53% of professionals feel insecure and even threatened by technology. However, technology creates rich opportunities for many applicants. Managing the applicant pool with HR automation can unlock productivity and successfully recruit new talent.
Technology can expand the talent pool. Tried-and-true strategies combined with the right tools optimize the recruiters’ time while keeping candidates engaged.
In this article, we’ll examine what the hiring pool looks like in this technology-enhanced age, assessing potential candidate meaning, and what tools can help you recruit the best talent in the market.
What is a hiring pool?
First, let’s start with the hiring pool definition. It is a list of all the applicants suitable for a position. It contains those professionals who already applied for this or a similar job or demonstrated a willingness to join your company in one way or another. This database is a great help when looking for new employees. You don’t need to start the process of headhunting from scratch as you already have the contacts of screened people who are motivated to join your team. Whether you need to find a professional for the short- or long-term, the right candidates are on this list.
Let’s take a closer look at the strategies that can help you create and develop your hiring pool:
1. Start with the experience
Create a positive experience for the applicants at every stage of the process. Don’t just focus on the evaluation, a mistake many companies make. Promoting a positive impression about your company will help in the short- and long-run. First, the strongest candidates will have several job offers to choose from and a good feeling about your organization can only help. And second, people will return to check out more offers in the future if they are in love with your company.
2. Create the database
There may be several options when it comes to sourcing candidates for your hiring pool. For example, many recruiters keep an eye on university graduates that major in relevant fields. This is the typical approach for large consulting and software development companies. Also, headhunters continually update their contact lists with the most suitable applicants from previous applications and contact them about candidacy for the position.
3. Look within
Recruiters look for applicants within the company when it comes to hiring senior-level professionals. In this case, HR managers browse through the organization’s database of current employees to identify who is ready for career advancement. It saves a great deal of recruitment-related headaches and boosts employee retention. Here are the key points that HR managers typically look for when screening current employees for career promotions:
- History of developing new skills
- Working on a degree
- Willingness to take responsibility
- A proven track record of successful performance
Writing a compelling job description
Now that we’ve defined what an applicant pool is and why it matters, let’s talk about another burning issue: how to post jobs. Writing a compelling description of your job opening will win you excellent candidates. But how do you write an eye-grabbing job description? Focus on these five key ingredients:
- Position. Give a clear job title. Include key phrases that explain the potential tasks or responsibilities. Avoid using jargon that may be unfamiliar outside your company.
- Outline. Make the first sentence memorable and clear. It will entice job seekers to keep reading. Include points that set your organization apart from other companies. Also, let candidates know where your office is located.
- Tasks. Explain what the newly hired professional’s responsibilities will include. Avoid vague descriptions. Create a bullet-point list that demonstrates the key goals and what an employee will have to do to deliver on them.
- Requirements. List all the qualifications and hard and soft skills that your company is looking for. Check if the requirements are adequate by comparing them to those on the market. If they are too demanding, they may discourage great applicants from applying.
- Reward. In this section, tell the candidates about the offered package. Describe the salary brackets and what other incentives and perks you provide. It is essential information that job hunters will look for. Make it compelling, but at the same time clear and transparent.
Of course, you should offer candidates as much as your competitors. But that isn’t always an option. If you can’t match the competition, be transparent about why you can’t. Be sure to play up any unique benefits you can offer as well.
Tony Lee, VP of Editorial for Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Best practices for social media promotion
Social media is transforming recruiting. According to Glassdoor, 79% of candidates look for openings on social media. And it’s not only LinkedIn that attracts job hunters; Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter help with the job hunt as well. Recruiters must develop a company online presence or they will miss out on these candidates and recruiting opportunities.
LinkedIn should still be the first platform on your list to spread the word about job openings. There are three ways to grow your applicant pool:
- Paid job posting: the most straightforward way for users to find your opening, as this is where they look for new opportunities.
- InMail helps you find suitable candidates on LinkedIn and reach out to them.
- Posts on the corporate page let your followers know that you’re hiring. To increase your reach, encourage employees to share the post as well.
Facebook & Instagram
The best approach is very similar to the last option in the LinkedIn section. Write a compelling post describing the job and who you are looking for and share it with followers and friends. To expand exposure, also publish it on Stories.
Furthermore, there are thousands of specialized groups on Facebook. Join the most relevant ones and post your job ads there. Just make sure you check the formal and impersonal tone at the door. Such groups are communities, which means the conversations there are lively, relaxed, and informal.
Twitter is a tricky one. Tweets are only 280 characters long, so your job ad has to be concise and attention-grabbing. Focus only on critical points of importance to job seekers. To explain the position in more detail, include a link to the page with the job description.
Tools to be faster and more efficient
Technology doesn’t have to be complicated and confusing to make your life easier. There’s a wealth of straightforward tools to unlock your productivity and drive results. And the best part: you already use many of them.
Newsletters
As Piret Luts, Head of International Talent Acquisition at Nortal and Founder of Recruitment Thursday, a recruiter community in Estonia, said, «The main focus should go on how to improve communication with talents.» Newsletters are the right tool for that. It is how you keep the conversation going with former employees of the company, candidates who may reapply in the future, and all potentially interested professionals. The most important things are to provide valuable information that your applicants will be happy to receive and to keep your emails consistent with company branding.
Community platforms
We’ve already discussed the importance of social media promotion in the previous section, but there’s one big important issue we need to cover: consistency. Your job opening ad will be lost in the noise of thousands of post updates unless you have your audience engaged. Invest time in community platforms. Don’t focus only on the corporate page, but your personal one as well, since users respond more positively to content published by real people, not faceless corporations. Tell followers about company job updates and HR industry insights, trends, and forecasts. Potential candidates will see you as a thought leader and be happy to reach out to you about job opportunities posted on your timeline.
Video conference software
It is more important than ever to schedule online meetings and make sure all parties follow through with them. Yes, video conference tools may be difficult to figure out for some professionals initially, but using them will become as natural as checking email with time and practice. If applied right, these tools will help you save time on scheduling meetings, engaging people, making sure the time slots work for everyone, which will drastically cut down on your company’s recruitment process.