Recruiting is hard these days. Finding talent, particularly in some of the more in-demand professions such as healthcare or IT is incredibly time-consuming. But how do you know you’re using all of the resources available to you? This blog will give you some tips on how to reach more candidates to speed up your time to hire numbers.

What Ways Are You Reaching Out to Candidates?

Best Candidate Outreach Tips

Recruiters and staffing agencies have seen it all in the past two years. Global pandemic. The Great Resignation. Intense demand for new hires. Plus, intense competition for highly skilled talent. Today, talent costs more, is harder to find, and is more fickle about the jobs they choose. How can recruiters be certain they’re using all the tricks available to reach out to job candidates? The typical techniques include:

  • Sending a message on a job platform or on social media. LinkedIn Recruiter is one of the most popular platforms to use today. No matter the tool you use, your email should be tailored to the person you’re reaching out to. This avoids the impersonal appearance of spam and will net you a better response rate.
  • If you have the candidate’s email, by all means, use it. Today there are tools out there that help you grab the candidate’s email. Make sure the subject line in these cases is eye-catching enough to get them to open the email. 
  • You can also call the candidate. You may have the phone in your database. Many candidates share their contact details on social media or on LinkedIn. Again, there are also tools out there that scrape phone numbers off the web. When you call briefly explain while you’re calling and ask if this is an okay time to chat or if they’d rather you call them back.
  • You can even try for face-to-face contact on a Zoom call or even at a live event. For example, if your company is holding a job fair, make sure you show up front and center. Networking events are great places to meet new candidates. 
  • In addition, you could consider organizing a Meetup. Meetups are local and online events geared toward hobbies, speakers, careers, and more. Meetups are usually locally produced events that allow people from the area to get together, learn, and network.
  • Finally, when was the last time you actively worked your network? If you have several thousand people in your LinkedIn or other social networks, it’s a good idea to get to know them—and use them. That’s really what they’re for but far too often we fail to work our network and make it more active. Consider checking for mutual connections that you and the candidate you’re targeting have in common. You can ask those connections to introduce you to the candidate. It’s a good way to keep your network active and gain more candidate contacts.

What Are You Doing to Reach Out to Candidates?

Exelare knows a thing or two about recruiting. We work with staffing agencies and other businesses around the country to provide them with sophisticated applicant tracking system tools that improve their recruiting efforts. Contact us today.