What are the methods of recruitment?
If you are looking to recruit someone for your company, there are quite a few options available.
Your choice of which method or combination of methods will depend on several factors, these might include:
- Your budget – how much money are you willing to spend to achieve your desired outcome, your ideal new employee?
- Your own resources on managing the recruitment activity from start to finish i.e. do you have your own inhouse recruitment specialist or team.
- How quick you need to recruit your new employee.
- What resources have worked well when previously recruiting.
- How resourceful you are.
- So, let us look at some of the key methods of recruitment.
Referral Schemes
Internal referral schemes enable the employer to incentivise their own existing staff to find a potential candidate. A typical model would be that the member of staff who introduced the successful candidate would receive (after the new employee has started) a financial reward or other benefit.
Who better than to promote your business and vacancy than an existing informed and knowledgeable member of your company. A key to this method being successful is that your staff have a clear understanding of the vacancy along with the skills to do the job.
Using your own website
Advertising your vacancy on your own website can be a very cost-effective means to attract applications. This works particularly well when used alongside video testimonials from your existing workforce. A good video can be extremely engaging plus it can be shared across social media.
One word of warning when advertising your vacancy on your own website, this will most probably lead to incoming calls from recruitment agencies who have seen your advertised vacancy. Some companies try and prevent this by including a statement like:
We do not use recruitment agencies, please do not call
Some companies actively promote speculative applications to join their business even if they do not currently have a vacancy. They then store these CVs for referral when there is a requirement.
Job boards
Online job boards are a popular platform to advertise company vacancies. There are hundreds of job boards, some of them are quite universal, like CV-Library, Jobsite and Reed which advertise vacancies across many different sectors and locations. These larger job boards do attract considerable amounts of traffic (job seekers) as they have the budget to promote themselves across various marketing platforms including TV.
Some job boards are very niche catering for a specific geographical location, certain type of candidate profile or career sector. Do not be mistaken to think that these smaller job boards are not successful, some of them are particularly good.
One example of a ‘niche’ job board would be www.securityclearedjobs.com which does what it says on the side of the tin; advertises jobs that require security clearance. Where do you think most candidates, who have security clearance head to when they are looking for a new job – you guessed right.
The downside of using a job board is that it is an advertising platform and like any form of advertising if it does not attract the right candidate to apply for your job you end up having spent money for no result.
The government have their own job platform where you can advertise your vacancy free of charge, see https://findajob.dwp.gov.uk/
Online CV databases
Many online job boards have an added service to compliment advertising vacancies, a CV database. Employers can buy access to the database to search for suitable candidates (CVs) and then reach out to them to start an initial discussion.
Social Media
Social media is a powerful means of reaching an exceptionally large audience and in most cases is totally free. In support of this for what can be quite a small investment you could utilise Facebook to create a ‘paid for’ targeted advertising campaign to place your vacancy directly in front of the very people you are trying to attract into your business. A similar solution is offered by LinkedIn
Recruitment Agencies
Recruitment agencies take complete responsibility to find you your ideal candidate using all their experience and resources. Many recruitment agencies will work with you on a ‘contingency’ basis, so you do not pay unless they are successful, and you end up employing a candidate who they initially introduced to you.
Take your time to choose the right agency to support you as the choice is extensive. Some agencies are again very ‘niche’, for example here at Demob Job we specialise in working with companies across the UK who value highly skilled engineering and technical people leaving our Armed Forces; Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force.
A word of warning be careful when selecting an agency. Read our guide ‘questions to ask a recruiter’.
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships offer the employer a means to bring fresh staff into their business with little or no experience. Apprentices follow an apprenticeship program leading to gaining an NVQ in a subject that is relevant to their career choice. There are many apprenticeships including administration, sales, engineering etc.
The Apprenticeship program can lead the employer to gaining an incredibly talented loyal employee.
For more information on Apprenticeships visit: LINK HERE
Networking Events
Most industry sectors organise specific networking events. These supply an opportunity for you to promote your company and vacancies in person amongst a very targeted audience.
Press Advertising
Most national and regional newspapers provide a means of advertising your vacancy. No longer is this limited to the printed version of their newspaper but will also gain exposure to their large online readership.
Summary
As you can see above, there are quite a few methods of recruiting and I am sure there are more to be added.
On the whole, technology has shaped the way we find new employees and as technology moves forward, I imagine it will play an even bigger part.
The one thing employers need to focus on is what solution is going to deliver your ideal candidate and, at risk of repeating myself, the ‘cheap’ option does not always deliver.
If you are a company owner or someone involved in the hiring process and are unsure how to go ahead give me a call and I would be more than happy to discuss your options.
