Building a workplace of engaged employees will have a direct impact on the success of your business. Those who have high employee engagement see as much as 21% more profitability and 41% fewer absences than those that don't. Unfortunately, though, 85% of employees aren't engaged, meaning the best talent is more likely to move onto other opportunities.
The first step in building an engaged workforce revolves around creating a recruitment strategy and hiring process that will help you find the right potential candidates for your organization. You want to find employees who will fit in well with the company culture and have personal and professional goals that align with the mission of the business.
However, developing a recruitment process requires careful consideration and an understanding of how to find the right job seekers and attract them to your business. We'll explore the top strategies you can incorporate into your hiring strategy.
Why Your Business Needs a Recruitment Strategy
Your employees are the face of your company. Although the business may have started as an idea, it's the employees who now bring it to life. They interact with customers, produce goods or provide services, and make sales that can lead to organizational growth. Therefore, when your hiring managers set out to connect with the right job seekers, they need to find those who'll align with the existing employer brand and will help your business achieve its goals.
However, understanding how new hires will fit in with an organization can be a challenge. The best candidates on paper — with experience and education — might not necessarily fit in well with the business environment or have the work ethic you want to see in your employees. People also sometimes behave differently in an interview than how they actually work in person.
Therefore, finding great candidates requires you to go beyond just writing job descriptions. It requires understanding the job market and how to attract the right candidates and then encourage them to remain at the organization. Let's explore the top recruiting strategies you can incorporate as you look for your next hire.
Top Recruiting Strategies to Use
A high-quality recruitment strategy begins before you even write your job posting. Here's what you can do, beginning with your initial research.
Study the Ideal Candidate and Go After Them
Before you think about job boards, consider the profile of the quality candidate you want to hire. Think about the soft skills, work abilities, and background knowledge you want them to bring to the role. Consider which skills you definitely want someone to come into the job knowing and which ones they can learn on the job.
Start building out a profile for your ideal candidate based on what they want to see from organizations. For example, millennials tend to prioritize different aspects of their work environment than past generations. They want to feel a sense of accomplishment on the job, meaning they pay attention to the corporate values espoused by your organization. They also rank opportunities for career progression higher than any other factor, even salary.
Understanding what your ideal employee wants can help you write a job description that resonates with the right candidate and can help you find ways to promote your job opening.
Create Marketing That Attracts Your Ideal Candidates
Once you've created a quality job description, formulate a marketing strategy that will help get that information in front of the right candidates. Recruiters understand that people might use a variety of platforms, like social media, to look for new openings. Create a marketing strategy that will position your ad accurately to boost your candidate sourcing.
Your marketing strategy should incorporate a few techniques. To begin, place your job description on job boards that your candidate profiles will likely look at. This includes considering niche job boards.
As you create your job listing, configure the listing correctly and mark it up with structured data so Google recognizes it as a job listing. You can learn more about how to complete this process here. When the search engine recognizes the job listing, it will be automatically included on Google's job board that comes up when someone searches for a new position on Google.
You can also create paid advertising campaigns that get your job listing in front of interested candidates. Many organizations find it helpful to keep the listing in front of job searchers.
Finally, develop overarching marketing campaigns that will help build your brand's reputation. Creating campaigns that help accentuate the issues that matter to your business can help you draw candidates to you.
Leverage Social Media
Social media can help you amplify your marketing campaigns to build your employer branding and boost your chances of tracking down the right candidate. You can use social media to help cultivate a following of people who are interested in your industry and help broadcast your company values.
You can also use social media during the recruiting process to learn more about potential candidates. For example, LinkedIn can help you learn more about their background and interests and give you a window into their professional behavior — if they are active on the platform.
You can also use social media to advertise openings in your company. Let those interested in your company enough to follow you on various platforms be the first to know about the opportunities you offer.
Create an Employee Referral Program
No one knows your company culture and goals better than those who already work there. Offering current employees a referral bonus can help you encourage existing employees to refer candidates if they know someone who might be a great fit.
To ensure that your referral program runs successfully, it's important to follow a few steps:
- Make sure that your employees know what you do and don't want to see in a candidate. Encourage them to think about traits that remain critical but might not immediately come to mind. For example, their friend who works hard but also has a reputation for "spilling the beans" a few times too many might not be a good fit for a firm with several confidential contracts.
- Let your employees know that you appreciate their referrals. Many businesses center their referral programs around cash bonuses, which definitely can encourage people to think about candidates. However, consider adding bonuses, such as trips, for those who have had multiple referrals.
- Let your employees know how the process progresses. Once the referral has been made, keep your existing employees engaged and let them know how everything goes. This lets them know that you remember their referral and value their time.
- Track metrics related to your ability to fill open positions with qualified candidates through the referral program. This can help you see if the program positively benefits your talent acquisition or may help you find room for improvement.
Offer Perks and Benefits That Your Ideal Candidates Look for
Once you've found a candidate who seems to be a great fit for your opening, craft a job offer sure to entice them. The top talent may have years of experience and skills that other employers will want, too. Think back to your initial research about the candidate profile and the package that will attract them the most.
Remember that you don't want to repeat this process in a few years because your candidate had a better offer. Create a package and a corresponding work culture — including opportunities for promotion — that will help with retention and keeping your top employees with the company.
Put together a package that will help you compete with others. Focus on areas like:
- Direct compensation
- Benefits, such as health care
- Flexible hours, such as a lenient work-from-home policy
If you need guidance constructing your benefits package, research what others in the industry do. For example, look at the top-rated companies in your sector on Glassdoor and see what makes their employees appreciate them and how they structure their offers.
Managing Business Finances Is Easy With Skynova
As you build your business, bringing in the best employees can help your business grow and thrive. However, you'll also have more accounting steps to consider. Hiring decisions can be tough but managing your business's accounting doesn't need to be.
Skynova was developed to help small businesses just like yours navigate accounting. With accounting software that allows you to easily save receipts and record expenses, we help you simplify your recordkeeping so you can spend more time focusing on growing your business.
Notice to the Reader
The content within this article is meant to be used as general guidelines and may not apply to your specific situation in terms of hiring new employees. Always consult with human resources to ensure that you're meeting hiring requirements.