There is a wealth of different avenues to now explore when it comes to filling a vacant position. Many of these avenues can be expensive and although you might eventually find you need to have some sort of budget behind your recruitment campaign, it won’t hurt to explore some free ways of filling your vacancy and attracting candidates. Here we will explore some of the options you have.
Explore social media options
Social media in a nutshell is the ability to exchange/share information via online or virtual communities. For anyone looking to fill a vacancy, it can be one of your most useful and powerful tools. As recruiters, we are essentially sharing information. That is what we do. Whether it be about our business (to draw in candidates) or posting actual job vacancies we are constantly sharing knowledge. With a variety of different sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, it has become even easier for us to share what we need to share with our audience.
Advertising with social media sites has become a necessity purely because of the reach and audience you can be exposed to. Millions of people use Facebook every day for more than just tagging their friends in photos. It is a form of news, a cure for boredom, and a learning platform. You can buy, sell, and watch things from all around the world. It only makes sense you can find a job there too. It is free to set up your page and start advertising your vacancies so if you want a form of free advertisement Facebook and LinkedIn are a good place to start. Most social media platforms have organic and paid means to advertise your company or sell your vacancy. If you find your organic searches or adverts are not attracting the candidates you would hope for then you can explore many social media paid advertising options where you can boost posts, target specific audiences. You can have branded ads and pay-per-click marketing. All of which will help you in your candidate search.
Find out more about how Facebook or LinkedIn can help you to recruit candidates.
Use your champions
While some may view it as slightly dated, one of the most effective ways of advertising or promoting is still word of mouth. It is human nature to give opinions, share views, experiences and share them with the world. Before we visit or explore an attraction or try a new restaurant, we often read reviews first. What did they experience, what was their take on the new menu? We can use this same template to fill vacancies with the help of our existing employees. Our current workforce might already have the key to the door of our vacant position, so it is important to explore this as an option. Think of it as free advertising. You have pre-existing company advocates that can help spread the word about the new opportunity you are looking to fill and in addition to this, if you use your social media marketing correctly you can have employees sharing content, giving testimonies and help draw candidates in through their own social media presence.
Engage with the local community
A different approach is to be a household name within your community, if your brand is popular before you even go online it is a great start and another useful tool in the search for candidates. Community engagement is not something you can turn on overnight, it can take time and effort but if you do the work at the start you will reap the rewards later. It gives you many options for advertisement when it comes to recruitment. Once you are an active member of the community you will have access to community centres, notice boards, shopping centres. All of which you can use as a platform for print marketing like your job adverts. Being involved in the community is relatively easy and gives you free advertising to potential candidates that live in a good catchment area of your business. There are many things you can do to get started. Offer free services or discount to benefit the community and its organizations. Offering free or discounted services to schools, libraries, and non-profit businesses will put your brand in a good light and start raising awareness of who you are and what you offer. Another idea would be to run workshops for smaller businesses in the community. An example could be for a marketing company to hold digital marketing workshops, this can help people who are just starting or need some help working out where they are spending their time and money. It is an effective tool for company exposure and sometimes could even turn into new business for you. Another example of community engagement is to sponsor local events and charities. Having a presence at community events is the best way to gain a following. In most communities, there are sports teams, theatre productions, parades, and other community events that rely on donations from individuals and businesses in the area. Offering sponsorship shows community support and will give you exposure. Community engagement is a powerful tool and will help when recruiting for roles as you will be the first name that people think of when they are looking for a new opportunity. Once you have become a household name, you will be able to hold your own events or have a stand at job fairs. The opportunities are endless so do not be afraid to get creative and get involved!
Purchase a recruitment package
Organic marketing or free advertising has proven its uses time and time again and you might try all the strategies listed above and get exactly what you need from them. However free methods of recruitment will only get you so far. Eventually, particularly for larger businesses, you will have to have a budget. It might be that your campaign is taking too long, you are not hitting the audience you would like, or your current avenues are not bringing the results you want. It might be that you are looking to fill multiple roles, or you have a big recruitment drive coming up. It is wise to invest from the beginning to maximize all avenues possible to fill your vacancies. To have the most effective recruitment campaign you need to be proactive, aligned, and organized. Trying to fill vacancies particularly volume recruitment can be time-consuming and frustrating, Adwarrior can take the stress away from recruitment and can offer you everything you need to ensure your recruitment needs are met: from advertising online through sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Online recruitment is the newest and most effective way of filling your vacancies and having someone take the time and stress out of your hands is something Adwarrior is happy to do. They offer many different recruitment packages to suit all needs, they can create eye-catching adverts, source candidates, review CVs and this can all be done through their own ATS. Having an Applicant Tracking System is one of the most important pieces of software on offer for recruiters. It allows you to seamlessly manage all applicants into one pool. It is recruitment – organised and one of the best tools to invest in for recruitment.
And that is the keyword to take away from this. Invest. Have you heard the saying “you only get out what you put in”? Well, this translates to recruitment as well. It is always advisory particularly for smaller businesses to try free ways to recruit first however be prepared to spend a little to get the best and most suited candidates.
Take out a package with Adwarrior and turn a complicated process into a pain-free, simple recruitment campaign.