Having a smart talent acquisition strategy is key to finding and keeping the best people. Now, it’s not just about companies choosing employees; candidates are carefully picking where they want to work too. This means companies need to be on top of our game to attract the right talent.
The cost of making a bad hire is high, so it's important for recruiters to stay ahead in how they find and bring in new talent. Recruiters can't just do things the way they've always been done. TA teams need to shake things up and bring fresh ideas to our recruitment strategies.
10 Talent Acquisition Strategy To Attract Best Talent
With that in mind, here are 10 straightforward talent acquisition strategies we've found really work in getting the best people on board. These are practical, effective strategies that can help us stand out to top candidates and make sure we’re bringing in the right people for our teams.
Leverage employee advocacy on social media
Talent acquisition has a crucial similarity with acquiring customers or clients; both practices involve selling people on your company. The objectives are similar, but your pitch will vary.
Just as customers search for social proof – like testimonials, case studies, and success stories – job seekers are also hunting for human advocacy. You meet this need by engaging your employees and interns in your talent branding strategy.
Leverage social media, like LinkedIn, to establish your talent brand and further your message.
Talent branding defines how job seekers and prospective employees view your company as a place of work. Thus, it’s vital to send out the right message; advertise your core values and work culture.
And the greatest advocates for your brand are your own employees and team members.
So share their stories. Spotlight employee experiences on LinkedIn. Make it easy for your workforce to project their positive experiences. Their advocacy will spread your brand to their network, helping you attract, and secure, the best talent.
Be present where your ideal candidates hang out
This means going beyond LinkedIn.
Don’t get us wrong – LinkedIn is still an excellent platform for recruitment, perhaps one of the best. But LinkedIn has become the talent acquisition platform of choice largely because job seekers have realized that recruiters and employers prefer it.
So, job seekers are using LinkedIn to increase their visibility and show up for you. But if you want to target the best talent, including passive talent that isn’t actively seeking employment, you’ll need to dig deeper.
For example, you might want to consider scouting for good talent on Facebook, Twitter, and in communities (like FB groups and even Reddit). Social sourcing has earned its place as one of the most vital assets for talent acquisition, and companies can’t afford to overlook it.
Do justice to your job descriptions
Plagiarism is bad in any sphere, and writing job descriptions is no different. Don’t copy job descriptions (at least, not without adjusting them) because another company’s JD can never truly reflect your open role’s requirements.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s address what makes a good job description. Joyce Bethoney, Director of Recruiting for Communications Collaborative, said:
“Hiring managers need to think about what they cannot live without. Those are the requirements that should be the first bullets of a job spec.” (source)
We think this is a great starting point. When you recruit for a role, consider the most essential requirements; what traits can your company not do without?
After outlining these essentials, you can proceed to add requirements that make for a more holistic job description.
Prioritize skills-based hiring
Most companies aim to hire based on skills, but many fail to achieve true skills-based hiring. The problem lies not in the intention, but in the recruitment and evaluation process.
CVs and resumes only reveal so much, and it’s not uncommon for applicants to lie on these documents. Even fully authentic resumes aren’t true testaments to an applicant’s ability. You can’t be certain that they’ll perform well in their new role.
Enterprises have incorporated skills assessments to evaluate applicant's technical skills, problem-solving and on-the-job skills. For example, content writing positions come with paid trial tasks, software engineering roles require candidates to take skills tests, and so on.
This shift in talent acquisition strategy benefits applicants and employers alike; job seekers can trust that hiring decisions are made based on skills, and hiring managers can select the best talent with confidence.
Read More: How Ness Digital Engineering Achieved Hiring Excellence with WeCP
Don’t just communicate your team culture – demonstrate it.
It’s easy to make claims about your company culture. But it’s more challenging to convince talent of your authenticity. No company advertises its culture in a negative light, but many don’t live up to their claims. And so job seekers have become skeptical.
Our best advice for communicating your company or team culture is to be authentic. If you’re a fast-growing startup with a somewhat hectic environment, don’t advertise yourself as a slow-paced team. Projecting an inaccurate image will attract the wrong type of talent, hurting your sourcing efforts and potentially leading to bad hires.
So begin with authenticity, and proceed to project your culture. As we discussed earlier, the best way to advertise your talent brand is through employee advocacy. This is true for promoting your team, or company, culture too.
Share your team activities on social media. Interview employees about their experiences and blog about them. And encourage your team members to share their experiences with their friends.
Blog about your best customers
You don’t need to have Amazon, Microsoft, and Walmart as clients to attract good talent. You just need to convince job seekers that your company does meaningful work for clients who trust you.
So when you share customer success stories, on social media or in your blog posts, remember to write for two audiences; potential new clients, and prospective talent. In our experience, you don’t need to go out of your way to appeal to both audiences.
Both talent and customers care about your work ethic, how you helped the client, and the clients’ experience with you. Give prospective talent insights into the mission they can become a part of.
Blog about your trusted employees and interns
Our first point made the case for employee advocacy – a powerful tool for attracting new, quality talent. But don’t limit yourself to social media for building your brand; leverage blog posts to tell the complete story.
Blog posts are great because they have long lifecycles and allow you to indulge in details. So, be sure to spotlight your employees and share their experiences working for your company.
For example, at WeCP, we have a dedicated intern spotlight series that showcases our company culture. Internships are a vital part of our talent acquisition funnel, and our spotlight series is a key driver behind its success.
How do you want your job board to look in 5 years? Start working on it today
Job boards are where talent comes to shop, so it’s important to have your best suit on.
When we ask hiring managers how they want their future job boards to look like, what they describe is often different from their existing board. Your aspirational job board might be better organized, more intuitive, and with clearer messaging.
It’s tempting to wait until your company is overflowing with new roles before building your dream job boards, but talent is assessing you today. So build that dream board, even if it’s at a smaller scale, today. Segment your offerings, make it easy for candidates to find what they’re looking for, and transparently project your needs.
Nail the phone call
Since emails and social media messages have gained traction, phone calls have taken a back seat in talent acquisition strategy. But although other channels have their own benefits, phone calls offer vital, distinguished advantages.
For starters, phone calls add a degree of authority and seriousness that emails don’t. A phone call tells candidates you care and are serious about moving forward.
Moreover, phone calls invite fewer mistakes – how often has an applicant misunderstood your message or email? In phone calls, both applicants and recruiters can clear up any misunderstandings and avoid miscommunications.
Lastly, phone calls are great because they let you assess an applicant’s communication skills and general attitudes – these key traits are important for your hiring decision.
Get real about your company culture – and the villains that threaten it
Building a positive, thriving company culture isn’t easy. And after you’ve successfully built a culture that you can be proud of, it’s crucial to protect it.
This is why it’s crucial to assess applicants for cultural fit and cultural add. You need to screen out any talent that isn’t suited to your company’s culture, and this screening starts beyond the evaluation phase. It begins with your talent branding and initial sourcing.
So whether you’re writing a job description, an employee-centric blog post, or just talking to a candidate on the phone, set clear expectations of your company culture. Be vocal about ‘villains’ that threaten your culture and actively discourage unfit applicants. Protect what the company has built.
Conclusion
Key to this is understanding and implementing skills assessment and skill-based hiring. This approach isn’t just about filling a vacancy; it’s about finding the right person with the right skills who will grow with your company.
For recruiters, this means looking beyond a candidate’s resume and focusing on what they can actually do. Skills assessment lets us objectively evaluate a candidate's abilities, ensuring we choose people who are truly fit for the job. This approach is more straightforward and fairer, and it helps us avoid costly hiring mistakes.
Also, when we prioritize skills in our hiring process, we naturally diversify our talent pool. We start seeing potential in candidates we might have overlooked before. This can be particularly powerful in roles that are evolving rapidly, where adaptability and a willingness to learn are as important as current skill sets.
In short, as we apply the tactics discussed, from social media engagement to refining job descriptions, let's keep our focus on skills. It’s about finding people who not only have the right abilities but who will also thrive in our company culture. This way, we're not just filling jobs for today, but we're building a strong, skilled team that will contribute to our company's success in the long run.
Assess your candidates the right way with WeCP
WeCP helps talent acquisition teams test the technical competence of candidates by providing them with assessments that resemble real work scenarios. Our platform also allows you to evaluate candidates’ soft skills, such as communication, problem-solving, decision-making, etc. Additionally, the AI co-pilot at WeCP helps you hire better talent in a faster, seamless and unbiased way.
Contact us for more information or schedule a demo with us.
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