7 Ways Your Recruiting Strategy Might Be Failing

When your recruitment strategies aren’t providing the best results, you know there is a flaw in your plan. The process of pinpointing these downfalls can be frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive, especially when you need to continue to recruit.

There are a number of reasons why your recruitment strategies might be failing, and here are seven common mistakes you might be making.

1.No Clear Definition of Your Target Audience

Are you guilty of skipping over the important steps, because you’re keen to fill a position as quickly as possible? Instead of assessing the type of candidate you need, you dive straight into the marketing aspect of the process. More often than not, this means that your messaging isn’t clearly directed at your ideal candidate.

As a recruiter, this means you’ll receive applications from people who simply aren’t the right fit and you’ll be missing out on those who would be well suited to the role.

2. Outdated Staffing Software

Without the correct staffing software, it becomes nearly impossible to recruit effectively and create a streamlined process. 

“You need a stellar platform to enhance your workflow and increase efficiency to help you grow daily,” says Staffing and Recruiting expert and CEO of AkkenCloud, Giridhar Akkineni. “You need to invest long-term in a  staffing software that works for your business rather than throwing more hands at it. More people will only slow down the process rather than making it smooth, repeatable, and stress-free.”

3. Is Your Branding Falling Through?

If you’re looking to give yourself an advantage in your industry, it’s important to create a strong employer brand. This is vital to the success of your recruitment as people want to know who they’re going to be working for. Creating a strong message and positive branding for the business is a surefire way to attract the right candidates.

Nowadays, potential employees can read reviews of a company before they even apply for the job. Bad reviews or a lack of positive branding can deter people from applying altogether. As you can see, this can hinder the recruitment process and cause harm to candidate relationships before they even walk through the door for an interview.

4. Your Interviewing Strategy

These days interviews are not being used to their full potential to assess the competence of candidates. Allowing the candidate to showcase their knowledge and give them a taste of what to expect when they work for the company should play a huge role in the interview process. Many recruiters don’t realize that they actually need to sell the role to the candidate during the interview too, rather than make them feel inadequate for the job. Making people wait for interviews and being underprepared with regards to questions, can cause a bad experience. Ultimately, this may cause candidates to look elsewhere, which means starting the recruitment process all over again.

5. Not Making the Most of Social Media

Many companies set up dedicated social media accounts for recruitment, but they aren’t making the most of this platform. Instead of using Facebook or Twitter as a basic jobs board, there needs to be more interaction and relationship building.

Celebrating the milestones of new starters and giving a behind-the-scenes insight into the office environment can break down the barriers and spark interest in potential candidates. You want people to be able to picture themselves working for the company, which can only be done with the right type of content.

6. Abandoning Your Warm Leads

More often than not, recruiters don’t take the time to follow up with potential leads and strike whilst the iron is hot. When a candidate first arrives onto the careers site, they aren’t always ready to take the leap at the moment.

This means that a potential match for the job has been lost. Making the most of lead capture forms on your website will help you to retarget them so they return later. Without chasing and nurturing this lead effectively, the recruitment process takes longer.

7. Insufficient Onboarding Processes

When you finally find the right candidate for a job, it’s important to nurture them and ensure the first experiences of their new role are positive. The majority of employees will leave their jobs within the first six months, so your onboarding processes need to be seamless. It is much more expensive to start the recruitment process again than it is to nurture your current hires. Prioritizing effective onboarding will help to increase employee retention and will work wonders for the reputation of your organization.

Improving your recruitment strategy today using the ideas mentioned above will not only improve the quality of your candidates, but it will also save you time, money, and resources in the long run.