Tactics for Talent Attraction Channels

Are you struggling to attract the right talent for your organization?

Perhaps you’ve tried various online sites, and even paid for premium listings, but still nobody applies. Maybe you’ve reached out to headhunters, but despite the massive fees offered, they haven’t been able to find you the right candidates.

The good news is that there are many more Talent Attraction Channels(TACs) that you can consider. In fact, talent attraction is in many ways similar to marketing to clients. You need to make them aware of you, and then become attracted to what you offer. Of course, the way you reach out to talent and the content you use to attract them will be different.

We’ve put together this handy guide to help you understand the range of possible options to reach out to your future employees.

Job boards

Engaging recruiters

Direct outreach

Employee referrals

Collaboration with schools

Competitions / Hackathons

Speaking at events

Recruitment fairs

Social media

Talent content marketing

Flexible workers

Acqui-hire

1. General Job Boards

The first port of call for most people looking to hire. They are typically relatively inexpensive (although premium upgrades are possible, making it easy to get started. The benefits of general job boards are that they tend to attract a lot of traffic and applications and help to build brand awareness for companies. However, the common complaint is that the quality of applications may not be high, as there is no way to target a specific pool of applicants, resulting in employers spending unnecessary resources screening out irrelevant applicants.

2. Role-specific Boards

Developed as a response to the poor quality of applications, role- or industry-specific job boards bring together jobseekers with particular skill-sets or industry preferences. If general job boards are like department stores, then the specific boards are like specialty shops. You’ll find a narrower range on offer, but they are more likely to fulfil your specific hiring needs. These job boards will be helpful for companies who have very clear requirements for certain roles and will provide employers with a smaller but more relevant pool of applicants.

3. Recruiters

Recruiters go by multiple names – headhunters, recruiting agencies, employment agencies, staffing agencies. Their basic function is simple – they find people for jobs. However, this convenience comes at a price, and most recruiters will charge a percentage of annual salary in return for finding you the people you need. There are multiple flavours of recruiters, which tend to be specialized by industry, seniority or skills.

4. Direct Outreach

As the name suggests, this TAC relies on you or your team directly contact potential candidates on platforms such as LinkedIn or your own talent pool. Given that around 50% of employees are not actively seeking new opportunities, but would be open if the right opportunity comes along, this can be an effective way to find hidden gems. However, you will need to be prepared to put in significant effort, and also toughen your skin for the inevitable rejections you will face.

5. Employee Referrals

If you want to hire people similar to the ones you already have, why not leverage your employees as a resource? After all, they may have gone to the same schools and worked at the same companies as your existing team. The key to employee referrals is to make it attractive and painless for employees to refer their friends. You will need suitable incentives to make it worth their while to refer. You also need to put in place the required infrastructure, including clear messages they can communicate, collaterals they can easily forward, an easy way to submit and track referrals, etc.

6. Collaboration with Schools

If you tend to hire interns, fresh or recent graduates, you should also consider going straight to the source and building partnerships with schools. This can take multiple forms, such as providing them with projects for teams to work on, providing mentors or career coaches for their students, or speaking at their career events. This helps build awareness of the career opportunities available at your company and improve your employer brand in the long run.

7. Competitions / Hackathons

Competitions serve a dual function. They help uncover talent that can solve the challenges you face, while simultaneously giving potential employees taste of the types of problems they will be working on should they eventually join you. Hackathons, in particular, focus on skills rather than credentials – it does not matter what qualifications they have, only whether they can do the job you need them to do. Hackathons are particularly useful when trying to assess digital skills, as degree certificates are often a poor indicator of ability in these fields.

8. Speaking at Events

Securing speaking opportunities for senior management is an effective way to build your reputation in the industry. Depending on the event, this can combine both business development and recruitment, since your audience will often include both potential employees and potential buyers of your services. It may take some effort to get started, as you will need to contact event organizers and put your name out there, but the impact can be tremendous

9. Recruitment Fairs

Participating at recruitment fairs has the advantage of channeling motivated jobseekers to your booth, but it can be difficult to stand out from the mass of employers clamouring for attention. Many organizations run such fairs, so you will need to be selective about which ones will attract the right audience for you. Preparation is vital for success – you cannot just turn up on the day and hope for the best! Get your collaterals ready in advance. Brief your team on the roles on offer and the key employer messages. Make sure you schedule sufficient manpower so that they don’t end up talking to jobseekers for 8 hours straight!

10. Social Media

Research suggests that over 90% of employers now use social media, and 79% of jobseekers do as well. LinkedIn is the platform that is most focused on professional opportunities, but Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all the others can also play a role, depending on the profile of applicant that you are targeting. It has become fairly standard for jobseekers to check out prospective employers on LinkedIn, so at a minimum, keep the page updated and relevant.

11. Content Marketing for Talent

Content marketing is one of the most powerful strategies for online marketing, as it helps a company build credibility and attract qualified leads to their website. The same applies to talent. Of course, the composition of the content will be different. In addition to articles about the company, its direction and products, content showcasing your employees and your company culture will help potential applicants assess if they are a good fit. It is vital to be strategic – you need to understand who you are attracting

12. Acqui-hire

If you can’t beat them, buy them! You might see a startup that is doing excellent work, and maybe even winning clients against you. If you work for a larger company or more established startup, consider acquiring the talented team by buying out their startup. Early stage startups may have reasonable valuations, and you can explore instruments like share swaps to keep the cash outlay manageable.

13. Flexible Workers / Freelancers

Hiring full-time staff may not be the only, or even the best, way to meet your technical skill needs. If hiring seems impossible, identify projects or tasks which can be carved out and allocated to part-time or contract staff. Or go all the way and use freelancers – some of the best tech talent choose to work freelance to retain flexibility.

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