Finding the Right Applicants with a Recruiting Strategy

1. A good recruitment strategy is like a red thread
2. Reaching your own target group with the right recruitment strategy
3. Preparation is necessary before the recruitment strategy
4. An overview of relevant recruitment strategies
5. A recruitment strategy must above all fit the company and the team
6. These tools help in implementing recruitment strategies
7. What you should consider when purchasing recruitment software
8. Recruitment strategy example: This is what a strategy mix with different tools might look like

Filling open positions can be a major challenge for businesses of any kind. For some positions, there are too many applications, for others, none at all. The process is like a lottery and is usually not plannable. Yet the market brings plenty of qualified and motivated people who could potentially become new employees. The magic word is simply "recruitment strategy". Because with good planning, combined with speed, efficiency and a little skill, the recruiting process almost takes care of itself. Depending on the type of strategy you choose, complementary applicant management tools create additional free time for the HR department and the team.

But what exactly makes a good recruitment strategy and how do you establish and develop an innovative recruitment strategy in 2021 for your own company? 

A good recruitment strategy is like a red thread

You can imagine a recruiting strategy like a red thread within a recruiting process. It gives a predefined guidance value as to which target group you are addressing for a certain position, which goals you want to achieve with which recruiting measures and recruiting software, and to what extent these match your corporate strategy. A recruitment strategy also helps to attract the right candidates on the right platforms, without having to spend too much time in daily business.

It's not always about attracting particularly many applicants or simply juggling numbers and KPIs (performance indicators). Rather, it's about inspiring the target individuals and sustainably winning them over for your team. For this reason, a good recruiting strategy is not exclusively focused on one platform and one area, but presents a mix of different tools and channels to generate the greatest possible reach for the project, i.e. the open position.

Reaching your own target group with the right recruitment strategy

A recruitment strategy makes sense for this very reason so that you can reach different target groups according to their preferences. For example, a baby boomer (people born between 1946 - 1964) usually appreciates phone or personal conversation at an event, while the younger Generation Y (born 1981 - 1996) often prefers to communicate via text message on LinkedIn or Instagram and appreciates appealing text and image creations.

Generation Z (1997 - 2010) "ticks" slightly differently. Value constructs, appreciation and monetary aspects are important to them. Status and having fun are coming to the forefront. Just reading ads and consuming static content, they find boring. Gamification will certainly play a big role in the coming years, especially with this generation.

If you want to know more about trends in the recruiting industry, you should definitely read our interview with Perry Ootsdam, CEO of Recruitee,.

It is therefore advisable not to simply work blindly without having first dealt in detail with who the person is that you are looking for.

For this reason, a recruitment strategy is so essential. It provides support, a guideline and an estimate. If you don't have a recruitment strategy, you're at risk at some point of getting bogged down in structures and approaches that are no longer up-to-date. Your view is too inward rather than outward on the person who should complement the team. The goal within a company should always be to hire new, creative minds and people with different experiences than your own. That brings variety and new innovations.

The goal of a recruitment strategy should always be to achieve the recruitment goal with a minimum of invested time and money. However, you can only do this if you take into account the basics before planning the strategy.

Preparation is necessary before the recruitment strategy

Use the "three-B rule": Consider basics, create briefing, identify ideal applicants

A good recruitment strategy always starts with a good basis. A marketing campaign doesn't start by beginning with printing posters, but by creating a briefing, editing graphics, and initiating further intermediary steps. It works similarly with an innovative recruitment strategy.

The following steps of the recruitment strategy are recommended:

1. Conduct team briefing

Before you start with an extensive recruitment strategy, you should definitely call a meeting with all the people involved from your company. Ideally, an analysis should be made and specific questions about the new position should be answered.

Relevant questions for the new position could be:

• What are the tasks and content of the position?
• Should the position be a replacement or a new appointment?
• Who will be the team members?
• What key issues and challenges will there be?
• What should the new team member bring with him/her (professionally and personally)?
• What title should the position hold?

Feel free to be critical and turn every stone because this is the only way you can create a persona afterwards. It can also be helpful to create a requirement profile with required and optional requirements. You can also use this during the application process during interviews.

If you skip the basics and skip the briefing, it can lead to misformulating addresses from the start, addressing fewer applicants with the ad, and receiving fewer applications overall.

2. Create persona and determine target group

As in marketing, the same is true in recruiting: Know your target group. In concrete case: Your candidates. It sounds very old-fashioned to create a persona (i.e. a fictitious person) who should symbolize the candidates. However, a persona can indeed be useful. It provides clarity on whether a middle-aged person is being sought, or a junior. Especially the age group or industry can be very important as to how you should proceed strategically and how to best reach potential applicants.

This step is often skipped due to lack of time, etc. in everyday work and HR and department managers focus too much on what the applicant should bring along, but not how to best reach this person and with which things and platforms they surround themselves. But how do you want to win skilled workers without potential applicants ever having truly felt addressed? Exactly.

3. Allocate responsibilities

The success of a good recruitment strategy also depends on how much the HR employees pull together. Does everyone know what they have to do? Is it regulated who takes care of the speeches and who conducts the phone calls and technical discussions? Who takes care of rejecting applications and who observes the recruiting KPIs during campaigns? Creating structure also simultaneously relieves the everyday job and thus creates more clarity in daily business.

4. Explore platforms, select channels, generate goals

Every recruitment strategy follows a specific principle, but not every recruitment strategy is suitable for every channel or platform. Therefore: determine the goal you are pursuing. Do you want to generate more reach so that candidates generally become aware of you in the first place? Then a LinkedIn campaign is probably ideal. However, if you want to contact directly, then a direct approach via Xing and LinkedIn is probably the right way. If you are not the company for active sourcing (which we strongly recommend), then a strategy in the area of employee referrals or personal events is good. So first think about where you want to go and then choose the appropriate instrument.

Once you've checked the basics, you can go into detail and set up a plan. Orient yourself to the points mentioned above and pay attention to your goals and your target group in a strategy and tool mix.

An overview of relevant recruitment strategies

Each strategy has its own focus

Each recruitment strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages. The absolute classic among recruitment strategies is probably that of job boards of any kind. The so-called "Post-and-Pray-Strategy" is also the simplest. Create an ad, post on job platforms and wait for someone to apply. It may sound heavenly, but it's not that simple. It's too uncertain nowadays whether anyone will apply at all. So definitely don't rely on just this one recruitment strategy.

Professional networks like Xing and LinkedIn have now also established their place when it comes to the strategic alignment of job and company. Although a bit outdated, with little effort, you can generate applications that can subsequently be selected and interviewed. But there are also a multitude of other recruitment strategies such as:

• Career pages
• Employee referrals
• Inbound recruiting
• Artificial intelligence
• Active sourcing
• Social recruiting
• Talent pools
• HR and personnel events
• Own network

As you can see from the terms, the recruitment strategies are differently aligned and also have different objectives.

While career pages belong to the category "Information Strategy" and are supposed to inform about open jobs and the company, including application function, employee referrals aim to have existing employees recruit new employees and receive a reward in return (Employee Referral Strategy).

The inbound-recruiting-strategy fills the currently open position with an already existing employee and arranges a successor for the person. Artificial Intelligence can again help to link job profiles to target group and job in the right tone and with the right keywords in order to achieve maximum output with applications (Intelligent Recruiting Strategy).

The active-sourcing strategy on the other hand, aims to actively address individuals even though they may not currently be looking (via LinkedIn and Xing and text approach). For the social-media-recruiting-strategy platforms like Instagram and TikTok are used to generate interest through job campaigns or marketing measures on the platform (sponsored postings with company content).

Talent pools are a good way to browse within past applications and get people for current positions from your own database.

HR and personnel events are suitable for information transfer and personal networking. You create proximity and have the opportunity to build a friendly connection. The own network can be used at any time to give or receive recommendations or specifically address known persons for an open position.

No matter which of these recruitment strategies you prefer: Their usability is diverse and can, of course, also be implemented in a mix. Mainly because you can never say exactly on which channel the potential applicants are staying. Although the baby boomers rather appreciate the personal contact, they may be very active on LinkedIn and Xing and want a text approach, while someone from Generation Y prefers to make contacts at trade fairs.

A recruitment strategy must above all fit the company and the team

With a well-planned recruitment strategy, you should place particular emphasis on authenticity. It doesn't make sense if you have decided for a great recruitment strategy, if it doesn't fit you. Elaborate social media postings with canaries on Instagram, for example, have missed their target if you advertise for a serious tax consulting firm. For a colorful marketing agency, on the other hand, this might make a lot of sense because it is probably perceived as cool and extraordinary and the target group is probably exactly responding to this ad with the special image.

If you feel comfortable with it and definitely want to do something extraordinary: Absolutely! Trying out can never hurt. Nevertheless, in spite of creativity you should never forget for which target group you are using the addresses and Co. After all, the position should still be filled and no advertising prize should be won.

We advise you to pay attention to the following when selecting the recruitment strategy:

• Where are the focus points and preferences of HR employees? (trade fair experience or social media experience)
• What does my team particularly enjoy? (someone who hates writing texts will not be able to write a good approach text for active sourcing)
• What resources are already available and can be used? (e.g. accounts, licenses and personnel resources)

If you are starting from scratch regarding personnel strategy, it is especially worthwhile to look at tools that can be very supportive in the implementation. You can find such tools, for example, in the HR category or applicant management category on our OMR Reviews Platform.

These tools help in implementing recruitment strategies

To support the recruiting processes, suitable tools are indispensable. The tools can be as diverse as the recruitment strategy itself. From an internal ERP system, an Excel table to complex applicant databases or LinkedIn recruiter licenses, there are many possibilities that can help in mastering the recruitment strategy and finding suitable candidates.

Examples of useful tools for your recruiting strategy are as follows:

• Internal applicant management systems: Personio, rexx systems, Softgarden, onlyfy Bewerbungsmanager, Recruitee
• LinkedIn Recruiter (Light and Complete License)
• LinkedIn Premium (usually sufficient for searching)
• LinkedIn Advertising (to give jobs and postings more reach)
• Xing Talent Manager (enhanced search functions for active sourcing)
• Employee recommendation strategy: Softgarden, Concludis
• Internal career page (as a supplement to the Social Media Strategy)
• Elopage (If you want to offer a course, for example, for the applicants)
• Job Spreader, Taledo, Talention (for multi-job postings)
• Boos Linguistics (text improvement tool for ads and co. - English-speaking)
• Gender Decoder (Helps make ads gender-neutral - English-speaking)
• GitHub
• Meetup
• Forums and trade blogs

Talent Pool Strategy: Internal Applicant Management Systems (ATS)

A well-functioning, internal applicant management system like onlyfy Bewerbungsmanager, Recruitee or Softgarden can be very helpful in keeping track of applications and at the same time being a true treasure trove when filling new, open jobs.

Active sourcing strategy: LinkedIn Recruiter, Xing Talent Manager, GitHub, Meetup, forums and trade blogs

Especially for non-actively searching individuals, it can be useful to come up with a slick sourcing strategy. Tools like LinkedIn Recruiter or Premium, Xing Talent Manager, or external applicant databases like Stepstone or karriere.at are a good way to connect with such individuals. But also other tools like GitHub, Meetup, or various forums and trade blogs should not be neglected. They provide a complement, especially on professional topics, and can be useful for research on terms,. But make sure you use a targeted and personal approach and a polite tone and manner.

Social Media Recruiting Strategy: LinkedIn Advertising, Social Media Ads

Campaign placements via LinkedIn are ideal, for example, to make a job advertisement better known or to present a career page to more people, thus strengthening the employer brand. Depending on the target group, it might be worthwhile keeping an eye on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Here, too, ads can be placed and postings sponsored to generate more reach.

Employee recommendations with Softgarden or Concludis

Employee recommendations can be best managed with Softgarden or Concludis. The two tools provide an ideal ground for establishing and implementing referral programs. Whether for internal employees or external referents.

Internal career page with WordPress or Typo3

Content Management Systems like WordPress or Typo3 provide a wonderful opportunity to expand your own career page. This should be easily understandable and show all jobs at a glance. A CMS is not a specific tool, but well-prepared landing pages can be integrated into the recruitment strategy as other tools.

Offer courses and increase added value with Elopage

Today's applicants are not only looking for a job, but also for perspectives. You can ideally present these in an online course or white paper. How about trying a new strategy and testing the digital marketing tool Elopage? The platform is actually designed to provide B2C or B2B customers with course materials or documents. But why not just share your own expertise in a specific area? An approach that surely few have tried.

Spreading job postings: Job Spreader, Taledo and Talention make it possible

Job Spreader, Taledo or Talention are ideal companions, especially in the multiposting area. This way you don't have to post the job ad separately on each platform, but upload the respective ad once and it is automatically posted on various selected platforms. Small but fine tools which save one or two minutes.

Boos Linguistics and Gender Decoder (EN)

Boos Linguistics is ideal if you write many ads in English and want to implement them correctly. The program looks at the typed text and improves it according to the respective user group. This leads to texts being read later. Gender Decoder also helps to make the ads gender-neutral, which can be very helpful in the international corporate environment.

What you should consider when purchasing recruitment software

Above-mentioned HR and applicant management tools are naturally only useful if they fit the purpose. In any case it is advisable to note a few things in the purchase like for example:

An appropriate price-performance ratio

You should only pay as much for a tool as you estimate it to be of value yourself. Don't invest in expensive licenses, but test them before you start. That not only saves a lot of trouble if you can't handle it, but also money.

CV parsing in ATS systems

Applicant databases should definitely have the feature that your applicants can easily upload their CV (CV), without having to manually enter all data. If the system performs the task of entering general data independently, you will later find the data again or you can search specifically for keywords and filter profiles. Additionally, you should also have the possibility to maintain the existing applicant data correctly.

Performance measurement

Recruiting KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) should be considered especially in campaign tools such as LinkedIn advertising in Co. First, look at the evaluations of the respective platforms. Afterwards you can decide whether this is enough for you or if you don't want to use an additional analysis tool like Google Analytics. What's important is that you can easily understand the numbers and also know whether a campaign was successful or not.

User-friendly operator interface

A shiny, expensive recruiting tool is no good if the user interface is not self-explanatory and you have to search for minutes. So make sure you get a good feel for it before buying and let employees or colleagues test it if necessary.

Further requirements can be (this can vary depending on the size of the company):

• Filter options (e.g. regarding candidates)
• Contact options (for direct contact from the system as with ATS systems)
• Collaboration for recruiting teams (if several people are involved in a project, there should be no read-only documents or versions)
• GDPR-compliant data processing (a must-have in the recruiting area)
• Push notifications e.g. via mail, as soon as there is news or a new post on forums or blogs, in order to always stay up to date.

In the end, as with all other purchases within a company, the same applies here: Consider whether you really need the recruiting tool or whether you can't implement the desired recruiting strategy correctly elsewhere. An ideas competition on social media can be just as effective in attracting young talent as a costly tool that redesigns the ad.

And: Recruiting tools should always support their strategy and not be used for the sake of "coolness". There are plenty of reasons for a "wrong" recruiting software. Definitely determine where you need support or possibly lack know-how, with which the tool can compensate for this.

Recruitment strategy example: This is what a strategy mix with different tools might look like

Finally, we'd like to give you an example on the topic of strategy mix.

Scenario: The company is looking for IT talents. A recruitment strategy mix could look like this:

First, a job description is created. It is changed by artificial intelligence (Boos Linguistics) so that the text matches the target group. Through the multiposting tool Talention, the ad is shared and published on various job platforms. Via advertising on LinkedIn, the ad and the corresponding career page are additionally advertised to strengthen the employer brand. Through active sourcing, suitable persons are directly addressed with a personalized text, which simultaneously see the previously placed advertising in their LinkedIn feed. That creates an additional touch point and increases the probability of a response. Additionally, a group is set up on Meetup, to which you invite the interested individuals to exchange information. This creates a sense of expertise in the applicants and the opportunity to arrange a joint meeting to get to know each other and thereby win additional candidates.

Thus, you have covered actively searching individuals through the ad placement, as well as passively searching individuals through the direct approach on LinkedIn. The invitation to the group also creates closeness and trust. The more touchpoints (points of contact) potential applicants have with you, the greater the likelihood of generating many qualified candidates for the position.

Be creative, try out and contemplate the result

As already mentioned above: There is no patent remedy. It's mostly a mix of different ways. Looking beyond the horizon and thinking around the corner can certainly also help find new ways of finding qualified applicants. After each completed project, create a list of processes that have worked well or not. This helps to stay on the ball and to recalibrate constructively.

The look into the online marketing world is certainly a good tip for new tools and trends. Strategies such as e.g. campaign management have clearly shown that you can also transfer many tools into recruiting. If something works for the e-commerce area, you can certainly also implement it in a modified form in recruiting. After all, a candidate journey (applicant journey) is nothing else than a customer experience (customer experience). Except that the one have a job in the end and the others a new handbag or skateboard.