Most organizations continue to face hiring challenges, regardless of industry or location. In a recent Robert Half survey, 86% of hiring managers said they were experiencing hiring challenges in 2024. In markets where potential applicants are hard to find, and job opportunities are plentiful, organizations can face many challenges, including:
As a result of these challenges, organizations find themselves with a growing list of unfilled positions, a need to increase spending beyond the recruitment budget, or both. Unfortunately, in many cases, the recruitment strategies that may have worked in the past no longer yield the quality or quantity of candidates they did in the past.
While job posting on sites such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor is among the most common methods organizations use to find applicants, it has its limitations. As many recruitment professionals know, job posts may attract many applicants, but the quantity may not translate to candidate quality.
There are many other reasons an over-reliance on job posting can fail to deliver the results organizations expect:
Though job postings yield some applicants, they may leave recruitment teams with few viable candidates to show for their talent attraction efforts. Without a comprehensive and sustainable recruitment system, applicants can fall off due to low engagement, insufficient communication, mismatched pay expectations, and others factors.
Instead of relying on traditional job posting alone, talent acquisition teams can make more progress in attracting and hiring great talent by adopting the following strategies:
Planning beyond immediate job openings goes a long way in helping the organization approach talent acquisition more proactively. An excellent way to get started is by leveraging data to identify patterns in past recruitment trends and project future needs. Modern tools like machine learning and predictive analytics can help recruitment teams make more accurate, data-backed decisions in the following areas:
Just as digital marketers may follow the mantra “always be converting,” recruitment marketing professionals can take similar action. By practicing continuous recruitment—always running job ad campaigns and engaging the talent pipeline—organizations can maintain the talent pipeline year-round and avoid scrambling when staffing needs surge.
Continuous recruitment helps organizations overcome many challenges of attracting and retaining talent in a tight labor market. It also supports better time-to-hire metrics, ensuring the organization can quickly identify talent and fill open positions faster than the competition.
When done effectively, continuous recruitment touches each of the following recruitment activities:
Tip: Busy talent acquisition teams may not always remain current on everything happening in recruitment. Continuous improvement is easier with the help of a trusted recruitment partner who can advise on the latest trends, best practices, and how to implement them successfully.
Everything customers, employees, and other candidates have to say about an organization somehow makes its way to potential applicants. Whether via Glassdoor reviews, social media, or word of mouth, an organization’s reputation directly impacts hiring. Research has found that most people would not join a company with a bad reputation.
Whether there’s a need to improve a good reputation or repair a damaged one, employer branding holds the keys to attracting more candidates and keeping them engaged throughout the hiring process. To assess and improve the employer brand, organizations should take the following actions:
Tip: The employee value proposition (EVP) is the “north star” of effective branding and recruitment marketing. Recruitics’ RX Studio helps organizations create a compelling EVP and bring their employer brand to life.
In a job market with plentiful job opportunities, candidates seek more than a position that meets their minimum pay, benefits, or work schedule requirements. They also seek overall fulfillment. In a Gallup survey, employees named work-life balance and better personal well-being among the top things they said were essential when deciding whether to accept a new job. Only pay and benefits ranked higher.
To attract potential candidates, even before job openings are created, recruitment teams should boost communication and highlight how the organization can meet candidate needs and expectations. Ways to nurture the talent pool and maintain ongoing candidate engagement include:
A comprehensive recruitment strategy is most effective with technology that helps the talent acquisition team understand what’s working, what’s not, and where opportunities for improvement exist. Recruitment technology enables organizations to do the following:
Tip: When hiring targets outpace the recruitment budget, talent acquisition teams must often do more with less. Recruitics’ ReachTM Network helps organizations limit waste and overspending via programmatic advertising technology that efficiently distributes job posts across thousands of job sites.
Taking a proactive and holistic approach to recruitment can expand candidate reach and boost applicant conversions. With the powerful combination of employer branding, continuous candidate engagement, and innovative technology, organizations will be well-positioned to compete for talent more effectively.
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If you need help getting started, contact us today! Recruitics’ tailored recruitment solutions address organizational needs for quality candidates and higher talent conversion, even in the most challenging job markets.
