Is your organization chasing after prospective employees? Or are candidates showing up on their own? The difference is huge.
Top Workplaces know how to lure top talent. Employers need to use everything at their disposal to attract the best of the best. Inbound recruitment is an essential recruitment strategy because it saves time and drives workplace culture.
Inbound recruiting is all about building a self-sufficient employer brand. To develop great inbound recruitment, you must think like a candidate. Details such as search engine optimization and branded career pages could be the difference between attracting a future leader or losing one to the competition.
In essence, inbound recruitment excites people to apply independently. Outbound recruiting uses traditional methods, such as a recruiter, headhunter, or hiring team, to find candidates actively.
Organizations with strong employer brands attract talent. Clear, intentional branding appeals to people who are drawn to get on board. The more people hired this way are more likely to maintain a cohesive company culture with shared values and high employee engagement.
When candidates apply independently, it shows your employer brand speaks for itself and stands out in a sea of competitive careers pages. This is a great benefit and opportunity for other marketing initiatives since employer and company branding depend on each other.
Although effective inbound recruitment strategies gather like-minded individuals with shared beliefs, the large pool of candidates usually includes diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Inbound recruitment casts a broader net. With the right tools, candidates from all over will see your online brand, creating a workforce full of diverse people and ideas.
Quick turnaround times also are one of the best benefits of inbound recruitment – for hiring teams and applicants. It becomes much easier to fill vacancies when the volume and quality of your candidates goes up.
This means applicants hear back more quickly, and companies can fill more openings. Plus, it feels good to tell senior leaders that the company’s recruitment strategy is operating efficiently.
It’s important to note, however, that inbound recruiting has a few drawbacks. The drawbacks, revolving around increased workload and time management, include the following.
Success takes time: Inbound recruiting is like fishing. You cast your hook, and sometimes, it takes a while to get a bite. Building an effective inbound recruitment strategy takes time, as well. Companies must plan, implement, and evaluate progress regularly to build a strong employer brand. Like other online marketing campaigns, it takes patience, trial, and error before your inbound recruiting process can operate on its own.
Large candidate pool: Once you set a strategy and start getting bites, high volumes of applications can come out of nowhere. It’s crucial to be prepared for this number of applicants and stay focused once they arrive. Remember that inbound recruitment is all about getting the best talent. Don’t be afraid to say no a few times until you find the right fit – it comes with the territory.
Unsuitable for some roles: And finally, inbound recruitment can be less effective for some roles, including short-term and non-core business roles. An example of a non-core business role is an accounting role at a restaurant. Positions like this might need more outbound recruitment techniques or whatever continues to work for that unique business.
To get the most of your results, follow these steps:
- Define a clear strategy and KPIs
- Exercise patience
- Focus on a robust SEO strategy to drive organic traffic
- Use social media channels
- Experiment with different types of media
- Make it easy for candidates to apply
- Be flexible and focus on what is working
Bob Helbig is media partnerships director at Energage, a Philadelphia-based employee survey firm. Energage is The Washington Post’s survey partner for Top Workplaces. To nominate your company as a Top Workplace, go to https://www.washingtonpost.com/nominate.
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