Top 10 Recruitment Strategies to Hire the Best Employees

Looking for new talent to breathe some life into your organization’s working environment? Then move on from that generic job ad you keep posting online. It is time to make some changes in the recruitment process with a new recruitment strategy.

This blog will help you understand what are recruitment strategies and how to develop one. We also give you some top strategies to help you hire the best.

What is a Recruitment Strategy?

A plan of action that helps you to attract, identify, and hire new talent for your organization is a recruitment strategy. It takes care of the current need of the organization for staff as well as future hires. One should keep in mind the budget of the organization, the open roles, and the need for diversity while developing this plan. 

Types of Recruitment Strategies

There are three categories:

• Direct Strategies: The employer contacts the candidate directly without the involvement of a third person. A direct recruitment strategy example could be that of campus placement. The employer meets the students during these and hires them after a few rounds of interviews. The employer might keep in touch with the professor of eminent institutions. This is to get details of students with good academic performance. And later contact them with a job offer.
• Indirect Strategies: The employer posts advertisements in newspapers, television, and radio. The candidates apply to the organizations themselves after coming across these advertisements. An indirect recruiting strategy helps the employer reach a wider audience.
• Third-party Strategies: The employer uses a third-party platform or professionals such as private employment businesses and management advisers etc. in this strategy. Employee referrals, job portals, and platforms are some examples of third-party strategies.

Top Ten Recruitment Strategies

Here are some of the top strategies in detail:

• Focus on your brand- Work towards creating a positive image in people’s minds about your organization. Do this by promoting good work culture and values. When employees get opportunities and benefits it creates a positive image among people who come in contact with them.
• Optimize your career page- Nothing puts off a possible candidate more than an interface that is not user-friendly. The process of applying to the organization should be easy and clear. Post detailed but compelling job descriptions. Check out this careers page to get an idea of how to make the page interesting. 
• Use niche job boards- It will help you to branch out of your organization’s career page and reach a wider pool of candidates. It helps in bringing diversity to the organization. 
• Expedite the hiring process and interviews– If you treat candidates as your customers, you would not want them to wait for a long period. The fast hiring process does not drain the candidate’s energy and zeal. It saves the organization’s time as well. Interesting interviews that compel the candidate to think out of the box help in keeping them on board throughout the process. 
• Use social media- Use the organization’s social media platforms to attract good candidates. Also, talent searches can take place through competitions or contests online. Agents of the organization should be on the lookout for talented individuals who put up their portfolios on social media. 
• College Placements- It is one of the most sought-after recruiting strategies. It helps both the students and the organization. Competitive salaries and good offers with work benefits help the organization attract a lot of students. 
• Employee referral program– Those who work in the organization are well-versed in its work environment, culture, and values. They might know who to approach for which job and can help refer good candidates. Offer incentives to employees for every reference they make as encouragement. 
• Approach passive and old candidates- It takes a lot of time to approach and convince passive candidates to apply for the jobs. But it can bring more talented individuals to the organization. Approach previously qualified candidates too. Their profiles are already with the company. It will help speed up the process of recruitment. 
• Recruitment automation- This eases the process of recruitment. Chatbots can answer questions from candidates and robotic interviews conducted. AI can develop questions and analyze the answers of the candidates. This will streamline the final number available to the recruiter. 
• Invest in ATS (Applicant Tracking System software)– ATS can help by storing and organizing applications. Also, it can help with automating repetitive tasks such as sending confirmation emails or rejection letters and searching and filtering applications to specific criteria. It allows sharing of notes and assigning tasks to recruitment team members.

How to Develop a Recruitment Strategy?

Keeping certain simple things in mind, one can develop a good recruitment strategy plan. Note the budget for the recruitment process, the number of jobs open, time to invest in the recruitment process, and tools available or to be bought for the recruitment process. Along with this, keep the goal of the organization in mind. Whether the hiring process is to attract a new talent pool or promote the organization. 

An organization’s Human Resource Management team is responsible for hiring new employees. A recruitment team from it chalks out the plan for recruitment and works accordingly. A survey of vacant positions leads to a listing of new job openings. A discussion on the agenda and goals for the recruitment that is the number of employees to be hired and the composition of these employees follows. 

Keeping the feedback from previous strategies in mind, new ones are solicited. These strategies are then weighed according to the recruitment budget and the suitable ones are selected. A schedule is prepared to carry out these recruitment processes along with a listing of the personnel to be involved. This is how you develop a recruitment strategy.

Benefits of Having a Recruitment Strategy

Recruitment and selection are essential parts of human resource management. If you are thinking about why you should have a recruitment strategy, here are some of its benefits:

• You get a diversified and great talent pool in your organization. It strengthens your workforce.
• It helps you reduce the costs of recruitment to good margins.
• It helps prevent employee turnover. People who feel aligned with the organization’s goals and culture get hired. They are less likely to leave.

• Your organization’s performance gets boosted since the right people get hired for the job. They increase the productivity of the organization.
• A good recruitment strategy above everything improves the hiring experience. 

Different KPIs to Measure Your Strategies of Recruitment

Now that you know about the different types of strategies, you might want to assess how well they work. Using KPIs or Key Performance Indicators you can assess your recruitment strategy. Some examples of KPIs include: 

• Applicant-to-interview ratio- The performance indicator measures the ratio of the number of candidates selected for the interview against the number of total applicants.
• Interview-to-offer ratio- It measures the ratio of the candidates who received an offer against the number of candidates who gave the interview.
• Cost per hire- It indicates the cost of hiring one candidate as compared to the total budget of the recruitment. Associated costs such as travel, the cost of attending the job fair, and even referral costs should be counted in it. 
• Offer acceptance rate- It indicates the total percentage of candidates who accepted the job offer after being given one by the organization.
• Candidate experience- Feedback is an important part of the recruitment process. Organizations should ask for the candidate’s experience during the recruitment process and keep note of it. 
• Rejection rate- The percentage of candidates who rejected the job offer from the organization. 
• Source of hire- Ratio of candidates hired from different recruiting channels.
• Diversity- Whether the hires, as well as applicants, were from different backgrounds. These could be candidates from different locations, income slabs, cultures, gender, etc. 
• Turnover rate- It measures the number of candidates hired in the previous recruitment process and who left the organization after that. 

Conclusion

We have discussed several recruitment strategies. But note that not every strategy might work in favor of your organization. Hence, it is important to analyze various factors and then come up with a careful recruitment strategy suitable for your organization.