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20 Ideas to Improve Recruiting

"We have SO MANY unfilled jobs!"

Are there any words more painful to a staffing firm? Unfilled jobs mean lost revenue. They open the door to your competition. And worst of all, unfilled jobs leave your clients in a bind.

What can you do?

The skills gap is very real, and unless you are in the training business, you can't create qualified job candidates. Sure, you can advertise more, but will throwing more dollars at the same kinds of job posts have a real impact? Not likely.

If you want to fill more jobs, you have to think about recruiting more strategically. To start, consider these facts:

80% of job seekers don't think about working with a staffing firm.
75% of workers are open to new job opportunities, but less-than-half of them are actively looking.

So if you want more job candidates, get to the people who are not (yet) looking at jobs from staffing firms--THAT'S MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO'D BE OPEN TO A NEW JOB!

How to more strategically recruit for staffing jobs

The remainder of this article will outline 20 ways you can improve your recruiting efforts. Please note, these ideas do not include direct recruiting. While direct recruiting is an essential recruiting method for professional-and executive-level roles, it's cost prohibitive for high-volume recruiting and many of the jobs that staffing companies fill. This article is dedicated to ideas for attracting talent to those jobs where direct recruiting is not feasible.

20 Recruiting Strategies & Tactics

Improve recruiting for active job seekers

Improve response to the jobs on your website.

  • Repost the same jobs with different job titles.
  • Include key benefits, location in job titles.
  • Improve writing for job posts (better sell the job / opportunity).
  • Implement the new TwitterCard feature of the job board.*
  • Set up automated job board featured mailings.*

* These are features that are unique to Haley Marketing's job board software. Please contact us at 1.888.696.2900 to learn more about our job board

Increase distribution for job posts.

  • Automate sharing of your jobs using an RSS feed of your job data
    • Feed all your jobs to Twitter.
    • Feed jobs for specific verticals to related Twitter accounts.
    • Feed all jobs for individual recruiters to their LinkedIn status updates.
  • Manually repost jobs to Facebook and LinkedIn Groups.

Get more people to opt-in for job alerts (build your own talent community).

  • Add more calls to action to get people to opt-in for job alerts.
    • Add call-to-action graphic to the Job Seeker, About and Contact pages of your website.
    • Include call-to-action graphics at the end of your blog posts.

Post jobs to more local / industry-specific job boards and websites.

  • Specific sites will vary by geographic market.
  • These sites may include Craigslist, local tech and professional sites, etc.

Test pay-per-click / pay-per-candidate recruiting solutions.

  • PPC: Indeed, Simply Hired.
  • Pay-Per-Candidate: Jobs2Careers, Careers.co.
  • Boosting jobs: ZipRecruiter.
  • Use Google Adwords to target people doing searches for specific types of jobs.
  • Use Facebook boosted posts to target people in specific job disciplines and locations.
  • Use LinkedIn sponsored updates to target people in specific jobs, industries and companies.

Direct mail to licensed professionals.

  • This tactic can be used to target healthcare, legal and financial professionals.
  • Purchase a list of licensed professionals and send a letter or card to create interest in job opportunities and/or working with your firm as a career partner.

Review Google Analytics.

  • Review entry and exit pages.
  • Determine strategies to optimize Job Seeker, About and Contact pages to get more candidates to convert (i.e., apply or contact your firm).

Create videos showcasing hot jobs.

  • Post each video to your company channel on YouTube.
  • Feature the videos on your company blog.

Grass roots marketing (local efforts to raise awareness of your firm and the jobs you offer).

  • Flyers / tear sheets for posting in stores and at local community organizations.
  • Bar coasters promoting hot job opportunities - give away to bars near manufacturing plants and distribution centers.
  • Advertising in church bulletins and community newspapers.
  • Mass transit and other outdoor advertising.

Improve recruiting for passive job seekers

Use social media and PPC to get in front of these people.

  • Create a compelling brand message about your staffing firm.
  • Create compelling offers to take action, for example:
    • Check out our hot jobs
    • Opt-in for job alerts
    • Find out what you're worth (local pay info)
    • Access the hidden job market
    • Free resume review or "power boost", free resume template

Build a larger social following.

  • Use Tweepi to follow the followers of other staffing firms and employers.
  • Aggressively ask people to follow your firm on your company website and on social sites.
  • Boost posts on Facebook to focus on building likes, use affinity targeting.
  • Regularly share content on LinkedIn, ask people to follow your company.

Increase visibility for individual recruiters (build their personal brands).

  • Be active in local talent communities.
  • Speak at local events about career management.
  • Regularly share content on social sites candidates regularly visit.

Use remarketing to keep your company top-of-mind with people who have visited your website.

  • Google remarketing to show ads throughout Google's ad network.
  • Facebook retargeting to show adds within people's timelines.

Reactivate former / placed candidates, increase referrals.

Actively engage talent already in your ATS.

  • Create a compelling brand message about your staffing firm.
  • Create compelling offers to take action, for example:
    • Send email to every candidate asking for an update.
    • Share a list of hot jobs and ask for referrals.
    • Call blitz to reach out to all former candidates, ask for referrals.

Contact people you previously placed.

  • Get update on career status, ask for referrals.

Build a network of referral sources.

  • Local trade and professional schools.
  • Organizations that provide continuing education.
  • Local department of labor office.
  • Church groups and other organizations that help people find work.
  • Retail stores that sell tools and equipment.

Develop "brand champions."

  • Invite top employees and referral sources to be part of a referral network.
  • Provide incentives to these people to refer candidates.
  • Reward brand champions with cash and non-cash incentives.
  • Provide low-cost or no cost branded safety gear and other apparel.
  • Encourage brand champions to share jobs and other content on social sites.
  • Provide new articles and graphics to be shared multiple times per week.

Improve the candidate experience (become a best place to work).

Implement Haley Marketing's Talent Showcase

  • Develop profiles of top candidates.
  • Use the Talent Showcase to skill market available candidates.
  • Also use the Talent Showcase to recruit, show candidates. Show people that you do more to get candidates hired!

Develop messaging that promotes the value of working with a staffing firm.

  • Your firm may need a different message for each vertical market.
  • These themes could include:
    • Access to jobs
    • Top paying temp opportunities
    • Boost your career
    • A job that fits your schedule / lifestyle
    • Take control of your career
    • A staffing firm that actually puts you first
    • Why are you settling for a job you hate?
    • It's your life. Get a better job.
    • Switching to a career that offers more growth potential
    • Gaining experience while getting paid
    • Getting a job right out of college, trade school, etc.

Benchmark your candidate experience against other staffing firms.

  • Evaluate every touch point with candidates. This could include:
    • Job search and application process
    • Screening, interview and assessment process
    • Onboarding process
    • Assignment notifications
    • New assignment orientation
    • Ongoing communication
  • Determine how to make your experience better than anyone else.

From ideas to placements...

I hope this article hasn't made you feel too overwhelmed. When it comes to filling your jobs, there are a lot of things you can do to attract all those people who aren't actively looking and don't think about using a staffing service.

If you need help, Haley Marketing is here. From our mobile-and SEO-optimized job board, to social marketing, pay-per-click campaign management, and email marketing, we have the tools and expertise to help you get more candidates applying to your jobs.

Call us at 888.696.2900 or email us at [email protected]. We'd be happy to brainstorm specific ideas for your firm.