By Kelly Wilmott
In the current hiring market, sourcing the ideal candidate has been no easy feat. Competition is high, open positions are plenty and job seekers have a monopoly over where they want to work. More so than ever, employers struggling to hire great talent have had to change tactics by offering higher salaries, sign-on bonuses, work-from-home opportunities, additional benefits, and more, but they have also had to think outside the box and use a variety of means to find quality hires.
According to data from Jobvite, around 70% of job seekers are engaging in online job searching. They also found that even though most applicants apply for jobs using an online job board or employer career site, 35% of candidates found job postings through social media, 50% heard about jobs through friends or word-of-mouth, and 37% say they learned about jobs from professional networks (Jobvite).
With all this in mind, have you considered using any of these sources to find your next big hire? If the answer is no, then here are five great sources you can start using today to really help maximize your hiring potential.
- Social RecruitingWhile posting your open job opportunities to online job boards like Indeed or Ziprecruiter (through your IdealTraits account) still remains a popular source of recruiting, employers are now turning to social media to find their next big hire.
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, are being increasingly used by prospective job candidates to seek out roles they are specifically interested in, but 84% of organizations are also using social media to recruit (Zippia). Social recruiting is an excellent way to proactively search and reach out to candidates who look like they’d be an ideal fit for your open position based on their own interests and experience.
LinkedIn, for example, is currently the world’s largest professional networking site with 87% of recruiters regularly using LinkedIn (Jobvite) to find top talent. It’s also no surprise then, that 75% of job seekers going through a career change use LinkedIn to inform their career decision (CareerDirectors). LinkedIn not only offers a great way for you to connect with other like-minded professionals, network, and source prospective candidates with matching qualifications and experience; it’s also a great way for those like-minded individuals to reach out to you.
Being present and active on social media has never been so important in the recruitment world. The first step: share your ads on social media. The next step: get active and start searching. Your ideal candidate is out there, so don’t wait for them to find you, go find them!
- Employee Referrals/Employee Referral ProgramsEmployee referrals have proven to be one of the top methods for sourcing quality hires (along with social networks and Internet job boards) and according to a LinkedIn report (LinkedIn), a huge 48% of businesses said that their top hires came from such a referral.
Think about it: if you have a network of personal and professional connections you can tap into, then so will your existing employees. They are also the ones who know firsthand, about your industry, your company’s work ethic and culture, as well as the required skills for specific roles, so who better to ask than your own team. Your experienced employees are going to be amazing advocates for your company so get them involved in the hiring process!
Employee Referral Programs are also a big hit with 69% of organizations already having one in place (Careerbuilder). Incentivizing current employees for referring talented candidates will not only encourage productivity but will also help create a happy, loyal work environment which can, in turn, lead to higher employee retention and even increased profit. Yes, you heard that right: higher retention rates and more profit! Companies that source their new hires through referral programs tend to have higher retention rates than those that do not (46% in comparison to 33%) and can produce 25% more profit for their companies than new hires found through other methods. (Recruiter.com)
If you’re not asking your staff who could be the next greatest asset to your company, you’re missing out, so go ask!
- Networking EventsAccording to HubSpot, 85% of jobs are filled through networking. Attending a networking event is vital for helping to build professional connections and brand awareness, sharing ideas and knowledge with like-minded professionals, not to mention being a great way to find the best candidates.
Career fairs are an especially effective way to network and find top talent all in one location. They give you access to a large pool of candidates, are an excellent opportunity to spot talent early and help you meet prospective candidates who are specifically interested in building a career in your industry. It’s a chance for you to introduce yourself, share information about your company, talk about career development and the training you offer, as well as discuss potential job opportunities and collect resumes from prospective candidates. Career fairs can also act as a way to carry out lots of mini-interviews in a short space of time, and where you can earmark strong candidates who you think would be the perfect fit for a role at your company.
There are also many other types of networking events one should consider during the recruitment process, such as job fairs (virtual or in-person), industry-related meet-ups, chamber of commerce events, professional conferences, trade shows, and more. Finding ones in your local area, or that are specific to your industry will not only help raise your profile and build long-lasting connections but also aid in your search for talent. You never know who you might meet at one of these events that either knows just the right person you’ve been looking for all along or is, in fact, ‘the one’.
And finally, remember with any networking event, you need to follow up with your newly formed contact within 24-48 hours and remind them of what you have to offer to gauge their interest. In such a competitive market, talented candidates will have options so if you don’t follow up, you could miss out on having the ideal candidate join your team, only for them to be swooped up by a competing company.
- Offline AdvertisingIn today’s digital world, it’s easy to forget about the more traditional offline methods of advertising, such as putting up ‘Help Wanted’ signs, advertising in the local newspaper, or on community or university job bulletin boards.
When supported by other recruiting methods, offline advertising can be another good way to promote your company and job opportunities and thus help you find quality hires within your local area. For example, placing a flyer on a local coffee shop’s bulletin board can help you get seen by potential job seekers who may have otherwise just been grabbing a coffee that day.
Don’t forget that talent can be found anywhere: at your local restaurant or supermarket, running errands at the bank, or at your favorite local sporting event. You just never know where your next ideal candidate could come from so be sure to keep your eyes peeled.
- Reconsider Past CandidatesHave you ever had a fantastic candidate apply, but for some reason or another, they weren’t hired or weren’t quite right for the role at the time? I’m sure you have, but did you ever consider whether they could be the perfect fit for a role in the future? Just because a previous candidate wasn’t right in the past, doesn’t mean they’re not right now!
A great source for quality hires could quite literally be right under your nose, archived away in your IdealTraits applicant tracking system. When looking through your archived candidates, ask yourself these questions: why were they not hired initially? Were they under or over-qualified? Were they best suited for a different role that wasn’t available at the time? Were they looking for certain perks or benefits not available at the time, but now are?
If you’ve already built up a positive candidate experience with an archived candidate and made specific notes and comments during their interview process, then it should be much easier to reconnect at a later date. After all, if they were interested once, they could be interested now!
Roles and company policies evolve, just like candidates in your talent pool so if you’re not looking back through your archived candidates, then you could be missing a great opportunity to find a great hire!
Final Thoughts:
IdealTraits offers a convenient way to post to 100+ jobs while seamlessly sending prospective candidates our personality assessments to complete. With the war on talent in full effect, we understand how important it has become to actively expand the ways you find quality talent. That is why you also have the option to manually add candidates found through other means into your IdealTraits account, so they can also be sent the personality assessments and you have the peace of mind, they are the ideal fit for the role you are advertising. Check out this article from our Help Center which shows you how!
And lastly, it’s no lie that the current hiring market is a challenging one, but top talent is out there. If you are still on the lookout for your next superstar, don’t wait for candidates to find you! Consider these tips, focus your efforts toward strategically sourcing quality hires through a variety of means, and set yourself up for success!