Many businesses make the mistake of waiting until there’s an immediate job opening to start the hiring process. But this can pose many risks, including losing overworked employees and missing out on star candidates.
One of the most effective ways to get ahead with your hiring process is by rethinking your sourcing strategy to support proactive, rather than reactive hiring. Here are some tips to get started:
Optimize Your Job Board Spending
Following a reactive recruitment strategy often leads to buying costly, one-off job board postings to fill an open role as quickly as possible. And most business stakeholders have limited visibility into the total amount of budget spent on job boards – or the ROI of each sourcing channel. By instead following a proactive recruitment strategy, you can set a monthly or annual job board budget to ensure spending doesn’t cause your overall profitability to take a hit.
To optimize job board spending, you should also diversify your recruitment channels instead of only focusing on 1-2 job boards. Over time, casting a wider net across job boards, social feeds and local classified ads enables you to reach candidates through more sources while saving money that otherwise would have been spent on a single costly job board posting.
The next step to understanding your sourcing budget and ROI is to divide the total costs of each channel by the number of quality applicants you receive. This will give you a cost per candidate, which is helpful for comparing different job boards and other networks that might have different pricing models. If certain job boards or channels do not result in quality candidates – or eventual hires – this is a clear sign you should reallocate your budget to another, more successful source.
Build a Network of Quality Applicants
One reason HR managers and other business leaders might buy costly, one-off job board postings is because they want to receive as many applicants as possible to fill an urgent job opening. But costly ad spend for a high volume of candidates isn’t nearly as effective as being more strategic about your job board spending to attract quality candidates.
Instead of buying a one-off job posting, consider buying continuous job postings – at a much lower low cost – for roles you regularly fill. Doing so enables you to build a pipeline of quality talent to tap into in the event an employee leaves the company or your business suddenly grows. This type of proactive recruiting is particularly helpful for high turnover and other roles you know you’ll be hiring for several times throughout the year – such as dealership auto technicians or sales staff.
Keep Jobs Posted on Your Career Site
Beyond thinking more strategically about your job board spending and sourcing channels, it’s also important to maintain a strong employment brand – including a compelling career site. On your career site, highlight the benefits of working for your business, including company culture, benefits, opportunities for continued training and learning – such as reimbursements for advanced certification – and employee testimonials. And your career site should also always have a few jobs listed, even if you don’t have any immediate openings. Continuous job openings show your business is successful and growing, and can help you proactively capture strong, passive candidates when you least expect it.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching our latest Insight, “What is my best source of applicants?” and a powerful new way to approach applicant sourcing and optimize job board spend. In the meantime, for additional information on following a proactive recruitment strategy, download our eBook, “Why Your Should Always Be Hiring.”
