Modern Employee Recruitment: 3 Methods for More Applications

Finding suitable employees has become a huge challenge for many companies. Classic recruiting methods only work to a limited extent these days. That's why companies need to rely on modern methods to generate applications and win over employees. In this post, we'll show you 3 modern methods for employee recruitment. First, we'll look at some classic methods along with their pros and cons, and then we'll complement them with modern approaches.

Classic methods of employee recruitment

The following 3 classic methods of recruiting are still used by many companies today as their main way of getting applications for open positions. But if you look at the drawbacks, it quickly becomes clear that these methods should be supplemented with additional options. Still, we wouldn't recommend giving up the classic routes entirely – instead, you should use a mix of different solutions. You'll find the reason for that in the respective advantages of these methods.

We'll look at the following classic methods in this article:

1. Job ads: publishing job ads in daily newspapers, trade magazines, job portals, or job boards.
2. Recruitment agencies: using a placement agency to find suitable candidates, or active sourcing.
3. Employee referrals: motivating existing employees to recommend suitable candidates or to actively take part in recruiting new employees.

Pros and cons of job ads

The most classic way to fill open positions is job ads – whether in online portals or in print media.

Job ads first of all increase visibility and help make sure vacant positions get noticed. As a rule, open positions are published on several platforms at the same time, which results in a corresponding number of applications.

The biggest drawback of job ads, however, is that they only reach the passive market. In other words, you only reach candidates who are either actively looking or unhappy with their current job. That leaves a large share of potential candidates completely untouched. On top of that, when applications come in through job portals, they're often passed on unfiltered, which results in a lot of unqualified applications.

Pros and cons of recruitment agencies

Recruitment agencies are companies or agencies that bring employers together with qualified candidates. This usually includes conducting interviews, checking references and background information, as well as negotiating salaries and working conditions.

One of the biggest advantages of recruitment agencies is that, as an HR professional or recruiter, you save yourself a lot of time, since you really only talk to candidates who bring the right and high level of qualification. On top of that, recruitment agencies usually have deep knowledge of the candidate market and can support you with helpful advice.

The effort put in by the agency is naturally reflected immediately in the price – that's why the biggest drawback is the high financial cost. On top of that, as a company you often don't get real insight into the process, and therefore have less control over how applications are generated.

Pros and cons of referrals

Referrals are a form of employee recruitment in which a company asks its current employees, friends, family members, or other contacts to suggest suitable candidates for open positions. Referrals can be made verbally or in writing and can be a valuable source of qualified candidates.

When an employee gives your company a referral, that's a genuinely strong sign of trust. It also boosts the company's credibility with the candidate – that's the biggest advantage of referrals.

The biggest drawback is clearly the limited availability of candidates. Even at larger companies with many employees, referrals tend to be the exception rather than the rule. What's more, diversity within the company can suffer, since the people making referrals often let their own preferences and biases flow into who they recommend.

The general drawback of classic methods

We've now looked at 3 classic routes and examined their pros and cons for employee recruitment. But there's one major drawback that applies equally to all of these methods: as a rule, they don't let you fill open positions in a predictable way. You can gather some statistics to a limited degree, but they vary from position to position. That means that for any given open vacancy, you can never say exactly when it will be filled.

Modern methods for finding candidates

Today's recruiting mix can draw on a huge range of measures that use modern digital media to generate applications and win over employees. In this post, we'll take a closer look at the following 3 methods:

1. Employer branding
2. Career events
3. Social recruiting

Employer branding

This is a strategy in which a company builds its brand as an attractive employer in order to attract, retain, and motivate talent. It involves building a positive employer image by conveying values, culture, working conditions, career opportunities, and company goals. The goal is to spark the interest of potential applicants, build a positive image as an employer, improve employee retention, and foster a positive workplace culture.

You can pursue the process of building an employer brand through marketing activities, social media, employee surveys and events, and other forms of communication and interaction with candidates. This helps the company be perceived, over the long term, as an attractive employer.

For us, an appealing employer brand with a strong EVP (employer value proposition) forms the foundation for all employee recruitment activities.

Keep this in mind: you can NOT NOT brand yourself! Even a poor or neglected image of your company will still be perceived from the outside. Are you getting few or no applications at all? Then this is exactly where you should start: create an employer branding analysis and take a look at how your company comes across to candidates. Social media today allows for real-time communication, and negative experiences in particular quickly find their way onto social media. Make use of that, and use social media deliberately for recruiting and retaining employees.

Social recruiting

Social media recruiting is a type of employee recruitment in which social media and online networks are used to reach and recruit talent. This can happen through publishing job ads, sharing company content, or building relationships with potential applicants on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. Social media recruiting gives companies broader reach and access to a larger and more diverse talent pool. It also enables more interactive communication with potential applicants and a better way to showcase company culture, working conditions, and career opportunities.

For us as a recruiting agency, social media recruiting is a decisive factor in our success in employee recruitment. With it, we can generate qualified applications in a predictable and measurable way, virtually at the push of a button. This approach has proven itself many times over, especially for recruiting employees in the care sector.

Career events

Career events are events where companies and job seekers come together to discuss and present career opportunities and working conditions. These events can take various forms, such as job fairs, career forums, career networking events, or company events. They give job seekers the chance to explore potential employers and workplaces, and give companies the opportunity to present their brand and career opportunities and to get in direct contact with potential applicants. For recruiters and HR managers, career events can also be a valuable opportunity to directly observe and assess talented candidates.

Conclusion

We already said it at the start: we would never recommend relying on just a single route to employee recruitment. Instead, it's about cleverly combining the various options and skillfully working around the drawbacks of each individual method. For example, it makes little sense to focus only on the active market, since this market keeps shrinking year after year. In 2022, the unemployment rate was only 5.3%, according to one study, while the number of open positions reached a record high of 845,000. By combining methods, on the other hand, you can address both the active and the passive market – and that results in noticeably more applications for vacant positions.