Finding the right job candidates might be a daunting task. You need to create an appealing job description, post a job opening on different websites, source candidates, look through hundreds of applications with potentially suitable candidates for your vacancy, and spend hours interviewing them. You also need to make sure that you eventually choose the right candidate that would be a perfect fit for your company and its team.
To make your process of finding job candidates smoother and quicker, we share useful tips that you can use when planning and running your recruitment strategy.
Create a portrait of an ideal candidate for the job
Whether you’re planning to run a recruitment campaign or will simply be searching for several job candidates, thorough preparation is a key to success. Firstly, you should create a portrait of your potential employee considering their age, location, values, and lifestyle. This information will help you understand the behavior of your potential applicants and later allow you to quickly find necessary people by placing job openings on relevant platforms.
However, before recruiters proceed with looking for candidates, they need to write a detailed and appealing job description for a vacancy. If you already have a layout of how your company designs a vacancy, try to stick to it so all the communication is coherent and in line with your brand’s strategy. In case, you’d like to add some changes to how you structure job openings, here’s a couple of useful advice:
- Name the job title clearly and consider its search volume. You should include keywords using which your potential candidate will search for a vacancy.
- Write a brief introduction. Job descriptions are also subject to copywriting rules and before the main body, you should include a couple of paragraphs that would encourage your potential candidate to read the text further.
- Share key information about your company. Include it’s achievements, values, and goals in the future. Don’t forget to add a link to your website so your potential applicants could find even more useful information.
- Explain the conditions you offer to the candidate. This part should include information about the salary and other benefits your company offers.
- Now you can list the job tasks and requirements. Mention the characteristics, qualifications, and skills your ideal candidate should have.
- Add a CTA. Try to encourage your potential candidates to apply for the job at the end of the job description. Those who are truly interested in the vacancy will definitely read it until the end.
Although creating a portrait of an ideal candidate and writing an appealing job description takes time, thorough preparation will bring you better results as you will clearly understand how your potential employee looks like.
Engage with your current employees
Before you place a vacancy on your company’s or any external website, it is worth having a chat with your employees. It is very likely that among them, you will find a candidate that is looking for a promotion and turns out to be suitable for a vacancy. By promoting your current employee, you will save a lot of your own and company’s resources. In the first instance, you are already aware of the skills and qualifications a person has so you don’t have to spend time examining a candidate and setting a probation period. Besides, you won’t have to educate a person as your current workers already know all the intricacies of your business.
However, if you don’t see a suitable job candidate among your current employees, you can ask them for referrals. Industry professionals might have a network of alike specialists that will be a perfect fit for your vacancy. There are two ways to go in this case. You can simply talk to your colleagues and in an informal setting, find out if they have someone on their mind. Another way is to create an employee referral program with benefits that would encourage your current workers to suggest a potential candidate. Whatever strategy you choose, they are both a great way to save time and optimize costs in a long-term perspective.
Source candidates using SignalHire free resume database
One of the easiest ways for recruitment agencies and HR specialists to source candidates is to turn to free resume databases. In addition to those applicants who will respond to your vacancy, you will get access to a large database of potential employees and will be able to quickly find suitable talents for your company.
Pay attention to is a free resume database of SignalHire – a software that allows you to retrieve high-quality contacts of people in a matter of seconds. Their website features an extensive resume database of over 200 million candidates that was put together using such social networks as LinkedIn, GitHub, Facebook, and more.
Moreover, SignalHire provides a tool that allows you to search candidates by location, skills, position, industry, or the company’s name. At this stage, you can turn to the portrait of your ideal candidate because the more filters you apply, the better your search results will be. For instance, you can look for professionals like a basketball referee or a university talent partner, or search within a specific company such as Allegiant. What’s even more important, you will also be able to immediately get in touch with any candidate, as SignalHire allows you to extract both business and personal contacts of people.
Share a vacancy on social media
There is no doubt that social media is the main tool of communication nowadays. Whether your aim is to make friends, sell products or services, find or offer a job, Instagram, Facebook, and primarily LinkedIn allow you to interact with people and quickly achieve your goals. As most social networks have a place where users can share their bios, qualifications, and portfolios, finding potential job applicants has never been easier.
Depending on the urgency, a number of job openings, your goals, and other factors, you can share a vacancy on one or several social media at the same time.
Post a job on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the first social network that comes to every recruiter’s mind when they are looking for a candidate. A platform that allows you to build your professional network is a perfect place to source candidates. It has over 500 million users among which you will definitely find a perfect fit for your company.
Furthermore, there’s a separate section on Linkedin to which you can post a job opening and find the right candidates with good recommendations from their colleagues. Once you’ve made a list of potential candidates, you can quickly retrieve their emails and phone numbers using the SignalHire Chrome extension. The tool also allows you to transfer their contact information directly in your ATS which makes it easier to track applicants and grow your own resume database.
Create a Facebook vacancy
Another social network on which you can post a job opening is Facebook. Having over 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook is an extensive resume database with thousands of potential candidates for both remote and full-time jobs. In addition, you can run these vacancies as ads and directly target your potential candidates.
Ask your social media manager to help you create an appealing Facebook vacancy. A professional working with social networks will help you adjust a job description to fit the platform’s rules and audience and will set up the ad so you could make the most of it.
Advertise on Instagram or other social media
LinkedIn and Facebook are not the only social media platforms that can help you find the right job candidates. You can also advertise your job openings and source candidates on Instagram, Behance, or Dribble. These platforms will be especially useful for recruiters that work in the creative industry and are looking for talents in design, photography, marketing, film-making, or copywriting.
Additionally, some tools offer ways to explore social profiles via phone number, which can be particularly helpful when a candidate’s presence on traditional platforms is limited.
Although finding the right job candidate can be a time-consuming and complex task, you can still achieve your goals if you use these tips and advice. Try to implement a couple of different strategies at once to make sure you make the most of the existing tools. For example, there are effective methods to identify social accounts by email address, which can enrich your candidate insights and help verify identities. And with time, you will realize that finding a candidate that would turn out to be a perfect fit for your company is easier than you thought. Good luck!
