Finding the right candidate is not easy, not even in these days of the internet. Unfortunately, a major reason for this lies in the recruitment process itself. Many of the methods are outdated or inefficient, lowering the quality of hiring—making things problematic for the company.

The over-reliance on ATS ends up excluding resumes that don’t include keywords which hiring managers are looking for, irrespective of the merits of the candidate. On the other hand, recruitment process outsourcing typically results in the vendor scouring multiple job sites to longlist candidates, which are passed on to the employer. None of these methods are perfect, and they need to be supplemented with other approaches to ensure better outcomes.

Below we list some innovative ways in which companies can hire for their organisations. Try them out to target great candidates who will be an asset for your company.

1. AI-Powered Job Ads

AI-powered hiring tools can be of great help in recruiting if used correctly. One of the ways involves the use of advertisements with AI-driven writing tools to optimise the job ad for the right audience type. You should also avoid gender-coded words like ‘ninja’, ‘rockstar’ etc. while favouring the use of inclusive language (e.g., ‘person-hours’ instead of ‘manhours’, and the singular ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’) to appeal to a larger talent pool.

2. Programmatic Advertising

Simply put, programmatic advertising is the automated posting of advertisements targeted at a particular set of people depending on their demography, age group, location etc.

Although it has been in existence for many years, it continues to be highly effective in reaching out to quality leads. Programmatic advertising could help you display an entry-level job ad on Instagram targeting 21-year-old graduates. Typically, candidates of this age bracket are less likely to be on professional sites like LinkedIn compared to popular social media channels like Facebook and Instagram.

3. Social Media Recruiting

 Besides programmatic advertising, it also makes sense to directly tap into popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You could also try out more unconventional channels like Snapchat and Tinder if you are targeting younger people. Of course, LinkedIn is the go-to channel for direct recruitment as it is solely devoted to career advancement and professional networking. But other sites can be equally useful depending on the profile of the candidate you are targeting.

4. Employee Referrals

This is undoubtedly one of the best ways to hire good candidates for the job. If the organisation offers a referral bonus for every successful hire, employees are likely to offer their best referrals. As for hiring managers, they should keep the employee who has referred, informed of the process, whether it is underway, selected or rejected, and the reasons thereof. The right feedback will help the employee provide a better referral the next time. Also, the referral process should not be too cumbersome with lots of needless documentation.

5. Passive Candidates

In the earlier days, the only way to hire passive candidates was by way of referral. Thankfully, nowadays, even passive candidates have an online presence, at least in the form of a LinkedIn account. Reaching out and engaging with them by way of consistent communication and messaging is a great way to tap into such talent.

6. Video Interviews

Video interviews allow much more interaction than phone interviews, but are less effective than face-to-face meetings. They are particularly effective when the candidate is based abroad or at an outside location. They allow the interviewer to gauge body language and non-verbal communication cues while saving on travel time and cost for the candidate. They are ideal for pandemic situations when offices are shut due to lockdowns.

7. Temporary Hiring

Many organisations resort to temporary hiring of specialists and freelancers for certain projects rather than offload the job to an agency at a huge cost. There are several platforms, besides the usual social media sites, where hiring managers could tap into such resources.

8. Data-Driven Recruitment Process

This is an excellent way to know which avenues are most effective—social media sites, employee referrals, targeted job advertisements, and so on. Once the organisation identifies the most effective recruitment methods, it can strategise its hiring process for the best results.

Diversity of Approaches

Recruitment is one of the most vital HR functions for an organisation. Given the inherent challenges involved in the hiring process, recruiters need to be creative and not straitjacketed in their approach, and use multiple channels and innovative methods to tap into the resource pool of available candidates.

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