Every company has a different hiring process, but if you want to grow your team and stay competitive in the modern world of recruiting, it’s important that you take innovative recruitment strategies into consideration.

There are many ways to find the right candidate for your company; after all, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You might consider offering an incentive like relocation assistance or flexible work hours.

Or maybe even offer potential candidates the chance to shadow an employee for a day? Whatever strategy works best for your business will depend on what type of person you need – do they have specific skills required by their job description? Do they fit with the company culture?

How Do You Recruit Creatively?

Finding top talent for small businesses is frequently difficult. But if you have a few innovative recruitment methods on your side, you can level the playing field and compete for top people.

The greatest candidates may be more inclined to apply to firms with names they are already familiar with; nevertheless, this should not put you off. All you need is a little creativity to pique their interest and figure out what they want in terms of career opportunities and office environment.

While recruiting is not a precise science, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to achieving success, combining the power of the Internet with face-to-face contact may be quite effective. Instead of posting your vacancies on internet job sites and waiting for the deluge of excellent or terrible CVs to arrive, get creative.

Creative Recruitment Strategies to Find Top Talent Quickly

Hire the right people, and your company thrives. Hire the wrong people, and you’re dealing with employee turnover, which can cost you serious money.

To avoid hiring the wrong individuals, consider these creative hiring methods. Remember that no one strategy fits all; rather, you must apply a variety of tactics to identify the best talent for your company.

Connect With Your Ideal Candidates Where They Hang-Out Online

If you’re searching for an IT professional, it means reading technology blogs or question-and-answer sites like the StackOverflow network (Quora) to essentially “live and hunt.” You want to be in that space with the talent you’re looking for. This might include participating in interactive interviews and forums like Ask Me Anything on Reddit to get your company’s vision and personality out there. These are just a few examples; however, they convey how you should strive to connect with your target candidates.

It’s also a good idea to browse industry blogs and message boards for smaller businesses. They may be really useful in informing you about what your ideal candidates care about and what matters to them in a less formal setting. nEven better, if you’re comfortable with it, get involved in discussions and let them know who you are while learning what they want most in a career. This allows you to attract individuals by developing connections and starting an informal discussion.

Re-Engage Qualified Former Applicants

It’s typical to tell job applicants that their resume has been placed on file for future use. But how many times do those individuals get notified after you’re looking for someone like them? Instead of merely promising to remember people, ditch the “we’ll contact you” lip service and actually follow through.

Look for former finalists, as well as those who reached out to you about job possibilities in the past, and see whether they’re still interested. Use email marketing and social media were necessary to re-activate candidates from your database.

Acknowledge the time since you’ve spoken with them and inquire if they’re thinking about moving right now or any time soon. You may reignite their interest, or their excellent interaction with you might encourage them to suggest someone who is qualified. This allows you to get your brand and open job opportunities in front of people who cleared many qualification hurdles prior to or were interested enough to submit their resumes.

Host A Hiring Meetup At The Office

Hosting an onsite “hiring happy hour” for individuals interested in joining your team is a fantastic method to promote your firm. Push the event, meet-up, and industry-relevant websites your prospects frequent to increase exposure. Make it a point to post it on your own company’s career or social media sites. The goal is to get visibility by using those areas where you may advertise the event for free.

Then, all you’ll spend is a couple of hundred dollars for refreshments, and you’ll meet some enthusiastic prospects and demonstrate your team and office to them. Hire a barista and have it be a coffee happy hour rather than serving alcoholic beverages if you’d prefer to avoid the expense and risk of doing so.

This technique can be quite successful for businesses seeking to fill a lot of brand-new roles. It allows job seekers and company leaders to meet in a more relaxed setting, which prospects will find comforting knowing they’re not all competing for the same role.

Share Your Current Projects

Sharing your current projects on social media or your website may be a fantastic approach to let potential employees discover more about your company. Seeing what your company is working on might help them decide if they want to join you. It also gives them a better idea of their employment prospects.

Consider sharing the technical stack if you’re creating software and looking for tech talent. This information may be useful to someone who’s thinking about whether or not to work with you. The technology may be the deciding factor in their decision to join your firm.

Create An Employee Referral Program

When it comes to innovative employment tactics, employee referrals are definitely not the new kid on the block. However, when done correctly, it may be one of your most efficient recruiting tools. Seek out talented individuals by using enthusiasm and word of mouth. To be a brand ambassador for your business, recruit your own people. If you’re a young firm with no money set aside for a recruitment budget, this can be quite beneficial.

Find out what makes your top performers tick, and give them the means to spread the word about your company’s mission and values. After all, why wouldn’t they want to pass on their enthusiasm for where they work? Give them material to share on social media and send in emails, as well as pointers on how to discuss the firm while out and about.

Offer Incentives To Apply For The Position

Offering incentives to get people to apply is a smart approach to recruit new staff. This might be anything from a sign-on bonus to a free resume evaluation, no matter how successful they are in obtaining the position.

Depending on the position you are hiring for, here are 10 ideas you can use:

1. Software Developer – throw in a Netflix subscription so they have something fun to binge-watch while working from home! This also reduces your IT overhead by allowing employees more autonomy regarding when/where work is done without unduly impacting productivity.
2. Customer Service Representative – offer them a gift card to their favorite store, restaurant, or local coffee shop in town. If they love reading, buy them an e-book reader and load it with some books that are related to your industry so they can learn more about the company before starting work for you. Make sure there is enough credit on that gift card too!
3. Office Manager – give them business cards of all employees at your firm so when networking events happen, they have something professional to hand out instead of just handing over one of their own personal house-cards.
4. Human Resource Manager – offer them movie tickets to see the latest box office hit. If they are thinking of relocating for their career then help with this by offering housing discounts and incentives such as free gym membership.
5. Business Development Manager – offer the restaurants vouchers (credit card) to take clients or family out for dinner. This is a fantastic method to show them how much you value them and isn’t just another member of the sales team!
6. Marketing Consultant – offer to pay their monthly Netflix or Spotify subscription bill as well as any other subscriptions that you use in your office like Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.
7. Account Manager – help with relocation costs by offering free flights so they can come to take a look at where they would live before making the move across country/state lines. Or if they have kids then give away amusement park tickets like Disneyland.
8. Graphic Designer – offer them the latest Apple laptop that they can use for their work. If you don’t have the budget to offer this then give them a gift card to Apple too.
9. Sales Manager – giving away vacation days is a great incentive but if you want something more unique how about offering paid time off so they can volunteer? This way it won’t cost your company anything just yet, however, when/if those employees go back into work early from being sick or unable to travel due to family matters, etc., then at least there’s some good karma coming around
10. IT Support Specialist – offer an all-expenses-paid trip out to a country and city that interests them and allow them free reign over exploring it themselves during their days off work (i.e: week-long cruise).

Final Thoughts

We hope these creative hiring tactics were helpful in finding your next top talent! From the good to the awful, from the fantastic to those that didn’t even come close, we’ve tried them all throughout the years!

There’s no such thing as the wrong or proper approach to discover your next top talent; it’s simply a question of coming up with different and creative methods to get you there. With recruiting changing at such a rapid speed, it may be difficult to keep up with all of the new developments. Do what works for your company culture.