6 recruitment strategies for BFSI hiring

Recruiting has changed radically in the past decade in all industries, including the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector. Businesses need to hire talented employees within an increasingly competitive job market, and in many cases, need to pitch themselves to applicants instead of the other way around. The recruitment function needs to be imbued with marketing tactics in order to reach the best candidates, earn their trust, and hopefully convince them to work for you.  

Recruitment advertising is the process of marketing an employer to job seekers in order to capture their interest and develop a talent pipeline to keep positions filled with the best workers. Recruiters should adopt the following six strategies for successful and effective hiring in today's job market: 

Use social media to forge strong relationships with candidates: Social media, as a means of recruiting, is steadily complementing—and in some cases, even supplanting—traditional recruitment methods. A whopping  96% of job seekers use social media as a part of their job search, while  49% of professionals  keep tabs on job opportunities via social media. Recruitment via Instagram  doubled  between 2017 and 2020.  

Increase your website's visibility: Job searching has increasingly moved online in the last decade. While some in-person recruitment methods such as campus interviews are still useful, the majority of job seekers now go online to seek and apply for positions. Due to this, the nature of recruitment has changed: it is now more about "being found" rather than "looking for" them. To maximise the chance of being found by candidates, your website needs to be highly visible in internet searches. For this, you need to optimise your website, especially your careers page, keeping search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind. This involves  

• Researching keywords, including meta-descriptions 
• Getting quality backlinks 
• Creating compelling, relevant content.  

Host memorable recruitment events: Recruitment has largely moved online, but recruitment events still have a place in your hiring strategy. A recruitment event allows you to meet potential hires and interact with them. It gives you an opportunity to assess the candidate in ways a resume wouldn't reflect—their level of curiosity, their manner of speaking, or how they get along with others.  

Since the pandemic, virtual events have been gaining traction. Indeed helps recruiters and applicants an opportunity to connect virtually; simply type “Indeed Hiring Events” in the “what” section and location in the “where” section on our homepage. 

Build a solid employer brand: To attract the best talent, you need a strong employer brand. A strong employer brand increases your company's appeal not only to job seekers but also to current employees. To build a solid employer brand on sites like Indeed and Glassdoor, one needs to create employee experiences that appeal to job applicants. Highlighting your strong company values also helps you tell a compelling company story. Digital and traditional recruitment advertising and social messaging further build your employer’s brand. So does continuous employee development and understanding of the expectations of your today’s job seekers. 

Build an appealing employee referral program: Your employees are your biggest asset, especially from a recruitment point of view. Every employee of yours has his or her own network. An endorsement by them carries more weight than an advertisement or social media post by you. If your employees talk about how great working for you is, it will organically impact your recruitment efforts. Case in point, the percentage of job seekers who would click on a job opening posted by someone working in the company on a social network in 2021 went up to  82%. To further incentivise employees to recommend you as an employer, you could introduce an appealing employee referral program. Referral programs attract higher quality applicants who are more likely to be engaged and exhibit higher retention rates. One study, in fact, found that workers that were referred by a current employee tend to stick around  70%  longer than hires that did not refer.  

Ensure a great candidate experience from the get-go: To attract the best talent, it is crucial that job seekers who interact with you have a great experience from the very beginning. This starts with search—make sure your job openings are easy to find and list all the relevant information a job seeker might need. Ensure your recruitment content is engaging, fresh, informative, and more importantly, outfitted with some call-to-action so that interested candidates can apply. Your company page on sites like Indeed and Glassdoor should list job roles with sufficient detail and provide a way for interested candidates to reach you if they need any clarification.  

Attracting the best talent in a competitive job market requires you to be proactive about building your employer brand, engaging potential hires through all avenues—digital and in-person—and ensuring that candidates have a great experience throughout your recruitment process. Talented workers will always be in high demand; you need to give them a reason to come to you.