Recruitment sourcing strategies
Recruitment sourcing strategies for effective talent acquisition
The success of any business is based on the people in it. Any good business with its people at the core of everything it does is an even better business. If you want to ensure that you’re attracting the best talent – and people - with the best skills, there are some simple strategies you can follow:
In practical terms, looking for talent is the process of actively searching for qualified candidates, attracting people so they want to apply for a role, and engaging them so they enter your talent pipeline or funnel. The recruitment activity is the overall process of screening talent, shortlisting and interviewing candidates and onboarding the best person for the job.
Recruiting today is a challenge. With smaller budgets and fewer resources, recruitment teams are still expected to produce the same exceptional results in attracting and hiring talent.
But how can you make this process as straightforward as possible, with the resources you have, so it benefits everyone involved? This must work through the whole process - from the recruiter - the organisation seeking the talent - to the people they want to attract through application and the hiring and onboarding process.
Here are some simple tips and strategies for how you can keep the process moving without compromising the people involved:
How does your website work?
If you want to attract quality candidates to your organisation, your website needs to be where people want to land. It must be easy to navigate, clear and straightforward to understand, and be clear about who it’s aimed at. It needs to be as specific as possible. Use blogs to share value and tell people about your brand.
Work with your team.
You all need to be on the same page about attracting and recruiting – and be clear about who your ideal candidates are. You won’t attract the right people to your business without a comprehensive strategy.
Ensure your employer brand is on point.
People want to work with organisations with excellent employment and career development reputations. People need to have all the feels for who you are and what you stand for. Get noticed on job boards, speaker events, and recruitment drives – and have a positive and active profile on social media and be present at industry-related events.
Create an ideal candidate profile for each job.
If you want the best candidates with the right skills, experience, and qualifications, you must clarify that. Who do you want to attract? What skills do they need – and if you need people with specific skills, then ensure you’re in the right places to be found and where you can find the right people.
Connection and communication are vital.
Straightforward language and comms are essential from websites to blogs, job descriptions and the hiring process. Cut the jargon and make it easy for people to want to connect with you and potentially work for and with your brand.
Diversity and inclusion are essential.
If your workplace encourages diversity, equality and inclusion, it will make your business more successful and keep people happy and motivated. Organisations recognise they need diversity and inclusion initiatives to increase accountability for people in leadership roles and encourage conversations between employers and employees to inspire and find solutions to challenges.
What’s your ATS (Application Tracking System) system like?
And who is still on the system? There will be people who perhaps didn’t get to the hiring point before who are still out there. And look internally – who in your current workforce to see what talent lies within. Check social media channels regularly and consistently; referrals at those industry events are like low-hanging fruit – there for the picking!
Relationships are key!
Keep developing relationships – with internal people, your leadership team, senior managers, and internal teams and get out to events that will connect you with people who will be happy to meet you and build those relationships.
Ensuring your candidate experience is the best it can be - if you want the best talent, you must ensure it’s a gold star experience for candidates too. That includes the onboarding process, providing it’s quick and easy to navigate.
Embrace technology – including AI.
Whether you like it or not, technology, automation, and AI are making a huge impact. AI can provide deep, actionable insights from large volumes of data that human beings struggle to process, leading to more informed decision-making. It can improve customer service experiences and allow businesses to innovate, scale rapidly, and stay ahead of the curve.
Get feedback and measure improvements all the time.
Be consistent with your strategy, involve your team, map your processes and keep track of everything. Get feedback from internal teams and external candidates so you can track everything and instil solutions and improvements when challenges are raised - or where you need to make changes.
By creating a clear strategy for your recruitment sourcing that will attract, engage, be inclusive of all and works as a smooth process with your team – you’re setting yourself up to build a business or organisation that has the right people, with all the right skills, at its heart. And it’s those people that make your organisation tick, grow and succeed.