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7 Ways to Boost Your Recruiting Strategy
When it comes to running a successful business, implementing a recruiting strategy that helps you hire the right candidates and creating a strong company culture are two of the most critical factors attributed to long-term success.
By Andrea Burkholder
It’s not a secret, building a strong team can be difficult. A low unemployment rate coupled with the high prices associated with recruiting can be enough to cause any business owner to fail.
Many folks enter the business world thinking recruiting will be easy. It doesn’t take long to figure out that there is a real art to recruiting and growing a successful organization.
Mathew Caldwell, Head of Talent at Instacart said, “Recruiting should really be viewed as a business partner, someone who is critical to the success of the business.”
I wholeheartedly agree, as a business owner, your success is tied to identifying and hiring people who have a strong desire to succeed, are innovative and that you can rely on to get the job done, so you can focus on growing your business.
Developing a recruiting strategy that is specific to your business and delivers results is time well spent. Whether you incorporate traditional recruiting tactics or choose to engage on a more personal level, the goal should be for potential candidates to feel positively connected to your business which can in turn drive higher employee engagement levels and increased employee retention.
Here are a few low cost ideas to help you develop a recruiting strategy specific to your business that identifies reliable sources of new talent you may not have thought of.
Beef Up Your Company Websites
According to Linkedin, 52% of potential candidates will visit your company website and social media accounts after learning about an open position at your company. With that being said, it’s important to assure that your website and social media pages give a good first impression.
Your company website should be appealing to your target applicant and should be screened for grammar and spelling errors. Design, colors and pictures are great ways to attract your potential applicant.
It’s also a good idea to incorporate a recruiting section on your website. This gives you the opportunity to tell your story and to exhibit what sets you apart from other potential employers.
Tap Into Your Social Media Network
Social media is great for keeping up with friends and family. It’s also a great place for sharing information you want to share. This makes is a fantastic place to recruit.
Keep an eye on your social media feeds for those who are unemployed or who are “underemployed” and are looking to earn some extra money. These individuals often have a sense of urgency about increasing their income.
This sense of urgency can help expedite the hiring process which is a win for you and your new hire.
Network With Others Thru Social Media Groups
Many social media platforms also offer “groups” or “communities”. Groups or communities allow people with similar interest to come together in hopes of providing value to each other.
There are groups for just about anything you can imagine. For example, if you own a retail store and are looking to network with potential future employees, you might join the “Women in Retail Leadership” group on LinkedIn.
If you own a car lot, you might join a “car salesman” group on Facebook and if you are looking for a Salesforce.com developer, you might join a “Salesforce.com professional developers” group on Linkedin.
Many of these groups will allow you to seek out potential candidates, just make sure you follow the group rules as established by the group.
Some groups will restrict posting jobs, but will allow you to ask where you can find potential employees with their skillset. Other groups will allow recruiting with special provisions.
Partner With Social Media Influencers
Social Media Influencers can be a marketing gold mine. Influencers have generally established credibility with their followers and may be willing to share positive information about your company or job opportunity with their followers.
While some are willing to share information for free, most influencers will charge a fee.
If you allow your employees to bring their pets to work, you might consider partnering with and influencer that focuses on dogs. It wouldn’t be a stretch to ask them to write a post about places that allow dog lovers to take their pets to work.
The possibilities here are endless.
Capitalize On Referral Opportunities
If your company culture is strong and employees feel supported, both current and former employees will refer candidates to you.
This can be a win-win for your business as you’ll experience lower on-boarding cost, you’ll have a constant flow of potential candidates to choose from and employee churn will be lower. As an added bonus, it’s been my experience that many referred candidates tend to be really high performers.
Treat your employees well and they will treat your customers and clients well. If customers and clients feel that your employees are treated well, they will refer candidates to you. If you have a customer or client that you have a strong relationship with, you might consider asking if they know anyone who may be looking for an opportunity.
It’s not uncommon for people to know others within the same industry that could potentially be an employment match.
Reach Out To Former Employees
Employees come and employees go, that’s just part of business.
Sometimes they leave for more money, greater opportunity, benefits, there are literally hundreds of reasons someone might choose to leave a good job.
Likewise, sometimes great employees leave for reasons outside of their control. Perhaps their car broke down and they couldn’t come up with reliable transportation or maybe a family member got sick.
If you have a good company culture, you make their exit easy and periodically reach out to say “hi”, you might be surprises how many of them return to your company in the future.
Place Flyers Strategically
Strategically placed flyers can get your open position in front of candidates I like to call “under-employed”.
Under-employed candidates aren’t necessarily looking for a job but may not be happy in their current position or may be looking to earn additional income.
If the flyers are placed in the right locations, you’ll get them in front of candidates that will come to work and will work hard.
You’re probably asking yourself what good locations are and that’s a GREAT question!
Flyers placed on job boards at local grocery stores, banks, churches, or even utility news-letters can be fruitful. You’ll want to identify where your target candidate may go and then find locations to hang your flyers in those areas.
Be strategic, if you need someone that has a car, don’t place your flyer at a bus stop. Make sense?
Conclusion
Successful recruiting strategies are often tied to how well you build up and leverage your network. Remember, you don’t always have to spend a lot of money running high priced ads to get great employees.
It’s always a good idea to check with your attorney to assure your new recruiting strategy makes sense from a legal perspective.
Get creative and start working today on ways to attract your ideal candidates. It takes time to find the right candidates, so actions you take today can help you efficiently hire that super-star employee in the future. You can thank us later 😊
Working on building a strong company culture? Check out our articles on company culture and developing strong team meetings.
We look forward to speaking with you!
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