Human – People & Culture

Searching for talent the smarter way – the demise of the recruitment ad

Every now and again in business you have to rip up the rule book and start again. In recruitment, and in particular, in HR recruitment, the way we advertise and attract talent is one of these occasions.

What’s clear is that it’s no longer enough to just ‘put an ad out there’. In today’s marketplace, you need detailed attraction strategies and relationships with online job boards.

Recruiter accounts with social media and a careers website that showcases the very best of your employer brand are also critical – a 2017 LinkedIn survey shows that 38% and 53% of candidates access these respectively when applying for roles. And we all know that you also need processes that feel human and offer a high-quality applicant experience. And that’s just the starting point.

For hard to fill roles, volume recruitment and many other specific circumstances, you may need even more. Where do you to turn to when your website and online advertising aren’t quite hitting the mark? A trusted recruitment partner is the perfect solution.

Inside knowledge as standard

A recruitment partner will have done some investigating of what’s going on outside your organisation. They will know what the market leaders and innovators in your sector are doing with their recruitment strategies. They will also understand the most appropriate networking events to attend to meet a rich pool of prospective employees. Events such as awards or recognition ceremonies are great places to see emerging leaders at their finest.

Social media is a blessing and a curse as individuals still struggle to separate their professional and personal lives and the degree of detail they share in this arena. That said, it can be a hugely insightful way of getting to know applicants a little better as part of your screening and selection process, particularly when considering the cultural fit.

Build a relationship

We might advise holding ‘open days’ or in-house networking events are a fantastic way of engaging new job-seekers.
Or if you or your leadership community are feeling brave, we could support you to organise a live Q&A session on social media. Alternatively, you could look at how to use multi-media to tell the story of your organisation and what it’s like to work there.

Tap into your existing workforce

We never underestimate the talent already within your organisation. You can have a wealth of support at your fingertips by leveraging your workforce. Consider a colleague referral scheme if you are looking for more of the same (remember people tend to hire in their own image) with incentives and rewards for a successful hire. Where you have a history of promoting within, consider how you can showcase career journeys as part of your careers website to make this feel more attainable for prospective applicants.

If you haven’t got a talent management programme, now is the time to set one up. They allow you to recognise your business-critical roles and people, with a view to mapping out a plan to populate these roles should the need arise, supporting your top and emerging talent along the way.

Think differently

Sometimes you just need to take a chance and do it differently, as Greg Savage shows in a blog he wrote last December. Here, he shows that even the smallest of incremental changes can add up to massive rewards and that a change of focus from passive advertising to actively seeking new talent can really pay off.

We call it talent pipelining, and it’s something ingrained in our day-to-day work. It’s also an advantage we love to share with our clients, so if you’re interested in a chat about how we can help you get high-quality candidates for your HR roles, we’re always on the end of the phone.

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