February 5, 2019 4 Proven Ways to Strengthen Your Candidate Recruitment

We build our skills as we build our muscles. No matter how effective your candidate recruitment process is, it can always be stronger.

1 – Leverage Employee Referrals

Employee referrals can be fantastic tools if you use them correctly. There is a company called Capita in the UK. It is a call center company with buildings around the country. It has a Refer A Friend policy. People who work there are asked to refer their friends. If their friend makes it through the 90-day trial period, then the referrer gets £250. The call center has a high staff turnover, but they save a fortune on recruitment because their staff keep bringing new people in.

The great part is that the recruitment technique works in a suitably fluid manner. For example, during the holiday season when people need more money and when call centers need more workers, cash-strapped employees bring in new candidates, and the call center gets more workers. The company has also set out rules on reapplying no fewer than 13 months after quitting so that people cannot exploit the referral scheme with revolving employment scams.

2 – Hire Freelancers Where Appropriate

The thought of hiring freelancers may leave a nasty taste in your mouth as you think about the many contractors you have hired over the years, but freelancers exist in more than just the building industry, and freelancers have several benefits. If you want a quick slap-dash job, then you can hire a few cheap freelancers to hash out a solution. A freelancer is disposable and usually doesn’t demand further insurance policies to be taken out. Plus, if you happen to find a high performer, you may be able to convince the freelancer to take a full-time job.

Are freelancers willing to work full-time? According to the orders received by Resumeble, many people take up freelance work only for a few years before they start looking for a full-time job. Being a freelancer is rewarding, but it is stressful having to find new projects all the time, which makes freelancers a little more open to taking a full-time job than they may first appear.

3 – Let Diversity Fix Itself

It is horrible to see companies turning away candidates because of rules on diversity. For example, the software development industry is dominated by men, which means any half-talented woman who is interviewed is immediately hired because the company’s diversity policy demands a more balanced workforce. Highly talented people are turned away because of diversity concerns.

Forget diversity, and simply hire the best at their job. You can choose to apologize for your hiring policy when you have a successful company, or you can pat yourself on the back for having the most diverse workforce when your company is in the gutter. The key is to discriminate on skills, on work ability, and ability to work as a team member. That way, if a personable and skillful minority is interviewed, then he or she will get the job and diversity will fix itself.

4 – Leverage Trial Periods

Companies such as Amazon have what some people call a cruel employee policy, and it extends to the way they treat new employees on their trial period. What they do is hire people for a trial period through recruitment agencies, and they do it over the holiday season. People start work in November, and they are fired before the 15th on January. It may seem cruel by messing people around in this manner, but people get a good wage over the holiday period, and Amazon retains a small percentage of high performers to be added to the permanent workforce by giving them an Amazon blue badge (which means they are direct Amazon employees and not agency workers).

Conclusion – Is Self-Reflection the Key?

There are plenty of recruitment consultants who will tell you that the only way to strengthen your candidate recruitment is to examine your process, reflect on your results, and grow from within. This is fair advice, but sometimes the best results come from trying something new. For example, the economics of paying high referral fees may seem unappealing, but when the scheme starts generating easy results, it often creates a bigger stir than months of self-reflection.

The great thing about the tips listed in this article is that they do not demand a big commitment. Letting diversity fix itself takes no effort. Employee referral schemes, and hiring freelancers only demands a limited budget. Trying new trial periods requires just a few changes to your employment contracts and a quick consultation with your insurance company. You do not have much to lose by trying these ideas, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Emily Anderson is a blogger with a professional background in journalism. She is an expert in modern technology trends. She is also fond of various online blogging styles. Connect with Emily on Google+.

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