The recruitment industry has changed drastically since the beginning of the year. Job seekers, employers, and talent acquisition experts are still adapting to these long-lasting changes. With so many different routes to take when it comes to recruiting candidates, you might be wondering what strategies will be effective and which won’t. In the past year, our experts have successfully tried and tested numerous approaches to recruitment in the pandemic. Here are five tips to improve your recruitment methods during the pandemic, and beyond.
Take a Multi-channel Recruitment Approach
The 2020 Job Seeker Nation Report reaffirms that when it comes to recruitment, you need to take a multi-channel approach to avoid missing good talent. Candidates all use a myriad of strategies to find jobs and reach employers. There’s no catch-all strategy.
Online job boards are still the most popular channels with 69% of job seekers reporting that they use this channel. Social media, such as LinkedIn, is becoming more popular with 42% utilizing it. Networking remains effective as friends and professional connections are still used by 46% and 31%, respectively.
With this in mind, you’ll need to continue to invest in a multi-channel approach to communicate your employer brand and attract quality applicants. To do this effectively, think about your candidate’s journey. What are the touch points you have with them from when they are first aware of your company to that final interview?
Once you understand your candidate journey, you can better plan which channels to prioritize and the messaging to relay in each channel.
Highlight Remote Work
More and more employers announced plans for remote work until 2021. While some companies are returning to the office or adopting flexible work arrangements, the perk of working remotely is now a sought-after benefit for job seekers.
This is further backed up by the 2020 Job Seeker Nation Report, which published that 65% of job seekers say remote work is “very important” or “somewhat important” in their decision to accept a job offer.
If remote work is an option for your organization, highlight this on your job listing. Place this front and center in the job title, location, and description to make a more compelling offer to seekers browsing online job boards.
You also save time by highlighting remote work because this automatically signals to recruiters that they are engaging with applicants interested in this option.
Promote Your Company Culture
It’s surprising to discover that even as work is becoming more flexible and remote, applicants care even more about company culture. A study by Jobvite reports that 81% of workers think company culture is somewhat or very important in the decision to apply for a job. During the recruitment process, showcase your company culture at all job candidate touch points to find applicants that will fit in well at your company.
As most of the hiring process has gone virtual, it’s even more crucial to emphasize your company culture. There are no in-person interviews or office tours for candidates to get a sense of how your company works. You’ll have to find ways to bring the same impact and provide the same information in a virtual space.
A simple way to do this is to create content that thoroughly presents what your current remote culture looks like. You can even share a video clip of an office tour to show them how work will be like once it’s safe to go back to the office. A more impactful solution is to get video testimonials of your company’s employees where they talk about how the company culture is and how this has transitioned with remote work.
Engage Your Employees as Advocates of Your Brand
LinkedIn reports that companies can expand their talent pool 10x by recruiting through the network of their employees. With the current climate, it’s advantageous to engage your employees as advocates for your company. They have experienced first-hand what the company culture is like and how this is transitioned to a remote-work situation.
Now is the perfect time to build employee advocacy programs and get your team talking about your work culture on social media. You can do this by clearly communicating your vision and values. This can be done during monthly town hall meetings or even shared through visually-appealing artwork on Slack. During team-building efforts, give them something to share like a branded birthday box.
By sharing their positive experiences on social media, your employees help build goodwill about your company’s work culture in an authentic way.
On the other side of the spectrum, start an employee referral program. Provide incentives for employees who can successfully recruit a hire for an open position. Also, make it easy for your employees to share these job openings. There are HR platforms that will enable your team to create unique links to vacancies they can send to potential hires.
For both the referral and employee advocacy program, make it fun, voluntary, and easy-to-join.
Become an Expert at Communication Tech
Gartner HR Survey reports that 86% of businesses now use video conferencing in their recruitment process.
It’s important that recruiters are masters in using communication technology to seamlessly connect with and guide talents through the digital recruitment process. A candidate’s experience interfacing with recruiters and managers is a major factor in their decisions to work with a company, so they must have a pleasant experience.
Even though interviews are now conducted over video, recruiters should be prepared to properly conduct video interviews even more so than in-person. They need to be on top of the schedule, audio, and video quality. They also must prepare for unforeseen technical difficulties and find contingency plans if one is to occur.
Becoming a pro at using communication software is not just during these unprecedented times, but will most likely be a permanent fixture in recruitment.
Navigating Recruitment Beyond 2020
We expect that the recruiting landscape will continue to change shape over time. Our tips can help you navigate these changes. Working with a partner who has the experience and know-how in recruiting through a pandemic can make hiring your next candidate even easier.
INS Global is recognized as one of the best HR consultancies in the region, assisting hundreds of companies across many different industries to find top talent from around the world. We offer a range of services such as Recruitment, PEO, Invoicing solutions and Payroll administration. Get in touch with us today and find out how our experts can assist you.
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