Supercharging recruitment with these 9 talent sources

A common issue many not-so-large businesses face is difficulty in recruitment.  Finding the right employees to fill in vacancies seems to be a perpetual exercise.  And needs more patience than fishing!  HR tells you that there are limited responses to your advertisement.  Or the skillsets you are looking for are not available.

So where exactly do we find those elusive employees?  This article examines some sources you (or your HR team) should tap to reduce time-to-hire

1. LinkedIn posts: Posting vacancies on LinkedIn through tools such as a sponsored Job posting, or LinkedIn Recruiter is surprisingly uncommon.  LinkedIn Jobs is popular with job-seekers.  Go to ‘LinkedIn Career Pages’ on your ‘LinkedIn Company Page’ and create the job vacancy.  Don’t have a LinkedIn Company Page?  Recommend you create one immediately.  It is the easiest way to tap a network of over 450 million users networking for business. The added exposure to the brand of your company is complimentary.
2. Employee / Network referral: Incentivise your employees to refer their connections for a vacancy.  Pay incentive only once the new employee stays with you for a specified minimum period.  Want the resumes to come faster?  Incentivise connections on your professional or social networks for referring successful candidates.
3. Employees on social media: Its important that each employee identifies with your organization on social media.  Asking employees to share job openings on their social media accounts is a good way to spread the net wide.
4. Faculty in local colleges: Your next employee might still be studying. Developing relationships with faculty in relevant local colleges to identify those bright sparks is a great potential recruitment source.
5. Alumni networks: Technology has made alumni networks much stronger.  From WhatsApp groups to LinkedIn, alumni are connected like never before.  Getting your job openings posted on these groups often elicits excellent response.  And more qualified leads compared to traditional channels.
6. Paid internships: This is a great way to get to identify talent without committing to a longer-term relationship.  Converting a business need into a small project helps assess the capabilities of a potential candidate.  Get interns for a fixed period, pay them fairly and evaluate performance at the end of the internship. If they are a fit with your organisation, recruit them.
7. Website Careers page: Put up a Careers Page on your website if you don’t have one already.  Keep the page updated with current openings.  At the very least, have an online form or an email id which potential candidates can send their CVs to.  It helps in building your database.
8. Competition employees: For smaller businesses or those in smaller locations, recruitment from competition is a sensitive issue. You might have a personal connect with the owner of that business.  Its best to involve a recruitment agency in these cases to maintain arm’s length.  Or get your HR to connect with potential candidates with generic requirements to gauge interest.   Subtlety, finesse and professionalism while recruiting from competition is critical.
9. Boomerangs: Give former employees a door back into your organisation. An employee who has left and learnt new skills can be a valuable addition to your team. The fresh perspective they bring can help you resolve problems within your organisation. But ensure that any old issues that caused them to leave are addressed.

If you still have issues getting the right employees, maybe your requirements are too specific (or too generic!).  Analyse which skillsets the job opening requires and identify the types of relevant experience.  This contrasts to limiting experience requirements to only, for instance, a specific industry.  Further, let potential candidates know about your organizational culture.  This is an increasingly important element for employees.  While interviewing, don’t discount attitude.  Many skills can be quickly acquired; attitude change is much more difficult.

And finally, share information on good candidates with others. Its possible someone else is facing the same difficulty in hiring talent as you are. If you know of a good fit that you can’t currently use, share the details. After all, what goes around comes around.