5 Killer Tips to Boost Your Recruitment Strategy

When it comes to hiring the best talent for your team, an effective recruitment strategy is vital. This is a clear plan that outlines your hiring process, from advertising vacancies all the way through to onboarding new team members.

Many businesses lack an established hiring strategy, which leads to lengthy recruitment times, accumulated costs and disgruntled teams. Not cool.

We want recruiting to be a breeze for you. That’s why we’ve come up with our top tips for creating a successful recruitment strategy -  so you can attract top talent while enjoying a blissful hiring process.

Read on.

How to make a great recruitment strategy

Here are some easy ways to create a recruitment strategy built for ongoing success. 

With all of these tips, you should take into account your company values, brand image and the kind of people you want to attract. This will help shape your recruitment strategy into one that benefits your business and entices candidates who share similar values and interests to you.

Build & Maintain Employer Brand

You’re not just advertising a role - you’re also showcasing your company. Jobseekers want to know what kind of business you are before they submit an application.

And can you blame them?

When we asked 26,000 professionals about their pet peeves in job hunting, a whopping 31% said that the culture of their new employer was absolutely nothing like the one described. That’s a problem.

Future employees deserve to know the ins and outs of your company - what drives you, your ambitions, what you hope to add to people’s lives.

The best employer branding also shows them what value you bring to people who join your team, and how they fit into the bigger picture.

Here are some things to consider for employer brand strategies:

• What is your employee value proposition (EVP)? Why do your current team love you?

• What kind of candidate do you want to attract and how will you appeal to them?

• What are your core values, goals and company mission?

• What is your company culture like? People want to see what you’re like at 11am on a Monday, not just at 5pm on a Friday.

Take these things and implement them across your marketing platforms and relevant materials - consistency is key.

It’s worth creating some brand guidelines that set the precedent for the rest of your team, so they know how to present your business to potential candidates.

Employer brand strategies aren’t just about creating a great reputation as an employer; they establish your values and help you attract candidates who are a right fit for your business.

Not only does this save you time and money whenever you need to hire in the future, it also leads to more satisfied employees and increases staff retention.

Add Social Media to Your Strategy

It goes without saying that social media is integral to our lives. It now plays a key role not only in the social aspects of life, but also in work, education, shopping and - you guessed it - job hunting. 

So why do so many businesses omit this from their recruitment strategy?

It’s an oversight that makes it difficult to see behind the corporate mask and limits your hiring strategy to more traditional channels, reducing your reach when hunting for new hires.

Instead, try following these social media recruiting tips for top results:

Build an online reputation 

This ties into building and maintaining your employer brand. Don’t just focus on LinkedIn - show people what it’s like to work at your company, the benefits you bring to your team members, as well as your values and goals. 

You may even choose to set up a culture-specific social channel, which is completely free of sales. Here, candidates can get a true feel of your values, outlook and sense of humour.

Adhere to your Brand Guidelines

When your social media channels are a mish-mash of colours, fonts and tones of voice, you don’t come across as a company that has its sh** together. You look like a complete mess.

It’s fine to alter how you present yourself across different channels - you might be playful on Facebook, more formal on LinkedIn - but there should be a good level of cohesion across them all. 

When it comes to promoting job vacancies, create a branded template that you can use whenever you publish a new post.

This is eye-catching, professional and instantly notifies people that you’re searching for a new team member, without them even having to read the copy.

Get Your Team Involved

Isn’t it reassuring when you see employees actively engaging with their company’s social media posts?

Encourage your employees to share any recruitment posts on their own social channels to help spread the word.

If you really want to reinforce your employer brand, create posts that involve the team so that they’re more likely to engage with your non-job-related posts too.

It’s a great way to show potential candidates that your current team loves working for you, to the extent that they take time out of their day to like/comment on/share your social media posts.

Consider Paid Advertising

If you want to get your job listing in front of as many people as possible, paid advertising is the way to go

Social media networks like LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to really narrow down your target audience, so your ad gets seen by the type of people you’re looking for.

There are lots of ways you can utilise social media for your recruitment strategy - many more than we can mention here. It’s also worth noting that every company’s social media strategy will look a little different.

Maybe your business could attract more candidates with a team-centric TikTok account, while another would benefit from sharing an interview with current employees and their roles.

You should do some more research for yourself and decide which social media opportunities would work best for your business.

Optimise Job Descriptions

Making sure your job descriptions are detailed, relevant and accurate is key to creating effective recruitment strategies.

Candidates can find your job using specific keywords in their search, so including role-relevant words and phrases throughout your job specification helps you find talented individuals who are on the same page as you.

With that said, don’t just fill your job description with as many keywords as you can. Your job listing needs to accurately detail what the role will entail.

According to our research, nearly 50% of 26,000 candidates said they’d been mis-sold a role because the job wasn’t what they were promised. Don’t be that company - your staff turnover will reflect this mistake.

It’s not just about key words either. To optimise your job description, you can:

• Make it easy to read. Don't overcomplicate your job specification with fancy language.
• Highlight key points using bullet points and subheadings. The reader should be able to find the most important information with a skim read.
• Be specific. What does the role involve? Don't use vague or ambiguous language that leaves the reader asking questions.
• Be inclusive. This includes avoiding gender-specific terms and any kind of bias.
• Include the salary in the job description! Potential candidates will be ever so thankful.

There’s more where that came from. We’ve written a whole blog post on optimising your job descriptions for successful hiring, so be sure to check that out when you get the chance.

Use Employee Referrals

People find it much easier to trust in a company when they’ve been referred by someone who already works there… and it’s hugely beneficial for the employer too.

Think about it - your team members know your company better than most. They have a good understanding of the kind of people you want on board and the gap that you need to fill.

If an employer goes to the effort of vouching for someone, it’s likely that:

• 1. The candidate is a good match for the business, especially if they share similar values as their referrer.
• 2. They have a good proportion of the skills and experience you’re looking for, as the referrer will know what you’re looking for.
• 3. They’ll get on well with the rest of the team (after all, the referrer will have to work with the person in some capacity if they do get the job).

You might end up with your dream candidate without any of the hassle or cost that comes with recruitment agencies and job boards. You save time and money, while potentially gaining a new team member that you would never have found otherwise. 

Build Better Relationships with Candidates

How you treat your candidates can be the difference between gaining a brilliant new asset for your team or gaining a reputation as being a bad company. So yes, this one’s quite important.

You should aim to develop excellent relationships with potential candidates from the outset, as this will allow you to better understand them and their needs, and vice versa.

Here are a few ways you can create great candidate relationships that will serve you both well in the long run:

Be a Good Listener (Figuratively and Literally.)

You can practise this one from the moment you receive their application. What does the candidate hope to achieve in this role? What do they expect from you as their employer?

This will give you a better idea of what you can offer them if they’re successful in the hiring process.

At the interview stage or even when they get the job, you can bring up these points and tell them how you aim to fulfil these things.

This demonstrates that you value what the candidate wants from the role and gets you off on the right foot.

Aside from finding out whether they have the skills and experience appropriate to the role, being a good listener also helps you discover whether a candidate is a good fit for your company culture. If not, it’s best to find out now than further down the line!

Be a Sharer

Be open and transparent about your company, the role and the hiring process in general. There’s nothing more offputting than a company who doesn’t reveal anything about themselves, and it might deter potential candidates from applying to your job in the first place.

You can use social media channels to reveal more about the business, the culture, your team and your shared values or interests. You should also share as much relevant information as possible about the role within the job description. Encourage people to get in touch if they have any questions at all about the job listing.

Communication is Key 🔑 

This is something you should be doing throughout the entire hiring process and beyond!

Don’t leave a candidate hanging after they’ve submitted an application - you can at least send them an email to say you’ve received it and will be in touch shortly. You should also outline the hiring process so they know what to expect. 

Try to build rapport with your interviewees (within a professional level) and be friendly - it goes a long way in creating great relationships and putting the candidate at ease!

Be open about the role and what they can expect from joining the team.

Do your best to answer any of their questions honestly and accurately.

If a candidate isn’t successful, tell them the reasons why and say that you’ll bear them in mind for any suitable roles in the future.

It goes without saying that you should be punctual with all interviews or calls - respect their time. Follow up after each stage of the interview process and acknowledge the time and effort that they’re taking out of their day.

All of these things show a candidate - successful or unsuccessful - that they’re valued. How do you expect to be treated when applying for a new role? Do the same for your candidates.

Boost your Recruitment Strategy with Caroo

If you’re looking for a tool that can support you with your recruitment strategy, look no further than Caroo.

It’s just one channel you can add into your recruitment marketing mix to expand the visibility of your brand, advertise your jobs, and reach different audiences you’re probably not engaging with yet.

By adding Caroo to your talent acquisition strategy, you can:

• Find the best-matched candidates through the platform’s intelligent matching algorithm.
• Showcase your brand and its values.
• Post culture-centred content and updates in a dedicated space.
• Speak directly to candidates within the platform.

No time wasted trawling through CVs.

No extortionate recruiter fees.

Caroo is the convenient, cost-effective form of recruitment you’ve been looking for. 

Click here to book a demo with us today.