Apple uses hidden breadcrumbs to lure curious programmers and engineers to apply for open positions.

 

The talent landscape has changed dramatically over the past two decades. New skills, digital disruption, and changing workforce dynamics have compelled organizations to rethink their recruiting processes. Recruiting top talent is no longer just a transactional function. The candidate-recruiter relationship has become fundamental to the hiring process. Today, recruitment is more about building unique relationships with talent than merely filling a job opening.

The balance of power in the candidate-recruiter relationship has moved away from recruiters to the candidates. Candidates have more choice than ever before when it comes to choosing an employer. Online job boards, professional networking sites, employer reviewing platforms, and most importantly, social media have all had a key role in disrupting the status-quo in recruiting. Building lasting relationships with candidates, let alone hiring them, in this environment can prove to be quite a task. So, how can recruiters navigate this tight labor market to hire the right talent and drive business success?

The answer is simple – use innovative recruiting strategies to land top talent.

5 Creative Recruitment Strategies for 2019

Although recruitment is not an exact science and there’s no guaranteed formula for success, combining the right technology with the art of effective communication can produce phenomenal results. So, without further ado, let’s look at some of the top creative recruitment strategies you can begin deploying today.

1.Design a Winning Mobile Careers Page:

By the time you’ve read this, you’ll probably feel a strong urge to check your phone. According to a study by Asurion, the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes. That’s 80 times a day! And that’s where your candidates are as well – on their smartphones.

At a time when candidates are increasingly turning to their smartphones to aid their job search, delivering a consistent mobile experience across your careers pages, social profiles, and your applicant tracking systems (ATS) is crucial to sourcing the right talent. If you aren’t using mobile recruiting already, start small – forget about mobile apps, for now, begin with your careers page. Responsive careers pages can be your most important sourcing and employer branding tools. They help you showcase your company culture and brand – attracting prospective candidates and guiding them down the recruiting funnel. Your careers page is the best place to sell your jobs to candidates. Put some thought into how you want to position your employer brand; Your vision and mission statements should give you some inspiration. You can also list out the perks and benefits of working for your organization. If you offer flexible work options or remote work, be sure to add it to the page.

You can also invest in a mobile ATS solution that will integrate your mobile careers page into your recruitment CRM or HCM system, giving you a unified view of candidates in your recruiting pipeline. You can then run nurture and engagement campaigns to guide them down your funnel.

For organizations already using a mobile ATS solution or mobile-optimized careers pages, it’s time to up the ante. Analyze your careers page to understand how candidates are interacting with your careers page.

Are they dropping off at the resume submission stage?

What part of your career page are they engaging with, and what part is being ignored?  This will help you optimize your careers page for a better candidate experience based on the insights you gather from behavioral data.

For instance, do you really need candidates to upload their resume as the first step?

Can you use their LinkedIn profiles as a substitute to their resumes?

Do you really need them to fill pages upon pages of personal information right away? Making it easier for candidates to discover and apply to jobs will certainly improve applications and conversions.

With a mobile-optimized careers page, you can now start exploring creative ways to present your employee value proposition. Videos and employee testimonials are a great way to showcase your brand to prospective employees.

2. Unleash the Power of Recruiting Videos:

Videos have become one of the most consumed content formats in recent times. As visual creatures, we are pre-programmed to engage with video content more easily than other content formats. Moreover, rising smartphone usage has fueled video consumption to unprecedented levels. According to CareerBuilder, job postings with videos are viewed 12 percent more than those without video content. In addition to a wider reach, videos have also been found to increase application rates by 34 percent. Recruitment videos are bound to get the attention of job seekers on social media too. Let’s take a look at some of the most creative recruitment videos you can take inspiration from:

SodaStream

This video by SodaStream is a great example of an effective recruitment video. It provides an in-depth view into the company culture – you can see the CEO joking around with the employees, they’ve also used humor to outline the ideal candidate profile, and they conclude with a powerful message about celebrating diversity. They also score extra brownie points with the environmentally conscious candidates. All this wrapped into a slick two and half minute video!

Epic Games

The North Carolina-based gaming company created this video to address candidate concerns about life in Raleigh, NC. Their approach to the video tells you that the company acknowledges that life for employees extends beyond the 9-5 grind. As a tech company located outside of the usual tech hotspots (San Francisco, New York, and Seattle), attracting diverse talent from across the world was a constant challenge. This video solved for that problem by focusing on the best that Raleigh had to offer.

Fiverr

Fiverr, one of the most popular online marketplaces for freelancers pokes fun at generic recruitment videos while demonstrating its unique and fun culture. The narrator speaks directly to the candidates which lend it a personal touch.

3. Use Hidden Job Ads to Find Top Talent:

One of the best ways to find critical thinkers and problem solvers is through hidden job ads. Organizations like Apple, Google, Facebook, and IKEA have all launched incredibly unique and creative recruiting campaigns to engage with the brightest talent. For candidates, job hunting can boil down to chance and luck. Hidden job ads on your website, social media, print or marketing collaterals can certainly make things much more interesting. Also, you get candidates who already demonstrate signs of high competence.

In 2017, Apple created an innovative recruiting campaign using breadcrumbs throughout its website to entice curious programmers looking to solve the mystery.

Source: BBC

In 2004, Google bought billboards in Silicon Valley that displayed an URL in the form of a math puzzle. The message read “{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com”, which brought users adept enough to solve the challenge, to a website that featured another challenge. It was only after solving the second challenge that Google revealed that the challenges were a part of its recruiting campaign.

It certainly is easier to find what you’re looking for if it comes looking for you!

4. Source Candidates through Text Messaging:

Well, text messaging in itself may not be very innovative. However, for organizations looking to hire young talent, text messaging as a recruiting strategy can prove to be surprisingly effective. In the age of instant gratification, text messaging offers a cost-effective and faster solution for hiring. Millennials and Gen Zers already use their smartphones more often than their computer to look for jobs. Because candidates are more likely to have their phones on their person rather than their laptops throughout the day, you can be assured of faster responses and more opens than emails. Additionally, text messages seldom get deleted or sent to spam – their lifespan is much longer than emails. Text messaging is a must-have recruitment tool for any organization looking for quick and cheap recruiting strategies.

5. Go Social:

Social media is undeniably one of the most significant inventions of the 21st century and offers a host of benefits to recruiters looking to mix it up. Social recruiting goes beyond posting vacancies on your company’s social media handles. It helps you proactively connect and engage with prospective candidates and build authentic relationships. In a tight labor market, candidates often window-shop jobs and the right message delivered from a trusted source at the right time can result in a successful hire.

Social recruiting platforms and employee advocacy solutions can vastly improve your social hiring efforts. Frequent posts about your culture, activities, and values can help you build trust and allows candidates to engage with you in a low-stress environment. Moreover, social media is also quickly emerging as one of the most effective platforms for employer branding. LinkedIn groups, ongoing conversations, and [popular hashtags are all great ways to get your jobs in front of the right candidates.

Over the past couple of years, there has been a sharp decline in the organic reach of popular social platforms. Especially when it comes to branded content. Recent reports link the decrease in organic reach to the perceived push by social media platforms to encourage brands to invest in advertising on their platforms. Creating content tailored to each platform can help you boost your visibility. For instance, using Twitter to host discussions or live chats with prospective candidates and industry professionals will help your content reach your target audience. Or using your LinkedIn recruiter profiles to send out direct messages (DM) and hold meaningful conversations with candidates can help you build engagement. Similarly, your Instagram handles can be leveraged to give your candidates a sneak peek into your company culture and popular activities (think weekend quizzes, bring your children to work days, and the like).
Posting unique content across each of these platforms provides your prospective candidates with insights into what working with you really entails. It forms the foundation for organic engagement that’s in short supply for brands on social platforms. It’s one of the most powerful ways of standing out as an employer of choice.

Recruiting has never been more challenging than it is today. By using the right mix of creativity and technology, you can easily take your recruiting game to the next level. Use these five tips to get inspired and find your next great hire.

 


Authors
Noel Cocca

CEO/Founder RecruitingDaily and avid skier, coach and avid father of two trying to keep up with my altruistic wife. Producing at the sweet spot talent acquisition to create great content for the living breathing human beings in recruiting and hiring. I try to ease the biggest to smallest problems from start-ups to enterprise. Founder of RecruitingDaily and our merry band of rabble-rousers.