Vive Blog

It’s no secret that employers are facing more challenges than ever in recruiting and retaining top talent. There’s not a “one size fits all” recruitment strategy, as many companies have different and varied challenges based on geographic location, industry, type and number of positions open, time of year, company culture, and reputation as an employer.

To make matters worse, employers across the country are seeing a decline in both engagement and applications, making the competition for qualified candidates more difficult. Meanwhile, costs are increasing to attract talent – with both cost per click and cost per application rising across all job types.

So, when operating in this tough job market, how can you put together a solid recruitment strategy that works?

Develop A Plan Unique to Your Company

Since it’s important to identify, recruit, hire and retain top talent, you’ll need to highlight your company culture, promote open positions, and build a strong candidate pipeline. Consider what you are currently doing and look for ways to develop and improve your current strategy.

The following are tips to best promote your business when recruiting:

• Articulate what makes your company different. Tell candidates why they should work for you and not your competitor.
• Don’t limit your options. Use different strategies to recruit both active and passive job seekers.
• Keep the process simple. Evaluate the user experience yourself when candidates apply for positions. Is the completion process easy for anyone to fill out an application?
• Evaluate and make changes. Pay attention to what strategies are working and which are not within a quick evaluation timeframe.
• Current status of brand equity. Is your marketing message in-line with the ever-changing marketplace? Does it accurately align with who the company is and the values represented?
• Hire for talent, train for skill: With the right training, bringing on the right person is worth the hire. It’s important to consider the required skill sets that could be carried over to open positions if the hire was right.
• What are online platforms saying about your reputation? Check your reputation as an employer on Quora, Reddit, and Glassdoor to see what current and past employees are saying about you. Consider uploading fresh, accurate content from satisfied employees to strengthen your online brand presence.

Keep Your Careers Page Up-To-Date

One of the most important tools in your recruitment strategy is having a well-crafted careers page on your company website. Here you can promote open positions, share content, and provide information on your company’s mission, culture, and benefits. Include your commitment to diversity and inclusion, awards you’ve won as an employer, and employee testimonials, either written or as part of a video or podcast.

Another idea for your Careers page would be to add a chatbot specifically for candidates to help them learn more about the company in an engaging and interactive way. Candidates can receive tailored responses with further information on your company’s culture, benefits, and unique hiring process.

Be Creative with Your Outreach to New Talent

There are a number of strategies you can utilize to better recruit candidates, including:

• Targeting “passive” candidates that aren’t necessarily looking for new job opportunities online. This can be achieved through billboards, signage, applicable ROS digital ads, and print ads in targeted media.
• Utilizing social media to attract candidates by highlighting employees, team outings, and celebrations. Develop content geared towards recruiting.
• Creating a company culture video for social media, your website, or even a TV ad.
• Building a pipeline of candidates that had previously showed interest in your company, but may not have been a good fit at the time. Send them job alerts when relevant opportunities arise.
• Encouraging candidates to apply even if there is no available role at the moment.
• Encouraging prior candidates to “boomerang” – leave to explore another opportunity with the door open for them to come back.
• Implementing a strong employee referral program to incentivize employees who refer friends and family to your company.
• Recruiting candidates through veteran and diversity networks. This can include women returning to the workforce after raising children, people with disabilities, universities recruiting for younger talent, formerly incarcerated workers, military veterans, etc.
• Hosting recruitment events in-person or virtually.
• Creating an event to contribute to the conversation around your industry’s trends and challenges.
• Optimizing keywords to get your job posting in front of candidates before they click through a website or job board. When candidates search for a specific job title, Google will aggregate jobs in their area that match their inquiry.
• Targeting competitor keywords by optimizing your posting with a hyper-specific paid ad. Anyone searching for a job at your competitor’s company would also be interested in a job with your company.
• Targeting job title keywords so you are the first company candidates see when they start their job search.

Employers need a well-crafted strategy that excites people to come to work every day and grow within their careers. Highlighting company events and culture-building activities within the workplace is a great way to entice new talent. At Vive, we recognize the importance of a fresh strategy and can bring your recruitment dynamics to the next level. Contact us to talk marketing and formalize a strategy that revives your brand and positions your company as a place for growth.

Want to learn more about Vive? Contact us today to get started.