Finding qualified candidates who will perfectly fit into your team can be a challenge. Top candidates always have numerous options, so no wonder they are extremely picky about the offers they accept. That means that combing through resumes from applicants and hoping to find some talent doesn’t work anymore.
So if you truly care about attracting the best candidates, you need to put special thought into a hiring process and develop a strong employer brand.
To help you attract the best candidates we will go over why recruitment marketing is important and provide 11 tips to help you get started.
Key Takeaways:
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Using a recruitment marketing strategy helps reduce the risk of hiring the wrong candidates saving your company time and money.
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Writing a concise job description with action verbs and simple language can help attract the best candidates.
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Utilize your company website and make sure you highlight your company values and company culture.
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Having great employee benefits can help attract the best candidates and keep them interested in your company.
Why Recruitment Marketing is Important
Using recruitment marketing delivers the qualified candidates right to you, instead of you spending hours searching for the perfect candidate. This way of hiring is a pull strategy rather than a push strategy. You want to not only advertise your job openings, but also marketing yourself as an employer, promoting your organization, and work culture.
When using a recruitment marketing strategy, you will want to build an effective online presence to appear on your candidates search engine results when they are searching for a job.
Using a recruitment marketing strategy helps reduce the risk associated with hiring the wrong candidates, saving your company time and money. This strategy means your company will have a constant flow of qualified candidates which will lower the probability of having unfilled positions at your company.
11 Tips To Attract The Best Candidates
The recruitment process can be long and tedious, but finding the right candidate is worth the time put in. Here are 11 tips to help you attract the best candidates to your company:
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Write a good job description. The job description is the first impression someone will have of your company. Make sure you are describe their daily duties and work environment in details. Candidates want to see themselves in the position. Here are some tips to help you write a great job description:
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Use a job title someone searches for. Try to make the job title something that candidates are searching for, but also relates to the job. For example, a good job title would be retail associate manager versus inventory control specialist. Retail associate manager is more likely to be searched over inventory control specialist, so you will receive more applications.
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Use simple language. Avoid using any company terms and stick to simple language. Candidates won’t understand company terms and they may pass over the job.
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Use action verbs. You want to give the candidate that the work is engaging and busy without sounding boring.
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Highlight your company values. Highlighting company values is a great way for candidates to get interested. Often time people want to work for a company that shares similar values and highlighting them on your company website or on the job description will catch their eye right away.
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Don’t wait too long. If there is a new position opening up or a position will need to be filled soon, don’t wait until the last minute to look for candidates. Using different job board websites is a great way to get your name out there. This will help you get a diverse range of applicants to see your job posting.
Spread the word about upcoming vacancies within the company so employees can search for applicants from time to time. Publish posts on Facebook, share growth plans with team members, and announce vacancies at team meetings. Don’t forget to encourage employees with referral bonuses.
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Utilize your company website. Candidates will review your company website when they do research on your company, so make sure it is easy to read and easy to navigate. They do this to make sure your company is real and somewhere they want to work. The website should not only give job seekers a brief portrayal of the company’s vision, mission, and values but grab their attention and reveal your personality.
You should promote your company culture on your website and be authentic about it. Find out what your employees love about the company, ask what exactly drew them in. Collect those insights and use them to attract new candidates.
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Give employee benefits and a salary that matter. Having great benefits and salary can help you recruit the best candidates. As things become more expensive, keeping your salary competitive with it will attract the best candidates and keep them interested. Having great benefits will also keep candidates interested. Some benefits that you can include are:
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Flexible work hours with work-from-home options
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Personalized paid vacations
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Health and wellness programs
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Mentoring programs
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Have opportunities for career growth. One of the best ways to attract candidates is to offer your employees opportunities for growth within the company. No one wants to be stuck in the same position for their entire career. Let candidates know that they are able to have advancement opportunities such as classes, taking the lead on projects, and promotions.
Having these opportunities will also keep them always wanting to improve their skills and knowledge even when they have the job. Your employees will always want to be the best versions of themselves.
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Simplify the application process. Nothing turns applicants away faster than a confusing application process. If you want to show your company as results-focused, modern and employee-driven, you just can’t start the application process from a ‘yes/no’ form. Sure it might be quick to complete, but at the same time absolutely useless, providing candidates with irrelevant questions and making them skip half of the form.
So it’s always better to stick to audition-style hiring processes or use smart forms with branching logic which adapt to every applicant showing and hiding follow-up questions if needed.
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Learn more about your ideal candidate. Get to know your future employees. Find out what they read, which platforms they prefer, what networks they use. Identify their favorite news sources, forums, discussion groups, and places to practice social networking.
Simply speaking, find out everything you can about the people you want to see in your office. Use this information to improve your interviewing and staff selection.
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Don’t limit yourself geographically. It has become more common to hiring remote workers who may live on the opposite side of the country than your company. When you limit your search for candidates to only around your area, you are eliminating the vast majority of your top candidates just because they don’t live near you.
Opening up the range will help you find more talented and qualified candidates for the position. Offer them a remote position. Often times remote workers are happier and more productive.
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Promote candidates internally. Sometimes the best candidates for the position are already working for the company. Open up the applications to the current qualified employees. This will also help your employee retention rates because people are getting promoted instead of quitting.
When you demonstrate that you regularly promote your own employees, it will attract the best candidates hoping to advance their career as well.
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Avoid the ‘quick hire.’ Sometimes hiring the first candidate just because you need to fill the position doesn’t mean it will be the best decision. The quick hire might turn into someone who isn’t qualified for the position, meaning you will have to go through the hiring process again. Take the extra time and make sure the candidate is the best person for the job.
Author
Taylor Berman
Taylor is a freelance writer from Pennsylvania. Taylor got into writing because she enjoys writing articles that help people and loves creating stories that inspire. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and public relations with an interest in communications media from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
