5 Key Strategies for More Effective Recruitment

Hiring talent in today’s fast-moving labor market can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Navigating the myriad of job boards, social platforms and other hiring strategies can become overwhelming.

In this environment, maximizing your talent pool isn’t simply a smart strategy. It is a business imperative. The broader and deeper your talent pool, the better the chances of hiring the perfect fit for your business.

Why Maximizing Your Talent Pool Matters

Have you ever been fishing? Bigger pools hold more fish. They hold bigger fish, too. It’s a similar story in the recruitment market.

By maximizing your talent pool, you can fill vacant positions faster. With a large database of suitable candidates, you won’t need to spend time, money, and effort on advertising and waiting for candidates to apply. You can be proactive in your candidate search – and this is crucial for roles that must be filled immediately.

When you fill positions more quickly and with less administrative burden, you achieve efficiency that impacts the bottom line. You get a better return for your investment when you eliminate the need to start hiring from scratch each time a role becomes vacant.

As your talent pool expands, you’ll have better candidate options. With time to hire improving and higher-quality candidates available to you, you will also be more likely to avoid costly mismatches caused by forced hires.

Where to Start: Defining What ‘Right Candidate’ Means for Your Organization

The journey to maximizing your talent pool starts with defining who the right candidate for your business is. When considering this, it’s critical to consider cultural fit and soft skills. It’s crucial to hire candidates who align with your company’s purpose and values. These are the qualities that close the gap between hiring someone who has the technical ability to do the job, to hiring the right person for the role.

Build a Strong Employer Brand

Run-of-the-mill candidates apply for a job. The best talent joins the best company. The part that your employer brand plays in attracting that talent should never be underestimated. The trick is to demonstrate that what you do and how you do it resonates with your stated values and purpose. When you exhibit these authentically, you will attract talented candidates who share these qualities.

Five Key Strategies for Expanding Your Talent Pool

With your right candidates identified and a strong employer brand, how do you take this knowledge and develop your talent pool? Here are five strategies that are key to your success:

1.     Incorporate Diversity and Inclusion in Your Hiring Strategies

Time and again, studies have shown that companies with more diverse and inclusive workforces perform more strongly. They are more innovative, more creative, and attract a wider range of clients. They also attract more of the highest-quality candidates – especially among Gen Z and Millennials who place DEI high on their list of work priorities.

2.     Utilize Different Platforms to Expand Your Search

In the digital age, recruiters must use all the tools at their disposal. This includes both traditional job boards and modern ones. You’ll find that your ideal candidates hang out on different social media platforms, too. They engage in industry communities and discussion boards, join local professional associations, and present themselves at industry events and jobs fairs. By getting involved with universities and colleges, you’ll steal a march on your competition when recruiting for entry-level roles.

3.     Offer Flexible Working Arrangements

Offering flexible working arrangements can be a game-changer. You’ll open your company to a much wider range of candidates, and not only Gen Z and Millennials who lead the way in desiring a greater work/life balance. Flexible hours are perfect for those with family commitments. Remote working brings global talent to you.

4.     Try Project-Based Hiring With Temp Staff and Contractors

Especially for the most challenging-to-fill positions, those that are time-restrained, or those that require specialized skills, it can pay to think outside the box. Project-based hiring of temporary and contract staff expands your hiring options and talent pool. It can also reduce overheads, and, if hiring contract-to-permanent employees, can give you a first look before committing to a full-time hire.

5.     Partner With a Specialized Staffing Agency

Partnering with a specialized staffing agency can help you achieve your hiring goals more effectively:

• You’ll gain access to their vast network of active and passive candidates ─ many of whom won’t be found through traditional candidate search methods and jobs boards.
• The candidates presented to you will be pre-vetted to match your ‘right candidate’ profiles.
• A staffing agency can manage much of your hiring process, from sourcing and interviewing candidates to negotiating contracts. This will allow your HR and hiring managers to focus on managing business-as-usual.
• A staffing agency will also help you remain updated on current recruitment trends, helping to ensure that your recruitment strategies remain relevant in our fast-paced world.
• Finally, staffing agencies can provide the gamut of hire types to suit your specific needs – from temporary staff to helping you build a geographically diverse and remote team.

Take Your Hiring to the Next Level

Talent acquisition is both an art and a science. The strategies outlined in this article will help you to expand your talent pool and hire the right candidate into any role more efficiently and effectively.

You don’t have to navigate the minefield of talent acquisition alone. We’re here to help. Partner with TECHEAD for your recruitment needs, and you’ll gain access to decades of expertise and our extensive network of candidates, temp, and contract staff.

To learn how we work to present top talent to our clients for their creative and technology roles, contact TECHEAD today.