There’s no denying that most businesses are finding recruitment tough – following Brexit and COVID-19 many people working in industries such as hospitality, leisure and retail have moved on to jobs with more sociable hours and better pay. There’s still so much uncertainty which means many people are reluctant to leave stable jobs for new opportunities.
But there are things you can do to help improve your recruitment strategy and attract the best talent:
- What’s worked in the past? How have you successfully recruited before? Where did your best candidates come from? Which method of recruitment has returned swift results for you? Do you even monitor this sort of thing? Knowing these things will help you make the most of your recruitment strategy.
- Have you checked out Glassdoor? We live in an era where everything gets reviews, even employers. Today’s generation of job seekers research companies they want to work with, if you’ve got negative reviews on Glassdoor that might highlight some pain points for the business, giving you time to sort it out.
- Are you planning ahead? The global workforce is rapidly ageing so include your older, more experienced workers in your recruitment plan – work with those who may be retiring, create a mentoring programme so they can share their experience with younger employees, and younger employees can share in return.
- Are you job ads reflecting your business? The words you use and the way you phrase things can put off an entire population! Does the language you’re using reflect your company culture and values? Does it show you as a diverse, inclusive and flexible employer, or one that’s stuck in the dark ages?
- Where do your candidates hang? Rather than advertising where you think you should be, think about where your candidates go – to hit their target candidates Amazon uses Tinder, Goldman Sachs uses Spotify. Its no use having a killer job ad, if the right people won’t even see it.
- Can you use a freelancer to fill the gap? If you only need someone for a couple of high priority projects, it may be more cost effective to hire a freelancer. If they’re good at the job, you know what kind of person you need to recruit for when you’re next looking for an employee.
- Use social media – engage with people who may not be candidates now, but might be in the future and work on building that relationship – even if they’re not looking right now, your business will be the first one that comes to mind when they are. 86% of job seekers use social media when they’re job hunting so get yourself a profile where your target candidates go.
- Create an employee referral program. Referrals work well. Incentivise your existing team to refer their contacts – keep it simple, keep them informed, and recognise those that engage with it.
- Text adverts? 98% of text messages get read. Texting is a great way to check in with potential candidates, confirm interviews and engage with applicants throughout the recruitment process.
- Get virtual. Virtual reality tours of your office or demonstrating your company culture gives candidates a unique experience, and its not as expensive as you think.
- Does your website have a recruitment page? If not, set one up. If it does, does it reflect your business and the kind of people you’re looking for? Does it tell candidates what they need to know? You could consider including employee testimonials, candidate FAQs and a chatbot to engage with candidates as soon as they visit your site.
Do you have questions about recruitment?
Give us a call at CUBE HR, we’ll be happy to advise you and we have policies and templates available to meet every HR need.
Why not check out our other blog on the same topic Could psychometric testing be the key to successful recruitment?
We also have loads of videos available on our YouTube channel
