Consider these 15 employee recruitment strategies

If you want to attract top talent to your organization, you need to differentiate your organization from the rest. That requires creativity, commitment – and some clever recruitment strategies.

Here are 15 effective recruitment strategies. These best practices will go a long way toward building a strong foundation.

1. Establish and leverage your employer brand: Candidates need to understand why they should choose your organization. Your brand reflects your company’s mission, vision, and values. Show it on your website, careers pages, job postings and social media. 

2. Improve job postings with compelling job descriptions: Job postings are an opportunity to make a positive first impression on candidates. Make job descriptions detailed, accurate and engaging.

3. Prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion practices: Incorporate DE&I into your hiring strategy to increase the diversity of candidates and eliminate biases throughout the selection process. 

4. Treat candidates as customers: The best candidates can choose where they want to work. Keep that in mind when interacting with applicants.

5. Conduct great interviews: Start with a welcoming environment. Be sure to involve current employees who have first-hand experience. 

6. Utilize niche job boards: They offer access to job seekers who have the specialized skills your company needs.

7. Expand your reach on social media: Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to showcase your workplace culture and what it’s like to work for your company. 

8. Create recruitment videos: Use them to show off your company’s mission, values, and workplace culture.

9. Contact qualified applicants from the past: Candidates you didn’t hire the first time around may deserve a second look. It’s likely they developed new skills since you last considered them.

10. Reach out to past employees: Those who left your company on good terms may be suitable candidates for new roles. In their time working for someone else, they’ve gained new skills and experience. 

11. Target passive candidates: They might be willing to make a career move for the right opportunity.

12. Recruit at colleges and universities: Undergraduates may have new skills. Contact career services at local colleges and universities.  

13. Host or attend industry-related meetups: Make personal connections with potential candidates that no job posting website can provide. Go to the heart of the talent pool.

14. Implement an employee referral program: Encourage your workforce to refer quality candidates; offer bonuses and incentives.

15. Improve the hiring process with data and metrics: Use an objective measure of your recruitment efforts. Include data and hiring metrics to identify what’s working and where you can improve. 

If you want to attract top talent, fine tune your hiring process. And remember, a good recruitment plan defines the candidates you want to attract, describes why you need them and explains how you intend to recruit them.

Bob Helbig is media partnerships director at Energage, a Philadelphia-based employee survey firm. Energage is The Washington Post’s partner for Top Workplaces.