You know how to promote your company’s products, but in a tight labor market, you might want to pay similar attention to how promoting your job postings. A candidate’s journey can look much like a client journey, moving from awareness, to consideration, to loyalty as a happy and engaged employee. To achieve the end goal of hiring happy and engaged employees, each step of that journey deserves consideration.
We’ve compiled a few helpful items for hiring managers to take into consideration during the hiring process in order to attract and recruit top talent into today’s competitive hiring atmosphere. In this post, we’ll discuss how to promote and affirm the attributes that set your company apart, how to make your job postings easily accessible, and other essential recruiting tactics.
Crafting Compelling Job Listings
Let’s start with creating a job listing that reflects your company and the people you want to attract.
As you write your company profile, think about what makes your company different from others. Do you have a great motivated but laid-back culture? Any cool and unique rewards? Unlimited PTO? Dog-friendly office? Four-day work week?
Be sure to point out opportunities for training and career growth, as well as your employee perks. Some ways you can do this are by:
- Including video testimonials from current employees showcasing why they love working at your company,
- Offer competitive benefits such as:
- Hybrid or flexible work schedules
- Generous time off policy
- Clear boundaries around work hours and expectations – this will help to show you support your employees both professionally and personally
Where to Seek Job Seekers
Once you have determined your job description and got your listing squared away, it’s time to think about how job seekers will learn about your open positions. It’s important to cast a wide net by knowing what platforms and opportunities are available in your area to match your job openings with the job seekers.
There are several places where you can engage and interact with job seekers:
- Social media:
- If your candidate has TikTok, or Instagram, even without a resume or an applicant-tracking system, you could notice the standout candidates.
- Facebook groups can host qualified candidates in them. Try looking up local professional groups in your area.
- Professional networking apps like LinkedIn are great for promoting openings. You can even pay to boost posts and allow candidates to apply directly via the app.
- Online job boards:
- Industry-agnostic job boards like Indeed, Ziprecruiter, and CareerBuilder have a lot of value and can bring in qualified candidates,
- Niche job boards focus on a specific industry, skillset, or business type can be a great way to get your job in front of experienced candidates. Examples include sites such as Dribbble, Behance, eFinancialCareers, and Startup.jobs.
- Online communities (i.e., blogs and message boards):
- Industry-specific communities where discussions of issues take place could be a good spot to look for candidates who demonstrate expertise in their fields.
- Professional associations:
- Looking for marketing professionals? Check out the American Marketing Association. Human resources professionals? Consider reaching out to your local Society of Human Resources Management chapter. Professional organizations can be a doorway to potential candidates.
- Local universities and colleges:
- Universities regularly partner with businesses as part of their career services program. Many host career fairs and events throughout the year or have school newspapers or websites where you can advertise your open roles and access prospects entering the job market.
- In-person:
- It’s always important to be on the lookout and keep an open mind wherever you go – you never know when you might come across your next hire.
Tactics to land top talent
Once you’ve got your job listings ready and know how you plan to get the word out to potential candidates, you’ll want to think broadly about your recruiting strategy.
Offering a sign-on bonus as a recruitment tactic could push clients that are in between decisions over the edge for your company. The bonus could come from the recruitment marketing budget and is a terrific way to show that your company values talent. It’s recommended you stipulate that the bonus is paid after a probationary period.
Existing employees can also help by writing or recording testimonials as a form of social proof that speaks to your workplace culture and employee experience. You can leverage the networks of your employees by offering training on how to build their online networks and help recruit more candidates for your organization. Consider a recruiting happy hour or company meetup to build interest in your company and get to know potential candidates face-to-face. Monitor which methods and avenues provide your recruiting team with the most traction and best results so that you can optimize your efforts.
The tighter the labor market, the more responsive potential employers must be. A fast response rate within the day can make the difference between a great candidate going with your company versus another. Be real and authentic and complete all decision steps – interviews, assessments, background checks – as efficiently and quickly as possible. Having a fully-unified platform like Inova HCM for recruiting, applicant tracking, and onboarding can expedite the process by eliminating time-consuming manual administrative work and providing a seamless experience for candidates from first touch to first day and beyond. If you are having trouble recruiting for your company, consider hiring an expert to help.
