Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by David Mackenzie – Managing Director and Head of HR at Mackenzie Jones. His opinions are his own.
In today’s hyperconnected world, the recruitment process can be one of the most overwhelming stages of a firm’s growth. The prevalence of smartphones and social media networks means that how you attract and recruit talent is continuously changing. Every action leaves footprints, and both the potential hiree and the hiring manager can find out more information about each other than ever before.
Even if the latest jobs are well-designed and adequately compensated, it can be difficult to find (and successfully attract) the perfect person for the role. Knowing that each addition to your team can either move the firm forwards or backwards can make the process unnecessarily stressful and complicated, draining valuable resources. But with the right strategy, you can use this new world of recruitment to your advantage.
Here are five secrets to successfully recruiting in a hyperconnected world.
1. Embrace the power of social media
In a recent report from LinkedIn, 47% of the 3,894 hiring managers surveyed said social media is the most effective employer branding tool. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all play an essential role in the new world of recruiting and are vital to grabbing the attention of potential employees.
Make sure your company pages are all optimized with keywords and up-to-date information about your firm.
Provide prospective job seekers and followers with a mix of informative, inspiring, and entertaining content. Encourage current employees to share company content with their networks to further expand your social media reach.
2. Welcome video applications
Up until recently, a company was seen as “a little out there” if they produced video content during the recruitment process. Now, that strategy is seen as “trending”. If you decide to embrace video applications, there are lots of benefits for your firm.
First of all, they allow you to efficiently pre-screen potential talent and later replay footage to compare and contrast candidates. They also let you consider a wide variety of candidates, no matter where in the world they are located, opening the recruitment search up to a broader array of talent.
3. Relationships, relationships, relationships
Any good recruiter knows that their main priority is to be relationship-focused. From the get-go, you want to be creating and maintaining relationships that are based on understanding and appreciation. Throughout the recruitment process, make sure your team is always interacting with candidates in a way that demonstrates your firm’s commitment to building an enduring relationship.
For example, before interviewing a potential candidate, spend some time researching them so that you can genuinely participate in a conversation about their skills and expertise. By doing this, you will then be in a better position to sell them the job, by correctly aligning the individual’s goals with your company’s offer.
Post-interview, make sure to follow up with candidates to inquire about how everything went for them. Not only are you continuing to show that you care about their experiences, but their feedback will also help you to improve your recruiting process in the future.
4. Create a coaching culture
If you aren’t actively working to build a recruitment process that attracts millennials to your company, then you need to start now. In the next decade and a half, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce, and their values will have spread throughout international business culture. Attracting them can be tricky, though, as millennials often view office life and the trajectory of their career in a different way to generations prior.
For this reason, your firm should always be taking steps to create a coaching culture as it has been proven that millennials want a coach who is invested in their personal and professional growth, not just a boss. For this generation of workers, an understanding of the avenues in which they can learn and blossom in a position is vital. You can reassure them that your firm understands and supports this view by emphasizing the unique strategies and varying options you have for training and development.
5. Utilize your existing network
One of the benefits of social media is the ease with which you as a hiring manager can quickly become involved with talent communities, hiring apps, niche and broad job boards or the best recruitment agencies. These are all tremendous avenues for recruitment, and you should make the most of them. However, don’t forget to utilize your existing network and promote a system of employee referrals.
Most likely, you have already hired a team of high-level workers, so you should tap into their personal network. As long as your current team is happy and engaged, your employee referral program can work in a similar way to customer referrals. (as in, relationship-focused).
Think about it. The original employee has already surveyed both sides, the company, and the potential hire, and has determined that it would be a good fit for both. They are also not going to jeopardize their relationships by recommending someone or a firm that they don’t believe is up to standard. LinkedIn is a great platform to incorporate into your employee referral program.
Another option is to consider rehires. If someone has previously left your firm on good terms, make sure to check in with them a couple of times a year to see how they are doing. You never know when they might want to return to the team.
As the rules for successfully recruiting in a hyperconnected world are always changing, you want to ensure that you don’t feel the pressure and fall into the trap of rushing into hiring someone. When recruiting a new member to your team, always keep your long-term goals, strategy, and budget allocations at the forefront of your mind and remember that curating a great team takes work, careful planning, and a fabulous social media strategy.
Author
Conner Martin
Conner is a professional writer and editor who has worked in a variety of different industries and media. He is passionate about communication and about making even complex topics accessible to wide audiences. Conner holds a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Oklahoma.
