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3 Innovative Ways to Recruit in a Competitive Market

Steve Lowisz
Today’s talent market presents a range of tough challenges for recruiters. 
However, the best recruiters are adapting – and making great hires as a result. 
A different market requires new approaches. Read on for three innovative ways to recruit in a competitive market.

Brush Up on Your Team’s Marketing Skills

Marketing is one area that is now separating the best recruiting teams from the rest. We recommend you either train your recruiters in marketing skills or hire more recruiters who know marketing.

Key skills include writing compelling job descriptions and job ads. Nothing turns off candidates faster than a bland, copied-and-pasted job description filled with corporate-speak.

Take a few lessons from copywriting and learn how to write persuasive job ads, as well as emails and social posts that draw in applicants!

Practice Persistent, Targeted Outreach

Most recruiters will contact a candidate 1-3 times before moving on to other candidates. That approach may have worked before, but you’re going to have to be more persistent today.

Our advice is to create a list of high-quality candidates that fit your profile very closely. Next, contact those candidates once every few days...as much as 7-10 times until you get a response.

The best candidates are busy and likely won’t respond unless you are very persistent! The same goes for recruitment marketing. Try to make sure candidates see your ad several times across multiple channels.

Build an Employer Brand That People Can Relate To

Anyone can talk about how great their culture is – it's another thing to create an employer brand that people can connect with.

You should strive for authenticity and relatability in your employer brand. Now more than ever, candidates can see through phony descriptions of amazing cultures and are really connecting with employer brands that are more genuine.

Ditch the stock photos on your careers page and include real pictures of your team and office. You can still describe the amazing parts of your culture, but consider including a brief mention of the ways in which your culture might not work for someone too.

Candidates are increasingly drawn to companies that give them an honest, realistic look at their company.

New Challenges Require New Solutions

With the new challenges we’re seeing in the recruiting space, remember the phrase “work smarter, not harder.”

We all have to work hard. But if you’re working hard and still not getting the right results, it’s time to take a step back and brainstorm new ways of approaching the problem!