Six recruitment best practices for successful hiring

Creativity and diligence are vital in recruiting top talent into the company. While technology has made it easier to broadcast job postings to a broad audience, there are best practices every recruiter must adopt to captivate job seekers and successfully hire suitable candidates.

According to businessday.ng, hiring the top candidates starts with the recruiters. They must be more creative in their tactics to land the best hires.

Read on to find out the six (6) recruitment best practices for successful hiring. They include:

1. Target the right candidates
2. Be flexible on your requirements
3. Step up your advertisement
4. Create compelling job descriptions
5. Use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
6. Implement a referral program

1. Target the right candidates

 In today’s digital world, recruitment has gone beyond LinkedIn, Indeed, and other standard hiring platforms. Job seekers are now actively searching for available job postings on other instant match and social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. So, as a recruiter, to land the best hires, you must research the exact candidates you would like to hire and on which platform they are most likely to be found. AI-powered sourcing tools for recruiters are great platforms for hiring top candidates by matching personas with candidates’ skills and abilities.

A great strategy that has been proven successful is targeting candidates who were currently laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As most of them were not out of their job due to underperformance, they might possess the required skill set you want. In addition, such candidates tend to stay loyal and sign long-term contracts with the company.

2. Be flexible on your requirements

You might be wondering why candidates aren’t applying for your jobs. Tara Sophia Mohr of Harvard Business Review conducted research to find out why candidates, especially women, aren’t applying to many job postings. She discovered that it was because the job requirements are beyond their reach. With a countless number of available jobs, they tend to apply to offers with a high percentage of success rather than a scattershot approach.

Casting a wide net before screening the pool is the right approach to fixing this problem. For instance, rather than asking for seven-plus years of experience in a particular field, consider “a solid experience.” Someone with 3-4 years of experience might be a great fit.

3. Step up your advertisement

An effective job advert goes a long way in landing good hires. To attract the best talent, you must intensify your adverts by giving precise requirements and ensuring they accurately reflect the role. Ensure you state your offer in a simple and clear statement. If possible, you can add visual content to your advert to make it more appealing, as that could increase the chances of getting potential candidates to apply for the job.

Since most job openings are viewed on mobile phones, you can step up your digital adverts and make them more appealing to smartphone users, as this could assist you in landing the best hires for the position.

4. Create compelling job descriptions

Creating an attention-grabbing job description is a good practice for successful hiring. To make that happen, you have to:

• Make the title specific. The more accurate and precise your title, the easier it grabs the interest of the best talent.
• Begin with a captivating overview. Provide a summary that gets applicants happy and eager to apply.
• Include the essentials: applicant’s core responsibilities, required skills, work hours, etc.
• Highlight your culture. Let your potential candidates know your values and the organisation’s cultural philosophy to gain insight into the company they intend to work with.

5. Use an ATS

 In cases where publishing a single job leads to numerous applications, manually going through the inputs may jeopardise the effort of getting the best talent on board. So, recruitment software like Applicant Tracking System (ATS) helps optimise the hiring process.

With features like keyword searches, match rates, and ranking systems, you can quickly approach top talents whose qualifications meet the requirements you are looking for. This helps to reduce competition and effectively saves time and cost.

6. Implement an effective referral program

Recruitment by referrals is a great option, even in top companies. According to Goremotely, the high rate of successful hires through referrals has made them the go-to choice. Statistics show that:

• Referred employees are four times more likely to get hired than others.
• 45% of candidates hired through referrals work with the company for a more extended period (more than four years).
• 82% of recruiters prioritise referrals over other options for a better ROI.

However, recruiting through this means has its disadvantages. That’s why as a recruiter, you must ensure you adopt an effective referral system for successful hiring.

Conclusion

When it comes to recruiting great talents, diligence and creativity is the key. However, varying work policies at workplaces have made hiring a challenging task. But, by adopting the recruitment best practices mentioned above, you can successfully hire highly qualified and passionate candidates for your company.