Find out what cutting-edge practices can help you find quality candidates.
Top talent can be difficult to find — and even harder to hire.
In today’s recruitment market, companies often find themselves volleying for top candidates who are looking for unique project opportunities; stellar pay; an exciting location and other amenities.
The competition can be fierce in some industries. Forty-three percent of IT managers, for example, told Computerworld in a recent survey that they planned to hire more tech professionals this year; however, 48 percent of employees said they weren’t looking for a job, and 6 percent said they were hoping to obtain a new position with their current employer.
Just 9 percent said they were actively searching for a new job at a new company.
Delivering on employee recruiting and staffing ranked among HR professionals’ top three priorities in 2015, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Improving leadership development and managing talent were the only two concerns they placed higher.
If your organization is struggling to find quality candidates, the following six best practices may help you locate and lure jobseekers in new, more successful ways:
Using social media to recruit passive hires: More and more, according to Business News Daily, to track down talent, recruiters are searching through social media profiles and other sites where potential employees may have posted information. Utilizing industry- and position-related keywords can help you start your search.
Get ready for lights, camera and interviewing action: Face-to-face interviewing has its advantages. However, use of video interviewing has increased by 49 percent in the past few years, according to Recruiter. For companies struggling with a tight employee recruiting budget, video interviewing can help reduce travel costs—and also, Recruiter says, present significant time savings, compared to phone screening processes.
Make sure all screening steps are clear: With background checks, criminal record disclosure and other employee screening processes facing further scrutiny this year, transparency can be key. The Society for Human Resource Management recommends clearly communicating how the screening process works to candidates early in the process to avoid any potential confusion or frustration.
Know what you’re up against: When trying to hire full-time workers, organizations often struggle to find quality candidates. Their top two difficulties involve dealing with candidates without the right technical skills and competition from other employers, according to SHRM’s recent Workforce Readiness and Skills Shortages report. Competition is hard to control; you can, however, work with somewhat inexperienced talent. To address related skills gaps, some organizations are providing additional training.
Utilize varying venues: Job listing sites are far from the only places you can find quality candidates. In recent years, HR professionals have turned to new employee recruiting avenues — including employee referral programs and company career websites, according to LinkedIn’s 2015 Global Recruiting Trends report.
Promote your company—instead of just promoting open positions: Present yourself in the talent marketplace as a company where people will want to work by stressing your diversity program, benefit and other amenities and efforts. Forty-seven percent of organizations utilized social networks to market their talent brand in 2014, according to LinkedIn.
For ongoing placement needs — both anticipated and unexpected — having a robust talent pipeline in place can help you fill positions quickly with qualified candidates.
Talent pipelines take time to create, and they require time to maintain. Find out how to maximize your succession planning and employee recruiting efforts in our recent blog post on solving your most critical talent pool issues with new ways to develop internal talent and effectively find quality candidates using external sources.