By Brittney Helmrich
With dozens or even hundreds of
applications to sort through for every job opening, it can be a big challenge
for businesses to recruit the right employees. Finding someone who has the work
experience and the technical skills needed to do the job as well as a
personality that will fit your company culture is even trickier than it seems.
So how do you narrow down your
hiring options and find the perfect match? Here are five proven ways to find
high-quality job candidates and make your employee search a little bit easier.
Review
your reviews
Websites like Glassdoor
allow potential employees to find out insider information about companies they
want to work for, like salary estimates, interview tips and reviews from
current and former employees. And according to a Glassdoor survey, 46 percent of its members read
company reviews at the very beginning of their job search, before they even
speak to a recruiter or hiring manager. This means that top candidates may not
even apply to your job posting in the first place if they don't like what they
see.
According to the same survey, 69
percent of job seekers said they would not take a job with a company that had a
bad reputation, even if they were currently unemployed. And 94 percent said
they're likely to apply for a job if the employer actively manages their
employer brand by responding to reviews, updating their profile and sharing
updates on the company's culture and work environment. However, it's not just
about looking good online — transparency is key, too. Sixty-eight percent of
job seekers said they trust reviews more when they see both good and bad
reviews, and 95 percent suspect censorship when they don't see anything
negative.
Taking the time to be active on
review websites and post accurate information will definitely draw in quality
candidates. And if your business has a lot of negative reviews from former
employees, that's a sign that it may be time to work on your company culture
before you try to fill any open positions. Doing so can help improve employee
retention and lead to better, more positive reviews that will attract quality
employees.
Get
referrals from current employees
Before you spend a lot of time and
money posting your ads on different job boards, you might want to consider
asking your current employees if they know anyone who might be a good fit for
the job first. According to a Jobvite survey, 4 in 10 job seekers said they've
found their "favorite or best" job through personal connections.
Recruiters agree — 64 percent said the highest quality candidates come from
employee referrals.
A separate Jobvite study also found
that employee referrals have the highest applicant-to-hire conversion rate,
with only 7 percent of applications accounting for 40 percent of all hires, Undercover Recruiter reported. And hiring from
employee referrals comes with a lot of other great perks, too — applicants
hired from referrals tend to begin their position quicker than applicants found
via job boards and career sites, according to the study. Referral hires also
reported greater job satisfaction and tend to stay longer at companies, with 47
percent staying more than three years. Additionally, 67 percent of employers
and recruiters said that referral hiring shortens the recruiting process, and
51 percent said it was less expensive as well. [11 Important Qualities to Look for in Your Next Hire
]
Write
a better job description
Your job posting isn't just an
advertisement to say that you're hiring — the way it is written can deter great
candidates from applying if you're not careful. Many companies write out
incredibly detailed job descriptions with long lists of responsibilities and
requirements, but according to the Wall Street Journal, a study by researchers in
the United States and Canada found that this can actually alienate qualified
employees.
In the study, researchers David
Jones, Joseph Schmidt and Derek Chapman rewrote 56 job ads to emphasize two
different approaches: The "Needs-Supplies" approach, which focuses on
what the company can do for the candidate, and the
"Demands-Abilities" approach, which focuses on what the company
expects from the candidate, Wall Street Journal reported. The ads drew in 991
responses, and researchers found that hiring managers rated applicants who
responded to job descriptions with the "Needs-Supplies" approach
higher than those who responded to the "Demands-Abilities" ads.
The more successful job postings
included statements like "We seek to provide employees with constructive
feedback to foster their career growth," and "You will have many
opportunities to collaborate with talented people," the Wall Street
Journal reported. The takeaway here? While it's important to list job
requirements and responsibilities, put more of the focus on what your company
can do for potential employees, and you'll attract candidates that better fit
your needs.
Improve
your interview process
A study by Leadership IQ found that 46 percent of newly
hired employees will fail within 18 months of starting a job. Why? According to
the study, 26 percent fail because they can't accept feedback, 23 percent
because they can't understand and manage emotions, 17 percent because they lack
the motivation necessary to excel and 15 percent because they have the wrong
temperament. However, only 11 percent fail because they lack the required
technical skills to do their job.
The study, which compiled results
from more than 5,000 hiring managers from 312 different organizations, found
that these failures may be the result of flawed interview processes. Eighty-two
percent of managers involved reported that the interviewers were too focused on
other issues, too pressed for time, or lacked confidence in their interviewing
abilities to pay attention to red flags candidates exhibited during the
interview process. And according to Leadership IQ CEO Mark Murphy, this is
because the job interview process generally focuses on making sure new hires
are technically competent, whereas other facts that are just as important to
employee success, like coachability, emotional intelligence, temperament and
motivation, are often overlooked.
When you're interviewing potential
employees, be sure to dedicate as much time to making sure candidates are a
good fit in these less technical areas as you do to ensuring they have the
right experience for the job. This way, you'll be more likely to hire someone
who's bound to find success at your company.
Embrace
digital trends and social media
With technology taking over just
about everything these days, most people want to work for companies that keep
up with the trends. A survey from MIT and Deloitte found that the vast
majority of the respondents, ages 22 to 60, want to work for digitally enabled
organizations, which means businesses will have to continually up their digital
game to retain employees and attract new ones.
One way companies can keep up with
digital trends is to recruit through social media. According to a study from
Aberdeen Group, 73 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds found their last job through
a social network, Jobcast reported. This means that if you want to
reach employees in that age group, you'll have to have a strong social media
presence and a recruitment strategy to match. Jobvite backs up the idea of
social recruiting, too — the same survey that said recruiters found the
highest- quality candidates through employee referrals found that social media
recruiting was the next best method, with 59 percent of recruiters in
agreement.
Another good way to embrace the
digital side is to make sure your career site is mobile-friendly. According to
a 2013 Glassdoor survey, 3 in 5 job seekers said they'd
searched for jobs on their mobile device within the past year, and more than
half of job seekers said they read company reviews and research salary
information from their mobile devices as well.
By Brittney Helmrich, Business NewsDaily Staff Writer
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