The world of recruitment continues to see huge changes, from the candidate experience to the interview process, and new technologies disrupting traditional methods of sourcing talent. It's a candidate-driven market so it's important you stand out and stay ahead of any industry changes. If you're thinking of ways to make your brand stand out and attract top talent, here are some creative tactics to incorporate into your recruitment strategy for the new year.
Curate In-Person Events & Experiences
Creating live recruiting events are a great way for your recruitment team to get to know candidates in a less formal setting. To get started, you could host an industry-relevant event or conference, and invite guests for a day or night of networking and learning. If you're a large enough organization, you can organize speed mentoring and networking events for specific demographics, like "Women in STEM", as an example. There are infinite ways to get involved with your local communities and meet candidates through event recruiting.
Companies like Glassdoor, Instagram, Whole Foods, and Amazon host events to expose prospective candidates to company culture, teams and departments, and recruiters.
If you're not able to host events, consider sponsoring and being present at events hosted by other organizations that align with your values.
You could start small by sharing thought leadership with certain groups online or hosting an industry-related meetup.
This kind of "inbound recruiting" tactic helps people get to know your brand and consider you as an expert and potential employer.
[Related: 10 Hacks to Hire for Hard-to-Fill Roles]
Share Open-Source Documents
Many organizations (specifically technology) post their open-source information for people to learn from and even mimic within their own organizations.
For example, both Spotify and Etsy post openly about their competency framework and how they've built the career paths for engineers within their departments. They have posted the full process of how they got there, and what the final product looks like. While this might help their competitors in some ways, it also lets engineers looking for their next role know what their company is about, how they value the engineer's career path, and what they could expect if they were to join.
Make Contact Via Facebook, Twitter & More
You don't need to be a mega-influencer to still see a positive impact on your recruiting through social media. There are many interesting ways that companies are connecting their jobs to candidates through different social media channels.
One company found huge success with a creative social media post, where the CEO reached out to the public for a referral. Mark Jane, CEO of Intelex wrote a PSA that he was looking to hire a chief people officer, and offered 20k to whoever introduced him to the right candidate!
Marriott Hotels is another company doing a great job at leveraging Instagram to attract top talent. They are regularly featured in the media for their bold initiatives and even have a "Marriotcareers" Instagram account where they let people experience the Marriott career stories while advertising for open jobs directly through their Instagram posts.
Employer branding should be top of mind for recruitment teams, and leveraging your social platforms is a great place to start!
[Related: Phoning It In: Win With Your Future Mobile Candidates]
Reinvigorate Job Descriptions
In 2020, we saw many companies make bold moves with the way they've redesigned their job description process. The typical boilerplate description simply won't attract the talent you're looking for.
Job descriptions need to be thought about as if they are a personal interaction that you're having with each candidate. They should be enticing, demonstrate the value proposition of that company and team, include a strong call to action, and tell candidates exactly what to expect.
Job descriptions should also be mindful of the language that is biased towards one gender over another, should be more inclusive, and contain a strong Equal Employment of Opportunity statement.
Redesign Your Employee Referral Program
Employee referrals still remain the number one source for quality hires, as referrals have higher retention, higher performance, and are more likely to get hired. According to a report by Greenhouse, most recruiters feel their employees are not involved enough with the employee referral process. While there is huge value in having a strong referral program, many organizations lack a formal process that is easy or enticing for employee's use. Consider revamping your program so that people feel more compelled to get involved.
Evaluate Your ATS
At the most basic level, your ATS should make it easy for candidates to apply. If you have a strong brand, then some candidates might not mind jumping through hoops and spending time on your application. However, if you're a smaller company or a company with a less visible brand, and the ATS you're using has a long list of steps to complete, you might be losing many good candidates before they ever apply.
Now is a great time to evaluate your strategy and ask yourself what is working and what is not. What will you do to stand out this year?
How recruiters and hiring managers at your organization engage with candidates matters and will show up in company reviews. To get involved in the conversation on Glassdoor and start managing and promoting your employer brand reputation, unlock your Free Employer Profile today.
