While technology might make it a little easier to send out your job postings to a broader audience, you still have to stand out in order to connect with the most qualified candidates and get them excited about working with your company. That is where the importance of a human resources recruiting strategy comes in.
This article lays out a few important tips you can use for your human resource recruitment strategy in order to get job seekers interested in your company. The human resources goal is to create a great first impression and get the very best candidates for your company.
- Your Candidates are your Customers
Whether you’re conducting a fully-fledged in-person interview or a simple phone screening, the first impression that a candidate has of your company is all-important. You have to strive to get them to feel the excitement you feel about meeting them. In fact, you should seem just as excited to meet them as they likely are about potentially getting the job. A useful technique to achieve this is to treat the candidate the same way you would treat a customer.
First, be respectful of the candidate’s time. Whether you’re doing a phone call, a video call, or are meeting them in person, make sure that you’re there on time. If you’re going to be late, then let them know as soon as you possibly can. That said, avoid being late on the first meeting. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
Another thing you should do is be hospitable to the candidate. This is even more important when the candidate is coming for an in-person interview. As soon as they get there to offer them something to drink and let them know where the restroom is, even without them asking. Do whatever you can to make the candidate feel comfortable.
Finally, make sure the candidate has your contacts so they can reach out to you whenever they have questions or things to add. This helps them know that you’re always available and makes them feel valued, even before they get the job.
- Don’t forget the Power of Social Media
Social Media is a great connecting platform, and this connection is quite important in the human resources recruitment process. Social media is, therefore, a great recruiting tool. Using social media as a recruiting tool allows you to reach out to the entirety of your network when posting a job. It also adds that crucial aspects of two-way engagements. You can have a conversation with the people you are trying to recruit right from the start.
The beauty of social media is that, even if the audience you get to access isn’t interested in the position you’re advertising for, they may know someone who is interested and qualified for the job and your company. With social media postings, you also get to share different media of your company, such as photographs and videos. You can share pictures of your daily office life or special events at your company to give potential candidates a glimpse at what your company culture is like.
- Employee Referrals are a Silver Bullet
If you already have great employees at your company, then chances are very high that they already know other people who would make great employees at your company. Birds of a feather flock together and people have a habit of hanging out with like-minded people.
Of course, it’s highly probable that, even without an employee referral program, your employees are already sharing job openings with their networks. However, with an employee referral program, you can specifically incentivize this behavior and give it a much-needed boost. Things like contests and bonuses create excitement around the referral process and encourage employees to find the best talent for your company, doing most of the work for you.
- Killer Job Descriptions
Your job description has to grab the attention of the audience, lest it gets lost in the sea of other job descriptions out there. Keep the titles specific and accurate, the opening summary captivating, and include all the essentials. Things such as the core responsibilities, the expected daily activities, and the role that the position plays within the overall organization should never be overlooked. All in all, your description should be as concise as possible without sacrificing too much detail.
- Brand Yourself
Your human resources team should look into your employee practices closely, including such things as motivation, retention, recognition, reward, accountability, promotion, involvement, work-life balance, and flexibility. These are the things that will help you brand yourself and become an employer of choice among candidates. Your employees themselves should be bragging about how great it is to work for you and encourage others out there to apply.
- Use Modern Recruiting Tools
Modern HR teams have a slew of recruiting tools available to them. These tools are pretty advanced and powerful, some even applying AI and machine learning techniques to the recruiting process. They allow you to speed along the recruiting process, be fairer in the recruiting process, and also to lower the costs of the recruiting process altogether.
- Past Candidates
Whenever you’re in the process of recruiting for a position, some qualified candidates don’t quite make the cut for a host of reasons. When you’re recruiting for something similar, or at least something they might be qualified for in the future, it is important to revisit the resumes of these past clients, who are already familiar with your company and may have gained some experience and new skills since your last engagement.
- Industry Meetups
Industry meetups are a great way to meet professionals in the industry who are qualified and motivated about advancing in their careers. These are different than job fairs because no one is explicitly looking for a job, making the networking process a lot more organic and authentic. If you’re looking for a marketer, for example, look for a local marketing group or meetup and attend their events. Here you will easily find the most passionate professionals.
- Peer Interviews are immensely Useful
Sometimes the best person you can get to interview someone is someone who is already in the position you’re looking to fill. This person likely already knows what it’s like to work in that position and what it takes to succeed at it. They can also tell who is most likely to thrive in that position more easily than others who don’t have experience with it. They will also be best placed to give the candidate an accurate description of what to expect at the job.
- Offer the best Compensation
This may be the last tip, but it’s definitely not the least important. Companies that pay better and offer better benefits will attract the best candidates in any field. Human Resources should, therefore, know how compensation packages look in the industry and give competitive packages themselves. This will increase the chances of the company attracting the best talent.
Wrapping it up
Attracting the best candidates for an open position is a mix of art and science. Though it leans more toward art than science, with the tips above, you are likely to improve your chances of getting the very best talent for your company and taking it to greater heights.
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