Building a winning recruitment strategy

Five tips to build a successful recruitment strategy

What matters most to job candidates today looks a little different than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. No longer can you simply post a job, wade through a mountain of resumes and expect to fill open positions. To win the war for talent, you must be flexible and creative. The following five tips can help you embrace this new mindset:

1. Get your company reputation right
   To make a good first impression, take the time to develop a strong and compelling employer brand that includes your:
   
   
   • Mission statement
   • Workplace culture
   • Understanding of the work-life balance
   • Core values and causes you support
   • Position on diversity, equity and inclusion

   Go deeper    Get Your Company Reputation Right

2. Be flexible, flexible, flexible
   When you’re looking to add talent, flexibility is key and it applies to virtually all aspects of the hiring process, including:
   
   
   • Work-life balance
     Consider being openminded about your remote work policy. An alternative is to offer a hybrid model that allows employees to work longer hours for four days a week and have Mondays or Fridays off.
     
     
   • Salary
     Some employers are offering more than the going rate to employees. Others are offering sign-on bonuses or automatic raises after 30, 60 or 90 days to provide a further incentive to joining the company.
     
     
   • Benefits
     An increasingly attractive perk is for companies to pay 100% of the employee’s medical insurance. Offering to pay for college/advanced degrees also remains popular, as does health and wellness perks, such as gym memberships and mental health.
     
     

   Go deeper    Be Flexible, Flexible, Flexible

3. Use employee referrals and recruiters
   Continue to solicit referrals from current employees, as they’re your best resource for qualified candidates. Be sure to reward them, perhaps with a cash bonus, additional PTO or other perks. Another tried-and-true recruitment strategy is to work with a recruiter who understands your organization and can communicate your brand.
   
   

   Go deeper    Employee Referrals are Golden

4. Make the most of interviews
   Take a step back before you post a job to determine what’s needed and reduce the time from interview to offer. This may mean less people are involved in the interview process or even offering a job on the spot. It’s also critical to keep the lines of communication open with the candidate and explain where they stand in the interview process.
   
   

   Go deeper    Make the Most of Your Interviews

5. Create an onboarding plan
   Before a new employee’s first day, map out a detailed onboarding plan that makes them feel welcome and reminds them why they made the right decision. Additionally, don’t assume a new hire will automatically hit the ground running. Rather, establish a 30, 60 and 90 day training/onboarding plan that includes frequent check-ins to see how the employee is assimilating.
   
   

   Go deeper    Onboarding and Beyond

ADP Editorial Team The ADP editorial team is comprised of human resource professionals with extensive experience solving complex HR challenges for businesses of all sizes.