Recruiting Tactics For Peak Hunting Season

What is a recruitment strategy?

Quality hires are the key to a company’s ability to execute its goals and deliver on its mission. Every company wants the best people and in order to accomplish that, you need a defined and thoughtful recruitment strategy. Similar to your brand or marketing strategy, it leverages channels to your audience to communicate who you are as a company and the value you bring to that specific audience. So often, you see little attention paid to job listings and careers webpages; however these, as well as many others in this digital age, are key touchpoints in a candidate’s decision-making process. Continue reading to learn our tips and tactics for creating an effective recruitment strategy: 

Tactics to follow to attract top talent in a competitive recruitment market: 

Identify the ideal traits for potential candidates and treat it as a persona exercise

Ask yourself, what is their current job title? What is their educational background? What career benefits and outcomes are they looking for? How can you, as an employer, showcase the ways in which you meet a candidate’s requirements as well as how they meet yours? 

Strengthen your brand identity

 If the candidate can’t glean who you are, what you do, and what your mission is based on preliminary interactions with your website and marketing materials, they aren’t likely to continue to engage with your company let alone apply for a position. At the top of the funnel, recruitment candidates are not that different from prospective customers – a strong, unified brand presence with clear impactful messaging is key in them taking the next step and applying for your position. 

Optimize your job postings for the digital age

There are endless digital tools at your disposal to make your job postings stand out. Unique media ranging from brand videos and video employee testimonials to the implementation of the best brand strategy forms and unique ATS tracking capabilities position your company to put your best foot forward when searching for top talent. We often hear about optimizing content for SEO value, and the same consideration should be paid to crafting a job posting. Your job description and each brand touchpoint along the way including your digital and social media presence are influential in the recruitment process and a candidate’s decision-making. 

Participate in events

Engage in events that emphasize your industry standing and expertise. You can talk about your company’s extraordinary capabilities and talent until you are blue in the face, however, you need to find ways to demonstrate it in a setting of industry peers. 

Use LinkedIn

Social platforms, especially LinkedIn can be a powerful tool in growing your brand presence as an employer, showcasing accomplishments, and attracting prospective talent. Consistently posting insights from your team, particularly from your company leadership, can go a long way to demonstrate engagement in industry trends and subject-matter expertise. In a much more practical sense, social media is becoming a more and more prominent job search tool across many industries. In the last year, 79% of job seekers have used social media in their job search. This lends itself to a holistic digital recruitment strategy that includes a strong LinkedIn presence with insights and actual job listings being posted consistently as well as a link driving users to your company website where they can find even more relevant information on your careers page. 

Create an employee referral program

When searching for new employees, who better than your current employees to identify candidates that will do the job well and be a good fit on the team. Not only does hiring through employee referrals eliminate the need and cost of sourcing candidates through recruiters, it also positions you to find higher quality, longer-term candidates – 45% of employees sourced from employee referrals stay for longer than 4 years, while only 25% of employees sourced through job boards stay for over 2 years.

For more tailored recruiting and brand strategy tips, connect with Bluetext today!