10 Simple Actions To Dramatically Improve Your Recruiting Results

There are many actions that researchers, sourcers and recruiters can take to improve the impact of recruiting as organizations face more pressure to do more with less. We wanted to share with you our top 10 list of practical, easy to implement actions that will dramatically improve your recruiting results without a huge need for investment. Make your job postings more exciting. Many recruiters pull job descriptions from internal systems that were written long ago for purposes other than marketing and opportunity and are, to put it simply, very dull. Recruiters should rewrite them so that they sell the exciting aspects of the job and give applicants an idea of how they'll be able to influence the future. At the very least, they should be tested against competitors descriptions to ensure they're more compelling. 2. Encourage referrals. It's been true for a number of years that the highest quality hires come from employee referrals, and the widespread growth of social media makes it even easier for employees to identify and build relationships with top talent. Unfortunately, employees are not trained recruiters, so if you want them to be effective at building mining their networks and you will need to advise them on what practices work best. Also remember, nothing kills a referral program more than a slow response to referrals, so review and respond to each within 24 to 72 hours. Number three revisit previous high quality candidates. Oftentimes, you can save tremendous resources by simply revisiting the stars that got away. Reach out to candidates who voluntarily dropped out of the process, turned down an offer, or who were finalists in a field where a superior candidate ended up getting the job. Times change and it's not uncommon for candidates to regret decisions. Also, look at bringing back former star employees who've left your firm. 4. Ask references for referrals. In addition to harnessing the power of employee referrals, you should ask the references of top candidates and new hires to provide you with one or two additional names of top people who they know. 5. Keep an open mind. There are candidates who may not fit a particular job description, but be open to searching for potential candidates who may not look like they have it all on paper but should be considered for other reasons. As an example, they might have such skills or background that shows them as innovative thinkers, or they could be valuable hires in the future of the business. Ask about real problems in interviews, ask the candidate to share with you some real examples of the type of problems they've solved in their current or past role. Explore their problem solving process. Who did they approach? How did they figure out what the problem was? How long did it take to resolve and what was the final outcome? 7 make interviews more feasible People who are currently working have difficulty scheduling and attending multiple interviews without placing their existing job in jeopardy. Make it more feasible by making changes to accommodate their schedule. Consider dedicating at least one night or weekend, day, month to allow individuals with scheduling issues to interview outside of work hours or using video interviews that don't require travel. Second, consider instituting a policy where all interviews are completed in a single day. Ask candidates for their job acceptance criteria Selling top quality candidates is always difficult, but you can make it much easier if you start out by asking candidates to identify the key factors that they'll consider when evaluating an offer. In addition, have them outline deal breaking factors that would cause them to drop out of the process or not consider an offer. Tailor your assessments and selling approach around these factors. Number nine Use mobile Effective communication is an important part of recruiting, so you want to identify and use the communication channels that are favoured by top candidates. The very best these days rely heavily on smart mobile devices, so you need to learn how to effectively communicate on channels that are commonly used on such devices. Texting, microblogging, social networking applications Videos can be more powerful than Word, so consider making and sharing a personalized video that actually shows the exciting aspects of your firm that can be viewed on a mobile device. Number 10 help managers sell your firm unfortunately, hiring managers may sometimes struggle to sell the company to potential recruits rather than trying to build up their sales skills. Survey your key employees to identify the specific factors that make your firm superior to competitors and compile a list hiring managers can use to better position the opportunity. Simple actions taken by well trained, smart individual recruiters and hiring managers who think creatively can produce dramatic, almost immediate results. By investing in your skill development, you can add significant value to your organisation and also a huge impact on the careers and personal lives of the individuals whom you help hire into your business.