How to Find Employees: 4 Talent Acquisition Techniques to Embrace

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Liz Strikwerda

Content strategist and corporate blogger (2000+ posts). Her work has been featured on G2's Learning Hub, Human Resources Today, Better Buys and over 500 business websites. She plays bluegrass mandolin and enjoys sailing her catamaran and hiking in the red rock wilderness of southern Utah. Connect with me on LinkedIn

Struggling with how to find employees who are a better fit? Rethink your talent acquisition methods. Attracting a lot of applicants isn’t enough. If you can’t attract the right candidates, something’s amiss. Let’s discuss how to improve your hiring outcomes.

How to Find Employees: 4 Strategies

Strategy #1 Ace your job description

In this section, we start at the beginning; your job description. It’s impossible to overstate its importance. A job description is a formalized summary of the position. With the specific responsibilities and details about the job. It outlines the qualifications. Plus–and this is critical–it explains why a person would want to work for your organization. (This is called an Employment Value Proposition.) A good job description will:

  • Attract top performers
  • Reduce the applicant pool to those who qualify
  • Appeal to a diverse group of candidates
  • Articulate what it’s like to work at your business

The job description is your first chance to attract qualified candidates. In addition, it let’s you showcase your company. A good description will filter out applicants who aren’t qualified. In effect, it serves as the first step in your screening process.

How to write a job description

Writing a compelling job description is a tall order. Take a systematic approach. Firstly, list the basic information: company name, location, and job title. Secondly, the specific skills, qualifications and experience needed. Keep it simple and to the point. However, include enough detail to attract a good applicant pool. Let’s recap the elements:

  • Job location
  • Job title
  • Job responsibilities
  • Qualifications
  • Experience required
  • Desired candidate credentials
  • Statement about company and benefits
  • EEOC statement

In addition, avoid acronyms, jargon, and overly creative job titles. You might call your website manager a Digital Alchemist, for instance. Don’t do it in a job description. Above all, be clear and concise. Don’t make it difficult for applicants to know if they want to apply.

Trying to increase diversity?

Wondering how to find employees from underrepresented groups? Learn how job description language influences which applicants apply. Also, consider your job requirements and only include the absolutes. Finally, state your commitment to equal opportunity using your own words, not boilerplate EEOC language.

Get feedback from your hiring team

Furthermore, get team input before you write your first draft. For example, talk to the hiring manager (if it’s not you), team lead, and some competent employees with the same (or similar) job.

Create a consistent brand across your marketing

When writing job descriptions, use the same layout for all of them. In other words, keep a consistent look and feel across all marketing channels. As a result, it will also make your careers site better.

Manage your job description templates in an ATS

Applicant tracking software makes it easier to apply best practices to your talent acquisition. With an applicant tracking system (ATS) you can store a library of descriptions. As a result, they’ll be on-hand whenever you need them. You can also create job description templates. Consequently, you’ll never need to start from scratch.

Strategy #2 Use internal recruiting first

Internal recruiting is often overlooked. If you’re wondering how to find employees, look to your current employees first. There are many benefits to internal recruiting:

  • Financial Savings–When an existing employee assumes another position, you save time and money. For instance, you don’t need to pay a recruiting firm.
  • Minimizes Hiring Risk–If you make a hiring mistake, you may be able to move them back to their original team.
  • Career Development OpportunitiesMost employees want to advance along a career path. This is only possible with promotions—a type of internal recruiting.
  • Faster Hiring and Time-to-Productivity–Internal recruits don’t need to be onboarded. They require less training. Plus, they often accept a job offer more quickly than an outside applicant. In addition, it’s less common for an internal recruit to ask for an extended interim before starting the new position.
  • Employee Engagement and Productivity–Companies that promote from within have a more engaged and productive team. When employees see their company investing in its workforce, they feel better about their career advancement potential.
  • Employee Retention–Consequently, there is a higher retention rate for internal recruits in many industries.

When not to use internal recruiting

  • Do you need fresh ideas in a department? If there is stagnation, an internal recruit may not be the best person for the job.
  • Want to increase diversity in your organization? Internal recruiting may reinforce the status quo.
  • Have you created a new department? Are you planning to develop a new product? If you don’t have the necessary skills and/or experience on your staff, you’ll need to go outside your company.

Strategy #3 Actively seek employee referrals

Many companies have learned how to find employees that are a great fit; they look to their top performers. High achievers know others like them. (We generally hang out with people like ourselves.) In one sense, they have performed a first-level screening. Use a formal process for referral communications. ATS have templates that make it easy.

Strategy #4 Use a job posting distribution platform

Posting manually to each job board is tedious and time-consuming. With a distribution platform, you get access to thousands of job boards. Then the platform posts to all of your chosen sites at once, automatically. Intelligent algorithms recommend the best sites depending on your company and job description. Going forward, they provide current analytics so you will know which job boards are performing best. This way, your talent acquisition strategy will improve over time.

SwipeClock is partnering with JobTarget!

SwipeClock is excited to announce our new integration with JobTarget job distribution platform. JobTarget has an extensive job marketplace with 25,000+ sites. They post to the most popular job boards like Indeed, CareerBuilder and LinkedIn. Plus diversity sites, college job sites, state job banks, and more. Consequently, you can post by industry, job title, candidate demographic or location.

Job boards and job aggregators are central to the recruiting ecosystem because direct applicants make up 48% of all hires. HR technology News

With the WorkforceHUB JobTarget integration, you can access and manage your job boards from a single platform. As a result, you will start getting applicants faster and with less effort. Improving your hiring now will help you maximize your growth potential when the economy completely reopens.

Simplify HR management today.

Simplify HR management today.

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