How To Find Employees: Methods, Best Practices, And Tools
Hiring is an essential part of growing a business, but finding the right talent is notoriously challenging.
So, how to find employees? Here I’ll take you through the places, methods, and best practices to help you unearth those gems.
9 Best Methods To Find Employees
Here are the methods you can use to attract and source candidates.
1. Post job ads
Physical job boards are still a thing, as are classifieds in newspapers, but most organizations post their job descriptions digitally nowadays.
In her excellent article on recruitment marketing, Mariya Hristova gives great advice for writing and posting these:
- Ensure the ad follows a logical flow and use headings to make it easy for candidates to know where to look for different kinds of information (e.g. “Responsibilities and Outcomes” and “About us”).
- Use the company values to structure the outcomes of the role (how their role contributes to your company’s mission) in a way that echoes those values as a signal that you truly do live what you preach.
- Do some research and think about where your target talent hangs out—perhaps there’s a jobs board or a jobs channel. e.g. if you’re looking for designers, check out Dribble.
Modern applicant tracking systems (ATS) can help you create job descriptions and easily post them to different job boards. Some common ones include:
2. Referrals
We’ve spoken to a lot of talent acquisition experts over the years and all of them talk about the power of employee referrals.
"We have found that candidates who are referred by current Grainger team members often end up doing well when they join the company. Current team members understand what is needed and are often great at spotting talent." - Randy Tosch, Vice President of Talent, Grainger.
Encouraging current team members to share open roles with their networks and incentivizing them through an employee referral program is a no-brainer!
3. Social media
The “typical” internet user spends 2.5 hours per day on social media and over 5 billion people use it worldwide. That’s a lot of eyeball time!
So, if you’re not using social media as part of your recruitment efforts, you’re missing a trick.
Like with job boards, it’s best to figure out which platforms your target talent is likely hanging out on and be targeted in your approach. For example, creatives will likely hang out on Instagram and Gen Z on TikTok.
More in Mariya’s excellent article on social recruiting.
4. External recruiters
Recruitment can be time-consuming, so many organizations choose to partly outsource recruitment to professional recruitment agencies.
These agencies are adept at finding suitable candidates and getting them interested in roles. They can also provide advice around interviewing and help gather candidate feedback.
The downsides are that they’re more expensive than in-house teams and relying on them doesn’t help build your employer brand or recruitment muscle.
5. Attend job fairs
Time to get out of the virtual world and set out your stall. These are great for having conversations with potential current and future candidates and getting your name out there.
They’re part marketing, part sourcing. Some best practices:
Before the fair
- Set clear objectives: Determine your goals for attending the job fair, such as the number of candidates to engage with, specific roles to fill, and promoting your company’s brand.
- Plan your booth: Design an attractive and professional booth that clearly represents your company’s brand. Ensure you have engaging materials such as banners, brochures, and promotional items. Perhaps create a problem or challenge to get people interested?
- Prepare your team: Select knowledgeable and personable representatives who can effectively communicate your company’s values, culture, and job opportunities. Train your team on how to engage with candidates, answer common questions, and evaluate resumes on the spot.
- Promote your attendance: Use your company’s website, social media, and email newsletters to inform your network that you’ll be attending the job fair.
During the fair
- Engage actively with attendees: Greet visitors warmly and create an inviting atmosphere at your booth. Use icebreakers and questions to engage candidates and learn about their interests and qualifications.
- Collect and organize candidate information: Use sign-in sheets, business cards, or digital forms to gather contact information from interested candidates. Take notes on each candidate to remember key details and impressions.
After the fair
- Follow up promptly: Send personalized follow-up emails to candidates you are interested in thanking them for visiting your booth and providing information on next steps.
- Evaluate the event: Gather feedback from your team about what worked well and what could be improved for future job fairs. Assess the quality and quantity of candidates met and the overall success of the event in meeting your recruitment goals.
Also consider other live events. Attending HR staffing workshops provides valuable tools and insights to refine your employee search and selection process.
6. Build relationships with colleges and universities
Building relationships with colleges and universities can be a great way to find new employees as well as build your brand and stay ahead of industry trends.
A few ways to approach you can this:
- Campus recruitment programs: Participate in campus job fairs and career events to meet students and discuss job opportunities.
- Internship and co-op programs: Offer internship programs, co-op programs, and summer jobs to provide students with real-world experience. This also allows organizations to evaluate potential future employees.
- Guest Lectures and workshops: Have company representatives give guest lectures or conduct workshops on topics related to their industry.
- Collaborative research projects: Partner with faculty on research projects, providing funding and resources. This can lead to innovative discoveries and solutions beneficial to the organization.
- Scholarships and grants: Offer scholarships and grants to students to build goodwill and loyalty towards the organization.
- Mentorship programs: Establish mentorship programs where employees mentor students. This helps students develop professionally and creates a positive impression of the organization.
- Alumni networks: Engage with the university’s alumni network to connect with experienced professionals who can contribute to the organization’s growth.
7. Hire internationally
It’s becoming increasingly common for organizations to look abroad to fill their talent needs. Advantages include a wider talent pool and access to new ideas and ways of thinking.
Of course, hiring international talent isn’t as simple as hiring domestically, but either hiring contractors or using an employer of record (EOR) can make it much easier.
EOR’s act as the legal employer in the jurisdiction you want to hire, negating the need to set up an international entity and ensuring you stay on the right side of compliance.
Hiring internationally can be tricky. Recruiter certification can sharpen your skills in sourcing top talent quickly and efficiently.
8. Start an internship program
A strategically aligned internship program will help you recruit the talent your organization needs, bring in fresh ideas and perspectives, and positively impact your employer brand.
Plus, the interns you hire are more likely to stay at your organization compared to non-intern early-career graduates.
For a deeper dive, Alex Link’s article ‘How to start an internship program’ is a great place to start.
9. Start a returnship program
A returnship program is a type of paid internship designed specifically for individuals who have taken a lengthy career break and are now looking to return to the workforce in a professional capacity.
It can also be utilized by workers who are underemployed, not using their skillset or education, or are looking to break into their new role or industry.
A returner could be a parent or caregiver who took off an extended period mid-career, or someone who took a job not utilizing their skills and is now finding it difficult to get back on their career path.
For a deeper dive, check out Jessica Cieslinski’s great article how to start a returnship program.
Best Practices To Find Great Employees
People are people and they do strange things. What motivates them isn’t always clear and life happens.
Successful recruitment is built on trust, transparency, organization, grit, and communication. Well, all that and having the right staffing software at your disposal.
Here are some best practices to help you attract and retain the talent you need
Create an EVP
An employer value proposition (EVP) is a set of unique benefits and offerings that an employer promises to deliver to its employees in exchange for their skills, expertise, and commitment.
It's essentially the value that an organization provides to its employees in return for their contributions.
The EVP helps attract, retain, and engage talent by effectively communicating and driving what makes the organization a desirable place to work. It encompasses various components such as:
- Purpose, vision, and mission
- Organizational values
- Total compensation
- Culture
- Career development opportunities
- Flexibility
- Work-life balance
- The overall employee experience.
For a deeper dive, I suggest Mariya’s excellent guide on creating an EVP.
Cultivate a strong employer brand
Following on from your EVP creation is your cultivating your employer brand.
In essence, your employer brand is your reputation as an employer. It’s how you present yourself on your socials, job descriptions, interviews, and anything candidate facing.
It’s also how you conduct yourself as a company. Are you ethical, are workers treated well, do you live by your values?
One quote that has always stuck with me regarding branding is from Warren Buffet: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”
For a deeper dive, check out Mariya’s guide to employer branding.
Use a structured interview process
Building a consistent interview structure is important to ensure that all candidates are evaluated based on the same criteria. This helps create a consistent candidate experience and can help reduce biases and make the process fairer.
Leverage technology
During the early days, you can probably get by with a simple employee management system to help you build your team.
However, if hiring picks up there are some useful tools to help improve the process for all involved parties.
The undisputed king/queen of recruiting software is the applicant tracking system (ATS). These systems use automation to help post jobs, schedule interviews, track and communicate with candidates throughout the hiring process, screen resumes, and interpret feedback.
For more, check out our pick of the best applicant tracking systems.
Leverage professionals
Hiring is notoriously tricky, especially the sourcing part, so sometimes it’s beneficial to hire or contract a professional. You have a few options here:
- Build an internal recruitment team.
- Make sure of a specialist recruitment agency, either on a retainer or pay-on-delivery basis. These tend to be especially handy for recruiting executives or tough-to-find candidates.
- Make use of a professional employer organization or the aforementioned employer of record. These are particularly useful for recruiting talent outside of your home jurisdiction.
For more, check out our article on how to hire a recruiter.
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