A winning recruitment strategy is the difference between companies that lead and companies that lag, and now is the perfect time to build or revitalize your recruitment strategy.

1. HOW TO CREATE A WINNING
RECRUITMENT STRATEGY

2. A winning recruitment strategy is the difference between companies that lead and
companies that lag, and now is the perfect time to build or revitalize your recruitment
strategy. As employers figure out how to remain competitive and attract today’s best
candidates, you can stay ahead of the game by creating a plan to acquire the workers
your organization needs.

3. Before you get started, ask the right questions.
The ultimate goal of your recruitment strategy is to attract the best and the brightest
individuals to work for your company. The candidates you want to attract will have
some touchpoints with your company, so ensure they have the best user experience
and apply to your jobs by addressing the following questions.

4. Are you writing compelling job postings?
A great job posting is an opportunity to show off your culture, and if done right, it can give
candidates a realistic taste of the type of work they’ll be doing, should they get hired. Use
simple language and remove any internal jargon that may baffle candidates. Also, don’t use
obscure terms such as “rock star” or “visionary”—it lowers the likelihood that your posting will
show up in organic search results.

5. Are you using your career site to your advantage?
Providing a good user experience shows candidates you value their time and appreciate their
interest in your company. Optimize your site for mobile devices because that’s how a lot of
candidates search, and create an efficient user experience to prevent applicant drop-off. Give
candidates the option to quickly join your talent network or candidate pipeline so they can
stay engaged with the company and learn about future opportunities rather than fill out an
entire job application.

6. 2
Are you showcasing your unique employment brand?
Think like a marketer and “sell” your brand to your ideal candidates to differentiate yourself
from your competitors. You can use your employment brand to attract, retain and build a
pipeline of talent. Think of the messages you are sending to attract the candidates you want—
and that includes your career site. Make sure you are highlighting the information that’s
important to your audience.

7. Are you maximizing your company’s exposure via advertising channels?
If you’re looking to fill high-volume or hard-to-find positions quickly, consider leveraging job
boards and recruitment advertising to drive more exposure. Don’t exhaust all avenues and
post a job description everywhere: The law of diminishing returns kicks in, and you may get
fewer and fewer results for all of your effort. Pick your channels wisely, and invest your time
and energy in marketing your jobs to the right audience.

8. Are you getting strategic with social?
Use some of the newest trends in social media to your advantage to engage and attract top
talent—regardless of company size, culture or industry. It can be something as simple as
making sure your job postings have social share links or more advanced options like Google+
Hangout-style screening interviews and more. Regardless of how you decide to leverage
social media, make sure you take the time to think through how it will best fit into your
overall recruitment strategy.

9. 6
Are you optimizing your recruitment strategy based on data?
When you know who your candidates are, what they value, and how they approach their job
search, you can use data to ensure you’re using the right messaging at the right times and
through the right channels. You can use data to see what the market looks like and prioritize
based on how easy or hard it will be to recruit there, saving yourself time and money.

10. By taking some time to think through the aforementioned questions, you will have
a more comprehensive understanding of how to move forward. Next, it’s time to
focus on actually building your recruitment strategy—here are some tips to get you
started right now.

11. Boost your college recruitment programs.
Can you find engineers at the nearest public university? Should you target Ivy League
schools for your next financial analyst position? Stop basing your campus selection
on your alma mater just because it’s familiar. It’s time to get strategic. Take advantage
of the wealth of graduation data and choose the right schools earlier in the college
recruiting season so you’ll target the best and brightest graduates on the market.

12. Continually build your talent pipeline.
Most employers (58 percent) do not have a talent pipeline, according to “The Talent
Equation”. This could mean letting good candidates slip through the cracks, not to
mention extended time to hire. With a talent pipeline in place, you get to take control
of the recruitment process with regular emails and integrating texting directly to
your candidates. You don’t have to go back to square one and wait for applicants to
come in every time you have a hiring need—you already have an existing database of
relevant applicants at your fingertips.

13. “Manage” your hiring manager.
Communicate, communicate, communicate! Do it constantly to build trust. Consider
setting up a meeting with your hiring manager to look over resumes together so you
are aligned in terms of what constitutes the ideal candidate for the role.
Set the right goals and expectations up front to ensure you are both on the same
page, and use data to manage them throughout the process. If hiring managers are
not giving you feedback on candidates in a timely manner, don’t be afraid to be
assertive and set up a meeting to solicit feedback and keep the process moving along.

14. Put the right framework in place to ensure an efficient process.
What is your process when a position opens up at your organization? If you have
never been one to capitalize on the opportunity to look internally first, give it a try.
Make sure that the talent acquisition system your company uses allows for parts of
the process to be automated so that recruiters can focus on candidate engagement.
Throughout the process, maintain regular communication so you can identify
bottlenecks and minimize problems. And don’t forget to measure efficiency and
benchmark performance using reporting tools.

15. About CareerBuilder
As the global leader in human capital solutions, CareerBuilder specializes in cutting-
edge HR software as a service to help companies with every step of the recruitment
process from acquire to hire. CareerBuilder works with top employers across industries,
providing job distribution, sourcing, workflow, CRM, data and analytics in one pre-hire
platform. It also operates leading job sites around the world. Owned by TEGNA Inc
(NYSE:TGNA), Tribune Media (NYSE:TRCO) and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI),
CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America,
Canada and Asia.
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