The resolutions you need to boost your hiring strategy in 2019

Resolution number one: Be creative – try something new

In 2019, an increasing number of Employers will invest in recruitment marketing. It’s all about building your reputation so that job-seekers know who you are, what you do, and are interested in applying to your company. This month, why not take the opportunity to look at your company brand with fresh eyes and come up with some ideas to increase your visibility in order to attract talent?

To do this, you need to know your target audience. Why not create profiles for your ideal Candidate and think about what they’d like to see from you? Once you know this, you can get creative. It might be that you try some content marketing – producing useful and knowledgeable blog articles can help to position you as a market leader and engage with potential recruits.

Or how about setting up some events? Consider hosting or organising a business breakfast, which could be a great chance to network and scout for hires. Websites like Meetup make it easy for you to organise online groups for people with similar interests, while some Employers have taken this a step further, using mobile apps like Jobr and Shapr to make new connections. If you’re not aware of what’s happening in your local community and online, make sure you take a look.

Resolution number two: Be efficient

With the rise of AI, it’s possible to speed up the hiring process. Using CV screening will help you find people with similar skills to previous hires, programmatic advertising can help you create targeted adverts and chatbots can be used to answer simple questions from Candidates. This year, it will become important to keep up to date with new products and technology – when you know what’s available, you can try it out and decide whether it will benefit you.

Another buzz word at the moment is data. Data-driven recruitment helps recruiters pinpoint areas for efficiency savings. For example, do you know how long it takes to find Candidates for interview, how many e-mails your HR team sends to them and the time it takes to secure someone for a new role? If you sit down and analyse this, you’ll spot what’s working well and not so well for you as a company.

Resolution number three: Be aware of the candidate experience

It will continue to be a Candidate-driven market in 2019. Prospective Employees may face multiple offers, so they’ll be looking for competitive salaries and a great work culture. Because of this, it’ll be important to write job descriptions which are Candidate focused – we know that application rates go up when benefits are mentioned in an advert.

Take time to think about how you engage with people applying for a job. Do you reply to applicants who are unsuccessful and how do you deal with those who haven’t made it at the interview stage? Good communication will help you to keep hold of the people you want and, even if they’re not successful, interviewees who have had a positive experience are more likely to refer others to your company and re-apply in the future.

This year, diversity continues to be a hot topic. We have already seen a number of articles focusing on this, including a study from experts at the Centre for Social Investigation, at the University of Oxford. Their research found that applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds often struggle to get a positive response from Employers. Again, this is something worth thinking about when you’re reassessing Candidate experience.

Resolution four: Make the most of your Employees

Make no mistake, your Employees are one of your best assets – and sometimes the best hires come from within. Offering new roles to existing staff helps raise morale and improve retention and comes with less risk as you already know they’re the right fit.

Use your time this January to think about how your team can help you. To get you started with this, have you thought of an Employee referral program? Staff members already know about the company and who might be an ideal fit for the job. Research shows that hiring this way can be a quick and cost-effective way of finding talent.

Another idea is to think about collaborative hiring – where your HR experts and teams from other departments work together to source new team members. Involving others in the process will help you get a different perspective and boost engagement, making people feel valued.

Over the last 20 years, we have grown as a business to become one of the leading independent Recruitment agencies in Oxfordshire, and in 2018 have opened our first London office, to service Clients in the capital.

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