16 Employee Recruitment Strategies to Attract Top Talent

Recruiting great employees is a top priority for many companies, especially during the so-called Great Resignation. But if you want to attract top talent to your organization, you need to differentiate your organization from the rest. And that requires creativity, commitment – and some clever recruitment strategies.

To help you bring some of the best talent available to your organization, we created a guide to the 16 most effective recruitment strategies. Of course, you should tailor your recruitment approach to your company’s specific needs, but these best practices will go a long way toward building a strong foundation.

What is a recruitment strategy?

Simply put, a recruitment strategy is a plan of action for finding the best possible candidates for your company’s open positions. A good recruitment strategy defines the candidates you want to attract, describes why you’re looking for them, and explains how you intend to recruit them to your organization.

Your strategies can be simple or complex. But they should always be realistic, easy to describe, and aimed at achieving your organization’s primary goals. Those three basic tenets are the foundation of every successful hiring strategy.

Importance of standing out through good recruitment strategies

The best way to strengthen your workforce is by improving the employee recruitment process. Great recruitment strategies improve employee satisfaction, increase productivity, and prevent employee turnover. 

If you want to attract top talent, begin with fine-tuning your hiring process. Talented candidates have many employment choices. Optimizing your recruitment strategy is the best way to add that talent to your team. 

Effective recruitment strategies to hire great employees

A successful recruiting strategy helps your company to attract the best new hires while minimizing the cost of acquiring new talent. Here are 16 tips based on recent employee recruiting trends.

1. Establishing and leveraging your employer brand

If you want to attract the best and brightest talent, candidates need to understand why they should choose your organization instead of your competition. Companies that invest in employer branding are 3x more likely to hire the right talent. 

Your employer brand is a direct reflection of your company’s mission, vision, and values. Make sure this is reflected on your website, careers pages, job postings, and social media. 

Establishing strong employer branding plays an essential role in the employee value proposition (EVP). Go here to learn how to build your employer brand. 

Learn more: Best Career Page Examples

2. Improving job postings with compelling job descriptions

Job postings are often the first opportunity to make a positive first impression on candidates. It’s crucial to make job titles as specific as possible. It’s also important to make all descriptions:

• Engaging to broader audience 
• Accurate, concise and relevant
• Organized and professional
• Representative of your company culture
• Transparent about salary, requirements, and other details

Most importantly, describe the role in a way that appeals to job seekers, not industry professionals. 

3. Optimize your careers page

Whether looking for one specific role or a wide range of options, job seekers look to company career pages for more information. When creating a careers page for your company, ask yourself if it’s accurate, helpful, and easy to understand. 

Optimizing your careers page leads to more job applications. You can do so by showcasing a unique brand, mission, culture, and benefits while promoting open roles.

4. Prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices

Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, beginning with your recruitment practices. Incorporate DE&I into your hiring strategy to increase the diversity of candidates and eliminate biases throughout the selection process. 

Ensuring DE&I is top-of-mind at the start of the employee lifecycle has a significant impact on employee experience. It’s also a strong signal to candidates that your company prioritizes a people-first culture.

5. Treating candidates as customers

The best candidates can choose where they want to work, just as customers can decide where to shop. Keep that in mind when interacting with applicants. Tips for ensuring the proper treatment of your candidates include:

• Keeping the application and interview process friendly and welcoming.
• Showing excitement for the role and their interest in your company.
• Responding promptly to questions and being transparent in communications.
• Being open to listening and encourage honest feedback.

6. Conducting great interviews

Interviews are part of your sales pitch and often the candidate’s first experience with your company. Start with a welcoming environment that represents your workplace culture, and be sure to involve current employees who have first-hand experience on the team. 

Take the time to make your interview process unique and let the special characteristics of your company stand out. When candidates leave the interview, they’re more likely to put in a good word when describing your company to others. 

7. Utilizing niche job boards 

Posting job openings on popular sites will certainly help you to stir up large quantities of applicants. Problem is, general job boards may not be as effective at targeting candidates for specialized roles. 

Instead of sifting through endless resumes from unqualified candidates, seek out niche job boards that offer access to job seekers who have the specialized skills your company needs.

8. Expanding your reach on social media

Social media is one of the best ways to recruit employees today. From LinkedIn and Facebook to Instagram and Twitter, you can showcase your workplace culture and give candidates a glimpse of what it’s like to work for your company. 

Inspire candidates to apply using a cadence of posts or targeted ads. Social media is an excellent way to expand your reach quickly and inexpensively. 

9. Creating recruitment videos

Recruitment videos can be a powerful way to show off your company’s mission, values, and workplace culture. Tips for creating a high-quality employee recruitment video include:

• Limiting the video to include only the most critical information.
• Highlighting your values and mission. 
• Answering common questions from candidates.
• Featuring employees who represent your company.
• Ending the video with a call to action to encourage applicants.

Give this recruitment strategy a try – video can be a powerful vehicle for bolstering your company’s brand while recruiting top talent. 

10. Contacting qualified applicants from the past

The candidates you didn’t hire the first time around may deserve a second look for a new and different role at your company – especially in a tight labor market. Revisit resumes from past applicants to find potential talent that has already expressed interest in your company. 

In addition to being familiar with your organization, it’s likely that these candidates developed new skills since you last considered them. That’s why giving them a second look might be a great idea.

11. Reaching out to past employees

Indeed, you’ve got former employees you would not rehire – all companies do. But those who left your company on good terms may be suitable candidates for new roles. In their time working for someone else, they’ve gained new skills and experience that could benefit your company. 

There are other benefits too. According to research, it takes new employees three to six months to become fully productive. When you rehire a former employee, the onboarding process and the learning curve can be much shorter.

12. Targeting passive candidates

Passive candidates are individuals who are not actively seeking a new job. Still, they may be willing to make a career move if the right opportunity is presented. In fact, Indeed reports that 75% of employees say another employer has approached them about a new position.

Finding and engaging passive job seekers is a necessary tactic if you want to remain competitive, especially when the talent market is tight. Social media platforms, recruiting databases, and AI automation tools can help you find passive job seekers.  

13. Recruiting at colleges and universities

College recruiting continues to be an excellent way to find fresh talent for entry-level positions and internships. Undergraduates may also have new skills that more seasoned employees do not. 

There are many ways to reach these job seekers. Participate in campus recruiting events, feature open positions on online job boards, and contact career services at local colleges and universities.  

14. Hosting or attending industry-related meetups

Industry meetups offer a unique opportunity for making personal connections with potential candidates that no job posting website can provide. Hosting or attending these targeted events can be more effective than job fairs because they attract job seekers who want to advance within the industry. Tighten up the hiring process by going to the heart of the talent pool and bringing in applicants from there.

Hosting these events is also a great way to improve employee engagement by allowing your workforce to connect and network with other people in the industry.

15. Implementing an employee referral program

Nobody knows your organization better than your employees. Tap into this resource when new job postings become available. Encourage your workforce to refer quality candidates with a referral program that offers bonuses and incentives. This will:

• Expand your local applicant pool.
• Provide pre-screening for your hiring team.
• Increase employee investment in the hiring process.
• Improve overall team dynamics.

Incentivizing referrals can turn your entire workforce into a recruiting team, which means the talent pool you have access to is exponentially larger.

16. Improving the hiring process with data and metrics

There’s a significant human component to finding suitable hires, but don’t forget to use an objective measure of your recruitment efforts. Include data and hiring metrics to identify what’s working and where there are opportunities for improvement. 

Recruiting metrics are helpful to your search for top talent, including those that calculate the cost per hire. Take time to learn about these metrics so you can remove some of the guesswork when troubleshooting your hiring process.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for recruiting

A great way to measure the success of your hiring process is through the use of Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs. KPIs are methods of quantifying your recruiting efforts’ success and identifying both its strengths and its weaknesses. Some of the most significant recruitment KPIs that organizations are using today include:

• Time to hire
• Number of qualified candidates
• Submit to interview ratio
• Interview to offer ratio
• Offer acceptance rate

Using simple equations, recruitment KPIs will make your recruiting process tangible and easy to understand so that you can hone it into a well-oiled hire-finding machine.

How to develop a recruitment strategy

Tools like video platforms and application tracking help managers streamline tasks and focus on the most critical part of recruitment – the people. Before implementing these new strategies and tools, review your current recruitment process and metrics.

Reviewing current metrics and past data helps spot problem areas, set recruitment goals, and track progress. Keeping an eye on the numbers and documenting trends helps companies set more realistic goals and celebrate small wins often. 

Setting recruitment goals

Another way to clarify the recruitment process is to set specific goals following the ‘SMART’ framework, which stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. Some ways that you can set SMART goals for your recruiting process include:

• Determine the specific positions that need to be filled
• Incorporate relevant recruitment KPIs
• Ensure your hiring team has the necessary resources
• Set a timeframe for the goal to be accomplished

Using the SMART system, you can take a relatively nebulous process and transform it into something usable for all members of your hiring team. A well-constructed process is the difference between failing to find qualified candidates and finding the perfect fit for your organization.

Learn more: How to Improve Recruitment

Become a Top Workplace and recruit top talent

Earning a Top Workplaces award is a green flag for job seekers. Representing engaging, people-first cultures, Top Workplaces awards also promote your brand and employer recognition in 60+ major media outlets across the country. 

10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Recruitment Company

Reason 1: Time-saving benefits of working with a recruitment company

Firstly, a recruitment company will save time for businesses by handling their hiring process. It includes plenty of things to get done, such as advertising job vacancies, screening resumes, conducting initial interviews and shortlisting candidates. 

It allows businesses to focus on other core operations rather than spending valuable resources on recruitment tasks. 

Additionally, recruitment companies have access to a broader pool of candidates, including passive job seekers who may not have applied directly to the company. They speed up the recruitment process by providing a larger pool of candidates and reducing the time it takes to fill a position. Companies can create their recruitment plan or let recruitment companies do this task. 

Furthermore, recruitment companies often have expertise in specific industries, which can help businesses find candidates with the necessary skills and experience more efficiently. This can save time, reduce the risk of a bad hire, and make the talent acquisition process seamless. 

Working with a recruitment company can provide time-saving benefits for businesses by handling the hiring process, accessing a wider pool of candidates, and providing expertise in specific industries. The saved time can be reinvested into other business areas, improving efficiency and increasing profitability.

Reason 2: Expertise and industry knowledge

Recruitment companies deeply understand the job market and industry trends, including the skills and qualifications that are in demand. This enables them to provide businesses with insights and guidance on the best approach to recruitment, including the most effective job posting channels and strategies for attracting top talent.

Furthermore, recruitment companies have access to market data and industry benchmarks, which can help businesses stay competitive and offer competitive compensation packages. They can guide appropriate salary ranges, benefits, and perks that will attract and retain the best candidates.

Recruitment companies can also provide expertise in developing job descriptions that accurately reflect the skills and qualifications required for the position. This can help businesses attract candidates who fit the role and reduce the risk of making a bad hire.

For example, a recruitment company specializing in technology would deeply understand the skills and qualifications required for various tech roles. They can guide the latest industry trends, including emerging technologies and programming languages in demand. They would also be able to provide insights into compensation packages and job descriptions that are attractive to tech professionals.

Recruitment consulting companies have expertise and industry knowledge that can help businesses navigate the job market and attract top talent. They can provide insights into compensation packages and job descriptions that reflect industry trends and ensure businesses stay competitive.

Reason 3: Access to a larger talent pool 

Recruitment companies also have a more extensive network of contacts, which can help them find and attract passive candidates who are not actively searching for new job opportunities. This wider pool of candidates can result in a better match for the business regarding skills, experience, and culture fit, resulting in higher-quality hires.

For example, if a business is looking for a highly specialized position that is difficult to fill, such as a data scientist, a recruitment company can leverage its expertise and resources to locate qualified candidates with the desired skills and experience. The recruitment company may have existing relationships with data scientists in the industry and access to job boards and professional networks that are not available to the business. This can significantly increase the chances of finding the right candidate for the job.

Reason 4: Reduced risk of making bad hires

Bad hires can be costly for businesses in several ways, such as lost productivity, decreased morale among team members, and the financial costs of rehiring and training new employees.

For instance, a business hiring a candidate lacking the necessary skills or qualifications can decrease productivity and morale among team members, who may have to pick up the slack or train the new hire. 

Furthermore, suppose the new employee has a negative attitude or does not fit the company culture. In that case, it can create tension within the team, impacting productivity and morale.

A recruitment company can help reduce the risk of bad hires by conducting thorough background checks, reference checks, and vetting candidates before presenting them to the business. 

Recruitment services by a professional company use various techniques to ensure candidates are a good fit for the job, including behavioural interviews, skills assessments, and personality tests. Additionally, recruitment companies can verify candidates’ employment history, education, and credentials to ensure accurate information.

For example, suppose a business is looking to fill a high-level executive position. In that case, a recruitment company can conduct in-depth interviews, perform background checks, and verify references to ensure the candidate is a good fit for the role and the company. This thorough vetting process can help to reduce the risk of a bad hire, ultimately saving the business time and money in the long run.

Reason 5: Cost-effective hiring

A recruitment company can help businesses save money in the hiring process by providing specialized expertise, reducing the time-to-hire, and streamlining the recruitment process.

Recruitment companies can offer specialized expertise in the hiring process, including creating job descriptions, sourcing candidates, conducting interviews, and managing the hiring process. This can be particularly beneficial for small businesses or businesses without an HR department, as they may not have the time or resources to manage the hiring process independently.

Moreover, a recruitment company can help reduce the time-to-hire, saving businesses money in the long run. The longer a position remains unfilled, the more it can impact the company’s productivity and revenue. By outsourcing the hiring process to a recruitment company, businesses can reduce the time it takes to find qualified candidates and fill open positions.

In addition, a recruitment company can provide cost-effective temporary staffing solutions. Instead of hiring a full-time employee for a short-term or seasonal project, a business can use a temporary staffing solution to meet its needs. This can save businesses money by reducing the cost of benefits, training, and other expenses associated with full-time employees.

For example, a recruitment company can provide a business with a pool of temporary workers to fill open positions as needed. This can be particularly beneficial for businesses that experience seasonal fluctuations in demand or need to ramp up staffing for a short-term project. The recruitment company can handle the administrative tasks associated with payroll and benefits, freeing the business to focus on its core operations.

A recruitment company can provide cost-effective hiring solutions that help businesses save time and money in the hiring process, ultimately contributing to the bottom line.

Reason 6: Streamlined recruitment process

A recruitment company can provide a streamlined hiring process for businesses by handling all aspects of the hiring process. For example, the recruitment company can post job ads on relevant job boards, screen resumes and cover letters, and conduct initial interviews with candidates. This helps the business save time and effort in the recruitment process.

The recruitment company can also handle background and reference checks and negotiate salary offers with candidates on behalf of the business. By outsourcing these tasks, the business can focus on its core operations and avoid the potential pitfalls of a lengthy recruitment process.

One example of how a recruitment company can handle all aspects of the hiring process is by using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This software application enables the recruitment company to manage job postings, resumes, and interviews in a single platform. The ATS can also automate specific tasks, such as sending email notifications to candidates and scheduling interviews.

A streamlined recruitment process can help businesses save time, money, and resources while ensuring they find the best candidates for their job openings.

Reason 7: Improved employer branding

A recruitment company can help improve employer branding by highlighting its unique culture and values. This can be done in several ways, such as creating job postings that showcase the company culture, sharing employee testimonials on social media, and hosting virtual or in-person events that give candidates a glimpse into the company’s work environment.

For example, a recruitment company can create a job posting that highlights the business’s core values and mission. This helps attract candidates who share the same values and are interested in working for a company that aligns with their beliefs. The recruitment company can also help the business create content that showcases its unique culture, such as blog posts or videos that feature employee interviews or a virtual office tour.

In addition, a recruitment company can help the business develop an employee value proposition (EVP), which is a statement that defines what the company offers its employees in terms of benefits, work environment, and culture. The EVP can be used in job postings and other recruitment materials to attract top talent.

A recruitment company can help improve a business’s employer branding by highlighting its unique culture and values to potential candidates. The business can attract and retain top talent who share its vision and mission, leading to a more engaged and productive workforce.

Reason 8: Improved candidate experience

A recruitment company can improve the candidate experience by providing timely communication and feedback throughout the recruitment process. This can be done in several ways, such as acknowledging receipt of the candidate’s application, providing regular updates on the status of their application, and offering feedback after interviews.

For example, a recruitment company can send an automated email to candidates after submitting their application, thanking them for their interest and letting them know their application has been received. The recruitment company can then provide regular updates on the status of their application, such as when the application is under review, when they have been shortlisted, and when the hiring decision has been made.

In addition, a recruitment company can offer feedback to candidates after interviews, whether they were successful or not. This feedback can include constructive criticism on areas for improvement or praise for specific strengths demonstrated during the interview. Providing feedback can help candidates learn from their experience and improve their chances of success in future job applications.

A recruitment company can improve the candidate experience by providing timely communication and feedback throughout the recruitment process. By doing so, candidates are more likely to perceive the business positively and may even refer another top talent to apply for future job openings.

Reason 9: Data-driven hiring decisions

A recruitment company can use data to make informed hiring decisions by collecting and analyzing data from various sources, such as candidate resumes, pre-employment assessments, and performance data from existing employees. This helps identify the essential skills and attributes required for success in a particular role and the best recruitment strategies for attracting top talent.

For example, a recruitment company can use data analytics to assess the effectiveness of different recruitment channels, such as job boards, social media, and employee referrals. This can help to identify which channels are generating the most qualified candidates and which ones are not worth investing in.

In addition, a recruitment company can use data analytics to assess the effectiveness of screening and selection methods, such as pre-employment assessments, interviews, and reference checks. This can help to identify which methods are most effective in predicting job performance and which ones need to be improved.

A recruitment company can use data to make informed hiring decisions based on evidence rather than intuition. By doing so, businesses can improve their hiring outcomes, reduce the time and cost of recruitment, and build a more productive and engaged workforce.

Reason 10: Long-term partnerships

A recruitment company can provide long-term business partnerships by offering ongoing workforce and succession planning support. This can include helping the business identify its future workforce needs, developing strategies for attracting and retaining top talent, and identifying potential successors for critical organizational roles.

For example, a recruitment company can work with a business to develop a long-term workforce plan that considers the business’s growth objectives, market trends, and demographic shifts. The recruitment company can then help the business to identify potential talent gaps and develop strategies for attracting and retaining top talent to fill those gaps.

In addition, a recruitment company can provide ongoing support for succession planning by identifying potential successors for critical organizational roles and developing plans for their development and advancement. This helps ensure the business has a talent pipeline ready to take on leadership roles as they become available, reducing the risk of disruption and ensuring a smooth leadership transition.

A recruitment company can provide long-term business partnerships by offering ongoing workforce and succession planning support. By doing so, the recruitment company can help the business achieve its long-term workforce goals and build a more productive and engaged workforce.

Effective Methods of Recruitment and Selection for Hiring Top Talent

Methods of recruitment and selection are the processes by which companies find and hire new employees. Since an organization’s staff is one of the biggest factors in its success, these two processes are at the top of the list of the most important business practices. 

What Are Recruitment Methods?

Recruitment methods are the tactics a company uses to find viable candidates and entice them to apply for jobs. Choosing the right recruitment methods will depend on the skills you need, the type of candidate you’re looking for, the experience level required, your budget, your time frame, and the hiring resources you have available. 

Most companies use a number of different recruitment methods, shifting their recruiting strategy over time to meet their evolving staffing needs. 

Internal vs. External Methods of Recruitment and Selection

Methods of recruitment and selection can be either internal or external. Internal recruiting focuses on people who are already company employees, while external recruiting aims to attract new talent from outside. 

Internal recruitment methods can be dramatically faster than external ones because the candidates are already within your orbit. You don’t have to start from square one and find them; you just have to look closely at their skills and match them to your needs. Internal recruitment can also be less costly and result in employees becoming productive in their new roles faster than a brand-new hire might. 

One downside of internal recruiting is that it can put a damper on diversity and fresh thinking since you’re not bringing anyone new into the organization. 

External recruiting, on the other hand, is more time-consuming because it requires you to source, screen, and interview multiple people, then complete negotiations and onboarding once you’ve selected a candidate. The selection process, which we’ll discuss in more detail below, can be lengthy. 

However, external recruitment has the advantage of helping you hire people with specialized expertise or hard-to-find skills. It’s a good way to infuse the organization with creative thinking and innovative ideas. 

Methods of Recruitment

1. Referrals

Referrals are when existing employees recommend candidates for an open job. Not only do referrals have a strong likelihood of candidate success, but they’re also incredibly cost-effective because they eliminate the need for sourcing and require less heavy screening.

2. Promotions and transfers

Promotions and transfers occur when an existing employee moves into a lateral or more senior role in the organization. These recruitment methods capitalize on your internal knowledge base while reinforcing your company culture. They also demonstrate your commitment to employee development and can aid in retention.

3. Talent pipeline

Using your talent pipeline involves combing your talent database (i.e., your applicant tracking system) for candidates who are a strong fit for an available or upcoming position. The beauty of a talent pipeline is that it’s evergreen; candidates can enter it at any time and be considered for a role months or even years into the future.

4. Organic job posts

This is the recruitment method most companies use by default. It involves posting a job listing publicly, usually online via the company’s website and job boards. Organic posts are listings you don’t pay for. While it’s possible for these types of listings to produce qualified applicants, they also tend to bring in lots of unqualified candidates who are scrolling job boards and applying for any opening regardless of whether they meet the qualifications. The old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ applies.

5. Paid advertising

With paid advertising, you spend money to amplify your job listing to people who are likely to be qualified candidates. For example, when you advertise a position on LinkedIn, you can target your post to users in certain locations with a specific number of years of experience, who have held certain job titles, and more. There are even targeting capabilities that can reach users who are actively job searching, making your ads even more compelling. 

6. Inbound recruiting

Inbound recruiting is the process of creating content that draws candidates in and compels them to apply for a job (versus external recruiting, which involves you reaching out to the candidate). Inbound recruiting strategies include blog posts, videos, employee testimonials, and employer branding efforts, just to name a few. While inbound recruiting produces strong candidates, it can take a long time before it starts paying off. 

7. Social media

Around 80% of adults in the U.S. use social media, making it a great place to get the word out about your job openings. Social media (with the exception of paid ads) is a form of inbound recruiting where you’re creating content designed to get potential applicants to engage with your brand. Like other forms of inbound recruiting, social media is a long game and works best once you’ve put in the work to build a solid audience by creating great content on an ongoing basis. 

8. Job fairs

Career fairs and other events for job seekers put you face-to-face with prospective new hires. In addition to hiring for jobs you currently have open, they can help you build your employer brand and gather applicants to keep in your talent pipeline. Though career fairs come with a fee for employers to attend, they’re a good outlet for finding available candidates quickly.

9. Professional events

Conferences, trade organization meetings, and other industry-specific events can help employers connect with candidates in a specific field or skill area. They’re a good way to meet passive candidates–candidates who are not necessarily job searching but who may be interested in new opportunities. To recruit using professional events, you’ll need a system for following up with the contacts you make, like using email nurturing sequences to stay in touch and share future job openings. 

10. Internships

Internships aren’t just for helping students gain experience; they’re also meant to help employers cultivate a pool of viable young talent. For best results, internships should be well structured and should involve participants in a range of activities within the business. This enables employers to identify interns’ strengths while helping interns zero in on their areas of interest.

11. Recruiting agencies

Third-party recruiters are experts in sourcing and screening candidates. They can help companies hire quickly and accurately, especially for specialized roles. A recruiting agency can function as a partner to a company’s in-house recruiting resources or completely manage the full scope of a company’s hiring needs. 

What Are Selection Methods?

Candidate selection is the method employers use to narrow down the pool of all applicants and ultimately choose a top candidate from the list of finalists for a job. An efficient selection process is crucial in making accurate hiring and getting the right person for the job quickly. 

Methods of Selection

1. Resume screening

Resume screening is typically the first step in assessing candidates. A hiring manager or recruiter quickly scans a resume to get an idea of a candidate’s skills and experience to make a yes or no determination on whether they qualify for a closer look.

2. Phone screening

After narrowing down the initial pile of resumes, a phone screening is used to qualify each candidate better. It’s usually conducted by someone other than the hiring manager and involves high-level questions about a candidate’s background and experience. Phone screenings are sometimes done via video.

3. Interview

Candidates whose phone screening indicates a strong fit will advance to the interview round, which is the most in-depth part of the selection process. Interviews consist of one or more conversations, usually in person, with hiring decision-makers. They cover every aspect of a candidate’s qualifications, including their specific job experience and accomplishments in prior roles. While interviews have their flaws (like selection bias), they’re generally the best tool recruiters have for assessing candidates and seeing how they compare against one another. 

4. Group interview

A group interview is where more than one candidate is being interviewed at a time. These can save time and when you’re looking to hire more than one person for a job. They also allow hiring managers to see how candidates interact with others.

5. Panel interview

In a panel interview, a candidate speaks with more than one interviewer at a time. Panel interviews are helpful when you need to involve multiple decision-makers but don’t want to drag the process out over multiple rounds of interviews. They can help you see how a candidate handles themself under pressure and also give you the advantage of incorporating questions from interviewers with different expertise.  

6. Skills assessment

There are some jobs where it’s difficult to assess a candidate’s abilities based on an interview alone. These positions call for a skills assessment, which tests candidates’ technical capabilities. In addition to giving you an objective comparison of different candidates (i.e., a score on a scale of 1 to 100), skills assessments can help eliminate bias and encourage candidates from nontraditional backgrounds. 

7. Personality assessment

A personality assessment aims to identify a candidate’s characteristics beyond their technical skills, like their communication style and work preferences. While personality assessments don’t have “right” or “wrong” answers, they can be helpful for zeroing in on strong candidates for positions where certain personalities are more likely to succeed, like sales and customer service roles.

8. Mock assignment / job audition

In a mock assignment or job audition, a candidate completes a task that’s comparable to the work they’d be doing in the actual job. One of the biggest pitfalls of hiring is that we can’t actually see how a candidate performs until they’re on the job; mock assignments are the closest a hiring manager can come to seeing an applicant’s skills firsthand before committing to hiring them.

9. Reference check

Reference checks should happen in the final stages of the hiring process, prior to making an offer (you’d be surprised how many companies wait to check references until an offer has been made!). While references aren’t always the easiest or the most reliable tool to help with candidate selection, they can be invaluable in uncovering glaring red flags, like if a candidate fabricated their job history.

10. Background check

Background checks are less about helping you select the right candidate and more about preventing you from choosing the wrong one. Once you’ve honed in on a top choice using other selection methods, you might choose to use a background check as the final hurdle to clear before making an offer. 

You may use a few, many, or all of the methods of recruitment and selection we’ve outlined above, interchanging them as it makes sense for your hiring needs. However, one important thing is to use the same selection methods for all hires. Having a consistent selection process not only improves your hiring accuracy but also helps minimize bias and ensure all candidates come out of the process feeling like they were given a fair shot.