You’ve already spent months trying to recruit the perfect candidate, and you still couldn’t hit the jackpot in finding the right person to fill a job vacancy. Your frustration is completely understandable since the recruitment game can present challenges that are difficult to overcome. When this happens, perhaps this is when you need to change things up a bit.
There will come a time when finding the right talent becomes harder than how it was before. This may be due to many factors, including outdated processes and changes in recruitment trends. To be able to keep up and zero in on the right candidates, you must be resilient enough to adapt to the changing times.
The solution? Your recruitment agency or department needs to be creative enough to engage your candidates.
To help you implement a more effective search, here are creative ways to find those candidates to fill those open positions:
1. Mount an event or an open office day
It’s easier to look for the right talent if you have them come to you, and you can do this by hosting a recruiting event. Similar to a job fair sans the competition, hosting your own event will allow you to interview your candidates while using the said event to create brand awareness.
You’ll have to go through the right channels, such as your social media accounts, job boards, and your current employees to promote your event. Be specific with your job openings to lessen the number of unfit candidates and allow your attendees to register in advance to get an idea about how many people will be in attendance.
Instead of just inviting people for an interview, you can also have them come over to find out a little about your company. This gives you the opportunity to sell the ‘experience’ of how it feels working with your organization while giving your great insights into your potential hires.
2. Set up a volunteer program
People would want to work at a place where they’ll potentially be happy while making a difference. You can establish an employee volunteer or community service program that aims to build your brand and help grow your workforce.
One of the best ways to do this is to tie up with a non-profit organization and grant employees paid time off to volunteer with that group. This kind of program can encourage your staff to participate and build goodwill around the community. Furthermore, this selfless activity will allow others to feel more connected to your brand, making it a more attractive company when you have positions that need to be filled.
3. Create a viral recruitment video
Video marketing has become so popular that it’s considered to be the most engaging type of content. People have become more engaged with watching clips through Facebook, Instagram Stories, and Snapchat—especially the fun ones. This is something that you’d want to take advantage of, so create one that can wow your potential employees.
Take this opportunity to show off your awesome organization as an employer and make them feel a genuine desire to work for you. This can boost your chances of attracting top talent that’s going to help realize your goals.
4. Give gifts
This is a straightforward method that would require bigger budget with more lead time to boot, but it’s a great way to recruit top talent if you have both.
The first step is to do some research online. This involves diving into CV databases, job sites, and social media, so you can come up with a ‘dream list’ of potential candidates you’d love to interview. You can send each of them a custom letter or email, selling the role and inviting them for an interview—including a small gift to seal the deal. However, when you gift big, you’ll also get something big in return.
Allocating a budget for big gifts can reflect in a good return of investment. Candidates will perceive you positively when you can give them something big or important even if they are still in the initial stage of the recruitment process. It means that, as a company, you are willing to trust them with something valuable.
It can range from a gift certificate or voucher to a book or perhaps a tumbler. If you’re a big tech company and you’re feeling generous, you could even give a smartphone with a bespoke message. This method is bound to get call-backs, fast-tracking your recruitment process.
5. “Speed recruiting”
Taking a page out of speed dating, speed recruiting pretty much has the same concept. Candidates are invited over for a recruitment event where a group of recruiters each conducts an interview within a specific time frame.
It’s a more direct form of recruitment given the short amount of time. It lets you put the company and the job being offered in a positive light while finding out if a candidate is fit for the job through a series of questions. This way, you can quickly assess their technical skills, soft skills, character, and knowledge of the company among other things.
This unique method of recruitment isn’t for everyone, but those who manage to ace this may have what it takes to get the position on offer.
6. Provide creative benefits
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the job market is the strongest it’s been since 2001, which means it has swung back in the job seeker’s favor. They can now afford to vet every opportunity, taking in consideration the benefits, before signing up for the job.
Employers can examine their own benefits on offer and make the necessary changes to help your recruitment efforts. For example, both Amazon and Netflix offer generous parental leave for its employees that covers new mothers, fathers, and adoptees.
7. Straight up talk to them
If you know where your perfect candidates frequently visit, you can simply go there and straight up talk to them. You can hit a local event, a certain spot in town, or the local coffee shop and start engaging professionals in conversation.
You have to keep in mind that discussing important details should be done in a proper setting that can uphold privacy. This applies heavily when you are going over classified information about the recruitment in your company. Going to the places where your perfect candidates frequently visit gives you an opportunity to represent your company in a way that balances casual and professional approach.
In networking events, you have to be very aware of how they respond to your initial action. Since you are in a public space, they have the liberty to ignore recruitment conversations. However, you can start with something casual and build your way from there.
8. Get them to create their own application video
Asking your applicants to send in a video CV gives them an opportunity to showcase their fun and creative side. This method also shows who’s willing to go the extra mile and think out of the box to bag the position.
This approach is effective in whittling down a large number of candidates vying for the job. However, this may not be right for you if you only receive a few applications anyway, and the extra effort needed to create one may put some people off since not everyone feels comfortable to be on screen.
9. Post ads on your social networks
Targeted paid ads on social networks such as Facebook is one of the surest ways to attract great candidates. With over billions of users, it’s a massive resource of talent that you should be taking advantage of.
You can target a specific audience through location, language, and other demographics, helping you place your ad in front of the people that best fit your company culture.
If you want your ad to stand out, make sure you include eye-catching images, compelling copy, and an attractive landing page.
Start Hiring Top Talent
Ideally, you’d want job candidates to find you. But if you’re focused on looking for each other through other ways, it will be much easier to connect and engage. Now that you have these creative methods at your disposal, you can integrate any of them into your recruitment campaign as you see fit. They may require some extra effort on your part, but if you get to find the best talents for the goals of your business, it’s all going to be worth it.
