What are the methods of recruitment

Although internal recruiting has certain benefits, there are many situations in which an external candidate may be the most appropriate fit for a position.

Why recruit externally?

Most recruiters, particularly agency recruiters, deal primarily with external hiring. Bringing outside candidates into a company can help to inject fresh thinking into the business. New hires offer a unique skill set and can be a catalyst for out-of-the-box thinking. Nathan Lewis remarks that “a fresh perspective from an external candidate can give you a more peripheral vision to help induce necessary changes.”

From a hiring manager or in-house recruiter’s perspective, the downside of external recruiting is that the process is more expensive and takes longer. Moreover, screening new candidates for culture fit can be challenging.

In today’s digital world, connecting with external candidates is easier than ever. The trick lies in reaching the right candidates for the position—those who are both qualified and open to new opportunities.

1. Job postings

The most obvious method of connecting with external candidates is by posting job ads. It’s worth being strategic about where you post your ads. Online ads on general websites like LinkedIn are likely to attract a large quantity of candidates, while ads posted offline or on niche job boards will bring in a more streamlined group.

2. Career events

Career events can help you connect with candidates in a face-to-face, personal setting. At job fairs held by universities and industry groups, you’ll meet a specific group of highly-qualified candidates who are interested in finding a position. Daniel Miller, co-founder of RecruiterPM, says he often connects with top talent at tradeshows and conferences. “These individuals refer me to other professionals, and business happens.”

3. Networking meetings

Building off of career fairs and events, another way to conduct external recruiting for the best candidates is by asking for referrals from others in your network or industry. Once these connections are made, host coffee meetings, phone calls, or online video meetings to get a feel for the candidate goals and their current job search. If that person is not a right fit, they may have others in their network to help your search, too.

Recruiting Online vs. Recruiting Offline

In today’s world, recruitment is largely done online, and for good reason— online recruiting is convenient and effective. However, in this highly digitized landscape, offline recruitment gives you a chance to stand out from the crowd.

Online recruitment

The most obvious advantages of online sourcing are sheer volume, scale, and speed. According to Mercedes Santana, founder and CEO of The Expert Recruiter Group, “You can make contact with 100 people via email within 20 minutes. You can identify contact information for 50 people in less than 30 minutes. Offline, completing both of these activities would take up your entire workday.”

With online recruitment, you have the opportunity to run mass campaigns on social media. You can also easily connect with candidates all over the country and the world through job ads, giving you a far better chance of finding the right match—especially if the job is remote.

Online recruitment can be useful for screening as well as sourcing. Screening candidates via video chat is both convenient and more personal than a phone call. Online recruiting also allows you to use more sophisticated screening methods, such as skills testing or asking candidates to send audio/video files. It is also easier to measure your recruitment sources.

Offline recruitment

Offline recruitment allows you to create deeper relationships and find “hidden talent”, especially among groups and passive candidates that may not be very active online. It also gives you an edge in competitive fields where candidates are already saturated with online offers.

Lawrence Kim, Business Consultant at Hired Resolution and founder of recruiting course Now Hiring Secrets, has a unique way of combining the efficiency of online recruiting with the personal touch of offline. “Online is a great tool to reach a larger audience, and I use that to funnel people into an offline meeting. I prefer offline every time because I believe in building the relationship on a human level… personal touches go a long way, and that is done best offline.”

Innovative Recruitment Methods

1) Use non-traditional platforms

Although LinkedIn is undoubtedly a useful tool, there’s a clear advantage to searching for candidates on other platforms as well. Nathan Lewis uses local platforms such as Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist to network and search for talent. “You would be pleasantly surprised to see the caliber of candidates on these non-traditional platforms.”

Mercedes Santana uses Instagram hashtags for candidate sourcing. “This is a great way to source candidates that may not be very active on other platforms, like LinkedIn. For example, [you can] start with a broad search type [such as] #UX... Additionally, for hard to find highly technical candidates, you can search more specifically—by coding schools, for example.”

2) Upskill promising candidates

Sometimes, job openings seem impossible to fill. Perhaps you or your client simply can’t afford to offer what competitors are offering, but you still need someone with a certain level of skill and experience. In these situations, how can you bridge the gap between candidate desires and employer needs?

Lawrence Kim recommends thinking outside the box to create a good match. With a little help and direction, promising candidates can often learn the skills required for the position. “I had a huge problem with competing against others on pay [and] benefits. It was getting unaffordable and unsustainable... so I pivoted to helping people who were just under the qualifications get qualified. It was a game changer!”

3) Organize your process

One often-neglected element of the recruitment process is project management. With recruiters typically using a number of different methods and recruitment tools throughout the candidate life cycle, things can get messy pretty fast.

Daniel Miller explains how integrating your various recruiting tools can help you get organized. “Once you incorporate a tool that manages your searches across all the tools, you see recruiting productivity increase… Our office had every tool and resource available, from text recruiting to Linkedin Recruit. Tying all the layers together and building a strong project management layer, we realized, is key to success.”

Conclusion: Unique Recruiting Methods Will Help You Stand Out

In today’s competitive landscape, out-of-the-box thinking can have a big payoff. Whether you’re looking to increase your earnings or find the best fit for your company, adding some spark to your recruitment process will help you take your career to the next level.

• Which recruitment methods do you prefer?
• Have you used an innovative recruitment method to find the perfect candidate for a position?

Fortunately, there are some effective methods of recruitment out there that recruiters can use to attract and recruit top-choice candidates.

1. HR events, job fairs, open houses, seminars, and conferences offer a perfect recruitment platform. HR professionals with relevant and sustained relationships can easily acquire candidates and interns from different disciplines at these events. These events can also be leveraged to offer candidates a VR experience. Virtual reality will give your potential employees a realistic picture of your company and culture through an engaging video!

2. Body shopping has become one of the most popular methods of recruitment for professional organizations and training institutes that are creating a talent pool for future employment. Potential employers can approach these organizations to recruit trained and skilled talent. These training institutes and professional organizations do the body shopping which is commercially known as employee leasing.

3. Companies are now also attracting potential candidates by offering company ownership in stocks to employees through an employee stock ownership program.

4. The possibilities of social media recruiting are endless if you are willing to think beyond the big four – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Recruiters are now going innovative with their recruitment and selection methods and trying apps like Bumble, Tinder, Snapchat, and Spotify to hunt talent. Why don’t you?

5. Glassdoor must be a part of every company’s recruitment strategy. In a digital era where everything is rated and reviewed online, including employers; recruiters cannot afford to miss out on this approach. Most modern-day job seekers research the company’s culture, perks, pay, and pros and cons. So make the most of employer review sites and if you find any flaws, now is the time to optimize your methods of recruitment.

6. A mobile recruitment strategy is no longer an option. In fact, it is the only way to connect with Millennials and Gen Z candidates. A mobile-responsive recruitment process will ensure that you are easily accessible to busy job-seekers and don’t miss out on talented candidates who are always on-the-go.

   Video interviewing is a relatively new recruitment method that makes it much easier for recruiters to screen candidates while ensuring a convenient and positive candidate experience. With video interviews, recruiters can ask unlimited questions and view the responses at a convenient time. This lessens the number of on-site interviews and accelerates the initial screening process.

7. If we would have gone in the order of importance, analytics would have topped this list of innovative recruitment methods. Applicant tracking system leverages artificial intelligence to identify if its methods of recruitment are getting them the results they want. ATS also tracks the performance of every source so recruiters know which channel is getting them the most hires successfully.

   Applicant tracking systems generate accurate reports that measure everything from sourcing candidates to onboarding new hires. Analytics give recruiters actionable insights into different processes and procedures which enables recruiters to modify their methods of recruitment and maximize the conversion rate.

8. The wording of your job ads matters a lot; if you are not careful about it, you can hurt the sentiments of various groups of candidate population, including women, older people, ethnic minorities, etc. Consider using an AI-driven writing tool to avoid such a situation and keep your candidate pool as large as possible. This tool can scan tons of documents and, based on data analysis, can predict what kind of job advert can succeed.

9. Programmatic advertising is the automated posting of job ads on niche sites that target the candidate profiles you are looking for. However, you need to know your candidates so that you can use programmatic advertising to your advantage.

10. Your talent pool has candidates that were not hired but are good enough to be saved for future job openings. So, when a new vacancy opens up, searching your talent pool for suitable candidates helps save time.

11. Known as boomerang employees, these employees have worked with the company earlier but left on good terms. Rehiring past employees is a good recruitment strategy as you know their abilities. Boomerang employees eliminate the risk of a bad hire, reduce time to hire, and reduce the cost per hire.

12. Employment exchanges are not available in all countries. It is a government-run initiative that maintains a record of job-seeking unemployed candidates. You can submit your open roles to the exchange. In return, you’ll get the details of suitable candidates. Although this method is cost-effective, it is mostly suited for blue-collared jobs.

13. Unstructured interviews result in bad hiring decisions based on gut instinct and not on a fair assessment. Structured interviews involve a list of questions that every candidate must answer, thus improving the chances of a fair assessment.

14. A work sample test is a great way of assessing the candidate’s skills. By giving the potential hires a short assignment, you can see how much forethought they put into their planning and how they get the job done.

15. Integrity tests reveal the behavioural traits of an applicant. Such tests effectively identify a person’s trustworthiness, propensity for honesty, and dependability. By using integrity tests, you can hire a candidate who has a higher likelihood of displaying positive behavior in the workplace.

16. Personality traits define an individual’s work behavior. Conscientious people are often described as self-disciplined, dutiful, achievement striving, orderly, and industrious. And these traits are related to better job performance.

17. If you need someone with specific skills for a short time or for certain high-priority projects, you can consider hiring freelancers to do the job. Use a freelance platform to hire a skilled freelancer. You will save money and time as you don’t have to go through your regular recruitment process.

18. In the pre-social media era, passive candidates were almost impossible to get in touch with. Thanks to social networks, you can reach out to any candidate, engage them, and build relationships with them. Once the connection is made, even if the passive candidates aren’t interested right now, your company will probably be the first one that comes to their minds when they decide to make the career move.

19. Statistics say that the global workforce is aging rapidly. More and more experienced people are leaving the workforce, and there aren’t enough young people available to fill the void. In such a situation, you can ask your top experienced workers to delay their retirement. Also, consider including them in your recruiting plans. Your older workers have a wealth of experience; so, create a kind of mentoring program where they can transfer this knowledge to younger employees.

Companies that want to clear the clutter need to be creative with their recruitment methods & HR assessment tools. And, adopting technology can add real value to these effective methods of recruitment.