In today’s world, digital recruiting is no longer optional. If you want to bring in the best possible talent, you have to look everywhere, and that includes on the internet.
Before you get in too deep, though, let’s take a look at what digital recruitment is, how it can help you, and what strategies are most effective for finding top talent.
What is digital recruitment?
Digital recruitment is the process of finding, attracting, selecting, and hiring candidates using technology and the internet. It includes a spectrum of digital tools and strategies that span the entire recruiting process from start to finish to provide a complete recruiting experience for users.
Digital recruitment is not just posting a job listing online and letting the resumes roll in. This is a part of the process, but “recruiting” is an active term—it is different than traditional hiring and candidate sourcing which is done more passively. In addition to posting a listing, recruiting includes seeking out talent and actively engaging in finding the right fit for the job.
Recruiting in the digital age requires special tools and skills, as well as the knowledge of where to find talent. This comes in the strategy development part of the process and is typically a very industry-specific element.
How digital recruiting can help your business
There are several different ways that digital recruiting can help an organization. Of course, the biggest perk is that digital reaches applicants far and wide, giving you access to more employees than traditional hiring processes and job advertisements.
When companies go digital, they’re no longer limited to local hires or those who may be willing to travel. The entire recruitment and onboarding process can be done online and those who are willing can relocate only if they are hired for the job.
Another perk of the digital recruitment process is that it is more efficient. You’ll spend less time sourcing and hiring candidates, which means you can put that time back into your business. Plus, you’ll get a much bigger return on your investment by finding better candidates in a fraction of the time.
Breaking down the digital recruitment process
Here’s a brief look at a breakdown of the digital recruitment process to help you get started building your own strategy.
Design a careers portal for your business
Your business needs a dedicated portal for careers and recruiting. This can be an integrated page on your website or a redirect to a third-party provider like ADP. Some major corporations even have their own custom portals designed to ensure that they create the perfect recruiting environment.
Your careers portal needs to be mobile-friendly. The entire application process, including uploads, should be able to be completed on any mobile device. Otherwise, you could lose some top talent simply because they don’t feel like opening up their laptop to send their resume.
Another tip: make sure that you use the LinkedIn Import feature that will allow resumes to be seamlessly transferred from the site to your applications.
Post job openings and advertise on branded social media accounts
You need to take advantage of your social media accounts to recruit talent. Whether you’re actively seeking a candidate or sourcing candidates for future needs, make it known anywhere that you can. People spend far more time on social media than anywhere else online.
Plus, when you post to social media, you’ll make it easier for people to share your listing and help you find the ideal candidate for the available position. You’ll also give them a personalized approach, which is more impactful than impersonal outreach.
Use applicant tracking systems
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are tools to manage and filter potential hires. Candidates will end up in this system once they have applied through your careers portal, making it easy for you to filter, sort, and search to find the candidate that best fits the role. Plus, it helps you see who’s applied previously and whether any former applicants may fit a new role.
Applicant tracking systems are often integrated with your portal, but they may be a separate entity entirely. If that’s the case, make sure that you can import and transfer information seamlessly for streamlined, accurate tracking.
Go digital with interviews and onboarding
Digital recruitment uses video interviews instead of in-person meetings, in most cases. Some may use digital meetings for the first and/or second round of interviews and then require a final in-person interview before hiring. Regardless of how it’s done, digital interviews through Zoom, Skype, and other video services are the status quo these days.
The same is true with training and onboarding. You can utilize remote training materials and assessment tools to allow employees to be trained and onboarded quickly and efficiently, and all via the internet. It’s never been easier to find and bring on the best talent, thanks to digital recruitment technology.
What are the best digital recruiting strategies?
Although every organization will have to develop their own strategy, there are definitely some big things that should be on every to-do list for digital recruiting:
- Create and share content that solidifies your message and attracts the ideal candidates
- Craft a robust, well-executed social media recruiting strategy
- Bolster your own reputation as the employer by improving your online image
- Make the candidate experience priority number one
The last one is the big one: in all of this recruiting, you have to make sure that the candidate experience is the best that it can be. This includes providing a smooth, efficient, enjoyable recruiting experience for digital applicants.
Social media and digital recruiting
As mentioned above, you need a robust digital recruiting strategy for social media. Most companies remember to utilize LinkedIn and other career-based social networks, but they often forego posting on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. However, these traditional social sites are strong sources to find candidates because sharing is easy and the setting is more informal.
YouTube should be on your radar if it isn’t already. It can be a resource to assist with building your brand and increasing your authority within your industry. You should also look into niche or industry-specific networks and websites where you can post your job listings. This will allow you to reach the exact talent that you need and save thousands of the wrong candidates from applying.
While you’re doing all of this, you’re going to want to track your results. After all, if people aren’t engaging where you are advertising, you’ll want to shift and re-strategize so you aren’t wasting valuable recruiting dollars. You can do this easily by making use of UTM codes to track where you’re receiving the most engagement.
Get help recruiting digitally
Of course, this isn’t something that you have to do on your own. There is help out there and you should take advantage of it. Digital recruiting networks are a great resource, allowing you to source candidates in a whole new way. With these networks, you can find talent for specific roles and industries much faster than with traditional digital recruiting strategies and methods.
We’ll source, screen, interview and negotiate, so you can welcome your next top employee.
