay getting back to someone. By personally responding quickly, you’re showing genuine interest in the candidate, and you’re more likely to keep that person in the process. I know that I have responded to recruiters who were trying to interest me, and if they didn’t respond for days, I knew it wasn’t worth my further consideration. In that case, I felt like part of a mass “cold-calling” type of outreach for candidates.
Reconnect with previous employees
You’d be surprised how hitting up former employees can reap the rewards. You may discover that someone wants to come back to your company (boomerang, baby) or they know someone looking to make a move. Keeping up with former colleagues is a great way to tap unknown information about potential candidates. It also keeps your company top-of-mind should your previous colleague be interested in coming back.
Tell your company’s story
When you’re recruiting someone to join your company, you need to tell a compelling (selling) story that entices the person to take a leap of faith. By sharing your personal experiences that testify to how amazing your company is: its culture, the services it provides, the opportunities for growth, the strong and supportive leadership – these are selling points that will tip the candidate in your favor. If the person is already comfortable in their position, happy, and well-paid, your story needs to stand out. Be genuine when you share your experiences and it will resonate with the candidate.
Final Thoughts
Recruiting is a challenging business, especially in the current employment landscape. Fully use your network – this is where you will get the highest quality candidates. Focus on referrals first – these are generally your best potential employees because they come from people who have worked with them before. Try to connect with people as fellow humans, rather than impersonal resources – people appreciate it and respond in kind.
If you missed the first two blogs in the series, you can check them out now:
What are your thoughts on this topic? Are there any cool or unique recruiting methods or techniques you have used that were effective? If so, what were they? Let me know in the comments below!