7 Recruiting Strategies - How To Hire Great Employees

Recruitment has always been difficult but the present climate makes things harder. Fewer people are looking for work which means you need to know how to get the same awesome hiring results you are also hoping for with fewer resources to get the job done.

It can still happen, but you do need to go in with the right strategy. In this article, we take a look at seven recruitment strategies that will make your job easier.

Have an Online Presence

Social media is a great way to tell the world who you are. Targeted social media posts can be accomplished from a recruiting sense by not only spreading the word quickly but also doing so in a way that is designed to attract ideal candidates.

It’s not just about slapping a “Now Hiring,” sign on your Twitter account. You want to make posts that will appeal strongly to your ideal candidates.

Hopefully, this is something that you will do not just when hiring, but all the time. Maintain a social presence that remains consistent with your branding identity, and overall company values. Manage that and you will organically attract a group of like-minded followers.

Company Culture

Having a very visible company culture is a great way to not attract new employees, but new employees that share your values. The majority of millennials at least factor company culture into their employment decisions, with many saying that they value it more than compensation.

But what exactly is company culture? Basically, it’s the feeling people have working for a business. Google is famous for having a very generous company culture, loaded with cushy amenities that make it very comfortable to work there.

The free sushi and yoga classes are nice, but they don’t actually encapsulate what it means to have a thriving culture.

You don’t need to shower your employees with gifts and perks to make them happy to work for you. You should, however, work on establishing a tone. A consistent feeling that the employee can dependably expect to encounter every time they show up to work (or turn on their computer, as the case may be).

It’s completely permissible to have a competitive fast-paced company culture. The important things are to make sure that:

• Your company culture is clear, even from the outside.
• It’s consistent. Not just a phrase or two tacked on to your website but something that is lived and breathed every day at work.
• It’s employee-centric. You want to make sure that people working for you feel recognized and appreciated. You can still expect hard work out of them, just go about it the right way.

Improve Your Tech Stack

There are HR software programs that narrow candidate fields down to a few qualified candidates. Rather than spending hours sifting through the resumes of candidates who aren’t at all qualified for the job you can focus on a select few that meet the exact specifications of your job listing.

It’s not a perfect system. You are beholden to the quality of the program, which, while efficient, lacks that human touch. It will trim the candidate pool back with algorithms, which are fast and precise, but not sentimental. It won’t incorporate human considerations into its “choices” the same way you might.

Nine times out of time, this might not matter but sometimes it will deprive you of a good candidate that just can’t write an awesome resume. Someone you, as an experienced recruiter, might have been able to spot.

Nevertheless, it’s a good way to save time during a highly competitive recruitment process. With this technology, you have much more time to dedicate to the most qualified candidates.

College Recruitment Days

College recruitment days are an obvious but effective way to bring in new talent. College kids provide a lot of bang for your buck. They bring in a completely fresh set of skills and knowledge, while also commanding only an entry-level salary.

Make sure that you put enthusiasm and effort into your college fair days. Make your booth notable. Send people whose personalities are not only friendly but consistent with the overall tone of your office. Remember that the idea isn’t just to find the most talented person — though you do want them. The overall task, however, is to find someone who will do the job well and stick around for a long time.

A tall order to fill from a college recruitment day, perhaps, but you can increase your chances of nailing it by taking the opportunity seriously.

Network within Your Office

People tend to associate with those who share their backgrounds. Perhaps your employees keep in touch with friends from school or professional development opportunities. Associates of your current employees can potentially serve as a good source of future staff members.

Ask around to find out if your team members know anyone with the right background who might be looking for work.

Pay Attention to the Competition

Poaching employees from the competition is a power move that not all businesses will be ready or willing to pursue. It will usually require a very enticing offer — something not just fair but enticing enough to pull someone away from their existing job and into a new one. It also has the potential to result in litigation depending on the specifics of that person’s existing contract.

If you aren’t willing to recruit that way, you can still nab a good hire just by paying attention to the way the competition’s team changes. You may happen upon someone with the right background who left because they didn’t like the culture or atmosphere of the other side.

Work on Niche Profiles

Some jobs are hard to fill because they are just so specific. For example, social workers and public health professionals can’t just be recruited from anywhere. You need a specific educational and professional background to work these positions, meaning there might be a very limited number of qualified candidates to choose from.

It’s a good idea to keep a niche profile of exactly what skills and background knowledge you want your applicants to have. Basically, create a hypothetical person, and look for applicants who fit the outline of what you are looking for.

Ideally, you will make this profile before you even need to fill it so you’re ready the moment a job on your staff opens up. Even if this isn’t feasible, you can still use your team member profile to narrow interests and pursue only the best of the best.