5 powerful strategies for recruitment in 2017

We discussed upcoming tech trends in recruitment here. Let’s get into the business now: Setting up a strategy for recruitment in 2017 that works (pun intended!).

The average time that is taken to fill an open position in the US is 29 working days. Take a moment to sink that in. A vacant position in your company will affect the productivity of the company as a whole. The longer it takes to fill that vacancy, the more your loss is. Yes, yes, we get it- contrary to anyone’s expectations, sometimes the school of fish wistfully pass by without noticing your bait. And at times, it’s like the swarm of bees on honeycomb. Both the situations are a headache for the recruiting team. But, we sure can set it right if we approach this with a strategy. Here are five strategies you can adopt to attract candidates to your company.

Employer Branding

Let’s start with some homework- employer branding. It is synonymous to releasing a product to market: people should be aware of the product, they should want to consume the product, and they should also recommend the product to others. Now, replace this with your organization. When the reputation goes down, candidates would not want to work with your company even if you are ready to increase your pay. With Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Facebook etc your company is out there for your potential candidate to scroll through and decide if it’s a good place to work in.

About 60–80% candidates go through the social media sites to research about the company they apply to.

Do your employer branding the right way, and rest assured the right talent will flow into your company. As the first step, showcase your work culture on social media like how the guys at Hootsuite are rocking it on Instagram.

Offer Internships

If you think interns are to carry your coffee or to run errands, repeat after me- They’re not!
Every intern is a potential employee of your company. In case they are not, they are also your free PR agents. They get exposure to how a project is handled in your company, how employees are treated, and how they are mentored. When they move out of the internship, they’re going to spread that word for sure.

There is one more pressing reason to offer internships now- the millennials who will take over the workforce by 2030. As a recruiter, you are at the wheel of driving the future talent pool of your company.

You can try if they fit in your company culture and coach them well before they join full time. And the brownie point- they are drowned in technology, they can even extend a hand to you if you are struggling to catch up with the latest tech trend.

Data, Data, Data

You’ve heard it enough, get ready to hear it more. Coming are the days when decisions are going to be more data-derived. Before you sit down to post that job opening, analyse previous recruitment’s data to know where that extra expense came from. Was the time to hire longer than expected? Did you keep the candidate waiting for a long time? How many resigned before three months? How long did the new hire take to fully onboard? Did the new hire have all the qualities you looked for? An analysis of these factors and many more will help you efficiently plan the next recruitment. Including this in your strategy holds core importance.

Should you hire?

This is an important call. You know the cost of taking a full time employee, financially and otherwise. Even when there is an opening to fill, perhaps it is something that a freelancer can do. It is expected that by 2020, 40% of the workforce will be freelancers. With platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, TaskRabbit your freelancer is just a click away. Your freelancer might be in an igloo far away in the Arctic, but with an internet connection they will produce high quality work for you.

Hiring announcement

So you’ve decided to take a full time employee. Where do you post the ad? Do not think it doesn’t matter. You will not find the nerdy software developer you are looking for if you post your ad on Instagram. Similarly, you will not find that shutterbug if you put up an ad on Github. As it is obvious, your job posting should go in places where your potential candidates live. You can exploit social media to your advantage because that’s where your candidates are. LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook- these stand apart from the general job websites because the job ads stand closer to the employer branding. Workable, a social recruiting software, lets you add a “jobs” tab on your company’s Facebook page. As you update about your openings on Workable, it gets added on the Facebook page as well. How to post an ad that catches attention, we’ll tell you soon.

These are 5 major strategies you definitely need as you set out to recruit this year. Do let us know how it turned out. You can write to us at connect@myally.com or tweet at Meet_MyAlly