February 14, 2019 |
You would think that finding employees for your business wouldn’t be that challenging–there are plenty of people out there in need of a job, after all. However, it’s a matter of finding the right employees; employees who have the skill sets, experience, and drive that you need for your team. The following are six effective tips to find employees that suit the specific needs of your company.
There are plenty of local resources at your disposal to find employees within your area. Here are just a few tips on how to find employees locally:
Always have business cards ready to hand out, especially if you’re going to job fairs or conferences. Even if you’re just out and about outside of work, you never know who you might run into. For example, you could run into someone you went to college with on the street who happens to be looking for a job. Or maybe you need to hire a customer service representative and you have an excellent customer service experience at a local coffee shop. You could offer the barista a chance to apply for your customer service job. You’ll want to be able to hand out your business card in instances such as these to encourage potential employees to contact you about possible employment.
Local universities are filled with students in need of employment following graduation. There’s a very good chance that you can find prospective employees who will graduate soon that are a perfect fit for entry-level positions. Contact local universities to inquire about any job fairs that you can attend or about any school clubs or courses relevant to your business. You can even offer to speak at club meetings or classes about your company or about your business and the industry you belong to in general. This will give you a chance to engage with students and build relationships. They will be more likely to turn to you for potential employment following graduation simply because of such interactions. This can be quite beneficial for students who have several job offers following graduation due to their stellar grades and accomplishments.
Another reason to contact local universities and to build relationships with the students is to offer paid internships to students who won’t graduate right away or who are about to graduate. This gives employees with little to no experience a chance to get some experience working for your company and within your industry. It’s also a test run for both sides: if they do a good job as an intern, you’ll be more comfortable hiring them on full-time despite a lack of experience prior to their internship.
Let friends, business associates, family members, and former colleagues know that you’re hiring and what position is open. They may have connections with individuals who are seeking the exact job position you’re offering.
Local job fairs are an excellent way to get into a large room with a large number of jobseekers. Here, you can interact with job seekers and hand out business cards or even take resumes. Not only do local job fairs give you the opportunity to engage directly with job seekers, they also give you the chance to highlight your company culture and to showcase your employer brand.
You don’t always have to hire new employees. In many cases, you may have people already working for you who are ready to be promoted or who have connections that you can take advantage of. Take note of these ways to find employees internally:
You should always try to promote from within if possible. This gives your employees an incentive to work hard. If you constantly pass up current employees for higher positions and are hiring from outside the company every time, it will be morally deflating. You want to show your current employees that you not only reward hard work, but that they have a future with your company. Otherwise, there’s also a risk that you’ll lose valuable employees to other companies.
Increasing brand awareness will help position your company as an employment option for many job candidates, especially those who may not have previously known about your company. Encourage your employees to become brand ambassadors by giving them discounts on your products or services, or even letting them try or have your products and services for free. This encourages them to talk about your products and services more, whether it’s online or in person within their social circles, thereby driving brand awareness and helping to build your brand’s reputation.
Let your employees know that you are hiring and encourage them to share that information with friends, family, and colleagues. They may know of someone looking for a job and they’ll be able to provide first-hand information about your company’s work environment to anyone who asks. This is an excellent way to attract job candidates who may not have been actively seeking a new job but whose interest you’ve piqued.
When a position opens up that you need to fill, ask your employees — specifically those who have similar positions — if they know anyone they can refer. There’s a chance they have colleagues they’ve worked with before who may fit the position perfectly.
Almost everyone looking for a job will start their search online. Be sure to position your company to be found online and to promote job openings so that potential employees can find you. Here are a few important tips for recruiting online:
Make it easy for job seekers to contact you. Whenever you post any information about job openings, include an email address or phone number where candidates can contact you with any questions they might have.
You’re not the only company posting job openings online. One of the challenges in getting the word out online is standing out from the competition, so make your job postings as visible as possible.
Be specific about the job titles and thorough in your descriptions. The less generic your job title is, the more likely you’ll attract qualified candidates; the more thorough your job description is, the more interested they will be. Thorough job descriptions should include your location, the estimated salary you’ll offer, the experience level you’re seeking, and more.
There are hundreds of job boards online that you can post to. Some of the most popular job boards include Monster, CareerBuilder, and Glassdoor. However, while you should post your job openings here, you should also consider niche job boards specific to your industry. There are job boards for nonprofits, retail, technology, and more that you can use.
Specific job boards aren’t the only places where you can post your job openings. There are also social media sites, career sites, and shared economy sites (which are more suitable if you’re looking for independent contractors as opposed to full-time employees) to consider. You may also want to consider paying for sponsored job listings, which will ensure that your job post is displayed at the top and bottom of relevant pages. Test these options out to see which ones attract the most candidates and then put your resources into those postings that perform the best.
One of the most effective ways to recruit online is to leverage the power of social media. In this day and age, almost everyone has a social media profile of some sort. Using social media is a great way to put yourself out there as well as to find employees. Use these tips to make the most out of your social media presence:
Social media provides access to massive audiences. At the very least, post business pages on some of the larger social platforms so whenever you post content, your followers will see it.
Encourage your followers to share any of your job opening posts. While posting a job opening on your social page will provide some exposure to followers (who may themselves be seeking employment opportunities), you’ll have more luck if your followers share the post with their social circles to increase exposure. Consider these social networks that may be worth advertising your job openings on:
Instagram can be beneficial in a number of ways. Not only can you reach out to Instagram influencers to help find job candidates , but Instagram makes it easy to get in touch with candidates. You can also use your Instagram account to provide candidates with a glimpse into your company culture and everyday services.
LinkedIn is a social network designed specifically for professional use, meaning it’s an great resource for finding job candidates. In addition to posting job openings on LinkedIn, you can search for candidates by taking advantage of their robust search function to input specific keywords related to the position that’s open. You can then use InMails to reach out to the candidates that came up during your search. Finding qualified prospects and reaching out to them directly is often more effective than having to wait for prospects to come to you and being forced to sift through thousands of resumes.
Snapchat is a social channel that has been exploding in popularity over the years. What makes Snapchat unique is that content posted through Snapchat only exists for 24 hours before disappearing, so competing job postings won’t be around for long. You can create unique job postings with custom geofilters to target a specific area. Because Snapchat tends to be used by younger audiences, it’s a good way to attract entry level candidates.
Facebook has an advertising feature that allows you to target specific audiences. This makes your advertising on Facebook much more effective since you’ll be reaching individuals who are much more likely to be qualified candidates with your job posting. For example, you can target your audience based on their demographics, their location, their interests, and even their online behaviors.
There are a number of out of the box recruitment methods you should consider implementing, especially since they aren’t that time-consuming or cost prohibitive. Here are a few creative ideas:
You have likely passed over some highly qualified job candidates for positions you’ve filled in the past. Go back over their resumes and reach out to them through email to see if they’re still looking or whether they might still be interested in a position at your company.
You should consider having a dedicated career page on your website that you can update whenever you have job openings and that includes all relevant contact information. Anyone visiting your site can see what kinds of jobs and career opportunities are available. You may even attract some candidates who weren’t looking to change jobs until they stumbled upon your careers page.
Consider implementing an employee referral program that rewards your employees for recommending talent that you end up hiring. This is different from simply letting people in their social circles know that you are hiring since it will require that they directly recommend someone to you, provide the necessary information (such as their resume) and provide a short summary as to why they think they’re a good candidate for the position. How you incentivize such referrals is up to you–you could even offer a small bonus.
If your business makes use of work vehicles, a hiring sign on the back or side of the vehicles could be good advertising. Your job posting will get exposure all over town wherever your work vehicles go. Make sure a phone number is listed on the sign so that anyone who sees the vehicle can call.
Pay attention to your interactions with employees at other businesses. If you think they might be a good fit at your company, don’t be afraid to talk to them about switching jobs. You can even poach employees from direct competitors using sites like LinkedIn to look over resumes of currently employed individuals who you know would be valuable additions to your company.
Finally, here are a few other tips that you should keep in mind as you implement an employee recruitment strategy:
Depending on the positions you need to fill, consider taking a gamble on new job seekers with little to no experience. There are some highly skilled individuals out there who won’t get experience unless someone takes a chance on them.
When finding candidates on job sites or social media pages, consider sending them an email instead of just sending a direct message. Emails tend to be more compelling and candidates are more likely to consider responding to them than they would to direct messages on social media.
Take some time out of your day to go through the resumes that you’ve collected. There may be resumes that you received when there were no openings for candidates who may fit the positions that have just opened up.
Don’t just focus on what you’re looking for when writing job descriptions–focus on what you have to offer as well. Many candidates have multiple job offers and will choose the employer who gives them the best offer, so make it known what the perks and benefits of the position are.
Don’t limit yourself to just one or two job sites. Even if you get plenty of resumes in from qualified candidates, you may be missing out on incredibly skilled employees because you’re not looking everywhere possible.
Make a great first impression at your next job interview.
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