Recruitment Strategies for 2018-2019

Core Strategies

• Understand what makes your organization unique. What defines your company and separates it from every other business? You should know or find the answer from a business and a company culture perspective. The answer should be revealed throughout the recruitment process.
• Implement competitive compensation and benefits packages. Your company should offer more than a paycheck — but the paycheck is important. Also consider employee perks programs, wellness programs, flexible work options and more that can help employees financially (and boost morale).
• Start an employee referral program. “Good employers use their own employees, customers and vendors as prime sources of new hires,” according to entrepreneur and author Liz Ryan in Forbes. “If you post job openings to the entire world before letting your employees, customers and suppliers know about them, you are not only missing out on an awesome source of talent but also insulting your own best recruiting team members. If you don’t value your employees enough to make them ambassadors for your brand, then your culture is broken.”
• Provide realistic job previews. If recruiting is about mutual evaluation, giving employees a realistic look at their potential positions can save both sides from a potentially unpleasant situation. Getting feedback on these previews can be revealing for companies.
• Actively promote your brand. Both sides in recruiting should be trying to demonstrate their strengths. Show applicants why they should work at your company.
• Train hiring managers to interview well. “They should be evaluating candidates on various dimensions throughout the process, as opposed to rehashing things that have already come up in previous stages,” and I believe. They should also be probing beneath the surface of a candidate’s answers to uncover useful insight into their skills and experience. This will likely require some form of interview training, so people feel ready to support the process when the time comes.
• Consider re-hires. The most effective approach to recruiting is training existing employees to take on hard-to-fill roles, according to nearly 3,000 HR professionals in a Society for Human Resource Management survey.

Creative Strategies

• Apply for a local/state/national “best places to work” award. A third-party stamp of approval can catch the eye of your target audience. Explore awards that can get your company’s culture recognized.
• Utilize organic and paid social media recruiting. There are several channels that you can take advantage of in social media recruitment. Many large companies are leading the way in using these networks effectively.
• Handpick dream candidates and show them you want them. “Passive candidates (those who are already employed and not actively job hunting) are most likely to be your dream hires, but you’ll never attract them without letting them know how much you want them,” according to Business Insider.
• Make yourself stand out with non-traditional media. Videos and podcasts can differentiate your company from competitors and promote your company’s culture.
• Attend events other than job fairs. The best candidates typically already have jobs. Explore Meetup events and other creative ways to connect to passionate, skilled people.
• Skip the resume and have candidates call directly. Use this method with care. Yet, it can be a powerful way to quickly interact with candidates and gauge how well they would fit at your company.
• Create engaging, interactive content that sells your brand/culture. This can include fun, productive content like “game” ads that serve as tests for programmers.