These days, evolving candidate expectations and increased competition for talent have kept the pressure on organizations seeking to hire. For many companies, recruitment strategies that were effective just a year ago may not work so well now, leaving talent acquisition teams to identify new ways to attract quality candidates.
Conventional recruitment methods and candidate sources, such as job postings, employee referrals, and career fairs, will likely continue to have their place in recruitment programs. But to achieve breakthrough success and potentially discover new talent pools, organizations can benefit from testing new tactics, including some less traditional recruiting ideas that are outside the box.
Unfortunately, there’s no “magic solution” organizations can adopt to ensure they find and attract the talent they need for growth. In fact, even with a proven set of recruitment methods, it may still become increasingly difficult to compete for talent. A recent Gartner survey revealed that 59% of HR leaders believe competition for talent will only become more challenging going forward.
Here are ten creative ideas talent teams should explore to rise to the challenge and compete more effectively for qualified candidates:
Though the internet and social media have blurred geographic boundaries and brought people closer together, they can also enable organizations to recruit more effectively by geographical location. With geotargeting recruitment tools, teams can concentrate job ads in pre-selected locations. Instead of investing advertising dollars in areas that yield low-quality or not enough applicants, it’s possible to run ad campaigns in areas that offer the most promising talent.
Geotargeting has something to offer organizations of many sizes and hiring goals. It can be used to:
Candidates have a lot to consider before applying to an open position, and many read reviews and company profiles on sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. According to LinkedIn research, 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job.
To ensure consistency and the presentation of an authentic brand voice, companies must engage with visitors and keep information and employer profiles up-to-date across all digital channels. If there’s a delay in engagement or information is outdated, candidates may become less interested in the messaging and may move on to another employer.
Organizations can keep employer profiles fresh and up-to-date by taking the following actions:
Tip: A compelling employer brand is the cornerstone of an effective recruitment program. Therefore, talent acquisition and HR teams should be sure to communicate a brand identity that tells candidates what to expect as future employees.
At a time when there are five generations in the labor market (the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z), it’s essential to understand the messaging that resonates with each. To attract a diverse mix of candidates across generations, talent acquisition teams should adjust recruitment marketing content accordingly. For example, where Gen Z candidates may be more likely to engage with recruiting content on YouTube and Instagram, Gen X and Baby Boomers may respond better to job ads in podcasts or on Facebook.
Understanding these differences can help recruitment teams diversify branding messages and other content to reach a broader audience of job seekers.
These days, it seems AI is everywhere, and recruitment is no exception. From career site chatbots to AI-powered screening tools, HR and talent acquisition teams are using artificial intelligence solutions to boost automation, improve decision-making, and provide a better candidate experience.
Organizations wanting to realize even more gains with AI can also consider using a solution like Recruitics’ Vision, the first AI-powered recruitment data analytics platform. With this solution, it’s possible to operate a more data-driven recruitment function and utilize AI recruitment tools to accomplish the following actions:
Video has the power to inspire and engage candidates from the moment of brand awareness to the point of hire and beyond. It can also improve the applicant conversion rate. CareerBuilder research found that job postings with video received 34% more applicants.
Video offers talent acquisition teams added versatility, as video can either replace traditional job descriptions or be embedded in written descriptions. Organizations can also create many types of video content, including day-in-the-life videos, employee-generated videos, and video messages from hiring managers describing their ideal candidate.
Despite the wealth of available information describing what candidates look for in a future employer, it’s usually not organization-specific. However, talent acquisition teams can pinpoint and understand candidate expectations better by periodically conducting candidate and employee surveys. For example, surveys can gauge how well candidates are engaging with branding content and whether employees feel the content is a fair representation of the company’s actual culture and values. Surveys can also help HR and recruitment teams understand key motivators for candidates – those aspects of the process made them hit “Apply.”
Tip: One of the best ways to prevent ghosting in the recruitment process is to improve the time it takes to assess and respond to applications.
University and vocational school partnerships allow organizations to get in front of the youngest generation of talent early in their job search, sometimes before the job search even begins. Creating co-op programs, providing guest lectures, and offering students early interview opportunities for internships are all ways organizations can stay on students’ radars and remain top of mind when they begin seeking full-time employment. These partnerships can benefit any organization, and can be particularly valuable to those in industries experiencing a considerable talent shortage, such as manufacturing and healthcare.
A personalized message gets a more favorable response than a generic one. In fact, McKinsey research found that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. In recruitment, a customized message lets candidates know the organization has a specific interest in their skills, interests, and capabilities.
Part of what makes personalized messaging such a great outside-the-box recruiting tactic is that hiring teams can use it at several points along the hiring process, including the first interview invitation, when providing feedback and checking in with candidates, and when crafting an onboarding process for new hires.
Considering that 85% of people have a smartphone, it’s not surprising many are using their phone in their job search. To make it even easier for candidates to engage with branding content and apply, talent acquisition teams can create short links (for example, a bit.ly link) and QR codes that candidates can use to quickly access careers content, employee testimonial videos, and of course, the job application. Short links and QR codes can be distributed at career fairs (in-person and virtual) and used in offline advertising channels, such as subway stations, bus stops, and sports stadiums.
Though candidates in the talent pool have already expressed interest in the company, they still require some nurturing and engagement to maintain that interest. Organizations can keep these individuals interested in future opportunities by developing a re-engagement strategy aimed at sending reminders and other messages across multiple channels, including email, text, and phone. By nurturing existing candidates and consistently promoting the employee value proposition (EVP), recruitment marketing teams can ensure the talent pool remains a robust source of engaged and highly interested applicants.
At a time when organizations must switch up recruitment tactics to keep pace with evolving candidate expectations, implementing some recruiting ideas outside the box can go a long way. Trying out these unconventional recruitment methods in a challenging job market can not only boost candidate quantity and quality, but also ongoing candidate engagement.
For help building a more effective recruitment program, the team at Recruitics is here to help! Recruitics’ employer branding, recruitment advertising, and technology solutions help organizations improve efficiency, attract quality candidates, and hire more successfully.
