Three Ways to Fill Your Candidate Pool With Stronger Applicants

By filling your candidate pool with stronger applicants, you can save your company both time and money. The smartest employers, who hire the best people, recruit a pre-qualified candidate pool of potential employees before they need to fill a job. These people are called passive candidates, and you too can find them. The benefit to a passive candidate is that, since they are not looking for a new opportunity, they probably won’t be interviewing anywhere else.

By developing relationships with passive candidates long before you need them, it can assist you with recruiting a strong pool of potential hires for when you have a current position available. The earlier you adopt these practices, the better your organization will do if you’re ever in a hurry to fill a position.

Dedicate Time to Your Search
Great things don’t happen overnight. By setting aside ample time to search for qualified applicants, you are setting yourself up to succeed in the future. A company should always be on the lookout for talent, whether it’s at a networking event or just browsing social media sites. Talent pipelining, or “relationship recruiting,” is a strategic recruiting approach with the goal of building long-term professional relationships with passive candidates for the future. This means familiarizing yourself with potential employees, regardless of whether or not they are looking for a new job opportunity.

Developing a talent pipeline requires a different recruiting method—a method that doesn’t reward you with instant gratification. Your goal set should switch from wanting to fill an open position as soon as possible, to thinking about the best possible hire for your company in the future. Talent pipelining takes time to unfold, but in the long run, the reward is worth the investment. Think of it this way: would you rather hire five mediocre employees that come and go, or would you rather hire one great employee that stays with the company?

Although talent pipelining is beneficial, you shouldn’t forget about those who are actively looking for a job. It’s okay to be choosy, but read over submitted resumes and follow up as needed.

Use Social Media to Your Advantage
Today’s recruitment methods are far different than they used to be. Today, social media is a must-have for most businesses, and by using it to recruit strong candidates, you’ll be a step ahead of the game. Here’s how to do it effectively:

Build your brand. A clear and defined brand and culture can attract like-minded people to your organization. Building your brand means sticking out from the rest and being a company that people actually want to work for. This can significantly improve application rates and put your company in the position of having a wide pool of talent to choose from. Think about the compelling attributes of the organization to both current and potential employees, and any current perceptions of working within the organization and how they could be negatively affecting your ability to recruit top talent.
Don’t tell people, show people. If someone tells you how funny they are, chances are you won’t be impressed. The same goes for your organization. Your social media channels should never be used solely for sales, promotion or boasting. Let your viewers have a sneak peek into why your organization is fun and exciting. Use photos and videos, and maybe even have a contest or giveaway!
Involve every employee. You likely have some experienced social media users within your organization. Encourage your entire staff to share job openings and, in general, be an advocate for your brand on social media. Some companies have strict social media rules, but allowing your employees to talk about their positive work experiences can interest others and aid in recruitment.
Find a great fit. Social media allows you to learn what a person’s interests are, and it can even help determine what sort of personality they have. You can find skilled candidates who would also be a good fit for your workplace. In addition, there are some social media channels that allow you to view resume details for passive candidates.
Save money. Unless you promote job openings through paid advertising, social media recruiting is completely free.
Keep Candidates Warm
By fostering a relationship with passive candidate, you’re also building trust and keeping them warm for a potential opportunity. If you don’t have a job opening right now, or if they aren’t currently looking, you’ll still want to keep your top candidates in the picture. Keep in touch via social media, emails, newsletters, events and more. Make sure that they don’t forget about you and ensure they know you haven’t forgotten about them! When the right job for them comes down the pipeline, reach out to them personally and let them know.

Implement a Recruitment System
PROWORK’s recruitment system, or applicant tracking tool, helps you eliminate the time-consuming work that comes with finding quality candidates. By using this, you can integrate job listings into your website’s CMS to allow applicants to send their resume as easily as possible. On your end, you can customize the information you want to collect, whether it’s work experience, certifications, skills or more. In addition, you can allow users to apply via their LinkedIn account, automatically populating certain areas of interest.

As we know, staying in touch with quality candidates is crucial. Through PROWORK, you can set up interviews, job offers and various other messages with ease. All in all, it’s an efficient way to recruit new hires and manage the process in an organized manner.

Managers and recruiters should go that extra mile to hire the best people, and with evolving trends and competition, updated recruitment strategies are necessary. Taking the extra time to find superior talent will be beneficial to your organization in the long run.