Employee Recruitment - This is How it Works!

1. 1. What is employee acquisition?
2. 2. What is the difference between employee acquisition and recruiting?
3. 3. How do you attract new employees?
4. 4. How can the previous employee recruitment be improved?
5. 5. Examples of employee recruitment
6. 6. How do you bind the recruited employees to the company?
7. 7. Which applicant management tools help with employee acquisition?

1. What is employee acquisition?

Every company becomes successful when it is run by people who are completely dedicated to the product or service. These people invest their time and talents in the (further) development of the company.

The high art of personnel management is to filter out exactly these people in the hiring process, make the job and the company attractive to them, and finally sign them on. This process is called employee acquisition.

However, even if this process can be easily rewritten and described, the implementation is more complicated. Because here it depends on different strategies that have to be actively implemented by personnel management. Here we distinguish between the methods of employee acquisition: Active Sourcing and Recruiting.

2. What is the difference between employee acquisition and recruiting?

"Recruiting describes all measures to inform potential job seekers that they are being sought as future employees and that they should apply to the company. This is done mainly through job advertisements on various recruiting channels such as online job exchanges or social media." (cf. Prof. Dr. Tim Weitzel et al., 2018)

Thus, recruiting is a form of passive employee recruitment - the candidate decides to go to the company and applies as a result. How you find the right applicants with a Recruiting strategy and which the 7 best Recruiting Softwares, you can find out in our blog articles.

Another possibility for employee recruitment is Active Sourcing. Here, companies look for profiles that job seekers have uploaded to resume databases or career networks.

So what is the difference? There isn't. The only question is how an employee recruitment strategy is pursued.

3. How do you attract new employees?

What opportunities are companies offered?

To attract the right employees, the internet now provides all sorts of tools and services for companies. Social media is increasingly establishing itself as a reliable source. And with that, we're already at the first tool: Social Media.

Social Media can be a key element in employee recruitment for many companies. Particularly the platform LinkedIn offers both interested parties and companies a variety of applications to draw attention to themselves. Companies are offered several options:

• "Hiring Badge": With a larger update in 2020, LinkedIn added a feature that can also be interesting for recruiters. It's all about the badges "Open to Work" and "Hiring". With these, companies and interested parties can directly show on their profile picture that they are open to applications or offers.
• Social Media Ads: Both Facebook and LinkedIn offer users to place advertisements on the platform. Many companies already use this opportunity to draw attention to their own products as well as services.
• Content: The easiest way to draw attention to oneself is content. Images and videos about the company and the team attract attention. This can create organic interest and people apply on their own, provided the content contains a hint for new positions. Disadvantage: Producing content is time-consuming and success can take a while. After that (the actual time is always variable), the company can regularly reap the success - an evergreen has been created.

Next, I'll look at the online job boards. Platforms like Indeed or StepStone are probably known to most people. Here, a vacancy is posted for every location and nearly every profession. This has some advantages. You quickly reach a large number of people who are looking for a job in the exactly fitting industry. Your ad will therefore only be seen by those who are also interested in the job. But this also brings us to a disadvantage. In contrast to classic social media content, processing fees apply here, which vary from platform to platform. The more you pay, the higher is the ranking. If the interest in the platform is big enough and the wallet is accordingly filled, such a job board can be very effective.

The right software can also be a decisive factor. Here, the company has to decide on which platforms they prefer to post the ads. A target group analysis is beneficial and certainly also necessary for this. If the above possibilities are not enough, it is worth finding out about software. Here, OMR Reviews provides a large amount of reviews and suggestions. Software like Personio or Softgarden are regularly recommended here.

Actions and Strategies

To attract the right employees, strategies are needed. This is about a multi-step process, which might look like this:

1. Target Group Analysis: It is inevitable to know who I actually want to welcome to my team. Not everyone is automatically suitable for the team. If the company does not have the capacity or authorization as a trainer, trainees are not part of the target group, even if they work in the same target group. An exact employee persona is important here.
2. Communication analysis: Once it has been determined what the ideal employee looks like, it needs to be analyzed where and how this person communicates. Here we decide on which platforms we will search for candidates, what budget we would have to spend and how long our campaign would run.
3. Creation of Posts: Be it a job advertisement for Indeed or content for social media, this step is essential. Get help if your internal team doesn't have the capacity. This investment will pay off quicker than you think.
4. Publication: Now we come to the most important point. The publication. Here, the successes must be monitored just like at all other points. If success does not go as predicted here, adjustments must be made.
5. Application Process: Now you get to be active. Hiring process, contract signing.

Important note. None of these methods and means is a universal remedy. Therefore, it does not pay to rely only on one method. Go diversified and use several tools at the same time. Social Media is always an important tool and can be very cost-effective, due to self-imposed budgets. Social Media belongs in any portfolio. I recommend at least three channels. Maybe Social Media Ads, Social Media Posts and a job advertisement on Indeed. This is up to each company.

4. How can the previous employee recruitment be improved?

The right communication

A problem I was able to learn from practice is the following: Many entrepreneurs do not know the right communication channels to properly address their target group. Furthermore, the topic of employee recruitment is treated rather stepmotherly. It's not part of the day-to-day business and therefore less time and money is invested. A fatal mistake.

Due to missing target group analyses, companies lack information. They don't know exactly who they want and can address. And if they do know, then they don't know how. A headhunter already solves the problem. And that brings us to the next problem. The importance of the HR department in every company.

Good personnel management

Personnel management should and must always be an important part of a company. Constant improvements can already be made with this basic principle. Half-hearted processes don't lead anywhere in any industry or area.

If production fails, there is a plan B and maybe also a plan C. If service cannot be carried out on the same day due to illness, then there is a plan B and a plan C. A building has not only one emergency exit, but several. If you understand that, then it should be clear that personnel management also needs a plan B and C. Because even in your company, it can sometimes become tricky. Employees leave the company unexpectedly, illnesses and pregnancies always need to be kept in mind.

And what if I then have no adequate replacement for this skilled worker? Then stress arises. Therefore, a waiting list is one of the most important tools we can create as human resources and marketing managers. Thus, there is less fear of stress, the processes are only minimally disturbed and the company can continue to grow.

Social Recruiting

And how do I create such a waiting list? Not with a headhunter. And not with an Indeed ad either. These are solutions for an acute problem. And these methods are certainly effective for that. However, a waiting list is a long-term solution. Here, social media can play to its own strengths. A suitable ad campaign and suitable content care can provide a stable interest level of the network.

Platforms like LinkedIn offer the users a wide range of possibilities. The own budget can be set freely here, just as the customer needs it in the end. This way, companies can not be in danger of investing too much in social media, but still get an overview of the measures and their success.

In addition, ads on Facebook and Instagram can be controlled via a common panel, simplifying the handling of the ads and content. It has never been easier to run advertisements.

5. Examples of employee recruitment

Active Recruiting

At first glance, there is certainly only one form of employee recruitment. A company advertises a position and waits for suitable applicants. This form of recruiting is described as "Passive Recruiting". But there are also other forms.

"Active Recruiting" describes the method where the company or those responsible actively search for new employees. This is done via several methods. On the one hand, via resume databases like Lusha. Here, entrepreneurs can choose the most appealing resumes from a variety of resumes and contact the person with it.

An alternative is offered on LinkedIn. The "Open to Work" badge is now very well known. It shows who in your network is looking for a new challenge. Here too, the principle of "doing it yourself" applies. The advantage: you usually find exactly the talents you need. However, the search can also take a long time. The time factor must definitely be taken into account here.

Ad-Hoc Recruiting

Those who need to quickly and efficiently fill a position should ideally resort to Ad-Hoc Recruiting. The goal here is to generate applications quickly and filter out the best candidates. This can be done via several channels. On the one hand, through job portals like Indeed or StepStone, due to the vast reach of the pages. In addition, targeted social media campaigns are also sensible. If that is still not diversified enough, services of service providers or headhunters can be used.

Presentation as an Employer

Presentation as an employer means exactly the strategy that most people already know. A company is presented on social media as an interesting employer. A well-known example of this is the German Federal Armed Forces, which has been playing campaigns for self-marketing for years.

There are nearly no limits to what a company can do. But what is important: research. Who do I want to appeal to? When do I need to address these people? On which channels do I need to address these people? All of this is to do with a lot of writing work and what helps us with this is Notion. Notion helps us collect many documents in one place, continue to work specifically on the projects there and, if necessary, make changes. I recommend Notion again and again and I would like to recommend it to you today.

The right job interview

Now we have filtered out the right candidates and the application process begins. The Corona pandemic has ignited a never-before-seen hype around video conferences. And we can take advantage of this. Because it has never been easier to conduct job interviews.

Here are a few tips for a successful conversation:

• Address the person at eye level. Few things are as repelling as a HR person who deliberately positions themselves above the other person
• See it as a date – not as a cross-examination. Your candidate did nothing wrong, so unnecessary pressure is also superfluous. See it as a formal date. You want to get to know each other and see if it fits.
• You can also be rejected. Don't forget one thing in the conversation: your candidate can also reject the position you offer and decide in favor of the competition. Therefore, think about what would convince them to come to you. Small tip: money is not necessarily the decisive factor.

In order for the conversation to work properly, you need the right program. Zoom has established itself as the standard means of communication for us. It is easy to use and everyone has access. It is also wonderfully networkable with Calendly which makes things a lot easier.

6. How do you bind the recruited employees to the company?

The high art of personnel management is not to find talents, but also to keep them. Here are a few tips that make it easier for employees to work with you.

1. Avoid unnecessary hierarchies  – Hierarchies are important in some cases and that's a good thing. But there are hierarchies that are not so important. Your company doesn't have to be divided into military ranks. That creates distance and distance is always bad for an appropriate team management.
2. Provide opportunities for advancement  – anyone who commits to a company, usually wants to see something for this loyalty. And that's in monetary form. And that's quite logical. This person develops a know-how over the years, that demands a decent payment. This is a form of appreciation.
3. Open criticism culture – Maybe you've heard about Ray Dalio before. The American entrepreneur runs a company with about 1500 employees. His rider: everyone, truly everyone, should tell him directly their honest opinion if they dislike something. This is how an employee once told him that he came to a team conference too unprepared. Maybe this helps you too.
4. Let the team participate – I'll raise a provocative thesis. Most entrepreneurs would rather let an interior architect design small details in the office than their own team. But that's not necessary at all. The team has many ideas and suggestions and would often be glad to be able to directly shape something in the company. And these don't only have to be office rooms.
5. Let yourself be rated as an employer  – I'm an employee too and know this situation too well. The boss thinks they have a supreme position and is inviolable. Everything the person does is right. But no way. These people are also just people and make mistakes too. Thank God my current employer decided to just inquire. Since we say "you" in the office, it sounds something like this: "Simon, tell me. What can I do better? What are you missing?" Two questions, strong impact.

7. Which applicant management tools help with employee acquisition?

The HR area can be implemented very individually. Therefore, in my opinion, there isn't THE solution. But there are some tools that could be useful to any company, especially in the HR area. Here is my selection for you again.

• Notion – Notion is a multi-purpose tool that is particularly interesting for capturing and storing important data and information. We mainly use it for customer and target group analysis.
• Zoom – If you want to conduct good job interviews, you need an efficient program. Because nobody wants to get problems in a meeting suddenly. Zoom has established itself on the market and with us.
• Calendly – Calendly is also a very versatile tool, but it helps to plan appointments very easily. Have the applicant decide when the talk should be. Schedule some appointments in advance and let the person choose.

On OMR Reviews you will find under the category Applicant Management many more useful tools with verified user reviews and recommendations These companies rate these programs. Have a look there too and convince yourself.