How do you go about recruiting the best candidates for your organisation? What is going to be the most important metric when it comes to hiring the best people? Where are you searching for your next start employees? How well are you communicating your job openings?
These are all questions organisations face when it comes to recruitment for their business and it's no surprise that it can cause issues when they are not considered. There are many different methods of recruitment and opting to use one instead of applying a mix to be maximally effective can be a disadvantage.
In this guide you will learn about the different methods of recruitment. What internal and external recruitment methods look like, direct and indirect recruitment and then we’ll take a closer look at the different types of recruitment methods and how they can have an impact on your recruitment strategy.
Internal and external recruitment methods
We have all heard of internal and external recruitment. In short, the internal recruitment method is when you hire from within your organisation’s staff and external recruitment is when you go outside of the company to attract a recruit that you have never met before.
Internal recruitment can be a huge time saver as there isn’t a protracted period of interviews or onboarding. However, it can lead to a lack of diverse ideas and a lack of innovation.
External recruitment can bring in new ideas, fresh approaches and a renewed energy. However, it can take a long time and cost a lot of money to find the right candidate and a screening process as well as onboarding needs to begin.
Direct, indirect and third party recruitment methods
Alongside the internal and external recruitment methods, there are also direct, indirect and third party recruitment methods as identified by research carried out by Dunn & Stephen (1972).
Direct recruitment
- Establishing contact with potential candidates directly - while in education.
- Representatives work in cooperation with the placement cells within the organisation in order to discover and recruit candidates.
- Think of engineering and medical recruitment primarily done this way.
- It is not uncommon to find organisations soliciting academics to discover more information about candidates.
- Recruiters are sent to on site job fairs, conventions and seminars to establish direct contact with candidates.
Indirect recruitment
- Advertising, job boards, radio and TV to attract candidates.
- This method is commonly used for when organisations are trying to recruit experienced candidates who sit outside of traditional structures.
- The identity of the organisation advertising is not always given (a blind advertisement) but this depends on the role or the organisation.
- Selecting the right candidate is going to be based on many factors including even the advert itself which needs to be attractive enough to target and recruit the right potential candidates.
Third party recruitment
- Using employment agencies, employee referrals or other third party sources to establish contact with candidates.
- These third parties act on your behalf and any specific instructions must be followed and laid out in the meetings you have to recruit.
Effective methods of recruitment
We have seen that there are different strategies when it comes to recruiting new staff. Internal and external recruitment is designed to pick out candidates from either the current crop of workers your organisation has or if it needs to move outside of your organisation to find staff.
Then there is the direct, indirect and third party recruitment which is going to have more of an impact on the type of organisations that are recruiting and who is being used to help with recruitment as an ongoing process.
So what are the actual methods of recruitment that organisations face and how effective are they? We are going to take a closer look at some of the strategies that can be used by organisations today.
Online job boards and websites
This will be one of the most common ways to recruit today, online job boards and websites. Nearly everyone has heard of this method and more than likely, you will be using this as part of your ongoing recruitment strategy.
Direct website postings are still very popular and with the right integrations, these can be indexed and populated onto third party sites such as online job boards or even something like LinkedIn (see further down). They not only keep the recruitment process internal to the organisation but grant you more control over the data being supplied by candidates.
Job boards such as Monster, REED and Indeed are three of the most popular online recruitment packs and cover nearly every category of job posting and industry.
In many cases, some job boards allow recruiters to use features without charge, offering options for free job postings or trials.
These happen to be very popular with job seekers as they can input their CVs one time and get emails sent about new openings on a daily basis.
Recruitment agencies
You can outsource your recruitment requirements to a third party, in this case, a recruitment agency. They can manage the whole recruitment process and whilst it may cost more to do it, they free up your time to focus on more of the day-to-day requirements of your business. If you are struggling with finding the right kind of recruit or need someone with very specific skills, agencies can handle these requests very specifically.
Headhunters
Headhunters are an extension of the recruitment agencies and are specifically designated to direct their efforts toward finding high-level managerial and professional talent for organisations.
Many passive recruits may not be searching for a new role or challenge at all and this is when a headhunter can come in and sell the opportunity and the business values to new candidates - especially those who may be working for competitors or are no longer challenged by their current role.
Headhunters make their name by being able to have the kinds of discussions with potential candidates to get them in front of organisations needing that level of skill or knowledge.
Media advertising
Advertising vacancies in specialist trade journals, national and local newspapers are still effective methods of recruitment.
This is where job adverts are posted with specific information about the job and then a description of the organisation. These are common and still used to date, especially for more trade specific job roles which get picked up by the people working in that particular industry.
Employee referrals
This is a combination of external and internal recruitment and it is not uncommon for many organisations - especially larger ones - to have programs in place in order to attract new employees into the organisation.
It works by getting existing staff to refer people they know for vacancies. The idea is that this method is very cost effective and it also means that staff are more likely to refer the role to people they trust and would reflect better upon themselves as well.
Internships and apprenticeships
Arguably it’s one of the most well known and oldest methods of recruitment that has even been traced back to writings of the 17th Century. Luckily things have changed since then and internships and apprenticeships cover many different trades and skill sets on the job market.
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organisation for a limited period of time, whilst an apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study.
One of the biggest advantages to have come out of the internship and apprenticeship programs of the last few years is that it has been a fertile ground for identifying and nurturing the future leaders of the organisation at a young age. They can be moulded to the organisation’s culture and can grow understanding the systems in place whilst also contributing to the success of the organisation at the same time.
Recruitment events
Recruitment events are one of the most direct recruitment strategies that can be utilised. As previously mentioned, many in engineering and medical areas of study will be recruited this way as it is relevant to academia in many cases.
Events can range from hosting open days to being at job fairs, holding something like a hackathon and graduate recruitment drives on campus. Events can be costly so it is important to know what the ROI for finding the right candidate is for your organisation and making a decision based on this.
Graduate recruitment and job fairs are usually part of this recruitment process.
Social networks
Social recruitment has become a big method of getting the right candidates into organisations, but one platform has really taken the market by the horns and that is LinkedIn. It has easily grown in popularity as the platform to connect employers with prospective employees and also, be used to help with creating a employer brand strategy that makes the organisation look more attractive to potential employees.
Of course there are other platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat that are used to help build brand awareness and equity so that when job postings are pushed through different platforms, they can get candidates from all walks of life and with different experiences applying.
If you were looking to develop your talent pool of innovative ideas and people then this is one of the most sure fire ways to do so.
Talent pool database
A talent pool database is effectively a database of people that didn’t make it on previous recruitment drives. The reality is, these people may still want to work for you and that’s why it is important to always search your talent pool databases for applicants and candidates that were not hired but were suitable enough to save.
They may not have made the cut originally but now, with more time and experience and looking for a new challenge, your organisation could be the move they are looking to make.
Importantly, when a new vacancy comes up, search your talent pool for similar skills and experience. You could save yourself a lot of time and money!
Networking events
Everyone has at some point in their career been to a networking event. Whilst they are not everyone’s cup of tea, they are one of the most effective ways to recruit as well as conduct business development and brand development as well.
Events such as HR events, job fairs, open houses, seminars, and conferences offer a perfect recruitment platform. HR professionals with relevant and sustained relationships can easily acquire candidates and interns from different disciplines at these events.
Rehiring previous employees
Have you ever considered approaching a previous employee? This strategy is also known as “boomerang employees” and it is gaining a lot of popularity in the professional world. This is when employees who left on good terms (for whatever reason) are approached to come back to the organisation.
Employers are looking for someone that already understands the business, possibly even the challenges but knows that they will fit into the corporate culture and can implement change quickly. It’s cost effective and reduces the risk of hiring bad employees who aren’t known to the organisation.
In conclusion
We haven’t been able to speak of all of the different effective recruitment methods available to organisations in this piece, but the 10 we have chosen are definitely ones your organisation should consider when making its next hiring decisions.
Using commonly found tools not only limits the risk of hiring poorly but also facilitates hiring managers to use strategies that are proven to be effective and get results for the organisation.
The Thomas Recruitment Platform can be used as part of the recruitment process as well as managing the recruitment process from one centralised area.
