Five Things That Need to Be In Your Recruiting Toolbox

by Lance Christensen (Subscribe Here)

I will preface this by acknowledging that most of what I am about to say may seem obvious to seasoned recruiting leaders. Nevertheless, I have discovered in conversations with other industry leaders, that most companies still lack one or two of the most basic tools. Whether they became lost in a transfer of leadership or were never implemented in the first place remains a mystery.

I will start with the single most important tool in the toolbox, as without it, companies will find themselves unable to determine the value of the other four. So let’s start talking about some tools.

1. Reliable Data & Reporting Tools- This one is an absolute mystery. How can a large recruiting enterprise make strategic decisions regarding staffing levels, media buys, workflows, branding campaigns, or anything else without reliable data to support the initial need and then later justify any investment? I regularly encounter recruiting leaders who lack the basic reporting necessary to effectively run their departments. Many of them only have limited access to the systems needed to build such reports and must rely on another department to set up reporting. While the safeguarding of data is very important, companies cannot expect leaders to make critical decisions without the data needed to do so effectively.  Many Applicant Tracking Systems and CRMs have excellent reporting capabilities, and there are a multitude of external reporting solutions that can be set up to deliver reliable custom reporting.
2. Paid Job Advertising- Before anyone rolls their eyes on this one, please know, that there are still companies that do not believe in paying for job advertisements. Counting on word of mouth, reputation, and organic apply volume to fill a recruiting funnel may have worked in the past, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. Some of the greatest brands in the world have seen their application volumes deteriorate and determined paid advertisements are now a necessity. It is important to note that paid job advertising through programmatic technology, niche job boards, and paid SEM will reach more qualified candidates than organic alone, and at the same time, they boost your organic application rates.
3. Employer Brand Advertising- The hard reality is that passive candidates are better suited for most of your medium to high-skilled openings, and they significantly outnumber the percentage of active job seekers. Then, once you factor in historically low unemployment rates, you soon realize just how important employer brand advertising is. Shockingly, most companies rarely set budgets aside for employer brand advertising, instead expecting paid job advertisements to fill their recruiting funnels. This approach, however, does little to attract the interest of gainfully employed, highly qualified passive candidates. By identifying and targeting specific talent communities with employer brand messaging, rather than job advertisements, companies build a strong reputation that results in a greater number of quality applicants over time.
4. Employer Talent Community- Most leaders I speak with understand the intent as well as the need for talent communities. Sadly, when I peel back the curtain of most company talent communities, they are usually just a repository for the contact info of career site visitors who were unable to find an open role. I also find that company communications with the members is often inconsistent or even non-existent, making it difficult for the company to establish an ROI. At a bare minimum, a quarterly newsletter, press releases, and company announcements can get communications started. Featuring content that introduces the community to your employer brand and employee lived experience (especially employee generated content) is what nurtures a talent community best.
5. Ambassador Program- With so much focus on attracting talent, it is easy to overlook the importance of peer-to-peer influence within an organization. Peer influence naturally occurs, with both positive and negative influencers rising to the occasion, usually without leadership oversight. Utilizing an Ambassador Program, leaders can establish key top-performing, experienced employees as employee ambassadors, building a culture of positive peer influence within the organization.  Incorporating those ambassadors into the recruiting and onboarding process will increase response rates, reduce ghosting, and improve new hire retention. A simple ambassador-to-peer call during onboarding can significantly improve hiring metrics, and by Incentivizing the ambassadors on key metrics, they will be committed to the program long-term.

Keeping this one to a minute or two has been challenging. If this simplified view of each of these tools leaves you wanting for more, feel free to send me your comments, questions, and curiosities. You can also search for additional content by subscribing to The Monday Minute for more topics.  Have a great week in recruiting!