With the job market improving, the hiring market has become very competitive. Companies are rapidly hiring talented people with specialized skills, and it may often seem like there are not enough candidates to meet the demands of the market.
Finding quality job applicants is a serious challenge. First of all, one must consider how to structure job descriptions, and then distribute the advertisements online. This does not take into account that it also takes time to find the appropriate job boards to post the position. On average, a company will lose 26 working days to the process of finding the right candidate. Most companies cannot afford this production time loss. With the urgency to hire qualified people always looming, here are a few ways to build a hiring pipeline outside of the online tactics.
Source Qualified Applicants through you Existing Network
The best job candidates often come from personal referrals. Here are five ways to tap into that personal network:
- Network Referrals—Talented professionals know when they see other talented professionals. Connect with those who you know are great in their field, and ask for referrals for other possible candidates.
- Staff Referrals—Consider implementing an incentive program that encourages your current employees to bring in candidates from their own networks.
- Deputize friends of your company—Do you have partners outside of your company that have helped you grow and become successful? Why not incentivize them to send in good referrals.
- External Recruiters—Professional recruiters like Hartley People Recruitment agency who understand your business are a great asset when they are effective.
- Recruit Researchers or Headhunters—There are firms that will investigate your target market and generate a list of candidates for you. They do not conduct the interviews, but this is a great way to make the interviewing process more streamlined.
Industry Events
Industry events are often saturated with passionate professionals who are eager to meet and network. Consider these tips for making the most out of conferences for recruiting and networking:
- Look over who will be attending in advance, and make note of anyone you would like to connect with.
- Establish personal connections with those you meet. Try not to simply collect a pile of business cards.
- Look out for those who engage others with questions during the presentations.
- When you do collect business cards, make a few quick notes about the person on the back, so that you can figure out the best way to follow up with them.
Interns
Interns can turn into really effective job applicants. With the right set of supervisors training and guiding them, you can customize the processes you want each future candidate to learn, and eventually hire someone who can jump right into the job. Having regular meetings is a must with this method.
Your company can utilize these methods in conjunction with, or instead of, posting positions online. Scouting for talent can become exhausting, but you can help your company use effective methods that always result in strong candidates who will add greatly to the team.
Florin is definitely an Online Marketing expert and article writer who likes to research the modern trends in business, technology and marketing communications and writes about a variety of stories.