Developing tailored digital recruitment strategies can help better align your team's efforts with the demands of your market sector and the candidates you’re trying to attract, not to mention helping you stand out amongst competitors. Whilst we’ve all become familiar with the need to have a social media presence over the last few years, where you’re able to share valuable content with followers and can build your brand authority - as well as let the world know when you’re recruiting—it can’t be the only digital recruitment strategy you implement in 2024. With the emerging technologies discussed in our last section at your disposal, it’s never been easier to produce a multi-channel digital recruitment strategy that can drive your talent acquisition and retention efforts.
1. Utilise the sites that your candidates use.
The employees you’re looking for aren’t just spending their time on LinkedIn. Build your social media presence and brand over Instagram, X, Threads etc to present an opportunity for your business to share content, and insights into your culture—all of which can become part of a well-rounded digital recruitment strategy.
2. Keep candidates engaged, and you’ve already won half of the battle.
AI-empowered chatbots can help to easily automate the process of engaging candidates and get them excited to work for your company by answering FAQs, sharing videos which offer more information on vacant roles and your products, and scheduling interviews. Offer candidates a seamless experience to increase the likelihood that they’ll upload a CV or request a call.
3. Take part in online events to expand your available talent pool.
Whether you’re encouraging your current employees to share their skills via online seminars or lunch-and-learn activities, or you’re helping other business founders to understand the challenges behind scaling up, sharing knowledge in this way helps you to make connections with other organisations and establish your presence as a thought leader within your field.
4. Hybridise your assessment process.
Using video interviewing platforms and AI-empowered screening technologies, you can encourage candidates to apply in their own time and space—not only highlighting your commitment to work-life balance and respecting the demands for flexibility amongst talented job seekers but also increasing the quality of hires as candidates spend more time honing their applications and evidencing their competencies.
5. Facilitate communication between internal departments.
Collaborative hiring platforms can help the managers of different teams to offer feedback on interviews and assessments, or more easily take part in panel interviews despite geographical distance or remote work. The more senior a hire is, the more important it is to get the buy-in of different employees—particularly where a candidate may provide leadership for an entire division.
6. Streamline the onboarding process.
Getting your recruits up to speed quickly is an important part of any hiring exercise. Leveraging digital tools to provide a way for candidates to access their employment documentation and collect necessary signatures can help to save time which can be better spent on training or mentorship for new hires.
7. Personalised recruitment makes an impact.
Regular contact with your talent pool is vital, but reaching out to them with a blanket e-mail or instant message will often see your efforts go to waste. Instead, utilise the data you’ve gathered on them during their unsuccessful hiring exercises to provide them with valuable information: relevant company news and industry insights, tailored job opportunities, and local or online events in their time zone.
8. Encourage your employees to become brand advocates.
Business leaders are bound to be positive—but allowing candidates to speak to your employees can give an authentic insight into your work, culture, and opportunities for internal mobility. Give your employees the time, resources, and incentives they need to share their positive experiences and engage with jobseekers on LinkedIn or other platforms, and they can also help to assess candidates for cultural fit.
9. Collect and analyse data from the entire recruitment process.
Feedback from successful and unsuccessful candidates has never been easier to gather or parse through using AI-empowered technologies. This information can provide valuable insights to improve candidate experience, enhance their interactions with your organisation, and ensure they’re likely to return for future hiring exercises, reducing overall attrition during recruitment.
10. Listen to the conversations about your business.
Social media listening and sentiment analysis tools provide the opportunity to track brand mentions and gain a real-time overview of how their organisation is being perceived by candidates, giving business leaders more fine-grained control over how they manage their reputation and deliver targeted messaging.
Of course, it’s likely that any successful digital recruitment strategy will require a blend of some—or even all—of the above suggestions based on your specific context and the candidates you’re trying to attract. It’s always important to set clear goals and objectives for any recruitment exercise since it will ensure that you can attract the right candidates the first time. With the cost of a poor hire in 2023 / 2024 hovering around 20-30% of that employee’s first-year wage, it’s a mistake few businesses can afford to make.
Once you’ve decided on your digital recruitment approach, you need to be certain that you’ve made the right choice. The answer will be found through robust testing, and implementing your strategy on a small scale before a business-wide roll-out. Monitoring the performance and pivoting based on key metrics set out at the start of the digital recruitment process can help you to remain competitive and adapt to the changing market.
Supporting Your Hiring Needs with Digital Recruitment Expertise
No matter how complex your needs are,or how many roles you need to fill, the consultants at Creative Recruitment l are here to help you attract and retain the sector specialists that will lead your business to greater success. Contact us today to explore your requirements and learn about how we can support your Digital, Marketing and Creative recruitment needs.