How your team can use data to implement targeted recruiting and put your hiring resources in the right place.
Hiring in today’s competitive job market can be difficult. Not to mention that many colleges and universities are operating with budget cuts and staff shortages, meaning HR departments have less time and money to spare. That’s why it’s important to embrace recruitment marketing strategies—including targeted recruiting—to make sure your institution is prepared to tackle what’s next.
Targeted recruiting
Targeted recruiting means focusing your job advertisement efforts on a specific audience—meaning that you’re actively seeking out individuals who you know might be a good fit for your role. For example, you can target candidates in your geographic region or ones who have previously worked in HigherEd to help narrow down your applicant pool. Targeted recruitment can help reduce the HR workload in a few ways. For example, in a role that might typically get a large number of applicants, targeted recruiting helps narrow down that pool in advance so the hiring team can spend less time eliminating candidates who aren’t a fit. On the other hand, targeted recruiting can also help you fill a role that typically gets fewer applicants when advertised broadly—by specifically aiming the role at candidates (including passive candidates) who are in the right field or have the right skills, you’re more likely to attract qualified applications. So how can you harness your data to implement targeted recruiting and make your talent acquisition strategy more efficient?
Optimize sourcing channels
Be sure that you are keeping track of where your candidates are coming from. With the right analytic insights into the data collected by your Applicant Tracking System, you can find out which job boards are bringing in the best candidates for you—and which don’t deliver much ROI—and re-focus your efforts (and budget) where they matter. Your team can dive into geographic locations or understand the success of your social media advertising, and make sure that you’re using your resources wisely.
Build candidate pools
Don’t lose track of the candidates who have already applied for roles at your institution! They’ve demonstrated interest and, just because they weren’t a fit for one role, doesn’t mean they won’t be perfect for your next opening. Organize candidates from old postings into pools for similar role types so you can have a steady stream of qualified applicants.
Candidate pools are also a great way to reach passive candidates. Someone who isn’t actively looking for a new role probably isn’t browsing job boards, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t open to the right position! By leveraging your data to create candidate pools, you can make sure you’re targeting passive candidates who have previously expressed interest in your institution, and tapping into the 70% of prospective employees who are passive candidates.
Final thoughts
Targeted recruitment can help your team decrease time-to-hire, lower hiring costs, and source high quality candidates who are interested in working for your institution. With the talent market more competitive than ever—and fewer resources available to HR teams—make sure that you’re leveraging your data and analytics in a strategic way. Reach out to PeopleAdmin for more information about embracing recruitment marketing.