From registered nurses to experienced teachers, openings for in-demand jobs never cease to exist. If your hiring needs consist of hard-to-fill positions like these, using a just-in-time recruiting strategy won’t do. To fill these kind of positions successfully and quickly, you need to plan ahead.
If you engage with new qualified candidates before your jobs become available, as well as on a regular basis, you can continuously grow your candidate pool. Once your candidate pool consists of hundreds and even thousands of qualified candidates, filling new positions will become more seamless and painless. Your time-to-fill will significantly decrease, and you’ll have plenty of talented candidates to consider hiring.
If you’re eager to achieve these outcomes, here are some tips for continuously attracting more candidates:
All throughout the year, interested candidates are turning to your career site to learn more about your organization. If your career site isn’t performing to industry standards, you’re likely losing potential candidates every day. To engage top talent year-round, give your career site an honest evaluation and fix any major issues. Ask yourself the following questions:
One surefire way to grow your candidate pool is by helping job seekers easily find your jobs. There are a number of ways you can accomplish this. On every page of your career site, make sure there is a prominent “Search Jobs” button that job seekers can click to view your job listings (or showcase relevant jobs on the page). Also give visitors the option to sign up for job alerts so they can be notified any time a new position becomes available.
Finally and most importantly, include a Talent Community widget on your career site. This way, if a job seeker wants to work for you but can’t find a relevant position available, they can still easily send their resume and contact information to you. Then, whenever new positions at your company open up, you can consider this group of candidates right away. Read Why Your Recruiting Needs a Talent Community for more Talent Community benefits and tips.
For every candidate who fills a position, there are dozens more that aren’t given the opportunity. By providing each candidate with a positive experience, regardless of today’s final outcome, you can ensure that even applicants who didn’t make the cut still maintain a positive image of your company. In return, your applicants will be more likely to share your jobs with others and tell their friends to apply. In fact, The CandE Awards reports that 98 percent of candidates who have a positive experience with an employer would tell others to apply.
For a candidate experience that consistently attracts talent, ensure the following:
If you want to spread the word about your jobs and stay top of mind, actively engage with new candidates wherever they are. Along with maintaining a mobile optimized site and interacting with candidates on social media, partake in face-to-face opportunities to network with potential talent. From career fairs to campus recruiting to industry events, boosting awareness for your employment brand and available jobs will certainly help you grow your candidate pool.
Companies who regularly invest time into growing their candidate pools year-round reap the benefits of shorter time-to-fills as well as reduced cost-per-hire. Once you have qualified candidates consistently expressing their interest in joining your team, you'll be more prepared to meet your organization’s hiring needs. And instead of entering that dreaded panic mode when your next hard-to-fill position suddenly becomes vacant, you can proactively and conveniently turn to your extensive candidate pool.
