Top 10 External And Internal Recruitment Strategies

Updated 24 August 2023

Companies follow different recruitment strategies to evaluate the skill and competence of job candidates. These strategies use multiple hiring and social tools, smart promotions, increasing employer brand value and other technical and non-technical recruitment techniques. Knowing about these strategies can help HR professionals find and hire quality talent. In this article, we discuss the different stages of recruiting and share some of their common strategies.

What Are HR Recruitment Strategies?

HR recruitment strategies include streamlining hiring cycles and building the applicant pipeline to ensure successful hiring. These consist of many ways of attracting relevant applications, expanding the talent pool and creating a database of applicants. The elements of a hiring cycle include the planning, development, deployment and onboarding stages. HR professionals usually rely on university recruitment, varied interview processes, adverts, job website postings and social media platforms to look for the right candidates.

Top 10 Successful External And Internal Recruiting Strategies

Here are ten effective recruitment strategies and practices that can help HR and hiring professionals:

1. Optimise your job advert

Whether you are posting information about vacancies and open positions on social media or your company website, the tone of the job description matters. Simply put, the quality of your job advert influences the talent you attract. So, make sure to add the right keywords that appeal to applicants and reflect the company's requirements and values.

Since the job description is the first point of interaction between the candidate and the company, a well-crafted job advert can leave an excellent first impression. Since the quality of the job description determines the kind of response, be sure to clearly explain all vital information like job duties, approximate salary, location, joining date and qualifications.

2. Implement employee referral programmes

Employee referral programmes are a great way to hire engaging employees by leveraging the network of your existing workforce. Simply put, a referral programme encourages employees to refer and recommend their friends, acquaintances and other professionals to apply for open positions. Since these applications are coming through a personal recommendation, the chances of success increase.

Most companies have incentives for employees to refer more people. These usually include a monetary or non-financial incentive whenever the successful hiring and joining of a referral takes place. Companies may prefer to focus on referrals before opening up the application process to the general public.

3. Be true to your EVP and EB

The employee value proposition (EVP) reflects the company's unique offerings in terms of benefits, remuneration, learning opportunities and other perks. A strong EVP increases the chances of gaining a high number of applications and makes your company a desirable place to work.

A closely associated concept is the employer brand (EB) or how the workforce perceives working at your company and what your reputation and culture like. A positive employer brand can help attract top talent to your company and reduce the budget for job promotion as the candidate pipeline might grow naturally.

4. Use social media to promote job openings

Most professionals prefer to apply for jobs using job search websites and platforms. Social media platforms are also beneficial in promoting vacancies and finding the right talent. Thus, it is important to make social media promotions an integral part of your overall recruitment process.

You can also your employees to share job postings on their networks. When a professional from a company puts out a posting, it seems more inviting and credible. Invest a considerable amount of time on job-based social media channels and search for groups people depend on for fresh recruitment opportunities.

5. Start studying data to make smart predictions

Start studying the metrics measured during past recruitment cycles to identify valuable insights. Also, refer to recruitment data from agencies and partners. This can help in making focused and data-backed decisions and help modify your approach. Some data points you can study are the conversion rate of applicants based on location, past positions and the discovery platform. Investing in your company's resources and recruitment techniques based on real data rather than estimates can optimise the hiring process.

6. Use programmatic job advertising

In addition to designing and drafting well-detailed job posts, also optimise the technical aspect of advertising your job posting. Use programmatic job advertising software that helps in releasing, buying, distributing and optimising job advertisements. Many software and tools use smart algorithms to place your job post strategically on the right platform for maximum visibility. These tools also offer accurate data and metrics.

7. Use applicant databases

Over time, your organisation may have received thousands of applications for openings and vacancies. Make sure you collect, maintain and update this database. This improves your company's relationship-building and creates a talent pool of professionals who previously expressed their desire to work with your company. You can use this database when conducting large recruitment drives. Reaching out to candidates who are already familiar with your company and the interview process can also reduce the time to hire them.

8. Find fresh talent in campus recruitment drives

You can find millennial and gen Z candidates through campus recruitment drives and programmes. Many start-ups and small companies prefer to hire freshers and young professionals as they are usually adept at using new-age digital tools. This trend may be even more apparent in young IT and digital service companies. To attract freshers, you can offer internship programmes, training opportunities and cultural incentives.

9. Support internal mobility

Fresh recruits are necessary, but they not always a compulsion, especially when you can promote an existing employee to an alternative position of a higher or lateral role. Also, these employees do not need any onboarding or orientation training to help them get started. By rewarding employees or giving them a choice to work in a role of their liking, you can also engage employees, retain talent and nurture them for leadership positions.

10. Prioritise onboarding

If new employees have an unpleasant onboarding experience, they are more likely to quit their job and may even express dissatisfaction publically. Thus, it is important for HR professionals and hiring managers to prioritise onboarding as well. Design the process to simplify the first few days of new employees, answer questions and help them get acquainted with their new workplace. A positive onboarding experience may also result in higher engagement, productivity and employee loyalty.

What Are The 6 Stages Of Recruitment?

Here are the different stages of a recruitment cycle:

1. Defining company requirements

Understand the requirements of the open position from the team or department leaders. Communicate with managers to understand precisely what skills the employee needs. Also, account for the investment your company is willing to make to keep the employee satisfied.

2. Creating a job profile

The job profile holds all details regarding the role and the company. This includes the required qualifications, job duties, compensation, performance metrics and company summary. Remember, the more specific and detailed your job description is, the higher the chances of success.

3. Promoting the job post

The next step is to promote and advertise the vacancy on relevant platforms. Post it on hiring websites and job boards along with the classifieds section of newspapers, if necessary. You can also post on your company's social media accounts to spread awareness regarding fresh vacancies. Inform employees about these roles, encourage them to refer people and engage all relevant stakeholders.

4. Screening applications

Once you have applications coming in, evaluate them to select the most suitable ones. Start reducing the candidate list size by removing irrelevant applications. Next, apply a more rigorous method to identify the most qualified and relevant applications.

5. Interviewing and hiring

After identifying the best applicants, you can initiate the hiring process. Schedule interviews and confirm candidate participation. Do not forget to evaluate their cumulative performance across all interview stages using a consistent and standard framework. Follow-up with candidates and finalise details like salary, joining date and job title with successful ones.

6. Onboarding

The onboarding process influences how long an employee might stay with the company and also determines how soon they become productive. Helping employees adjust and adapt to their new role, workplace and culture is an essential part of the onboarding process. Be sure to introduce them to their team members and managers during the first day of work.