The recruitment strategies your company leverages to attract top talent matter. They matter because identifying and hiring the right candidate for an open position can make or break your business.

For one thing, the recruitment process has become more time-consuming and expensive. Though the impact of the novel coronavirus has likely changed the calculus somewhat, the average cost to recruit a new employee is more than $4,000, and it can take almost a month to make a new hire.

For another, hiring the right candidate dramatically increases the likelihood your new employee will be engaged with his or her job. According to Gallup, just 34% of U.S. employees are engaged in the workplace, which means of course that almost 2 of every 3 are not. Even more alarming, almost 20% of workers are “actively disengaged.” This is shorthand for employees whose connection with your business is tenuous at best. Said differently, disengaged employees are probably thinking about leaving your business, perhaps to join the team at one of your competitors.

And that can be extremely costly to your company. According to HR Dive, for example, businesses spend on average $15,000 in recruitment and onboarding costs for each employee who leaves their company. If yours is a small business with 50 employees, 10 of whom leave each year, the annual cost to your business could be as high as $150,000.

What Makes Recruitment Strategies Effective?

The answer to this question might seem obvious. But increased competition for top talent has required forward leaning businesses to “think outside the box,” reinforcing the usual job communications strategies with new and innovative approaches, like robust referral programs and automated email communications.

As Indeed correctly points out, effective employee recruitment strategies in 2020 include a wide swath of advanced methodologies:

“A recruiting strategy is a plan of action to successfully identify, recruit and hire high-quality candidates. These are basic starting points that can help you attract the job seekers you are looking for. They range from basic methods, like posting on job boards, to more advanced methodologies, such as leveraging a recruiting agency or creating a referral program. You can implement recruiting strategies at every step in the recruitment process.”

The New Normal

Increased competition for top job talent has forced companies to find new ways to grab and hold the attention of job candidates and effectively leverage their employer brand. In other words, job recruiters must necessarily adopt effective (often digital) marketing strategies to connect with top candidates.

Consider, for example, these revealing recruitment metrics from Office Vibe:

  • Businesses that invest in an employer branding strategy reduce employee attrition by almost 30%

  • Almost half of job recruiters say their job increasingly includes a solid understanding of marketing principles

  • More than 60% of job candidates will end an application process that takes too long

  • Top job candidates across a wide swath of industries are “off the market” within 10 days

  • Job candidates who receive compelling, sequenced emails from recruiters are more than twice as likely to have a positive view of the business that sent them

What Are Some Examples Of Recruitment Strategies That Work?

Every business is different, with different goals and different recruitment challenges. In other words, the strategies that work for one business might not necessarily work for yours.

That said, most businesses will benefit by adopting recruitment strategies that incorporate best practice marketing traditional and digital marketing principles, including the following 4:

1. View Candidates As Customers

Your business probably invests heavily in customer communications strategies that make the buying process as simple, straightforward and helpful as possible. Today’s job candidates expect the same kind of treatment.

Above all, that means making the application and interviewing process as seamless, relevant and helpful as possible. Candidates for your open position are making one of the most important decisions in their lives and want as much useful information as possible about both your business and the application process. The business that most effectively provides that information—and does so in an engaging and seamless manner—is the one most likely to bring top candidates on board.

2. Embrace Social Media Marketing

Typically, one thinks of LinkedIn as the social media platform of choice for job recruiters, but sites like Facebook and Twitter can also help recruiters reach out to and initiate ongoing conversations with top job candidates, answering their questions and helping them solve their problems. For example, although Facebook is usually thought of as the most social of social media sites—but almost 75% of its 1.4 billion users say they go there for “professional purposes.”

Social media, in addition to offering an unparalleled opportunity to begin candidate conversations, is arguably the best way to showcase your employer brand. Sharing the key elements of your mission and vision statements on these sites will help you communicate the value of working for your business—and ensure new employees are a good fit for your company culture.

3. Create A Candidate Referral Program

One of the best sources of new employees is current employees. Odds are your top performers maintain a network of friends and associates who are similarly motivated to succeed and likely to be a good fit for your business.

To initiate a robust referral program, create a series of protocols that make current employees aware of open positions and seek their help in identifying appropriate candidates. You can also incentivize the process, perhaps offering a bonus to each employee who makes a successful referral.

4. Use Automated Emails To Connect With Top Candidates

Much has written about the effectiveness (and cost effectiveness) of email marketing, especially when combined with marketing automation. The fact, for example, that email marketing can increase return on investment (ROI) by as much as 4,300% attests to its value in transforming window shoppers into loyal brand advocates.

Increasingly, the most effective job recruiters are harnessing the power of automated email marketing to identify and connect with top candidates. You can create sequenced email series that introduce candidates to your business, answer their top of mind questions, roll out your employer brand and schedule important follow ups, for example. Equally important, email marketing is arguably the most effective way to personalize the candidate experience, increasing the odds top candidates will choose your business over one of your competitors.

Recruit the Best Candidates with the Right Strategies

The competition for top talent is increasing, and the businesses that win will be the ones who most effectively engage top talent. And the stakes couldn’t be higher for your business. Employing effective recruitment strategies will reduce employee turnover and add to your company’s productivity and profitability—but doing so can be both complex and confusing. That’s where we at Interseller can help.

To learn more about the ways our email sourcing, outreach and connection services can help you achieve your top recruitment goals—and take your business to the next level—contact us today.