Published: Oct 1st, 2023

We all know how important it is to hire the right people for the right jobs at the right time. Yet an average of 50% of new hires fail within the first 18 months on the job.

Some of those hires don’t even show up (ghost hires). And a growing number of new hires leave within the first few weeks. No one can afford such huge losses in money, time, frustration, and productivity. If any other part of your business had this kind of depressing ROI, it would become a top priority, even THE top priority.

Recruiting well and hiring right the first time is a business imperative. It needs much more rigorous attention in board rooms, on executive teams, with hiring leaders, and in human resources. Yet most of us fail, because we’re using the wrong recruiting techniques.

So — what’s the problem? Three P-words — preparation, process and planning. These words are common in every part of any business, and just plain common sense. Still, recruiting and hiring gets the short end of the stick too often. The price for that choice is extraordinarily high.

This list of recruitment methods (and tips for how to use them) can help you hire the right people faster. With the right methods of recruitment in your toolbox, you’ll be well on your way to building your best workforce.

Top recruiting methods

Recruiting well isn’t an accident, nor does it happen by luck. You’re “digging for gold.” To succeed, design and be intentional about your criteria, search team, interviewers, interview process and approach, training on legalities, and selection-decision making. These are the key ingredients to success.

Let’s start smart and improve your chances of hiring right the first time. We’ll build a strong foundation for your recruitment and hiring structure. Take a walk through these top recruiting techniques:

1. Create a position storybook for each job opening

Picture this: you’ve spent weeks — and thousands of dollars — to find just the right candidates. But in the end, you didn’t. What went wrong? You didn’t start with a position storybook.

Building your position storybook is the essential first employee recruitment method. It’s a step many people give too little attention to.

Review the current job/position description carefully, including who this new person will be working with and/or serve. Get input from as many stakeholders as possible, including any direct reports and human resources. Make no assumptions that anything will stay the same. To use this method of recruitment, answer these questions:

• Why do we need this position?
• What do we need in this position now that’s changed from the past?
• What impact does this position have on others’ work?
• What are the absolutes for education, experience and KSA’s (knowledge, skills, and abilities) that we know are essential for any candidate to succeed?
• What are the “nice-to-have’s” we’d like to see and why?
• How should this position fit within our organizational chart?
• Final check. What, if anything, is still missing or should be removed from the new position description?

Take the candidate’s point of view

To attract the right candidates, imagine you're reading the job posting as a candidate. Does it describe what success looks like? Is it welcoming and inclusive? Is the language explicit enough? Are all the expectations and requirements clear, including any values-based expectations?

The more diverse your intended pool, the more you need to use wording that’s inclusive and not biased. Understanding your candidates is one of the best ways of recruiting in the market.

2. Create candidate scorecards

How do you really know a good candidate from a bad one?

We can only measure what matters most if we have a system of scoring each candidate during your recruitment process. That means you must identify all requirements, from education and experience to writing samples, presentations, and any legal testing.

To use this recruitment method wisely, think of creative ways to remove barriers without weakening your ability to assess.

Two words of caution for this recruiting technique:

Caution: Be certain of the objective value of any assessments. Ensure they're legal instruments authorized for use in hiring. Make sure they’re not biased by gender, age, race, religion, or ethnicity. Ensure that they don’t violate ADA laws (Americans with Disabilities Act). No method of recruitment can ignore legality.

Caution: Don’t use 360 assessments or self-scoring personality or style instruments for the purpose of hiring. This adds no value. Be aware that these can either be gamed or biased, telling you nothing of value. No candidate will hand over a negative 360 report. Clever ones will know how to answer self-scoring instruments to match what they think you want.

3. Create a hiring search budget

How much should you spend? How much time? How much money? How big should your team be? Planning for time and expense is a vital recruiting technique:

You’ll need to invest both time and money in your recruitment process. Cover the bases below to make sure you don’t overspend or underspend, and create a smooth process throughout.

• Know your limits and be honest about them within your recruitment and hiring process. You might choose to identify your pay range or simply state that you pay competitively. Include extras like signing benefits, bonuses, moving, housing, or visits.
• Your budget for getting the right results should include your search plan costs for recruitment, advertisements, yours and/or candidates’ travel costs, staff time investment, testing, all likely perks, recruitment firms, and dual career couple’s costs/options. The budget needs to be realistic, fair, and make sense for the job you’re trying to fill.
• Choose your search team and select any other interviewers you may want to include. The search team members are the people who have the most important roles in your recruitment methods.

• Create your search, interview, and selection strategy. Then identify your most promising methods of recruitment.

4. Follow hiring best practices

The search for your next employee will go a lot smoother if you follow a few best practices. Before you start, take time to engage your search team’s enthusiasm. You’ll want to start with the right recruiting tone and outline your approach. Take a look at these recruitment technique best practices.

Engage your search team with a clear process

My search team dropped the ball. When you’re clear about who and what you need, you're well on your way to letting the world know about this job opening. Make recruiting and hiring right a top priority. Then prove it by establishing expectations, accountability, and rewards throughout the process. If you do, you’ll get a lot more enthusiasm from your search team.

To make this recruiting technique work, explain your expectations and process, then give your team a chance to offer input.

Set the right tone for recruiting

We just never connected with the right candidates. Your organization’s mindset and attitude about recruitment can help attract the best people. The way you present your organization to your most desirable candidates matters — a lot.

It’s often the little things that make you stand out from the crowd. It’s the first impression, the first human contact, the wording of the job description, the organization’s description of itself, its web presence, and the personal touch and tone of the invitation to apply. These are all clues that send important signals to prospective candidates.

Stay humble

That company just seems too good for me. Sharing what you’re proud of — your mission, services, products, vision, values, and culture — are all important to convey. Refrain from boasting, bragging, or demonstrating hubris in any way. Stay humble no matter how big or desirable your organization is.

Put a down-to-earth approach high on your list of recruitment methods.

Treat candidates with care

Top candidates do their homework before an interview. They’ll already know a great deal about your organization. How you treat your candidates during the search process will have the greatest impact on attracting the right people. How you interact with applicants is a vital method of recruitment.

Your firm’s attitude will also affect your reputation as a prospective employer in the wild world of social media. On the flip side, one of the most off-putting ideas to a prospective candidate is that they're somehow “lucky” to be considered. If a candidate wants to know the ratio of applicants to hires, they’ll ask.

Build a solid recruiting foundation

Creating a solid foundation for your recruitment and hiring process is the beginning of your journey. Don’t settle. Make smart decisions and know that taking shortcuts will more than likely result in disappointment.

Recruiting well may take a bit longer on the front end. But when you use the right recruitment methods, the results pay for themselves in time and energy.

5. Don’t just post — recruit

Posting and recruiting are two very different processes. Both are important, but posting alone won’t get you to the right hires for your firm. Evaluate and choose the right options as you put your opening out there for prospective candidates.

There’s a big difference between posting a job vs. recruiting. Choosing the right method of recruitment is key to attracting the right person for that job.

Recruiting is proactive

Advertising a position inside and outside the organization is generally a reactive approach. (You react to those who apply.) By contrast, recruiting is proactive. (You reach out and encourage the right people to apply.) Posting may appear fast and efficient, but it can be a crapshoot. That’s why job postings aren’t always the best hiring technique.

Posting isn’t less expensive

Choosing to post should be the result of a focused, strategic thought. Select it as the smartest recruiting method for the right reasons. Don’t do it out of habit or with the false assumption that it will save you time and money. Posting often won’t save either of those in the long run, and perhaps not even in the short run.

In the end, posting is just one recruitment method in your toolbox.

Post internally when you have top talent

There are smart and compelling reasons to post a job internally and/or more broadly. For instance, you may know from experience that your internal or local pool is packed with strong candidates. Internal postings can also save resources for the screening and interviewing process.

Post internally after layoffs

Maybe you’ve had layoffs and need to post internally first to give those folks a shot. Or you may think you have qualified candidates internally, and the position could be a growth or promotion opportunity for them. Or you may simply prefer to fill the job from within.

Post without promises

If you know of people inside or outside your workplace you’d like to have apply, you can certainly recruit them. But make no promises about the search outcome. Only choose posting as a method of recruitment when it makes good business sense.

Post online with caution

Online platforms are one proactive approach to search for and recruit great candidates. The ground is constantly moving in the techno-recruitment world. There are no easy answers about how and where to recruit your best candidates for a particular position. The plethora of internet companies that promise the best and the brightest list of job seekers through their screening algorithms can be a useful tool. But it is not the toolbox.

6. Recruit with job fairs

Before you venture into online hiring platforms, consider recruiting via job fairs. Many companies have entire teams of people that show up on college campuses every semester. Others scour their competition for high-potential candidates to lure away from another employer.

Look into both in-person and online job fairs to smooth your hiring process. An online job fair carries a distinct speed advantage. It also puts you in direct contact with more of the perfect candidates for the jobs you’re hiring for.

7. Use internal recruiters

Internal recruiters use a multitude of methods of recruitment. These include recruitment sites, job posting sites, and social media, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. They also include discipline-specific professional networks. Any of these recruitment methods can bear rich ROI.

8. Leverage external recruiting firms

External recruiting firms specialize in finding just the right person for just the right job. They use many of the same tools as their internal counterparts. These firms work in virtually every field of expertise: sales, marketing, c-suite, college presidents and faculty, science and research, school superintendents, HR professionals, fundraising pros, and IT wiz kids, to name a few.

How to find a good external recruiting firm

Nearly all mid-to-top-level positions in any enterprise can find a recruitment company that specializes in their target job market. The question is not are they there. The questions are: how good are they, is this the best firm for you, and can you afford their fees?

In considering hiring a talent acquisition, search, or recruitment firm, there are a number of criteria to consider. Use the checklist below to understand their methods of recruitment before you start.

Recruitment firm checklist questions

The wrong recruiting firm can cost massive amounts of time and money. Worse, it can lead to the wrong hires, which can seriously damage your organization. When searching for a partner in your hiring process, screen the company and its recruitment methods first.

• Cost: Most recruiters will charge a percentage of the annual salary. Ask what they charge exactly and by what method.
• Timing: What is the firm’s turnaround time to present at least 3-4 high potential candidates? It is a good indicator if the firm can provide you with at least a few viable candidates within two weeks. The national average of a completed search is 90-120 days, so the faster a firm can respond, the better.[i]
• Quality: What’s the firm’s specialty and the ratio of candidate slates offered vs. candidates acceptable to the client? You’ll want at least 75% of the candidates to be acceptable to the firm’s clients and invited to interview.
• Offer acceptance: Just as when you do your own posting and search, the rate of acceptance of an offer should be about 95% in most jobs. (It should be about 80% in IT jobs if the search was done well.) This success rate indicates the firm found the right people for the job.
• Sustainability: What’s the average “stay on the job” time for new hires from this firm’s slate of candidates?
• Pool Potential: How difficult (or not) does the firm say it will be to find high-potential candidates in today’s market for this job? What is their vetting process?
• Inclusion: What do they do to attract a diverse pool of candidates?
• Relationship: Who works with the client on the search and how much time do they typically spend getting to know your culture and the hiring leader?
• Guarantees: What exactly do they promise in return for your check — particularly in the event the hire doesn’t prove successful?

You can always negotiate rates, particularly if you’ve gained frequent-client status.

Partnering with a recruiting firm can give you access to a deep recruiting skillset."

Recruiting firm advantages

The key advantage of using a recruiting firm is the ability to reduce or eliminate the need to internally manage the candidate screening process. Partnering is tempting if the firm’s screening includes details that matter to you. It’s also a good idea if you’d like to include testing or specific written materials, and if you have confidence in the firm’s abilities.

You’ll need to make your own cost/benefit analysis. Dollar for dollar, a partnership can be a strong recruitment method that can shorten your path to hiring top-notch candidates.

9. Use a combination of recruiting methods

Another method of recruitment is the combo approach. Today, many organizations do both posting and recruiting in one form or another. Depending on internal resources and skill sets, the job at hand, the difficulty in attracting preferred candidates, unique state mandates, and your financial resources, you should choose from among different combinations of recruitment options.

A combo approach opens up the position to the local and regional pool. It also posts in national publications that serve the appropriate industry. Professional networks, your search team’s networks, alumni networks, word of mouth, referral bonuses, having user-friendly organizational job posting web sites and using social media effectively can all greatly enhance an internal search process beyond just posting a position.

How to combine recruiting styles

Internal recruiting can make good sense. So can networking to encourage the right candidates to apply. But contracting with a search firm will broaden your pool and could speed up the process. This doesn’t have to be a choice of either/or, though. It can be both/and. Whatever your search strategy is, it has to work for you and the position you need to fill. The key is to thoughtfully develop your search strategy each and every time.

Any combination of strategies might be a good fit, and only you can determine that. You can learn from the wisdom of paid recruiters and explore their methods. This works particularly well if you'll rely on internal resources to find the best of the best for your open positions.

Summary

All these recruitment methods may seem like a lot of work, and you’re right! The set up and decision making at the front end of the search process requires your time and due diligence. The good news is, once you have a consistent, well-considered system in place, the next search will take less time to set up correctly, and the next time, less again.

The even-better news is that taking time to choose the right methods of recruitment will likely shorten the total time line of your searches. You'll establish a precedent and a process that can lend itself well to delegation. The first time, though, the hiring leader needs to be fully immersed in getting it right — just like you would for any important new project.

[i] https://www.inc.com/martin-zwilling/how-to-find-best-hire-for-that-key-role-in-your-new-venture.html