There are roughly 7.3 million job openings in the United States. If you’re a business owner that’s reading this article, chances are, your company is contributing to that number.
How are you going to fill your positions in an economy where unemployment rates are hovering near record lows? Better yet, how are you going to fill your positions with top talent?
The answers to those questions aren’t easy to find. As a matter of fact, there is no sure-fire way that you can ensure you’re ever going to be running at 100% employment and that you’re going to love the people you hire.
There are, however, some recruiting talent strategies that you can implement to increase your odds of those things happening. Here’s what you can do.
1. Have a Clearly Defined Corporate Culture
What makes your company different from the thousands of other companies that work in your industry niche? If you can’t answer that question, you’ve got some thinking to do before you start trying to attract top candidates.
People want to know what sort of work and life existence they’re going to have when they sign on with a company. Assessing corporate culture is how they come to that determination, so ensure your culture is defined and attractive.
2. Create Great Job Descriptions
Recruiting the right talent starts with letting job seekers know who it is you’re looking for. The easiest way to do that is to craft an excellent job description.
We understand that writing job descriptions can be a time-consuming venture. Still, the more effort you put into summarizing your position and laying out its responsibilities and expectations, the higher your odds are going to be of catching the attention of the perfect person.
3. Set up Shop on College Campuses
Talent that is just out of college is one of the best pools you can pull from.
College graduates are desperate for work. They’ve likely spent a lot of money on their degrees and are dealing with the fear that they’ll never land that career they were promised when they initially opted into higher education.
With that leverage, you can offer talented college students lower compensation packages in exchange for a sure-fire gig and the promise of training.
4. Engage People That Aren’t Looking for a Job
Sometimes, recruiting talent needs to go beyond just looking at applications that land on your desk. Sometimes, it needs to dip into hidden pools of people that aren’t looking for jobs at all.
Is there a social media personality that you like? A blogger that has caught your attention? If you reach out to these people and offer them a job, you might be surprised to find that they’re actually looking for more financial stability.
You could also go on LinkedIn to find employees of your competitor’s companies. You never know how many of them would be willing to defect for a better deal.
5. Keep an Open Mind
We’ve seen it time and again where well-qualified candidates don’t respond to job listings because they don’t tick 100% of the boxes that a description demanded. That’s a huge loss for you.
Including a note at the bottom of your description that says, “Think you’d be great for this job but don’t fully fit the bill? We’d still love to hear from you!” can vastly increase your application pool and might land you a diamond in the rough.
6. Make Your Offer More Attractive
Recruiting talent can be made worlds easier if you increase your offered compensation. This is something that many businesses hesitate to do because they want to save money, but the truth is, most people in the job market are motivated by cash over anything else.
If you’re not willing to pony up and your competitors are, they’re going to win.
7. Expand Your Listing’s Reach
When you have an open position, post it in as many places as you can to make sure you’re maximizing its exposure.
Popular job platforms include Monster and Indeed. You should also be posting your job opening on your website and should be sharing it across all relevant social media channels.
8. Initiate a Referral Program
It may be that your employees know talented people that are looking for new job opportunities. To entice your employees to offer up their contact’s resumes, initiate a referral program.
Referral programs pay employees a cash bonus for anybody that your company hires on their recommendation.
9. Don’t Drag Your Feet When Hiring
A negative trend amongst businesses is that they’re desperately recruiting talent because pickings are so slim, and when they finally find someone, they make them go through weeks of interviews. That workflow is not respectful of a candidate’s time, and top candidates will only tolerate being dangled for so long.
Keep your hiring process tight. If you don’t have the bandwidth to do that, consider bringing on a managed services team that can help take some of the pressure off of your plate. This article discusses managed services if you’d like to learn more.
10. Sell Upward Mobility
Top candidates aren’t looking for jobs, they’re looking for careers. Let people know in your job’s description about the position’s growth trajectory, and you’re going to get a lot more serious inquires.
Wrapping up Our Tips on Recruiting Talent for Your Business
Recruiting talent can be a serious challenge in today’s market. The tips that we’ve just shared can make that challenge a little bit easier to conquer.
Good luck finding the team members of your dreams, and continue reading more of the content on our website for additional business inspiration!
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