5 Ways to Get Better Applicants For Your Job Openings

Finding valuable employees is a challenging but rewarding task for every company. Good and devoted talents that put in the effort are the foundation of every successful company. Tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft wouldn’t be as big as they are if they were hiring average and “good enough” employees.

The problem with finding good workers is that it requires time and proficient recruiters. With a large increase in remote work, companies have even better chances of reaching experts worldwide. Another relief is that the internet offers many ways of hiring remotely.

While around 72% of recruiters are hiring through LinkedIn, there are many ways of reaching top talents and onboarding them. But while attracting hundreds of people with your job posts is great, the majority of applicants are going to be underqualified. To increase the chances of skilled individuals applying, you can try some of the methods mentioned below.

1. Write better job descriptions

One of the most important aspects of a job post is its description. Of course, only a title for the job won’t ever be enough, but many recruiters don’t put in the effort of making a detailed and objective job description.

If you’re looking for a job and the job ad has grammar mistakes or poor syntax, you probably wouldn’t take it seriously. This is an obvious red flag, but let’s discuss the do’s and dont’s of job descriptions a little further.

A serious candidate would gladly spend some time reading a job description, but you shouldn’t rely on this. Keep them brief and concise without unnecessary stories and fluff. The ideal length would be around 300 words, but you can of course write longer ones if it’s required. Shorter job descriptions get up to 10% more applications.

What rejects many applicants is the usage of gendered language and pronouns. Even though it should happen effortlessly, try to make the descriptions sound inclusive and avoid masculine-sounding words.

Requirements for a job are often written in the form of a bulleted list. Some companies have removed requirements altogether and have seen an increase in applicants, but others believe that they are crucial for attracting suitable candidates. Don’t eliminate them, but try to include only the ones that are most important.

Some companies have some rules and don’t include salary information on the job post. However, this is one of the attributes that attract the most people. If a highly skilled individual wants to switch companies, they will likely go for a higher-paying job. Of course, even though there are many other things that can inspire someone to apply for a job, salary is among the most critical aspects.

Along with salary, it’s nice to include potential benefits such as healthcare or parental leave. Some companies even offer a special budget for a home office, another inspiring benefit. Use emojis to make the boring wall of text more attractive to potential readers.

2. Post jobs on multiple platforms

Don’t rely on a single platform to get your applicants, the internet offers you a plethora of choices when it comes to business. You don’t have to focus on attracting candidates only on LinkedIn when there are multiple websites that are just as effective.

There’s a lot of human resources software that automatically posts a job to multiple platforms. This is very effective if you’re looking to save some time. Such software often has templates for descriptions as well, and even without good writing skills, you can create and post attractive jobs on multiple platforms in a short amount of time.

It’s recommended that you do analytics on the job posts as you would on a sponsored post or an ad. Tracking paid vs. free traffic, as well as understanding which platform gives you the best candidates, are useful practices that should be done continuously.

3. Put effort into advertising

There are many different ways to advertise a job online. I’ve already mentioned how it’s important to utilize multiple job posting platforms, but you can supplement the search with additional advertising.

Whether you’re going to choose free or paid advertising depends on your company’s budget and how important the role is currently. Of course, paying for something often gives you better results, and it can certainly help you find applicants faster.

Free Advertising

While you don’t necessarily have to find applicants on social media, you can talk about the job opening on your social media profiles and get a higher engagement. Once you successfully hire someone using a specific platform, you can then focus on advertising on it.

Finding candidates on a social media platform can seem unprofessional to top talents, which is a significant downside. But it’s the cheapest method. Posting a job on LinkedIn is also free, and there are a couple of free job boards, such as:

• Indeed • Ladders • PostJobFree

While it’s not directly free, you can also use your website to create a job post. Many companies use their “careers” page for this. You can then attract candidates through a search engine or by advertising that page on other platforms.

Paid advertising

Some free platforms also offer paid options that’ll help you boost your posts. Free ads are often outranked or outnumbered by other job posts, and you can prevent this by paying. Senior roles are usually harder to find, and it’s worth it to spend additional money to reach such candidates.

There are also niche job posting boards, such as Stack Overflow, where there are higher chances of finding a professional. The mentioned website is in the category of software development, so you need to do a little bit of research for other fields.

Even if you want to rely completely on the job posting platform of your choice, don’t exclude the possibility of people finding the job description through search engines. By utilizing basic SEO, you should optimize your posts for search engines, as many people simply Google the job that they want.

Industry-related websites

Groups and forums aren’t always a place where you would expect to find a job. But such communities might include professional workers. You can use this to your advantage and promote the job opening to communities that are interested in related skills and activities.

A Facebook group, for example, focused on marketing will certainly have many people that are interested in working in the role of a marketer.

4. Hire a recruitment agency

Recruitment agencies often do everything that a team of HR experts would. It depends on the candidate, but you don’t usually have to wait too long, however this fee can be significant at the moment. In the long run, paying a fixed fee for a candidate is cheaper than maintaining a team of HR experts.

Recruitment agencies often have a database of candidates that are waiting for a job, or make the effort of finding a candidate instead of you. When you give them the details for the job role, they will send you the data of the candidate, and you can decide whether they are fit for the role.

5. Referral program

This method is similar to the recruitment agency. Instead of paying a company to find you an employee, your current employees are tasked with searching for their new team members. This is often voluntary, but in critical situations, it can be encouraged. Once they find the right candidate, they will be compensated accordingly.

Employee refferal method is useful since people that work in the same industry are usually connected with each other. In the circle of your previous co-workers, acquaintances, and friends, there’s always at least one person that’s looking for a job.

Finding the most effective talent-hunting method takes time

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for attracting top talents. The way that you write your job post depends on the industry of your company. It’s also important to notice that none of these methods will guarantee success, but all of them can bring some positive improvements in your hiring process.

If you are looking for entry-level jobs, you’ll likely attract many people with no experience or qualifications. On the other hand, intermediate and senior positions can sometimes be hard to fill in. By implementing some of these, or all, methods, you can certainly reach better candidates.

However, attracting people to a job post is only the beginning of the hiring process. Even with an unlimited amount of good applicants, you need to screen them, interview them, and onboard them. This process takes time, and it’s best to be patient and ready for the challenges ahead.