When most companies think about recruitment strategies for business growth, they might discus market penetration tactics, the development of new markets, product expansion and diversification, new marketing schemes and approaches, or even the acquisition of other companies to reduce competition and increase overall market share. While all of these plans for business growth can certainly be effective in a given situation, too often businesses fail to look within for ideas to fuel growth with the resources they already have on hand.
One of the most valuable resources of any company are the employees that show up to work on a daily basis. Engaged, motivated, and highly productive employees can help businesses in any industry achieve their growth targets. Unfortunately, studies have found that less than one third of all U.S. employees are “engaged with their current job. The same Gallup poll went on to find that slightly more than half of all employees are completely unengaged while 17 percent are “actively disengaged.”
Even if your HR department has a solid onboarding process for the employees it hires, hiring the right employees is the first and most important step. Not only should you be looking for the top workforce talent on the market, but HR departments would also do well to search for potential employees who have a proven track record of engaging with the company goals and growth targets. Developing an in-depth recruitment strategy can help companies filter through the dozens (or even hundreds) of applicants to find the candidates best suited for your particular business.
In this short article, we offer some advice on the most effective employee recruitment strategies to fuel business growth. We also explain how applicant tracking system can benefit the overall recruiting process and help HR departments select the type interviewees for the available job.
Best Recruitment Strategies for Business Growth
Any recruitment strategy needs to begin with a detailed analysis of your current state and long-term goals. Before you can recruit the right people, you need to have a well-thought out profile of the ideal candidates that you will be searching for. Once you have determined the specific employee skill sets that will be most useful to help you achieve your growth targets, social media is a great way to search for potential candidates that fill these requirements.
Recruitment strategies also need to highlight the top benefits that the company offers. According to once recent survey, only 13 percent of employers stated that salary was the most important factor in retaining employees. While competitive salary and benefits are certainly one important element that top employee talent will search for, consider highlighting other attractive elements that your company offers. These can include:
- A completely digitalized workplace environment,
- The use of time and attendance software that allows employees to work remotely in certain cases,
- A company culture that encourages and motivates teamwork and employee satisfaction,
- Opportunities for continued education, training, and the ability to “climb the corporate ladder.”
Once you have your hiring strategy in place, it is also important to find ways to promote your employer brand in a way that will organically attract the top employee talent that you are seeking. A 2018 employee survey found that more than eight out of every ten job seekers actively read company reviews and ratings before applying for a given position. Developing a compelling brand story that potential employees can identify with should also be an essential and elemental part of your recruitment strategy. In our digitalized and social media-driven world, consider using multimedia tools to express your employer brand in a compelling manner.
A solid recruitment strategy to fuel business growth also understands that seeking out the top employee talent should be a constant process. Even if your company isn’t currently hiring, HR departments should be involved in building a talent pool for future hiring campaigns. Reaching out to top talent via LinkedIn, for example, can help push your employer brand and let top employee talent know that there might be better opportunities for them down the road. Passive candidates are those who are not actively seeking new employment, and actively recruiting them can help build the talent pool to choose from when you do decide to hire.
Also, businesses would also do well to construct an employee referral program. Obviously, not every employee will present you with great candidates. However, in many cases your top employees will be engaged with a network of peers who share their enthusiasm, engagement, and the needed skill set that your company needs to achieve its growth goals.
Lastly, a successful and holistic recruitment strategy should also focus on integrating diversity and inclusion in your sourcing pipeline. A diverse and multi-generational workplace environment offers several advantages to companies from a competitive standpoint and can also help to create a positive and motivating workplace culture.
The Importance of Using Applicant Tracking Software
Applicant tracking software (ATS) is a digital tool that can help companies and their HR departments stay up to date and meticulously analyze the candidates who apply for a given job. In many cases, reading through hundreds of applications can be tedious and lead to the best candidates slipping through the cracks. Applicant tracking software allows recruiters and hirers to go beyond the basic resume information in order to analyze the performance statistics of the best prospects.
Many different types of applicant tracking software rely on a basic type of artificial intelligence that can analyze relevant keywords that appear in a resume and/or job application. The software will subsequently align the top candidates with your current employee needs and how these fit into a larger, long-term business growth plan.
Instead of trying to manually go through hundreds of applications, these software options can efficiently assess and store the top applications. Automatic “ranking” options will then allow HR to dedicate more time to individually assessing the top candidates who did apply.
Another benefit of applicant tracking software is that the top resumes and applications can be stored in a talent pool database. If future hiring opportunities open up in the future, this software will allow HR departments to reach out to top employee talent who had previously applied with the company.
A solid recruitment strategy is essential for helping businesses increase productivity levels, improve company culture, and meet their long-term growth targets. The ideas presented above, and especially the decision to use applicant tracking software, can help companies recruit and hire the workers that will take your business to the next level.
