In the previous two articles we’ve talked about how recruiting methods are changing.  Your ability to acquire top talent will become critical as the economy rebounds and the boomers finally retire.  The large job boards are falling out of favor with candidates, search engines are the tools of choice (for job seekers and recruiters), and your HR leaders are learning how to be visible on the web.  These are major shifts that have taken place in a relatively short period of time – where do you start?  Here is a list of simple activities you can do today that will have a positive impact on your ability to find, attract and hire the talent you need:

·         Submit your career page to Indeed.com and Simplyhired.com.  This will alleviate the need to broadcast your positions on the big job boards

·         Post ALL open positions on your career page immediately. Candidates who want to work for you have alerts set to monitor your company’s activity

·         Keep your career pages up to date.  Candidate perception is that your company website is the single source of truth.

·         At the very least, set up autoreply emails to candidates.  Making sure that all candidates receive a reply when they contact you through your career site will help create a positive reputation and cut down on the follow up calls to your HR department.

·         Formalize your Company LinkedIn Profile.  Linked In creates a profile of your company based on users with your company in their profile.  You can help promote your employment brand by creating a formal Company Summary.

·         Start a Linked In Company Group – and keep content updated.  Create a buzz about your company and generate interest from passive candidates.

·         Set up a company Facebook page.  Promote company culture, events and announcements through formal channels as well as through social channels.  People consume content differently so open your channels and reach a broader audience.

·         Make sure HR representatives are named as a content provider on company blogs.  Tagging high profile representatives on your company blog will increase exposure, readership and reach passive candidates who might be ‘surfing’ by

·         Launch a referral program and pay your best advocates for their work on behalf of your company.  Rewarding your employees for evangelizing their company is effectively multiplying your recruiting team.  User groups, professional associations and social activities are where potential employees are.  Top Talent hangs out with other Top Talent.

·         Review your recruiting metrics quarterly and stop paying for programs that aren’t returning value.  Measure your time-to-fill and cost-per-hire by source regularly so you can focus your resources where the payback is.

I’m sure that if you measure your ROI on job boards this year (hires from the boards divided by the dollars paid to them) you’ll be very disappointed in the numbers.  Reallocate those funds and immediately increase the quality of hire (because you’re looking in the right places), employee retention (because you’re hiring better) and team satisfaction (because hiring good people the first time is just more fun). 

Fact #1 – Your cost-per-hire for staff level positions should not exceed $1000

Fact #2 – Referrals account for 40% of all hires in the US

Fact #3 – The newest website extension is .jobs – specifically created for company sites

For more information on hiring great talent – and getting hired – visit us here.