A successful recruiting strategy helps companies find and hire new talent. Whether your company is experiencing normal turnover or adding new positions because of growth, you probably want to find the most qualified candidates possible to help your business succeed.
When used well, intentional recruiting strategies can be one of the best assets in your company’s growth and development. By finding highly qualified new hires, you might increase the efficiency and productivity of your team. Recruiting new employees that are a good cultural fit can help support morale on your team.
In this article, we offer 14 tips for recruiting new hires for your company.
Tips for recruiting
Evaluating and improving your recruitment strategies can help you find the best employees for your organization. Here is a list of 14 tips to help you with your recruiting efforts:
1. Emphasize employee referrals
One of the most effective and affordable hiring strategies for growing companies is the employment referral, which uses people’s professional networks to find quality talent. Consider improving your employment referral program using a stipend system for successful hires or other tangible benefits. Developing a culture of respect toward referrals can boost networking connections as well. Be sure to purposefully value the personal investment of both the referring employee and referred hire when using this strategy.
Examples of the types of referral bonuses you can offer include:
- Financial bonus
- Social bonus
- Prize bonus
- Vacation bonus
- Additional benefits bonus
Anyone can refer an applicant to a job by informing them of a job opening or sharing an applicant’s resume with a hiring manager. Employers rely on referrals to learn about quality candidates who have already been vetted by a trusted employee.
Referrals can also come from former employees who had a positive experience with your company. Implementing positive offboarding experiences can help ensure former employees will refer highly qualified new candidates to your company.
2. Create a positive candidate experience
How a prospective employee perceives and feels about the hiring process is based on the interactions they have with everyone at the company, from recruiters to hiring managers and human resources professionals. The candidate experience also includes other interactions that may take place without another person involved, like an online application process, job advertisements and automated responses to application submittals. Their experience can determine how much they want to work at the organization and what they tell others, which can contribute to the reputation the company has among job seekers.
Consider following up quickly about any rejections so the candidate can feel free to apply for other positions that fit them better. It may be best for a rejection to come from a real email rather than a generic one from the company, so the candidate still feels valued even if you didn’t select them. Also, request an interview with a candidate as soon as you know you’d like to move forward with them in the hiring process.
3. Look for internal recruits
If you are not doing so already, consider recruiting internally. Promoting from within and encouraging lateral moves can help boost employee morale. Internal recruiting can also show that your company is interested in helping your employees advance in their careers, which can help with finding and keeping quality employees.
Hiring internally reduces the time it takes to hire, onboard and train an employee and reduces costly external recruitment charges like advertising on job boards or paying for background checks. Plus, when hiring internally, you’re usually dealing with a smaller pool of candidates, which saves time when screening and interviewing. Internal hiring also reduces the amount of paperwork you’ll need to complete, as most of the employee’s information is already on record.
4. Prioritize diversity
Diverse background, experiences and ideas can help maximize your team’s effectiveness and drive innovation. Prioritizing diversity in hiring is an important way to ensure a wide representation of staffing, which can help work toward the best outcomes in workplace equity. Try building diversity, inclusion and belonging initiatives into your recruitment processes.
Hiring bias often causes recruiters to overlook qualified candidates or consider candidates who aren’t good matches. While some companies use automated platforms to mitigate hiring bias, algorithms can also replicate human prejudices. You can ensure a fair recruiting process by implementing measures like:
- Training hiring managers and interviewers
- Creating a standard interview protocol
- Implementing blind hiring, a practice that omits irrelevant information, like race and gender
- Using assessments and data evidence instead of assumptions
- Facilitating a transparent recruiting process
5. Use a rubric
Clear expectations can be a cornerstone of the recruitment experience. Using an interview rubric or checklist to evaluate candidates might communicate transparency in your hiring process and ensure that the most qualified candidates apply to join your team.
An interview rubric is a scoring tool that defines expectations and helps determine who to interview, who to invite to interview again or who to offer employment to. This type of rubric is used to objectively measure both tangible and intangible information, such as relevant experience and demeanor.
6. Utilize marketing strategies
Applying marketing principles to your recruiting efforts can support effective recruiting because it can influence potential candidates to seek out your company for open positions.
For large companies, it is important to have a strong corporate identity in order to attract the best kind of employees. Brand your company as a great place to work on your website and social media channels. Consider adding video or written testimonials to the careers section of your website to provide first-person experiences for potential employees to explore.
Advertising your openings can be similar to marketing a product. If you publicize openings using job boards, professional networking sites, email campaigns or social media, choose your language carefully. You’ll want to balance your explanation of your company’s perks while keeping your tone genuine. Consider researching the kinds of benefits and work environment preferred by candidates in your area and industry and highlighting those features in your job listings.
7. Write better job listings
A great job post is more likely to attract the most qualified candidates. Additionally, an informative job post limits the number of questions you receive from potential applicants so you can focus on interviewing.
First, consider your company’s culture and whether a casual or formal tone is more appropriate in your job posting. Many companies try to project a specific voice in all their public content, including job postings, to support their brand identity.
Make sure your job description accurately outlines all of the responsibilities, education requirements and skills that applicants need to achieve the position. Job postings also include where the job is located (or whether it is a remote position), benefits of working for the organization and the main requirements or qualifications.
8. Simplify the application process
Once you attract high-quality potential applicants, try simplifying the application process. Reduce the length of the application process to five minutes or less and use one page for all sections of the application to increase completion rates.
Here’s some other tips for improving the application process:
- Create an application process that’s mobile-friendly to support those candidates who’d prefer to apply on their cell phones.
- Carefully consider which responses you mark as required.
- Use quality software to automatically fill applications based on a resume submission.
- Send an automated email to the candidate to confirm receipt of their application.
9. Utilize outside resources
Most colleges and universities provide employment assistance services to new graduates and alumni. Try reaching out to these kinds of institutions with listings when you are hiring and to attend employment events such as career fairs. You might target local higher education organizations or ones that are known for quality education in your industry.
When meeting potential candidates face-to-face at hiring and networking events, it is often easier to make a connection and begin to determine how they might fit in your company culture. Networking events include happy hour meetups, industry-specific seminars, virtual groups, trade shows and conferences. If you’re considering hosting your own networking event, figure out your target audience and pick a format that best fits your hiring needs.
10. Leverage technology
Digital recruiting tools such as social media, email campaigns and virtual job boards can help you reach potential new hires when you might not be able to connect in person. Consider hosting or attending virtual employment events such as career fairs held via video conference as well. These kinds of electronic communication platforms can help supplement the interpersonal relationships you develop within your industry and even generate new network connections.
Instead of reviewing applications manually, HR professionals can use a candidate selection platform. This technology administers pre-employment assessments to measure candidates’ skills. It might test for problem-solving, communication or other practical skills related to the position. It can also evaluate a candidate’s certifications and years of experience. If the platform determines a candidate is qualified, it can then invite them to the next stage of the hiring process. You can also use these evaluations to schedule interviews.
11. Try team recruiting
Sometimes, including your team in the recruiting process can help attract quality new hires and help make sure each person you bring onto your staff is a good cultural fit. Consider hosting group recruitment events that include time for potential applicants to socialize with current employees and ask questions about working with your company.
12. Offer competitive compensation
If you can affect compensation decisions in your company, consider encouraging leadership to offer compensation that is equal to or more than that offered by other companies in your industry. Although compensation is rarely the only factor potential applicants consider, it can have a major impact on the ultimate success of your recruitment efforts.
Sometimes, non-monetary perks can also help attract quality candidates to your organization. For example, allowing employees to work remotely full or part-time might be an appealing benefit for some highly qualified candidates. Brainstorm low- or no-cost opportunities such as extra benefits or flexibilities that you can offer new hires.
13. Embrace remote work
With the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and careers that enable professionals to work from almost anywhere, remote work has become a popular option for employees in many industries. Promoting your company’s effective remote work program expands your potential talent pool to candidates from across the globe.
Benefits of remote work that could attract good employees include flexible work schedules, enhanced productivity and saving time and money on commuting costs, meals and clothes.
14. Hire more recruiters
Sometimes, adding more recruiters to your team can help you reach more qualified candidates in a shorter time. Consider hiring more recruitment professionals if your company is growing and could benefit from more personal interactions with other new hires. You may wish to perform a budget analysis before deciding if and how to proceed with hiring more recruiters. Companies that believe that hiring is an investment in the future will attract the best candidates.
