Remember posting a job and having countless star candidates apply? Yeah, me neither. That’s because successful recruiting includes a combination of outbound and inbound recruiting.
If your recruitment strategy doesn’t include both, you will be left behind… or have already been left behind like most failing traditional recruitment strategies.
Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way…
What is inbound recruiting?
Inbound Recruiting is using a combination of blogs, SEO, social media, and other forms of content marketing to get candidate interest.
In other words, it’s a happy marriage between employer branding and recruitment marketing.
The basic concept is – write it and they will come. Of course it’s not that simple, but you get the idea.
Inbound recruiting vs. outbound recruiting:
Outbound recruiting is a direct reach from us (recruiters) to the candidate. So when you send that well crafted LinkedIn Inmail to a passive candidate, this is outbound recruiting. I like to call this the push effect.
Inbound recruiting is a very different approach and the results aren’t as immediate. It’a about using your employer brand as a candidate magnet – the pull effect.
When you (or your colleagues) blog about all the great things your company is doing and how wonderful it is to work there or when post pictures of your last team building event, this is considered inbound recruiting.
You’re using your employer brand to attract candidates.
Google, Facebook, Twitter and Shopify are a few companies who have rocked inbound recruiting.
Inbound Recruiting Strategy Essentials
Content and SEO is the main focus of inbound recruiting efforts, but they key is to diversify.
You have to include several more strategies to support your content. You can conduct webinars about something relevant to the candidate persona you’re targeting, find out which online industry forums they go to and interact there — whether by answering questions or participating in discussions.
It goes without saying that maintaining your companies social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) presence and managing reputation is also important. Manage your Glassdoor reviews as well.
Know your audience
First things first, you have to know who you’re talking to. Once you determine that, then you’ll know how to talk to them. Where do they hang out, what do they want, what don’t they want in an employer, etc.
“Content is king” and every word counts
If you’re in the content creation or blogging world, you’ll roll your eyes at this, but it’s true. Content is a huge part of inbound recruiting and if you’re content doesn’t attract the attention of potential candidates, it’s pointless.
Whether you’re blogging on your own website or on another site like LinkedIn, writing guest blogs on various other websites, your content has to be helpful.
And this is why it’s important to know who you’re targeting.
Work with ambassadors to amplify your employer brand
Remember that your employer brand is a story and your biggest asset is your current employees. Let them be your ambassadors and help you tell that story and promote it with their network. Keep in mind that people know others like them and your employees know candidates like them.
Keep the engine running
Inbound recruiting isn’t a one time thing. You can’t focus on this when you need to hire. In fact, you have to start way before you need candidates and keep on going. Content creation, SEO and social media is ongoing.
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