Great Recruitment Strategies That Attract Top Talent

Attracting and retaining top talent is a challenge many businesses face today. If you want your brand to grow and succeed, you need to hire top talent. Your company’s strategies will depend on your size, location, industry, etc. However, certain elements, such as employer branding and making data-driven decisions, are core parts of any great recruitment strategy. 

Here are some of the best recruitment strategies that you can implement to attract top employees. 

  1. Work on your branding

According to LinkedIn, about 75% of candidates consider an employer’s brand before they apply for a job. So, creating a vision and mission for your brand that is relatable can go a long way in attracting prospective candidates. Start by identifying what makes your business or product different and what values underpin what you do. 

By promoting your brand’s values and culture, you can attract candidates who are the best fit. The way that you advocate for current employees and celebrate achievements and projects online can give prospective employees some insight into what it’s like to work for your company. 

Top candidates often look for companies that:

  • Offer good income and benefits.
  • Encourage a supportive and collaborative work environment. 
  • Emphasize a work/life balance and personal well-being. 
  • Give opportunities for growth.
  1. Develop a candidate persona

Defining your ideal candidate persona for a particular role can help your recruitment efforts be more focused and efficient. Consider the educational background, skills, professional qualifications, work experience, and personal characteristics that your ideal candidate would have. 

If you know exactly what you’re looking for, you can:

  • Target your advertising: Use the profile you’ve built to identify where your target audience is. Post your job listing and use any advertising spend in these locations.
  • Use marketing that attracts the right candidates: Ensure that your messaging appeals to your targeted talent pool.
  • Write clear job descriptions: Your job descriptions can precisely describe the type of candidate you want so fewer unqualified candidates will apply.

To develop your candidate persona, you can evaluate the career profiles of your current top performers. Interview them to find out more about why they are so valuable in their roles. Looking at job boards can help you to identify what type of qualities other employers look for in similar roles. 

  1. Create an employee referral program

Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik

An employee referral program is a structured program where employees recommend suitable candidates from their networks for specific roles. When you ask your employees to refer candidates, you can benefit in many ways. 

  • It’s a cost-effective way to source candidates.
  • Employees usually refer candidates they believe will be a good fit, so retention is likely to be higher.
  • It reduces the time it takes you to hire. 
  • It can help the candidate flow with positions that are harder to fill. 

Your referral policy should include your hiring expectations and the incentives you offer. Consider if you will provide successful referrals with an incentive. Clearly communicate when, how, and why employees should refer a potential candidate. 

  1. Use digital recruitment methods

Recruiters and candidates primarily connect and interact online. If you want to attract and retain top talent, using digital hiring strategies and social media is a must. Creating content for your website and various channels is a great way to show prospective candidates what your company is all about. 

A digital recruiting strategy includes:

  • Employee onboarding 
  • Social media promotions
  • Online PR
  • Digital branding
  • Virtual events
  • Use of online job boards
  • Skills testing

Digital recruitment methods offer you greater exposure and access to a larger talent pool, leading to higher-quality candidates and maximizing your ROI. 

  1. Diversify your outreach strategies

Different skill sets require different outreach methods. The best programmers are probably not frequenting the same places as skilled marketers. You need to identify where your candidates are. This may be at professional events, conferences, on LinkedIn, or on role-specific job boards.

Using social media channels enables you to:

  • Share customer testimonials and case studies. 
  • Share news and opinion pieces that establish you as an industry leader.
  • Engage with potential future hires and start interacting with them. 
  • Promote open job vacancies and use ads as needed to target specific candidates. 
  1. Make data-driven decisions

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. There are certain metrics you need to track if you want to measure the success of your strategies over time. 

Some of the most important metrics you should track include:

  • Number of applicants
  • Cost of hire
  • The time it takes to hire
  • Candidate response rate
  • Application completion rate

Once you’ve started to keep track of your efforts, you’ll be able to identify what’s going well and what might need to be changed. 

For example: 

→ If you have too many applicants for a position, your job description or qualifications may be too vague. 

→ If you get 50 applicants from a paid job board, where only three are qualified, but you get 10 candidates from social media advertising and six are qualified, social media advertising is clearly more effective. You should re-evaluate your job board strategy and focus on the channel that is working.

→ If you have many candidates starting the application process but failing to complete it, there could be a potential issue. Your process could be too lengthy, complex, or have a technical error.

  1. Take advantage of recruitment automation

New technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics have made recruitment automation possible. Using these tools can reduce the costs of hiring and the time it takes to find candidates. Your recruiters can stay organized and keep candidates informed, which leads to an improved experience for both parties. 

The areas in which automation can help include:

  • Advertising on job boards: Job board software enables you to post to a variety of job sites simultaneously.
  • Scheduling interviews: Candidates can view open interview time slots through calendar and scheduling software. It’s easy for them to reserve a time without having to make a call or email.
  • Pre-screening candidates: Pre-screening tools such as resume scanners allow you to quickly identify suitable candidates.
  • Tracking applicants: With an applicant tracking system, it is easy to organize and sort candidates and monitor the stage they are in.

Conclusion

Recruiting top talent and attracting the best employees is essential if you want your business to grow and prosper. In a competitive job market, you have to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Your recruitment strategies should showcase your business as a place where potential candidates would love to work. 




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