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Careers pages, job boards, direct and executive search, social media and careers fairs – which sources work, and why candidate experience decides the outcome.
When recruiting for roles that call for rare or advanced skills, it often turns out that posting an advert is not enough. In such cases, success may come from taking the initiative and finding the candidate before they have even thought about changing jobs.
Where do you look for candidates?
Selecting staff is one of the most important tasks for management and HR. There are many ways to find candidates, and which you use will depend on the kind of recruitment and the resources at your disposal. The goal is always the same: to hire someone competent who will stay with the company for a long time, bringing their skills and a fresh perspective.
But the process of finding employees is complex. It can be difficult, costly and time-consuming, because it involves a great deal:
- creating a role profile and an appealing description of it in the form of an advert,
- publishing and circulating the advert (or conducting a direct search),
- screening the applications received,
- interviews,
- negotiating the contract,
- onboarding.
It is worth preparing properly, so that the process does not have to drag on or be repeated. Let us start with the most important thing – knowing your sources of candidates.
Sources of candidates – what are the ways of finding employees?
Posting vacancies on job boards in the traditional way does not always work. A flood of applications is gratifying, of course, but it may turn out that not one of the CVs received matches the profile you drew up. Highly specialised experts rarely look for work in such places.
So which sources of candidates should a modern recruiter know in order to work effectively?
Your own careers page
It may seem obvious, but many companies forget to keep the careers section of their website up to date. It is a simple and, importantly, cost-free way of attracting applications. Anyone who visits your site could become a candidate. Do you want to lose them simply because you do not keep your vacancies current at source?
Job boards
The largest job boards, such as pracuj.pl, generate enormous traffic. Plenty of companies offering work and people looking for it pass through them. It is no wonder that posting there remains so popular. Bear in mind, though, that a job advert costs a good deal, and that to keep a vacancy visible an employer has to pay more than once.
Find the candidate before your competitors do – direct and executive search
When recruiting for roles that call for rare or advanced skills, it often turns out that posting an advert is not enough. In such cases, success may come from taking the initiative and finding the candidate before they have even thought about changing jobs. This is where specialist headhunters come in – people who know the market, have wide contacts and well-developed interpersonal skills.
Other ways of finding employees
The secret of a successful recruitment process is choosing methods suited to the goal. It helps to know where your target candidate spends their time and to pick effective channels, online and offline alike, such as:
- social media, LinkedIn above all; Facebook groups have also been growing in popularity lately,
- careers fairs,
- university careers services.
Finding employees – what should you watch out for?
Above all, create a positive experience for the people who apply to your company. This matters enormously, whatever channels you use. Candidate experience is an important part of corporate culture. Whether or not a candidate ends up working for you, they will certainly form an opinion, and they may want to share it. So make sure, first and foremost, that feedback is prompt and considered at every stage of the process.
According to survey research, almost 50% of specialists carry a negative impression of a recruitment process over to the company’s products, which means the experience of an interview can shape how a consumer brand is seen. It shows how important it is to begin a recruitment process professionally and to keep that up to the end. Do not forget that every candidate is a potential employee and often a customer too.
How do you attract people to your company?
Employer branding is how an employer is seen by prospective and current employees. So when planning how you will find people, give thought to what you can offer candidates (beyond a properly prepared role, a fair contract and fair pay) and how you will show it. Positive PR is worth attending to not only during recruitment but every day.
Positive associations will encourage a candidate to apply to you first. Very often it is these seemingly minor things that make a candidate click “Send application” to you rather than to a competitor. A satisfied employee is a good employee, and a good employee is worth their weight in gold.
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