Sourcing Inspiration: 7 Creative Recruitment Strategies

Let’s face it, we’re all spending a lot more time online these days. The same goes for your company’s job applicants. Why not capitalize on this trend to widen your applicant pool? We rounded up seven creative recruitment strategies to help spark inspiration for your company’s next hiring campaign.

79 percent of job seekers say they’re likely to use social media in their job search, with 86 percent of younger job applicants doing so, according to a study from The Open University. Companies worldwide are leveraging their social media platforms to build their employer brands and create fun, laid-back content that attracts potential candidates.

1. Use TikTok for Employer Branding

TikTok isn’t just for teens anymore. It’s one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. TikTok reaches 800 million active users worldwide, according to stats from DataReportal.

The Washington Post recently created its own TikTok channel to showcase silly day-in-the-life videos of its newspaper reporters. Walmart has also built a successful account by spotlighting its team members and hosting hashtag challenges. Walmart is even encouraging its employees to show off their talents in branded accounts, like @cameronfromwalmart, whose dancing skills at his workplace have earned him popular creator status.

@cameronfromwalmart1_

TikTok’s ease of use and accessibility make it an ideal place to share videos and showcase the lighter side of work.

2. Tap Into Referrals with Recruitment Happy Hours

Your employees can be your best source for future talent. According to a 2015 Smashfly survey, 32 percent of companies’ new hires come from employee referrals. And, the quality of these candidates exceeds those from other sources.

But, how do you get employees invested in the recruitment process? Take a cue from Salesforce’s successful referral program. The company organizes Recruitment Happy Hours. Here, employees can invite their potential candidate friends to meet recruiters in a relaxed setting.

And of course, incentives are a must. Fiverr turned employee referrals into a game by giving employees points and credit for referring candidates. The points — i.e., the further a referred candidate got in the hiring process — could be redeemed for gifts.

3. Film a Recruitment Video

Take your recruiting efforts up a notch. Create a recruitment video for your company’s website and social media pages. Zappos, for example, highlighted its friendly vibes and family atmosphere with a Recruitment Video that solicited feedback from current employees at all levels. The video showed them dancing, dressing up, and working in an open-plan environment.

Even if your company budget doesn’t allow for the most professional video, you can still attract top talent. Demonstrate an engaging, unfiltered look at your workplace, shot entirely on a smartphone.

4. Host Virtual Job Fairs

As a result of the pandemic, many organizations have pivoted to virtual career fairs or live Q&A sessions. In fact, 83 percent of in-person hiring events have been canceled, postponed, or switched to virtual, according to a Recruitics survey.

The flexibility and ability to reach candidates outside their location make virtual job fairs an appealing choice for healthcare networks, educational institutions, retailers, and technology companies to enact some creative recruitment strategies.

Recruiters use virtual job fairs to connect with potential applicants either before or immediately after they’ve applied to answer questions about the hiring process and give an insider’s look into the workplace culture.

5. Turn Recruiting Into a Game

Already well-known for its innovative hiring practices, Google went a step further in 2004 when it placed a billboard in Silicon Valley with the following words: ‘{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com’.

Those who solved the puzzle then were directed to apply to Google for an engineering position.

Billboards may be a dramatic move. But, you can take a page out of Google’s book and try posting riddles, puzzles, or problems for potential job applicants to solve on social media pages. You could end up finding a curious problem solver who might not have caught your attention in a typical job application.

6. Create Candidate-Friendly Pages

Along with creating inviting, engaging content on social media, it’s important to start an open dialogue with potential job seekers. Intel does a great job with its creative recruitment strategies. The company created its own ‘Fan Site’ on Facebook to give candidates a view of the culture, the employees, and what it’s like to work there.

Intel invites candidates to ask questions ‘on the recruiting process, or how we balance life and work, or maybe just what’s cooking in the café today.’ Intel’s recruiters make it a point to respond personally to each comment or question.

7. Reward Candidates for Choosing Your Company

One company invited short-listed candidates to enjoy pizza and drinks after work with current employees. That gave candidates a chance to meet their potential future co-workers and blow off some steam during what can be a stressful recruitment process. It also provided insight into the company culture and how those candidates might fit into the organization.

Try Out These Creative Sourcing Strategies

Recruiting software, such as JazzHR’s Applicant Tracking System, can help you streamline and simplify the hiring process. That’ll help you save hours on reading and sorting through applications — time that you could better spend trying out some of these fun recruitment ideas.