Nowadays, learning new skills is easier than ever. With many webinars, online courses, and tons of free information on the Internet, the job market should be brimming with talented people for hire. Nonetheless, the reality is entirely different.
The skills gap is a significant issue many employers have to face. In fact, the search for skilled employees has become an endless activity for more than one hiring manager. Simultaneously, many skillful job seekers are still unemployed. Of course, it’s unrealistic to expect one person to grasp all of the aspects of finding and hiring a skilled labor force.  If you’re having trouble with this process, consider enlisting the help of a staffing agency of your choice.
We are here to help you find perfect candidates for every job position. If you do not know where to search for skilled employees, follow our tips.

A World of Opportunities

If you are looking for skilled employees, you will have to go beyond the local job market. Even in the USA, the richest country in the world, experienced people in your target fields may be found in the least expected places.
Some of the easiest ways to find skilled employees abroad are:

  • Use search engines to find job websites,
  • Search for blogs in your niche,
  • Look for job opportunities on social media sites,
  • Check job boards and be alert to new openings.

Proceed with caution!

Even in the 21st century, many employers still prefer to search for employees via word-of-mouth. Online job searches often result in a large number of unqualified candidates. Additionally, there is no need to mention that active job seekers are not always the best ones.

Check Your Company’s Website

It is often the case that a skilled job seeker visits your company’s website to learn more about the organization. Furthermore, this person may be interested in your job openings and send you an application.
Visit the job section of your website and see whether you have enough skilled candidates to fill your open positions. If not, do not hesitate to extend your reach beyond your current website traffic.

Use Relevant Forums

Forums are a great place to find skilled workers. You have to make sure that the forum is relevant to the industry you are targeting.

To find forums, you can simply use Google search and type “forum about industry or niche”. If you are not sure which forums to use, just start with Google and type in “industry + forums”. You will probably obtain a few great recommendations.

Join Social Networks

Social media is a great platform to find potential candidates. To find skilled employees on social media, you can create a Facebook group or Instagram hashtag to attract interested users.

Use Professional Recruiters

Professional recruiters are often in the position to help you find the perfect candidate for the job. Nonetheless, it is important to know that many of them charge you a fee for their services. Be sure not to waste your time and money on recruiters that do not deliver the results you need.

Attend Industry Conferences and Seminars

Attending conferences is a great way to connect with skilled workers that are passionate about their work. These people will most likely love sharing their knowledge with other promising professionals.
There are many networking events taking place throughout the year, so you should attend one of them to meet smart people that can help your business grow.

Join Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn

It is quite common to find groups of people that speak about a specific niche on Facebook and LinkedIn. If you are looking for skilled workers, it is important to join some of these groups and interact with them regularly.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social network that has over 300 million users, more than any other professional network. You can connect with other professionals, search for employees or open positions, and of course, find expert candidates.

In order to find candidates on LinkedIn, the best practice is to search for candidates in the following ways:

  • Search for candidates by keyword or skill. To do so, you can easily use LinkedIn’s advanced search function. You can search for people based on their skills, employment history, interests, or the companies they work for. 
  • Search for candidates by location. If you need candidates from a specific location, use the same advanced search function. You can select specific locations. To do so simply type in your preferred location (e.g., “California” or “New York”). 
  • Search for former employees. If you need to find experienced workers who left your company in the past, use LinkedIn’s People You May Know feature. This is one of the most efficient ways to find skilled workers who already left your company. 
  • Search for candidates based on the company they work for or used to work for. Use LinkedIn’s advanced search function. You can search for candidates who are currently working for a specific company, or who used to work for a certain company but have since left that company. These are excellent places to find skilled workers.

In addition, LinkedIn is a great place to recruit passive candidates. These are people who are not looking for jobs right now but who are interested in learning more about job opportunities with your business. In order to find and attract these candidates, there are two things you can do:

  • Make sure you have a current career site that allows applicants to easily apply online for job opportunities with your company. 
  • Make sure that you have a referral program that allows your current employees to refer to a candidate who may be a great fit for your company’s culture and work environment. With this program, you give your employees incentives when they refer to skilled workers who are hired by your company, which is a great way to get them involved in the recruiting process!

Indeed.com

Indeed is another great place to search for skilled employees. This site is an aggregator of millions of job postings from thousands of different companies across the world. Indeed is still one of the most popular job sites because of their high-quality job listings and advanced user features.

Facebook

Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users. This makes it an excellent social network to utilize when you are looking to hire new employees and one you need to integrate into your recruiting strategy. However, the way you use Facebook for recruitment will depend on your business model and hiring strategy. You can use Facebook ads and Facebook groups to find candidates for your company.

Twitter

With 500 million users and countless numbers of potential candidates, Twitter makes for a great place to find job candidates. For example, Twitter is an excellent place to find skilled workers who are part of the startup community. If you are looking to hire from this specific community, searching on Twitter would be a good place to start!

Attend Local Events

You can meet skilled workers even if you are not looking for any new employees. Perhaps there is someone in your network that knows a skilled job seeker. If so, just ask this person for an introduction. You might be in luck! 

The Bottom Line 

Even though there are plenty of ways to find skilled workers nowadays, especially when compared to the past, this abundance of potential sources can be a curse in disguise! With so many people to hire, it is easy to get lost and turn your hiring process into a long and heinous ordeal. Hopefully, this article will answer some of the questions you may have about where to find skilled employees, and help you find the right person for the job. Good luck!