The Office of National Statistics recently released its February UK Labour market bulletin which reported that the UK employment rate was 74.6 per cent - the highest since records began in 1971. However, the same report also stated the there is still 1.6m unemployed people in the UK that are seeking and available to start work. Therefore there is still a large demand for recruiters to place candidates.
Every recruiter has a different technique as to how they approach and find candidates. Therefore, in order to assist recruiters in developing a straightforward and consistent approach to candidate sourcing, we have created a two-part blog series to provide a number of recruitment tips and tricks recruiters can adopt to find and approach skilled candidates.
1. Find the right job board
We have spoken previously about the potency of job boards, how they fit into your recruitment strategy and provided a series of job board posting tips to help you use them effectively. However, when it comes to finding high-quality candidates, from the outset you need to determine which job board will fit your requirements and help you to find the right individual with the least challenge possible.
On the one hand, you have generic, wide-ranging and non-specific job boards such as Reed, Indeed, Monster and CVLibrary. Using these job boards will give you access to a massive pool of candidates; but the downside is that you run the risk of receiving an incredible volume of CVs from unqualified candidates who may or may not have read the job spec.
On the other hand, you have niche, industry-specific job boards which only advertise jobs for a specific sector or industry. Unlike generic job boards, the candidates on specific job boards have a higher chance of having the skillset you require. The downside with specific job boards is that you may receive only a handful of high-quality CVs from interested candidates.
In the end, it comes down to quality over quantity, and whether you have the time to acquire the ‘right’ candidate.
2. Have accurate data?
When it comes to your organisation’s in-house data, quality not quantity is the ultimate measurement. You may have a database of hundreds of thousands of candidates, but if those candidate records are out of date, missing vital fields or individuals are no longer looking for employment, then this is likely to have a negative impact on your candidate placement success.
Take the time to update your database on a daily or weekly basis. This will enable your organisation to have a holistic, accurate view of its current candidate pool – as well as ensure your recruitment team has all the information they need when introducing candidates to businesses.
3. Be active on a range of channels
Recruiters need to identify which digital channels resonate with target candidates in order to determine which are most beneficial to the business - then become active on those channels and leverage them to drive candidate activity. However, according to our recent market research report, only 25 per cent of candidates surveyed have used social media to find a job, and of these, only 14 per cent found it helpful.
While social media channels may not necessarily be the most effective at generating high-quality candidates, this has not dissuaded recruitment organisations from using them. The sheer scale of social media channels, particularly Facebook and LinkedIn, means that there is certainly a possibility that excellent candidates are using these platforms to find new opportunities.
To put it into perspective, Facebook is the largest social media platform on the planet, with over 1.87bn monthly users. While LinkedIn has 467m. This far exceeds any job board and while they do not function in the same way as Reed or Indeed for example, they are certainly worth considering as an additional channel to support candidate sourcing efforts.
For those recruitment organisations wanting to incorporate social media into their recruitment strategy, we have provided a comprehensive series of recruitment tips and tricks on how to utilise social media tools for recruitment and find the highest quality candidates.
4. Understand the benefits of SEO
In the digitally connected world we live in today, being found online is advantageous to your organisation’s overall success. As most job seekers will start their search through Google, and statistics tell us that most people do not venture past the first Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page), ensuring your job post is ranking on that first page is absolutely essential.
On that basis, it falls to your organisation to optimise its adverts and job posts for search engines. If you want to understand the benefits of SEO in more detail and how it can help to improve recruitment in your business download our free eBook: SEO Tips for Recruitment Agencies.
Source: London Loves Business
Every recruiter has a different technique as to how they approach and find candidates. Therefore, in order to assist recruiters in developing a straightforward and consistent approach to candidate sourcing, we have created a two-part blog series to provide a number of recruitment tips and tricks recruiters can adopt to find and approach skilled candidates.
1. Find the right job board
We have spoken previously about the potency of job boards, how they fit into your recruitment strategy and provided a series of job board posting tips to help you use them effectively. However, when it comes to finding high-quality candidates, from the outset you need to determine which job board will fit your requirements and help you to find the right individual with the least challenge possible.
On the one hand, you have generic, wide-ranging and non-specific job boards such as Reed, Indeed, Monster and CVLibrary. Using these job boards will give you access to a massive pool of candidates; but the downside is that you run the risk of receiving an incredible volume of CVs from unqualified candidates who may or may not have read the job spec.
On the other hand, you have niche, industry-specific job boards which only advertise jobs for a specific sector or industry. Unlike generic job boards, the candidates on specific job boards have a higher chance of having the skillset you require. The downside with specific job boards is that you may receive only a handful of high-quality CVs from interested candidates.
In the end, it comes down to quality over quantity, and whether you have the time to acquire the ‘right’ candidate.
2. Have accurate data?
When it comes to your organisation’s in-house data, quality not quantity is the ultimate measurement. You may have a database of hundreds of thousands of candidates, but if those candidate records are out of date, missing vital fields or individuals are no longer looking for employment, then this is likely to have a negative impact on your candidate placement success.
Take the time to update your database on a daily or weekly basis. This will enable your organisation to have a holistic, accurate view of its current candidate pool – as well as ensure your recruitment team has all the information they need when introducing candidates to businesses.
3. Be active on a range of channels
Recruiters need to identify which digital channels resonate with target candidates in order to determine which are most beneficial to the business - then become active on those channels and leverage them to drive candidate activity. However, according to our recent market research report, only 25 per cent of candidates surveyed have used social media to find a job, and of these, only 14 per cent found it helpful.
While social media channels may not necessarily be the most effective at generating high-quality candidates, this has not dissuaded recruitment organisations from using them. The sheer scale of social media channels, particularly Facebook and LinkedIn, means that there is certainly a possibility that excellent candidates are using these platforms to find new opportunities.
To put it into perspective, Facebook is the largest social media platform on the planet, with over 1.87bn monthly users. While LinkedIn has 467m. This far exceeds any job board and while they do not function in the same way as Reed or Indeed for example, they are certainly worth considering as an additional channel to support candidate sourcing efforts.
For those recruitment organisations wanting to incorporate social media into their recruitment strategy, we have provided a comprehensive series of recruitment tips and tricks on how to utilise social media tools for recruitment and find the highest quality candidates.
4. Understand the benefits of SEO
In the digitally connected world we live in today, being found online is advantageous to your organisation’s overall success. As most job seekers will start their search through Google, and statistics tell us that most people do not venture past the first Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page), ensuring your job post is ranking on that first page is absolutely essential.
On that basis, it falls to your organisation to optimise its adverts and job posts for search engines. If you want to understand the benefits of SEO in more detail and how it can help to improve recruitment in your business download our free eBook: SEO Tips for Recruitment Agencies.
Source: London Loves Business
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