The job market is tight, not just for those looking for work but for companies who seek to hire top talents. No company is the same when it comes to recruitment. You should consider different things when you hire developers for a startup or an enterprise company. It varies depending on the industry, location, and company culture. Hence, there’s no hard-and-fast rule on which recruitment strategy works best, but here are some of the best ones to take inspiration from.
The Basics
Before implementing any sort of strategy from this list, the need to take full stock of the recruitment process and assess areas for improvement is a must. It’s about looking at the company from the perspective of an outsider who wants to get in. Recruiters should ask themselves whether their company website is up-to-date, the entire process is efficient, or the scouts are prompt in answering applicants’ questions. This will help set the goal of streamlining the recruitment process.
Careers Page
Developing a user-friendly and up-to-date careers page should be high on the priority list. The seamless process is the key to recruiting top talents, and this procedure begins with the careers page. Having a Candidates FAQs section will help answer common queries about the entire process. For a prompt response to applicants’ queries, chatbots are handy in these instances.
Company Culture
Different social media platforms are a company’s gateway to showing applicants its culture. Recruiting on platforms where most people spend their time will help reach passive candidates.
Featured Employees
Many companies have been leveraging Instagram’s reach and popularity to show off the hardworking employees that make their place great. It’s much better to have real people featured on the recruitment accounts than stock images.
Dedicated Social Media Page
Applicants are often hesitant to connect to companies on their main page. With a social media account dedicated to hiring talents, it will be easier to distinguish from any other corporate accounts. Here recruiters can post job listings, recruiting events, and other important announcements.
Recruitment Content
It’s hard to stand out from the rest of the pack without compelling content. Blogs and long-form posts will allow candidates to imagine themselves working for the company.
Current Projects
Applicants are keen on the projects they will be working on once they are hired. Sharing blog articles or updates on the company’s current projects help candidates determine their competence for the job.
Employee Testimonials
Allow candidates to get to know the people they will be working with through employee testimonials. Firsthand accounts of one’s first day at work or what a typical week is like in the company as written by the employees are always a great read for people looking for jobs.
Medium and LinkedIn
Facebook is the most obvious choice for sharing recruitment-related materials, but other platforms can be used to search for potential applicants. LinkedIn, similar to Facebook, is a great way to find potential employees. While not a social networking platform, Medium is a great space to share long-form articles.
Recruitment Video
With people’s attention spans getting shorter, a quick well-produced video showcasing the company will give the organization an advantage over the competitors. Creativity plays a major role here since simply stating the benefits of working in the company will not be enough. Showing clips of what a day in the company is like, the fun events, or random, mundane things that happen at work.
The aim is to be as engaging as possible so a passive job applicant would be curious enough to visit the careers page. Good recruitment videos take time to conceptualize and produce. Once finished, they can be shared and repurposed across different social media platforms.
Talent Community
For one reason or another, some applicants are not the right fit for an open position. Instead of completely forgetting about them, build a talent community. This is a pool of candidates who have applied to the company in the past, and who can eventually be hired when a more suitable role becomes available.
Job Alerts
A person seeking a job doesn’t just apply to one company. To ensure that the organization recruits only the top candidates, ask your applicants to sign up for job alerts so they would be notified right away when a suitable position is open for them.
Boomeranging
Boomerang employees refer to those who leave a company but later return to work for that same organization. Some companies even have a dedicated Boomerang section on their websites for ease of access for their former employees wanting to return.
Referral Program
A lot of industries are small and intimate in the sense that most people know each other or share the same circle of peers. Recruiters should take advantage of the network their employees have because the best hire might just be their close friends.
Niche Candidate Networks
LinkedIn and the website’s careers page are not the only places to find talented applicants.
Students
Some of the best applicants are fresh college graduates who are eager to land their first jobs. While those who haven’t graduated yet are probably on the lookout for an internship that will bolster their résumé. Reaching out to universities in the area is a great way to scout for promising talents.
Formerly Incarcerated Workers
HR personnel wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they don’t do their due diligence on their applicants, including combing through their work history and checking for criminal records. Formerly incarcerated individuals are often a red flag for employers, but they also deserve a second chance like most people.
People with Disabilities
Companies should be inclusive and nondiscriminatory with their hiring policies. If a person can do a particular role with a disability without the need for assistance, then they shouldn’t be deprived of that opportunity.
Candidate Questions
Companies have different ways of scouting for talent, even among those in the same line of business. That’s why it’s commonplace for applicants to visit inquiry sites like Quora and Reddit to solicit answers from complete strangers on how best to apply for a job.
Companies should make it a habit to constantly check what people are asking on these sites. They can even host “ask me anything” sessions on Reddit, which Google once did, which generated more than a thousand replies and comments.
Recruitment Events
Due to the pandemic, most events, including recruitment, have gone increasingly online; however, recruitment events like job fairs and meetups are still essential since it gives companies a more personal look at applicants that go beyond what’s written on their résumés.
University Fairs
Most universities organize job fairs for their graduating class and for those seeking to land a summer internship. Companies from different industries are invited to choose their pick from a bunch of eager soon-to-be professionals.
Meetup Events
Professional associations often have small gatherings and forums where they discuss current trends and issues relevant to their fields. It’s also a way for veterans to impart their knowledge and welcome the industry newbies to the fold. Getting involved in these events is a wonderful opportunity to meet top talents.
Search Engine Tools
Any digital marketer would know how difficult it is to appear on the first page of Google search results. It’s the goal of every company to be noticed first by applicants actively looking for job listings online. But there are tricks of the trade that can be used without the help of SEO tools.
Google’s Job Search
Google, being the default search engine of most people, is where most job searches begin. Companies need only make sure their job posting appears on Google’s Job Search Tool by tweaking the HTML of job descriptions on their website so Google would know it’s a job posting.
Competitor Keywords
Companies in the same industry are not just targeting each other’s customers but also their job applicants. More often than not, when a person is searching for jobs in a specific company, its competitor’s careers page will appear as a Google Ads.
Job Title Keywords
Recruiters can also target job titles on Google Ads. When applicants are looking for job openings for a specific position, regardless of which company is hiring, the company website appears first.
Once these strategies are in place, a company must track the progress to ensure they are working, making adjustments along the way, until the recruitment team has figured out the ones that work best for the company.
