7 Tips to Source and Recruit Highly-Qualified Job Candidates for Any Role

Challenges Faced by Recruiters

Let’s first take a look at a couple challenges you’re probably facing right now in your search for some top talent in fill in some open job roles:

Vast labor market makes it harder to sort through qualified candidates

The RI Department of Labor and Training reported that, as of May 2020, there are 158,227 Americans in the United States labor force alone. 

That isn’t even considering the wide range of candidates you might find outside the United States, especially if your company is open to remote talent.

Numbers like these make it a challenge to rely on job posting sites, especially if it means risking getting a number of unqualified applicants and having to sort through and review each application.

Right candidate might not actively looking for a new opportunity

And yet another common problem for recruiters is that the right candidate for the job might not even be looking for a new job at all. 

This is why things like headhunting and candidate sourcing have risen in popularity; sometimes, to fill open roles in your company, you need to woo individuals already committed to another.

7 Tips to Find Highly-Qualified Candidates for a Job Position

Ready to find the right candidates for your company? Here are 7 tips you can follow as early as today.

Clearly identify the roles and responsibilities you want to fill

Sometimes when we’re sourcing for candidates, we have a tough time finding those of a higher caliber because we have a vague understanding of their job description.

To make sure you’re starting your sourcing and recruiting campaigns right from the get-go, have a very clear idea of the kind of candidate who would succeed in the role. 

Focus on skills and the kind of experience you consider non-negotiable. On that note, also consider which criteria you’re willing to leave some leeway or is addressable with some training.

Consult with team leaders who’ll be directly working with these new hires so you know exactly who to look for and who to turn away. 

Knowing this information is also an excellent way to craft compelling job descriptions, which you can use in your recruitment process or have as reference when you’re sourcing.

Ask your current employees

Your current employees may actually be connected to some high-quality candidates, via their alumni network or personal connections.

It may help you to ask for referrals. After all, your employees already know your company and how you operate. They’re likely to have the best idea for people they may know who’d fit in with your company culture or excel in the roles you have open.

Shoot everyone a memo in a company newsletter or channel announcing you have open positions and are looking to hire outside the company. Or just ask managers and leaders to bring it up to their teams during their next meetings.

Source candidates on LinkedIn

As the social network for professionals, LinkedIn may be a fantastic place to find your new top hire. Many top candidates will often have an optimized profile, so you know you’ll find people open to the right opportunities.

Run a search of the kinds of people you’re looking for, look at the People tab, and apply any relevant filters that may help you narrow down your results.

If you’re on LinkedIn Premium, you can then send mail to some prospects inviting them to interview or apply for the role.

Pro-tip: treat cold candidate outreach like any cold email outreach campaign, so approach it like you would a B2B outreach marketing strategy. So you’ll want to focus on PR and personalized messaging when you’re hitting people up in their LinkedIn mail.

Highlight unique company benefits

Another way you can easily recruit candidates or get prospects from your sourcing activities interested in your company is highlighting unique benefits they’ll receive when they come work with you.

Does your company perhaps offer a work-from-home arrangement? Do you go one step above the rest by providing compensation to help them build a workspace in their own home?

Talk about perks, but don’t discount your culture. If your company goes out every week for trivia night or has an afternoon group coffee break, that can show candidates you’re a close-knit team who values one another enough to hang out after work.

Optimize your Careers page

If a prospect happened to find your company before you found them, they’re likely to check your Careers page on your website.

Be sure to keep this page updated with open positions, their job descriptions, and instructions on how to apply. 

But also include elements like your company mission, how they’d fit in with that mission, as well as stories or features of your current successful employees.

Keeping an updated and optimized Careers page can just help you streamline the recruitment process faster. Alternatively, prospects with whom you’ve already done some cold outreach may go online to your site to learn more about you and the job you’re offering them to apply for.

Create an applicant tracking system

You can streamline your hiring process by creating an applicant tracking system (ATS) using a CRM or spreadsheet. 

In this ATS, you can compile contact information about your candidates, and include things like links to their resumés. If your hiring process includes tests, you can also weed out low performers so you’re only moving top performers through to the next step.

You’re also able to integrate your ATS with your email marketing provider. This way, you can keep in touch with all previous and future applicants with email marketing. Send them updates about your company, follow up with them about their application, or even to ask them and offer them a referral bonus if they didn’t quite make the cut. 

Use boolean search

Finally, to help you source candidates effectively, master the boolean search method. With LeadFuze, you can use this search method to look for highly qualified prospects who’ll suit your open job roles.

For example, if you were looking for a new marketing manager, some keywords you might input are “marketing + manager.” And LeadFuze helps you with the rest by recommending other keywords that may be relevant for your search.

Using boolean search makes sure you’re getting targeted results and prospects straight away. So you don’t have to worry about looking through thousands of candidates from a simple search.

Get hiring

Start filling up those open jobs in your company with the best candidates today. Follow the tips above to help you streamline your sourcing and recruitment processes, and watch as your company grows with the right people in the right positions.