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4 Top Recruitment Strategies to Find & Keep Good Talent
The US economy added 2.1 million new jobs in 2017, a landmark year of growth for the nation in the midst of a changing work culture. Baby Boomers are retiring in the tens of thousands per day, and by 2020, an estimated 46 percent of the US workforce will be comprised of millennials.
Given statistics like these, why are small businesses having such a hard time finding and retaining top talent? In the face of technological advancement, a growing economy, and a new generation of workers, developing a competitive edge in recruiting calls for more creative recruitment strategies in 2018.
Do you have a solid small business recruitment strategy plan for the new year?
Below, we share how small businesses can develop a rock-solid recruitment strategy plan to hire smart, gain and retain great people, and prepare for a high-tech future in the recruitment industry.
1. Own Your Company’s Brand Online
Candidates want to work for places they’ve heard of—names they trust and recognize. Big names like Google or Johnson & Johnson capture volumes of job-seekers whose mouths water at the opportunity to work for them. Can your small business compete with these brands?
One creative recruitment strategy you can use to become a local name that candidates trust and whose jobs they want to compete for, is to establish a bold employer presence online.
Stand out from competition, attract top candidates, and establish a high perceived value around working for your business by building its recruiting brand online.
Here are a couple methods we wouldn’t go without:
- Glassdoor – According to Glassdoor, 69 percent of job-seekers are more likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand. One of the top places they will go to view your employer brand in real time is Glassdoor, a one-stop shop for transparent reviews from employees, information about past interviews, and so much more that bares your company’s reputation online.
To send the message that your company is serious about hiring top talent, you can use Glassdoor to:
- Showcase your employer brand
- Monitor and respond to reviews
- Update your company’s profile
- Promote your workplace culture
- Receive interview & employee feedback
As much as 61 percent of Glassdoor users report that they look to company reviews and ratings before deciding whether or not to apply for a job. How your business uses Glassdoor for hiring can help to establish your business’s reputation online can help you resolve a major pain point in the hiring and recruiting process.
- LinkedIn – If you haven’t already, you’re going to want to create a company page for your LinkedIn. Company pages can be seen from professionals and job-seekers from around the world, and they run 24/7—unlike your recruiting manager.
Be sure to enter high-quality content, from the company logo down to its core values. You will want to include:
- Your years in business
- Locations of your offices
- Your target services
- Company size (1-50, 50-100, etc.)
- If your company is public or private
- Posted jobs and information
To start driving online engagement and attracting high quality candidates, have your employees link to and follow the company page. This ties your company logo to their profiles and provides an employee network for candidates to see. In addition, you should update your newsfeed regularly with industry news and events to grow your authority and your network.
If you’re using Linkedin for small business recruiting, remember that the better you communicate your company’s story and the jobs you are hiring for, the more you will attract higher quality candidates that better align with your company’s goals and mission.
2. Recruit Where Your Talent Hangs Out
How can you increase the ratio of desirable candidates in your talent pool? Many recruitment strategies for human resources and small businesses fall short in one category: targeting the wrong audience.
For a small business that has never tried online recruiting tactics before, job listing sites like Monster and Indeed are commonly used by job-seekers, however they’re prone to attracting one-click resumes from an oversaturated, unpredictable candidate pool.
Spreading your job ads on niche social media sites allows employers to identify unique channels that ideal recruits frequent often – you also reduce the steps needed for candidates to find job listings.
Facebook Job Posting – As recently as 2017, Facebook tapped into the recruitment industry. Now you can create a job posting, track applications, and communicate with applicants all on the same network you currently use to generate sales and leads and promote your brand or services.
- Google for Jobs – In another stint of creative recruitment strategies in 2017 going online, Google recently launched its first AI-powered job search engine. Now your listings can rank in Google’s Job Ads, with little effort on your part. Potential candidates find your postings with incredible ease, on a platform they use daily.
Think about who your ideal candidate is and where they spend their time online. Is your boutique PR agency targeting entry-level candidates on Instagram, where they spend an average of 32 minutes per day? Is your company located in a commuting city and reaching out on Spotify? This creative recruiting strategy demands having stronger intent about finding like-minded candidates where they, and your current employees, hang out most.
3. Use Data to Cut Down Time Spent Hiring
Time is the most volatile cost of hiring. Hire too slowly, and top performers may be poached by competitors. Hire too quickly, and you may have just on-boarded a lemon. Hiring takes time—a lot of time—and the worst fear for employers is having to start over.
Here are a few methods that can help you save time in the hiring process.
- Measure your time to hire – Have you counted the time from deciding you need a new employee, to hitting “send” on the offer letter?
Take a look at your own time to hire and compare it to the averages in your industry, your location, and for the specific job title. Knowing your time to hire can improve your recruitment strategy by establishing a solid lead time.
- Find the best places to recruit – Don’t get stuck wasting money trying to recruit in Houston, when Dallas is going gangbusters with talent. Resources such as LinkedIn’s Talent Pool Reports will show you the most advantageous places to recruit by mapping out the supply and demand for your desired type of talent over particular regions.
How do you recruit top talent? First, you map out who your ideal candidate is. Then, you find out where they like to lounge, learn, and socialize. Follow that up with determining the best interview process, and the desired time to hire to give you a head-start in the hiring process. Always back up your recruiting strategy with data-driven decisions, such as geo-targeting for top quality candidates. Finally, take a look into the future—could your recruiting strategy improve dramatically with changing technology?
4. Take HR From Video to VR, Voice Search, and Beyond
HR managers using recruitment strategies in 2016 and 2017 would have balked if they had known what different methods of recruitment would exist in 2018! Now that the name “Alexa” sounds less like a family friend and more like your household nanny, it may be time to tune into how new innovations will change your recruitment strategy.
- Video marketing – Reports by Cisco predict that by 2019, video will account for 80 percent of global internet traffic and 85 percent in the US. Although many types of video marketing strategies exist, company culture videos and explainer videos often build the most rapport for attracting top talent.
- Virtual reality recruiting – In 2017, companies like Intuit, General Mills, and Jaguar have begun using VR to simulate job roles, create skills-based tests, and introduce candidates to their workplace culture. The result is finding more suitable talent that better understands your company’s expectations, without all the effort of going through several interviews to do the same.
- Voice search job recruitment – Technology travels lightning fast, and it’s only a matter of time before voice search becomes ubiquitous with recruiting. Already, 41 percent of adults use voice search daily, and reports by Gartner predict that by 2020, 30 percent of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen. Have you optimized your website for voice search yet?
Does your business currently capture company videos, tailor your SEO strategy to voice search, or has it indulged in virtual reality? Without following at least one of these steps, you may be left in the dust of outdated recruitment strategies.
What Are the Top Strategies for Recruitment in 2018?
So your business wants to attract top talent (and screen out the rest), improve how your jobs get seen online, speed up the hiring process, and find great candidates quickly. With the right approach, there is no reason 2018 can’t be your biggest growth year yet.
At Blue Corona, we help small businesses nationwide tackle the challenges of hiring and managing their company’s growth online. From digital marketing to analyzing industry trends, we lead a team of data-driven individuals who found a space in our company the same way we encourage our clients to approach recruiting for themselves. To learn more about our company culture or to see how we can help you with your recruitment strategy, contact us now!
About The Author: Blue Corona's Editorial Staff is determined to help you increase your leads and sales, optimize your marketing costs, and differentiate your brand by passing on our tribal knowledge. The team vigilantly stays on top of the latest in digital marketing, bringing you the top insights with expert commentary. Want to see something on our blog you haven't seen yet? Shoot us an email and our marketing team will get to work.
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The information on this website is for informational purposes only; it is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. It does not constitute professional advice. All information is subject to change at any time without notice. Contact us for complete details.
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