This is how you can 10x your recruitment process

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3 mins, 28 secs read time

You want to hire people who can juggle more projects than Kim Kardashian posts Instagram selfies. But think about it first – there’s an $8.5 trillion talent shortage. That makes finding great candidates akin to climbing Mountain Everest, blindfolded.

The good news? You’re about to learn how to fuel up your recruitment process. Strap in, because this is going to be a fun ride.

Forget About Cultural Fit

You’ve seen this “culture fit” advice so many times it's etched into your retinas. The idea behind it is as simple as Netscape and 56K modems: Look for people who match your company's DNA. They will get up to speed faster, gel better with team members and bring more value.

The problem with this approach? Aleksandra Włodarczyk, HR Specialist/Recruiter at ResumeLab, explains: “Hiring for cultural fit creates an environment where everyone thinks and acts the same. It also stifles innovation and ultimately causes growth to drop like a stone.”

Powerhouses like Facebook and Pandora started to shy away from cultural fit and now strive to improve diversity in hiring. Instead of getting hung up on fit, ensure you’re willing to source talent from a variety of backgrounds or, as many innovative organizations like Greenhouse mention, “hire for culture add.”

Fine-Tune Outbound Hiring

Meet Michal – a hiring manager on the lookout for excellence. Like most recruiters, he goes on massive job boards like Glassdoor to post a job ad. A few days later, Michal's inbox is chock-full of applications (261 of them!).

The problem? None of them fits the job description. That’s because most candidates who use global job boards shotgun resumes at whatever comes their way.

The result? Michal has a massive pool of unqualified candidates and a messy inbox.

A helpful solution would be to hit industry/region-based platforms if you want to get high-flyers onboard.

Here are some examples:

● FlexJobs – helps fill remote, freelance and flexible roles.

● StartUpers – another tech-focused job board geared toward technical pros and developers.

● Handshake – a great place to connect with early talent (e.g. recent grads).

● Techfetch.com – a specialized marketplace that helps fill contracting and IT consulting roles.

If you’re looking for more, check Google’s rundown of 50 job postings sites.

Make Candidates Come to You

So you’ve set up a couple of job ads on niche platforms. That’s a good thing but, with time, your postings may go stale.

It’s time to look into inbound recruiting. In short, it’s a method that allows you to engage passive and active job seekers through targeted content. For example, check this Work at Medium page. It gives candidates an idea of what’s it like to work at Medium.

Here are a few simple things you can do right now:

  1. Create a ‘What It’s Like to Work at XYZ’ page on your company’s website.
  2. Put across your vision and the core values you stand by. (People don’t want to work for yet another money-making corporation. They are in for a tangible impact.)
  3. Spread the word. (Let candidates learn about you on major social media channels: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.)

If you want to take your inbound recruitment a step further, check out this Beamery guide.

Tap into Employees’ Networks

If you don’t fish out referrals from staffers, you’re missing out.

Because referral hires:

● Have the highest applicant-to-hire conversion rate (40%).

● Stay with the company longer (46% stay over one year, 45% over two years).

● Slash the time-to-hire to 29 days (from 55).

Ready to get started?

  • Make it part of your onboarding (When a new employee joins, sit down with them and comb through their LinkedIn and Facebook networks. Read this First Round guide to learn how.)
  • Spotlight open positions (e.g. at all-hands meetings or in the company newsletter).
  • Organize annual/biannual referral events (get some pizza and mine employees’ networks regularly).
  • Consider killing any referral bonus (if employees know they'll get $500 for a successful referral, they won't care if their friend is a good fit, but when people believe they work at a good place, they'll want to intro others.)