Talent Acquisition Strategist | Elevating Recruitment Performance

A recruitment strategy is a defined hiring plan used to attract, evaluate, and hire people for open positions. It can be applied at any stage of the recruitment process, such as boosting candidate applications or improving employee retention. When your recruiting team needs a boost, there are several effective strategies you can consider enhancing their performance and attract top talent. A company should identify strengths and weaknesses in its recruitment process and align the hiring process with its overall goals to choose the best recruiting strategy. A successful recruitment strategy should encompass the necessary tools, tactics, and objectives to attract top talent and support business expansion.

Employer branding is crucial for attracting and retaining talent, with 72% of recruitment leaders acknowledging its impact on hiring success and employee satisfaction. Companies like Apple, Patagonia, Nike, and Netflix have strong employer brands that set them apart as industry leaders. Focus on key employer branding elements like EVP (Employee Value Proposition), careers page, recruitment marketing materials, employee ambassadorship, and job postings/ads. Creating a strong employer brand makes it easier to attract great candidates. Your company culture is crucial to highlight early in the recruitment process, as it influences job seekers' decisions. Incorporate employee spotlights and prominently feature your mission statement and core values on your website to showcase your company culture. Sharing details about your culture helps prospective employees understand what it's like to work at your company and makes it easier for them to accept an offer. Additionally, share employee testimonials to promote your culture and open roles.

Creating an ideal candidate profile for every role is valuable and can be used to create better job descriptions, improve sourcing strategies, and lead to better quality of hire. Optimize your candidate sourcing process by reviewing your current methods and exploring new creative ideas. Consider using external recruiters, trying new job posting channels, opening up vacancies to remote hires, subcontracting for temporary positions, incentivizing employee referrals, and tapping into your database of past applications. To attract passive candidates, it's important to adopt a long-term talent acquisition approach and make sure you get noticed by them before they start looking for a new role. This way, when they are ready for a new opportunity, they will think of you.

An ATS is the key element of an efficient recruitment strategy as it allows recruiters to track applicants throughout the entire process and automate communications. It also helps identify where qualified applicants are coming from, allowing recruiters to allocate resources effectively. If you're not using an ATS, it could positively change your recruitment process.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace have been proven to be beneficial. Diverse teams are up to 35% more effective, 87% better at making decisions, and the most diverse companies are more likely to outperform their less diverse peers on profitability. Therefore, in this day and age, you really shouldn’t need any more convincing when it comes to putting diversity first.

To improve recruitment, it's important to build a high-quality talent pool of vetted candidates. This pool should include detailed information about each candidate's experience, hard and soft skills, attributes, career goals, cultural fit, and suitable roles. Building a talent pool is a recommended long-term recruitment strategy as it can speed up the hiring process, reduce costs, and keep top candidates engaged with your business. Acknowledge various methods to build your talent pool, such as candidate sourcing campaigns, leads from career events, community, passive candidates, and candidate profiles on platforms like LinkedIn, Github, and UpWork. The next step is to explore various strategies and best practices for building and sustaining a strong talent pool.

Create an employee referral program to connect with outstanding talent. Asking current employees to refer great people from their network is an effective and free recruitment strategy. Employee referrals are an effective recruitment strategy due to their lower turnover rates, higher quality hires, reduced time to hire, and cost-effectiveness for sourcing. Employee referral programs strike a balance between incentivizing staff to refer people from their network while avoiding low-quality connections. Building these programs is quick, low-cost, and delivers qualified candidates fast, making it a favourite recruitment strategy among technical recruiters.

Social media has transformed the way recruiters and candidates interact, making digital hiring strategies and social media essential for finding and acquiring top talent. 79% of job seekers have used social media in their job search in the past year, and 81% of them want more job opportunities listed on Facebook. Additionally, candidate application rates increase by 34% when job postings include a video. Zapier, a fully remote workflow automation company, effectively utilizes social recruiting by engaging and connecting with target audiences and prospective job candidates. For example, the company shared the successful results of its "no-meeting week," where 80% of their team achieved their goals, providing insight into the company culture. Select relevant social media platforms, post regularly about job openings, company events, and product updates, and engage with followers. Encourage employee referrals and track performance to optimize social recruiting strategy.

 Connect with future graduates who are just a graduation away from applying for roles. Many are encouraged to secure their places up to a year before finishing their courses, making them a candidate pool that shouldn’t be ignored. Reasons to consider targeting graduates for your recruiting strategy are Cost-effective as they are at the start of their careers, motivated to keep learning, with 94% citing work as a way to build skills, Excellent knowledge of the latest digital tech and software and they bring fresh perspectives from their learning experience.

 Create an internship program as an effective recruitment strategy to identify and nurture promising talent within the organization. Internship programs allow both employers and candidates to assess compatibility before making long-term commitments, and serve as an effective talent pipeline. According to Zippa, 80% of interns will accept an offer from the company they interned with. To run a successful internship program, start by researching to identify which departments or teams should have an internship program. Define the program's objectives, goals, terms, and compensation to attract interns. Promote the internships across various channels. Refine the program based on feedback and measure success by tracking metrics like intern satisfaction, full-time job offers, and retention rates.

Improve recruitment process by using effective screening methods such as reviewing work samples, using tech recruiting platforms for developers, and asking candidates to take standardized tests. Structure your interviews by preparing questions beforehand and tying them to job requirements. Additionally, invest in interview training for your hiring teams to evaluate candidates Enhance your hiring metrics with skills testing to attract top talent, improve quality of hire, and reduce unconscious bias for more diverse talent. Gamify the application experience for candidates and get instant feedback. Optimize Your Interview Process by ensuring that your recruiters and hiring managers are all equipped to effectively source, vet, and interview candidates. Develop a standardized candidate evaluation template tailored to each role and collaborate with hiring managers to define the candidate persona and craft relevant interview questions. Training interviewers on legal and ethical guidelines will help streamline the process, reduce time-to-hire, minimize lost productivity, and identify the best candidates for the job.

Improve candidate experience by shortening the application process, updating the careers page with informative and user-friendly content, and keeping candidates informed throughout the hiring process. This will help create a positive impression of your company and attract more applicants. Keep in regular communication with job candidates to keep them engaged and interested in your company. Elite candidates are in high demand and may be considering multiple offers, so staying in touch will help you remain a top contender for their consideration. This will also prevent you from having to start the hiring process over again.

Utilize Data-Driven Insights and analyse recruitment data to identify trends, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement. Data-driven decisions lead to more effective strategies. A well-defined recruitment strategy tailored to your organization’s goals is essential.  By implementing the strategies, your recruiting team can thrive and attract top talent.