Do you spend countless hours posting jobs, networking ( not sure what that means in the post pandemic world), and scouring the internet for potential candidates, only to come up short-handed time and time again?
It's a common problem that many businesses and talent acquisition professionals face when it comes to finding qualified employees. Although there are no silver bullets there are ways to overcome these obstacles. In this blog post, we'll discuss some tips and tricks on how to solve your talent outreach problem. Hint...most candidates you need to recruit are closer than you think. So read on and get started!
Talent Acquisition has evolved quite a bit over the years.
Has it really? It depends on who you ask. If you are in the traditional camp that uses all the legacy tools for talent acquisition they tend to agree that it has come a long way. However, if you are an out-of-the-box thinker that constantly questions the status quo you tend not to believe in the candidate outreach methodologies that are being currently used and seek creative ways.
Let's look at the typical workflow of a recruiter/talent acquisition professional at most companies.
Candidate Sourcing (Job postings, Social Media, Internal Portal/ATS, Job Boards
Candidate Outreach
Candidate Screening
ATS Management (Mostly used as repository to store resumes)
Client or Hiring Manager interaction
Candidate Submission
Follow up to gauge interest from your hiring managers
Convey Good or Bad News to candidates about the next steps
Set up Interviews if the candidate you sourced gets selected
Work the interview Logistics
Schedule interviews
Debrief Hiring Managers and Candidates
If all goes well make an offer
Hope your candidate accepts
If the candidate accepts move on to on-boarding
Rinse & Repeat
Job postings are one of the most oldest mechanisms in a recruiter's arsenal and still used widely as one of the key sources to attract applicants for open positions. In fact it's one of the most common ways businesses try to reach potential candidates. There's an old adage that fits perfectly in this scenario called spray and pray.
Every ATS vendor sells job postings to your own site along with postings to multiple job boards as a huge vale add. The trouble is, job postings are becoming less and less effective as a candidate outreach tool.
In a recent study, it was found that only 20% of job seekers use job boards as their primary way to find employment. This means that 80% of potential candidates are not even seeing your job postings! So how do you solve this problem?
The answer is simple. Stop relying on reactive job postings to reach candidates or job applicants and start using creative methods to get in touch with potential applicants and future employees.
Before we demonstrate how we can solve this problem let's address the elephant in the room. OK. What is it? Come on now. I can't wait any longer. Glad you asked.
The online proliferation of social networks, Job boards, free portals etc. Wait. What? Why do you think these channels are not worthy. We never said these are not worthy. What we are saying is you can use your offline channels or as we call them "owned channels" to solve the talent outreach problem as a complementary strategy to harvest, mine and nurture your applicants. Hmm...interesting... so how then do you propose we do this?
By incentivizing candidates that have been imported to your owned channels (aka Applicant Tracking/ATS or Customer Relationship Management/CRM systems). Companies gladly use head hunters or professional recruiters and pay them thousands of dollars to fill their position but aren't trying to reach out to the buyer (the job applicant) of their service (in this context their company and the position they are trying to fill)
Incentivize: One way to solve your candidate outreach problem is to incentivize potential candidates to apply for your open positions. For example, you could incentivize top candidates for their time and offer creative gifts as a token of appreciation.
Using a platform like Giftem will help you to incentivize candidates across the lifecycle of recruiting which helps in building that much-needed warm relationship. This helps in candidates taking your positions seriously and also helps with lessening candidate ghosting.
Organize And Automate: Another way to solve your candidate outreach problem is to get organized. Keep track of the names and contact information of everyone you speak with during the hiring process using a CRM or ATS. That way, you can reach out to them again if you have openings in the future and keep nurturing them along the way. Good recruiters keep tabs and in touch with their top candidates periodically and build momentum.
This way you are sending a message to your candidates that you are always looking for their best interest and convert them into potential applicants and future hires.
Niche Job Posting: Finally, if you absolutely must use job postings as part of your candidate outreach strategy, make sure they are professional and well-written, and highly niche. A poorly written or unprofessional job posting will only serve to turn off potential candidates and damage your company's image.
Using canned job postings will not help you or the candidates. Ask your hiring managers to take time and articulate the core value proposition of why they think a qualified candidate should come work for them when they have so many other choices. Some of the nuggets they suggest could turn out to be USPs that may attract even passive candidates, By following these simple tips, you can Solve Candidate Outreach and make finding qualified employees a breeze!
In conclusion, candidate outreach is a problem that many businesses face; however, there are methods to solve this problem. Be smart in your approach and use one that makes the most sense for your business. Make sure to attract high-quality candidates that will add value to your company and make them feel like your company is adding value to them as well. Good luck in your journey to crafting the perfect team!