Attract Top Talent With Improvements To Your Recruitment Process

When was the last time you updated your recruitment process? What about your job descriptions? Today’s top talent have high expectations and in order to attract them, you need to have some tricks up your sleeve. Some of the latest trends in the recruitment process involve creating more exciting job descriptions, streamlining your selection process, and optimizing your career site for mobile users.

“Talent acquisition has become a seller’s market.” – Laura Kerekes, ThinkHR

Top Trends to Update and Modernize the Recruitment Process

1. Consider Non-Traditional Job Descriptions

A dull, boring job description is one of the easiest ways to turn away many candidates. Today’s top employees want exciting jobs and when they see a job description that is anything but exciting, they assume that the job is just as dull and boring as the description. Here’s some options for livening up your recruitment process.
While a thorough and exciting traditional job description may be sufficient, catering to today’s tech oriented recruits in a new and more engaging way can help you get the top hires you desire.

Video Job Descriptions: Instead of a traditional job description, create an engaging and highly sharable video job description. Provide candidates with insight as to what you are looking for, along with a glimpse at what it is like working at your company.
Exclusive Opportunities: Host streaming sessions on Periscope where hiring managers lead weekly chats discussing your company’s latest jobs. Allow questions from potential candidates and then offer them the opportunity to apply prior to opening the position to others.
The Employee-Written Description: Gather a diverse selection of employees and allow them to create a job description as a group that will appeal to your target audience. Selecting employees that will ultimately work with the candidate makes sense, of course, but don’t overlook other, seemingly unrelated, employee points of view either. They may bring a fresh perspective to the table.

2. Streamline Your Selection Process

Your screening process for candidates should be roubust enough to ensure that you find and hire the most appropriate candidates. But being effective in today’s fast-paced world, means making the process quick. Top hires know their worth and are fully aware of the opportunities available to them, likely within as few as 10 days. In order to get the chance to connect with them, make sure to have.

A fast, easy application process through your website’s job portal or job board.
Create an ‘ideal’ employee profile for reference during your search. Instead of wading through resumes looking for a nebulous “right fit”, use your employee profile like a checklist. If the candidate doesn’t measure up, move on to the next.
Have an employee referral system set up online to streamline the referral system (and make it eminently more trackable).

3. Optimize for Mobile Users

Job seekers rely on mobile devices to find jobs; 90% of them use their phone at some point in their search. Unfortunately, half of those searching for a job think it is too difficult to apply for jobs via a mobile device and one in four candidates avoid applying altogether if the job listing or company’s site is not optimized for mobile devices. To make the recruitment process a more pleasant experience for mobile users, try these tips:

Optimize for mobile – thoroughly. It’s obvious that job seekers want access to your career site, but you need to do more than make it mobile friendly. A mobile-friendly site basically means it can be viewed on mobile devices. Better yet, take it up a notch and fully optimize your site (see below for the difference). This allows your career site to be attractive and efficient.
Set Up A Text Campaign. Offer a service where you send out occasional short text messages notifying those who subscribe or have applied in the past of a job opening.

Mobile-Friendly Vs. Mobile Optimized (Responsive)

A mobile-friendly website is one that has a slimmed-down version of your regular website with your most important content available for mobile users. This is a good option for businesses with large websites, who can’t quite commit to a fully mobile-optimized website…yet. If this is the case for your business, make sure one of those “most important” areas featured is your career section.
A fully-optimized website is designed to be read – and look good – on all smaller screens, particularly on smart phones. Design features can include:

Single column layout
Easy, simple navigation that is “thumb friendly”
Large graphics with white-space borders for those of us with large or clumsy fingers
Formatted content for maximum readability
Limited to no need for typing
Image file sizes are smaller for the mobile version of the website
A fewer number of features overall (minimalist, uncluttered design)