A recruitment strategy is a process a company creates to attract and hire talent. It defines all the company’s methods, including which kind of advertisements and on which platforms. The recruitment strategy even determines how the interviewing process will look, how much it will cost to hire new employees, and the average time to hire them.

Defining a recruitment strategy helps you to make the process somewhat automated. The team will be more efficient by knowing every step they have to take. Also, you will have parameters that will allow you to measure if the process is efficient. For example, if you know how long the process will take, you can compare it to the cost of hiring a new employee and the benefits, and you will be able to determine if it can be optimized.

Create Ideal Profiles

If you haven’t done so already, this is the first thing you should do to update your recruitment strategy. You need to create an ideal profile a candidate should have to fit in your company. Profiles will change depending on each profession. A data scientist’s profile will differ from a customer service associate’s.

So, you can create a profile with general characteristics that will apply to any position and adapt to your company environment. Then, you’ll need to tweak it a bit for each job posting. You can include a short version of this ideal candidate for each job posting you make.

This description will help applicants know if they will be a good fit and will likely discourage unqualified professionals from applying. Make sure to include the interpersonal skills you think are most important for each role.

Treat Candidates Like Customers

Attracting top talent is a challenging journey. You have to compete with many other companies who probably are more prominent than yours. Thus, it would help to think of your recruitment strategy the same as your marketing strategies. Each candidate will be your customer.

If you manage to attract an excellent candidate with the perfect profile for your company, you should do everything in your power to hire them. Contact them right away and accommodate the person’s wants and needs.

It also depends on how much difficulty your company has around hiring. You should always put extra effort in to get the best applicants. Even giant companies like Google or Amazon go far and beyond when they find a professional they want.

Grow Your Brand

You may think a recruitment strategy only entails advertising methods and using different platforms to promote your job openings. But brand awareness is a huge part of attracting talent. Applicants will be less likely to apply after seeing your job post if they don’t know anything about your company.

That’s why part of your process should be to grow your brand as a company and as an employer. For example, Apple has a reputation for being a company for innovation and technology developments. They also have a reputation for being great employers.

Also, younger generations are looking for something more than just a generous salary. Sixty-five percent of millennials prefer to work for companies whose mission they believe in than one that pays them a higher salary. Think about all these aspects and design a plan that works best for your budget and needs.

Use Referral Programs

Another thing you can include in your updated recruitment strategy is referral programs. These programs are when you offer an extra incentive to your current employees to recommend other potential candidates. The extra motivation can be anything from a bonus to additional vacation days, whatever your company can afford, which presents enough incentive for employees.

With these programs, you will be using your current network to find prime employees. Plus, they could be passive candidates, which means they are not actively looking for a new job. After all, what better advertisement than your employees? Besides, many people love to work at the same place as their friends, which will be an incentive for candidates.

Use Targeted Job Boards

When updating your recruitment strategy, you should consider including targeted job boards. Job boards are platforms where employers can publish open jobs, and job seekers can apply. The most popular ones are LinkedIn, Indeed, or Ziprecruiter. But there are thousands out there for you to choose from.

Targeted job boards are the same as normal ones. The difference is that they are catered to specific groups. For example, Stackoverflow Jobs is a job board for tech professionals. If you are looking for software developers, computer science, or cybersecurity specialists, that’s the way to go. There are hundreds of these depending on the niche, so use them to reach your desired candidates.

Keywords Are Your Friend

Keywords are specific words that you include in your text to help search engines determine the topic better. You use them sparingly throughout the text, and it helps to position your text in search results. This is an SEO technique that many companies apply to get organic traffic to their website.

This can also work for your job postings. You don’t have to be an SEO expert to apply this strategy. You can find free keyword tools on the Internet, and with a little bit of research to learn how to use them, you can include keywords in your job descriptions.

In Summary

Recruitment strategies are the most crucial aspect of attracting the best talent. That’s why you should keep updating it, so it improves with time and society. You can define the ideal profile, treat the top candidates like customers, grow your brand, implement referral programs, and include targeted job boards. Remember, keywords are your best friend.