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Are you thinking of starting a small business or beginning the hiring process for your company?
Your recruiting process for your small business is how you’ll define your employee culture.
It may sound overwhelming, but there are many excellent strategies for recruiting employees for your small business.
In this article, you’ll find 17 of the best employee recruitment strategies, including:
- How to treat candidates
- Which software to use
- How to leverage social media for the benefit of your recruiting process.
We’ll provide you with tips and examples so that you can feel comfortable employing some of these tactics as soon as your recruiting process begins.
17 recruitment strategies for attracting top talent
- Use an ATS software
- Treat potential candidate like customers
- Leverage social media platforms
- Create an employee referral program
- Prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives
- Attend industry-related events and conferences
- Create a company culture video
- Get creative with the interview process
- Host local networking events
- Create compelling job descriptions
- Utilize industry-specific job boards
- Reach out to past employees and candidates
- Attend college and university job fairs
- Offer remote job opportunities
- Leverage AI and automation tools
- Improve your career page
- Create a fun working environment
1. Use an ATS software
An applicant tracking system (ATS) software is your go-to hub for finding, interviewing, and hiring new candidates.
ATSs are designed to make the hiring process seamless for both candidates and employers.
In an ATS, you can procure automated emails, schedule interviews, add filters to your resume search, and more.
For example, if you want to hire people with experience in coding, you can add keywords and filters to your search so that only people with those specific skills will be visible to you.
Overall, we cannot recommend using an ATS enough.
Related reading: 10 Best ATS Softwares
Workable allows you to find, hire, onboard, and manage the right person for every job.
2. Treat potential candidates like customers
This may seem counterintuitive, but candidates should be catered to just like customers are.
You would not leave customer inquiries unattended, so the same applies when handling candidate applications.
How-to: Send regular (automated) update emails about the status of their application.
These emails should cover one of the following subjects: application has been received, application is being reviewed, or application is unsuccessful.
This approach keeps your candidates engaged and informed in your hiring process.
3. Leverage social media platforms
Social media can level up your recruitment efforts by allowing you to reach a much wider audience.
For example, LinkedIn is a tremendous resource when it comes to hiring talented, capable candidates.
LinkedIn allows professionals to connect with each other and share ideas. If you’re looking for a candidate who is involved in a specific discipline (or niche area), you may want to browse the platform.
Additionally, social recruiting can enable you to assess the social media presence of your potential candidate.
Although digital footprint tracking is controversial, it is within your right as a business owner to assess your candidates using social technologies.
4. Create an employee referral program
Employee referral programs are reward systems for current employees that encourage them to refer candidates to a job opening within the company.
It is likely that your employees met qualified recruits at their university or other networking events, so they may feel inclined to refer these people to an open position at your company.
Click here for an example of an employee referral program to get ideas.
5. Prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives
Prior to discussing how to improve diversity and inclusion, consider the culture of your company.
Are there any biases that exist in the workplace? Once that’s complete, define your goals for the future to increase representation.
In terms of actionable items, you may want to rewrite your job descriptions to ensure they’re unbiased.
Additionally, the interview process should have a collection of standardized questions to ensure that you’re leveling the playing field.
6. Attend industry-related events and conferences
Attending industry-related events and conferences will increase your social scope for the hiring process.
Industry-related events will attract people from your field, some of whom may be looking to apply to your position.
7. Create a company culture video
A company culture video should capture the essence of your organization.
You may want to include members of the management team and an overview of what it’s like to work at your company, all while filming at different locations and providing a mini tour.
Tip: Company culture videos can be wonderful if they’re candid and direct, but overdoing it can create a non-relatable representation of your company.
8. Get creative with the interview process
Interviews can be both stressful and boring for all parties involved.
To make your interviews a little more interesting, consider designating a portion of the interview to discuss your candidate’s interests or to speak about a cool project that the company is working on.
9. Host local networking events
Hosting networking events can assist you in recruiting new members to your organization, but it can also establish your business in the field or community.
Here’s an idea for the event: Provide business cards at each table (or by the food and drink) with QR codes that link directly to your company’s application website.
Members can scan the code with their phone and apply on the spot if they want.
10. Create compelling job descriptions
The first step in creating a compelling job description is to make sure the job title is clear.
If the candidates understand the job title, their eyes will move over to the description.
The job description should be brief but mention the highlights of this position and maintain clarity about the purpose of the role.
Tip: Sometimes, ATS’s have tools that assist you in crafting a job posting.
Workable allows you to find, hire, onboard, and manage the right person for every job.
11. Utilize industry-specific job boards
Industry-specific job boards are websites that are unique to your industry.
This means that only those in your industry will know about their existence and be altered when a new job is posted there.
Use them to your advantage.
12. Reach out to past employees and candidates
In your ATS software, there may be a section that allows you to catalog your previous employees and candidates.
These people, although not a good fit for your company now, may be immensely valuable in the future.
This strategy allows you to tap into a known talent pool.
13. Attend college and university job fairs
Universities usually contain the most eager potential candidates. Additionally, university students can be the most aware of cutting-edge processes through experiences with professors, labs, internships, and more.
On that note, you may want to consider opening an internship position to allow a student to see what it’s like to work for your company.
At the end of the semester (or internship), if they perform well and enjoy the culture, you can offer them a full-time position.
14. Offer remote job opportunities
Remote work is exceptionally popular these days.
Remote work allows employees to manage family and other matters more efficiently so that they can perform their best at work.
Also, people tend to be happier when they have remote jobs because of the flexibility, which can lead to more productivity.
15. Leverage AI and automation tools
Although artificial intelligence (AI) should not create all of your materials, leveraging the knowledge of services like ChatGPT and other AI programs can enhance your writing, communication, and recruitment strategies.
Many people are nervous about using AI in their companies, but AI is very quickly becoming part of everyday living for most people.
Additionally, automating repetitive processes can save your employees time during the workday, which will lead to greater productivity overall.
You may want to automate some hiring processes especially when it comes to recruitment.
16. Improve your career page
The career section on your website may be visited by potential employees after they apply for a position at your company.
If this page is lackluster, you may want to call your web designer for some updates.
You’ll want to include what it’s like to work for the company, current positions being offered, and frequently asked questions.
The better picture that your career page paints, the more likely a person will be to respond to an interview request.
17. Create a fun working environment
If your working environment is enjoyable, your employees may be more likely to recommend their professional contacts to work there.
In order to create a fun work environment, a company should appreciate their employees and promote work-life balance.
People are dynamic outside of work; they have families, hobbies, accomplishments, and dreams.
Finding out what those are will really set you apart as a company.
Which recruitment strategies will you use?
You’ve made it to the end of this article on recruitment strategies! We’ve talked about hiring candidates from multiple angles to optimize your recruitment process.
Take some time to think about which recruitment strategies will serve your business well and begin to implement them.
You’ll hire your next star employee in no time.
FAQs
What is a recruitment strategy?
A recruitment strategy is the approach that a company takes in hiring new team members.
Recruitment strategies are built for both short- and long-term employment.
If you want assistance in creating your strategy, consider looking into the features of your ATS.
What to look for when finding the best employees?
While it is important that your employees have the necessary qualifications (education, professional experience, skills, etc.) to work for you, the interview can give you a sense of the kind of person they are.
It is imperative that your employees operate in a similar fashion to you to ensure that the working environment is both productive and fun.
How do you attract top talent?
You can attract top talent by creating a clear job description, setting clever filters in your application sorting system, and coming up with good interview questions that separate the most suitable candidates from the rest.
Related reading:
- 7 internal recruiting advantages
- 15 questions recruiters can ask potential candidates
- 11 best recruitment tools for recruiters
Workable allows you to find, hire, onboard, and manage the right person for every job.