Finding and recruiting good talent is difficult, especially in a job market where unemployment is low. Finding qualified candidates requires more work and imagination than ever. That’s why the traditional methods, including job boards, are no longer adequate. The talent acquisition team for the company must use new techniques to find talent in non-traditional markets.
The talent acquisition team must be able to think like the people they wish to attract as employees. That means knowing the kinds of media they would use to look for jobs. It also means knowing how to use those kinds of media to recruit talent. But besides media, there are other ways to recruit, outside of using job boards.
External Resources Include External People and referrals
If you’re any kind of talent acquisition team member, you have contacts; hopefully many. Those contacts can include people who used to work for your company. You can use LinkedIn or Facebook to look for connections to candidates. Those connections may help in giving information about job seekers.
Create an employee referral program that is easy for employees to use and that offers the right mix of rewards to encourage employee participation in order to find your next hire faster.
If you care for a more creative and de-centralized solution to your talent search, you could try posting it to a crowdsourcing site. With such a site or application, you can draw on a very large pool of people who have much experience in the fields for which you seek talent. Certainly, you’ll get recommendations for hire, based on expert opinions.
Use Colleges
You might try reaching out to local colleges. Most schools utilize a recruiting job posting service to manage their campus and on-site recruiting programs. Employers can list jobs and internships directly on the school’s jobs website which is available only for students and alumni from the school.
Companies also participate in campus recruiting programs, job fairs, career fairs, as well as offering information sessions to provide students with information about the company.
You might try “robbing the cradle” just a little bit, to get the talent you want. Try getting in touch with professors, especially department chairpersons, at local universities and colleges. Ask which students near graduation would be good candidates for your open positions. If they are suitable candidates, try to recruit them at graduation.
Use Social Media
Know your prospective talent pool well enough to know where they will likely be on the Internet. Include but go beyond browsing Facebook and LinkedIn. Are you a frequent user at Twitter, and do you know relevant user groups?
You can also try advertising on popular blogs or forums. Advertising on LinkedIn can be effective. If you wish to be a bit more proactive, create a Facebook group targeted for job seekers. When people join, check their profiles for candidate suitability.
Use Military job sites
You might try to reach out to local Military bases or sites that are for Military personals and veterans to advertise your open positions. When hiring Veterans by providing adequate training they can become very good employees, they work hard and get the job done.
Cast a Wider Net
Do you really need an onsite, full-time employee for the position you need filled? A remote freelancer may do just as well, and he or she may come in at a lower cost. Related to that, seeking a remote freelancer lets you cast a much wider net geographically.
There are many ways to find the talent you need today. For more information, contact us today.