Gone are the days when SMEs held the reigns in recruiting the right talent. In the current era, roles have switched. Skilled individuals today have complete control when it comes to hiring. Unless you’re an MNC with 3 million applications coming in each year, the ball is not in your court.
And let’s face it, majority of these SME organizations have no real strategy in place when it comes to filling vacant positions. Same old traditional methods of HRs contacting the meagre people who dropped in their resume for the basic and boring as hell job description is still being followed. This not only robs you of your chance at finding the right candidates but also brings down your employer brand.
A good recruiting strategy ensures your hunt for the right fit for your company ends on a positive note. It isn’t easy though.
Having a hard time in drawing a map to build an awesome recruiting strategy? Keep scrolling to find out how you can attract and bring in the best candidates for your company.
1) Get serious about developing your employer brand:
An employer brand is like the face of the company. How you would like it to be seen by the outside world totally depends on your moves. Everyone would like to work in an organization that is popular and has a culture that aligns with their values. This means more candidates (especially the target candidates) applying for the job and ultimately lesser recruitment cost.
It is to be noted that EB and EVP (Employer Value Proposition) go hand in hand. A good example for EVP would be employer reviews. Where do angry or happy employees gush out their emotions? Mostly sites like glassdoor or LinkedIn. Candidates are more likely to look up for your company and send in their resumes if they come across positive reviews from current or former employees.
2) Leverage the potential of social media:
If you’ve got a smart phone, you must be using at least one of the social media platforms existing today. Gen Z is obsessed with social media and you need to use this obsession to your advantage by casually but strongly pushing your company forward to gain their attention.
According to a survey, 74% of millennials found their job through a social media platform while 55% of job seekers turn to these websites when looking for work. Evidently, social media recruiting is THE thing these days and leveraging its potential is one of the best ways to attract top talent. Everyone is doing it. It’s high time you dump the age-old methods and take this route.
3) Ditch boring job descriptions:
This is the first impression a candidate will have of your company. Make sure you hit the right chords and communicate precisely. Using simple language and action words matter a lot here. You want to send across a gist of the essence of your company’s culture so that only those who recognize themselves in the same will apply while the rest will simply skip. Your job descriptions, hence, hold a pivotal role. No one wants to read a copy-pasted JD.
There are no boring jobs, only boring job descriptions. It is not tough to understand this basic math. Boring JDs will not get as many applications as interesting ones do. Does your company work with a pinch of humour? Add that in your vacancy advertisement! Completely into professionalism? Ensure your ad speaks in the same tone.
4) Explore campus recruitment options:
If the talent isn’t coming to you, you need to go to it. And the best places to find talent are colleges and universities. These are the bunch of fresh minds that are eager to reach the skyscrapers of success. They are full of zeal, determination, excitement and most importantly, talent.
In order to lure this talent, you need to actively begin volunteering programs, activities, seminars, etc that can familiarize your company with the students. If not full-time, these are a great source to find interns and part-time workers whom you can further train and integrate within your firm.
5) Build a talent pool if you haven’t already:
A talent pool consists of all those who were either not selected for the role they applied for but were in line with the company culture or are passive candidates. Now, passive candidates are people who aren’t actively looking for a job as they’re employed but will switch their job if given the right role.
This talent pool should be the first place you look into when hiring for a position. It gives you the list of the most qualified individuals for the vacancy.
6) Step up your interview game:
Picture this. A certain ‘X’ company conducted an interview with you for 5 hours on day one. After a week, another person from the company interviews you for 3 hours and sends an assignment to be done. Another comes up 3-4 days later to talk to you again. The company then mails to you that you weren’t selected, with no back story on why and how it happened. Wouldn’t you want to punch the heck out of those interviewers? Or the entire company itself? Would you ever want to apply to that company again? No? Thought so.
Now think about what your candidates must feel like when they get rejected after long hours of interviews. Of course, if the person doesn’t seem fit for your company, you’ve all the right to reject him/her but the least you can do is give a proper feedback and answer their questions. Tell them about the areas to improve at, what they need to be prepared for in the other interviews that are lined up, etc.
7) Create employee referral program:
Your employees are aware of the kind of people needed to fill in. Hence, those they bring will be already filtered. Moreover, these referred employees are more likely to stay comfortable in the company as they have one known person to make them feel at home.
These referral programs do not need to be complicated or expensive. To make this a win-win situation, introduce cash incentives or other perks like extra holidays that fall in your budget for the employees who referred someone.
8) Prioritize internal mobility:
Look inside your circle first before searching outside for your person of interest. Chances are, that your right fit is within your company itself. Identify those employees and offer them new roles instead of sourcing new candidates.
Concern and support in building the career of employees help in retaining them as well. As per a LinkedIn survey, 94% employees are more likely to stay with the company if the latter shows interest in growing their career.
9) Scrap the guess work, jot down metrics
You cannot evaluate the efficiency of your recruitment strategy if you continue guessing your progress rather than measuring it by using certain pointers. For starters, identify the metrics that need to be considered. Write them down and keep a track. These can include the time to hire, cost to hire, first year attrition, source of hire, quality of hire, cost of hire, and many others.
Now that you’ve the strategies in mind, put them into practice and ace your recruiting game! Wishing you all the luck in finding the right fit for your company!
By Vijay Yalamanchili, Founder & CEO, Keka Technologies
