Tips to Finding Better Candidates: Part Four

In parts one, two and three of our four-part series to help talent acquisition professionals find better candidates, we looked at building an arsenal of marketing assets, refining your message to influence ideal talent and nurturing finalist candidates by setting realistic job and company expectations. In part four, we conclude with a look at optimizing your overall recruitment efforts by understanding KPIs, playing favorites with channels that deliver the best ROI, and running effective onboarding and employee referral programs. Determine KPIs, analyze ROI According to Bersin’s Talent Acquisition Factbook 2015, to bring on a new hire in the U.S. now takes organizations 52 days and about $4,000 in recruiting costs. How do your key performance indicators compare? By marketing channel, here are the KPIs you should track to help determine your recruiting return on investment (ROI):

• Job advertising: cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, cost-per-applicant, app-to-hire ratios, candidate quality

• Social: click, mentions, retweets, user demographics, impressions, reach

• Events: candidate quality, time-to-hire, cost-per-hire

• Employee referral programs: percent of employees who would recommend your business, cost-per-hire

• Recruiting and staffing agencies: cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, candidate quality

Invest more in channels that are working With a basic understanding of your KPIs, you can begin to optimize upcoming recruiting spend based on your recruiting and hiring goals. Keep in mind that budget categories can include everything from employer branding (career site, survey tools, videos and content), employee referral programs, systems and technology, job advertising, emails, events, recruiting agency costs, recruiting personnel and brand awareness campaigns to miscellaneous expenditures such as travel. Focus on the most important and profitable components of your recruiting strategy, then allocate your budget accordingly, doubling down on your best channels and retiring weak ones. Never forget to test, track and measure campaigns and spends. Keep a recruitment calendar Once you know the campaigns you will be running, build a calendar to stay on track and amplify your efforts. Share it with colleagues, who can help promote open positions or upcoming recruiting events on their social networks. Note when recruiting campaigns conclude to ensure you budget wisely for renewals or key hiring periods throughout the year. Run effective onboarding and employee referral Onboarding and training programs are great tools to alleviate new hire doubts and fears while accelerating ramp-up times. Naturally, onboarding should include workforce basics and how-to’s but it should also refrain from swamping anyone with information overload. Instead, consider treating new members of your team or department to a special lunch, office scavenger hunt or happy hour. Make them feel excited and engaged to be a part of your company—reinforcing the notion they made the right career decision. Down the road, as confident, internal brand ambassadors, they’ll help you recruit other great talent. Not surprisingly, referrals from colleagues are often easier and quicker to hire, better organizational fits and stay longer. Employee Referral Programs can easily be integrated into your recruiting strategy, and customized to meet your budgeting needs. Whether you offer $100, $5,000 or company swag for each referral, you will not only attract superior candidates, but also bolster and deepen your employee engagement as well. For more helpful recruiting advice, download our new guide, 25 Tips to Finding Better Candidates. It distils the best advice we’ve found over the past year to help recruiters attract quality candidates, target the best candidates, nurture finalist candidates and optimize their strategy.