Times and trends are ever-changing, and even the traditional world of recruitment is not immune to these changes. With many job vacancies in the welding, IT, transportation, and other industries needing to be filled, hiring the right people are becoming more challenging. Traditional recruitment strategies are not enough to get the jobs filled with suitable candidates. HR professionals are now turning to new and innovative recruiting methods to fill the demand.
Recruit Where Your Potential Recruits Hang Out
Posting your jobs ads on major social media sites like Linkedin or online job boards is nothing new and is today’s norm. What’s innovative is spreading your recruiting message in areas where your target recruits are. These sites may not be job boards, but they’ve proven successful for companies that used them. Amazon used Tinder, a dating site, and posted ads to recruit engineers and TacoBell used Snapchat stories to advertise for job interns, all with good results.
But, social media is not the only place you can look for potential new hires; there are many non-traditional places you can recruit other than job boards or job fairs. Virgin Trains in Scotland found success in recruiting reformed prisoners. Virgin Trains partnered with the Scottish Prison to make it easier for people with convictions to get employment when they are released. These people get a second chance, and Virgin Trains get their employees.
Automate Your Job Recruitment Process with Artificial Intelligence
The job recruitment process has a lot of tedious and repetitive tasks – from writing job descriptions to setting up interview times. You can automate these tasks using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to free up your time and resources.
There are many ways to incorporate AI into your process. Some of which are as follows:
- Screen job descriptions for biased words with AI. You can subscribe to AI-based software to scan your job description for biased words (age, gender, race, etc.) and give alternative expressions to use. Checking your job descriptions for discriminatory terms will make your job descriptions more inclusive and attract more candidates. Ongig Text Analyzer and Textio are two cloud-based tools to scan your job description for biased words.
- Screen resumes with AI scanners. Going through resumes and weeding out those who don’t fit the job descriptions take a lot of time. AI scanners automate this job by screening resumes that match the job description, saving you time to dedicate to other tasks.
- Use chatbots to answer candidate questions and schedule interview times. A chatbot is a software used by companies to answer questions about products or conduct an online conversation with customers. Recruiters can use chatbots for conversation screening and scheduling. Chatbots can do the job of answering repetitive questions like job salaries so candidates can focus on crucial questions when you interview them.
Use Freelancers
The gig economy is thriving. More and more companies hire talented freelancers for high-priority but short-term projects. There are many freelancer sites out there you can try to save you the time and effort of going through the usual recruitment process. Plus, you get to see how your freelancer does the job and how they get along with the rest of the team. If you like how they perform, you’ll know who to contact when you need a full-time employee.
Use Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is not only used in games. It has found use in the HR industry as well. Using VR as part of your recruitment process can help attract younger and more tech-savvy applicants, and it can streamline your recruiting process. There are several ways companies leveraged the power of VR to automate and streamline their recruiting process:
- To help with applicant assessment. Luxury car brand Jaguar used VR to create a skills-based game in 2017. This game served as a gateway for potential applicants. Through this game, players learned about electric vehicles. They were then asked to solve demanding code-breaking puzzles. These tests were to test their curiosity, persistence, problem-solving skills, and lateral thinking.
- To give a virtual tour of their working environment. Providing a virtual tour is a great way to showcase your company culture. It’s also an excellent move to give your potential employee a way to get a glimpse of their possible work environment. General Mills gave a virtual tour of their headquarters in Minneapolis to give potential candidates an idea of what awaits them if they pursue their application.
Go Mobile
Mobile recruiting is not optional for recruiters because it’s almost the only way to get in contact with an entire generation of candidates. With Millenials spending an average of 211 minutes daily on their smartphones, they expect the same from the company they’re applying to. To get the most out of the smartphone generation, you can try texting, a traditional yet still relevant strategy.
You should also make sure your job advertisements and your recruiting process are mobile-friendly, so your candidates can quickly complete each step on a mobile device. If you don’t have in-house programmers to make this happen, you can try subscribing to mobile recruitment apps or go with a third-party recruitment service that has this option.
Job recruitment is not what it was a decade ago, and as with all things, it must change to keep up with the times. These new and innovative ways of recruiting are not meant to replace the tried and tested traditional means, but they are there to augment the old methods so they can stay relevant in today’s climate.
