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In Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends, researchers found that “finding qualified talent is among recruitment’s biggest challenges.”
According to Erica Volini, a Deloitte principal and leader of Deloitte’s Global Human Capital team, that’s partly because of the increasing automation adoption rate, which calls for technical skills that many in today’s workforce don’t possess. She adds that employers, for their part, believe many college graduates lack teamwork, communication, collaboration, and complex thinking skills -- all necessary skills to thrive in the modern work landscape.
There’s also the fact that senior employees are retiring. Add all these together, and it’s no surprise that recruitment has evolved into an intensifying war for talents.
So how can your company win this war? In this guide, we’ll discuss five HR recruiting strategies you can adopt in 2020.
When you look at everything that’s required to replace an employee -- advertising open jobs, screening and selecting candidates, new employee onboarding, training, etc. -- it’s easy to see why the hiring process is such a costly endeavor.
Hiring the right candidate is a key part of every company’s strategic HR management process, which is why it’s critical that your recruiting methods and strategies are optimized for maximum benefit.
You don’t want just anyone responding to the jobs you’re posting. You want the best possible candidates to notice the positions you’re advertising -- and not after waiting weeks or months. But first, you have to define who your ideal candidate is. You do that by using research, data, and facts to create a candidate persona.
Here’s an example of a candidate persona. Image source: Author
In marketing, a buyer persona is a fictional representation of the ideal buyer. It allows you to target specific groups for advertising, use specific sales offers for specific market segments, and so on. In other words, with a marketing persona, your marketing initiatives are targeted, very much unlike the “see what sticks” approach.
In recruitment, a candidate persona is a fictitious profile that represents your ideal job candidate for a specific role. It includes their characteristics, skills, qualifications, educational background, where they’re from, interests, etc. When you know exactly what you’re looking for in a future employee, you can tailor your recruiting strategies toward attracting the right people.
With a candidate persona, you can:
Let’s say your company is ramping up, and your staffing plan includes the need for several Java development specialists. To create a candidate persona for Tim, a Java developer:
According to a study by LinkedIn, employee referrals are a main source of quality hires, alongside social networks and online job boards, which makes referrals one of the most effective recruitment strategies out there.
An employee referral program is a structured program in which employers ask their employees to recommend suitable candidates for open positions. Your employees know the types of candidates you’re looking to hire better than other sources, which is why most employee referrals make a better match right from the beginning. This means lower turnover rate, reduced recruiting costs, faster time to hire, and better workforce planning, among other benefits.
Now that you’re ready to include employee referrals into your arsenal of recruiting tactics, here’s an overview of the steps to follow to get your referral program off the ground.
Step 1: Identify your priorities based on needs and resources.
Determine whether you’d like referrals for each open position. If your hiring budget doesn’t allow for it, a more targeted referral program works, too. Examples of position types that will benefit from this recruitment strategy include:
Step 2: Create a referral policy.
Your referral policy must clearly communicate your hiring expectations, the referral process, the list of eligible positions, and the corresponding incentives and fringe benefits. It’s good practice to document your referral policy and make it available on-demand in the company’s intranet or HR software system like Zenefits or BambooHR.
Step 3: Simplify the referral process.
No matter the types of employees you’re looking for, whether a contract employee or a senior manager, your employee referral program should be easy to use.
Step 4: Show appreciation through rewards and recognition.
Your rewards package can include a mix of monetary and non-monetary incentives. For non-cash rewards, there’s no shortage of options. The idea is to get creative.
Examples include paid time off, gift cards or certificates, travel or leisure packages, flexible working hours, plaques or certificates of appreciation, a publicly announced thank you, e.g., in the company’s monthly newsletter or the paging system for everybody to hear, and mentoring sessions with a senior executive.
Step 5: Evaluate the program’s success.
As is typical of people management and employee programs, you have to measure their success to know what’s working, what’s not, and what can be improved. Metrics to track include:
Also, look into how satisfied the candidates, referring employees, and hiring managers are with the program.
Your company’s reputation is your brand, and your brand is shaped by a whole gamut of things: logo, typography, packaging, your value proposition, customer service, the quality of your products or services, and so on.
Your employer brand, on the other hand, is your reputation or popularity among current, past, and future employees. It’s how the market perceives you as an employer. Having a positive employer brand in today’s highly competitive job market is one way to dominate in the war for talents.
According to LinkedIn, an employer’s brand is a key consideration for 75% of job seekers. Thankfully, there are simple strategies you can use to boost employer reputation.
Social recruiting is the use of social media sites, job boards, online forums, and blogs to recruit candidates. Gone are the days when social hiring was solely used to augment more traditional forms of recruiting. As a matter of fact, it’s gone mainstream, with 84% of organizations now using it.
Practices that fall under the social recruiting category include:
Recruitment automation is a human capital management strategy that uses technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics to automate recruiting processes you would otherwise execute manually. This, in turn, reduces cost per hire, accelerates time to fill, boosts recruiter productivity, and improves the overall quality and effectiveness of an organization’s workforce.
It’s used by companies hiring at scale and those looking to achieve optimum hiring results within a limited amount of time using as few resources as possible.
The following hiring processes can benefit from recruitment automation:
Recruitment is no easy feat. Companies hire for different roles and different forms of employment -- independent contractors, salaried and hourly staff, people amenable to at-will employment, part-time employees, freelancers, etc. If you have limited resources, the amount of work alone can take a toll on your recruitment team and impact the quality of your hires.
With the above recruitment strategies, you have a better chance of attracting and onboarding top talents.
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