The need for innovative thinking is essential, particularly in the hiring industry these days. Modern job seekers just aren’t responding to traditional recruiting methods like ads in the newspaper or on terrestrial radio and television. Plus, they’re increasingly finicky about showing their interest if employers make it too difficult to apply.

Research from Appcast shows that just 8% of candidates can be expected to complete an entire online application. A full 92% head elsewhere because of how time- and energy-consuming the process is.

Even if you’re engaging applicants on social media platforms and other new-age media sites, it's instrumental that you rethink your approach. Having drawn-out application and interview processes is old-school thinking. Today, you need to develop and deploy flexible recruitment methods that can help your company maintain its competitive edge.

That way, you’ll reach the diverse talent you seek, enjoy a higher ROI on recruiting efforts, and ultimately create an exceptional candidate experience.

How to Start Customizing Your Hiring Strategies

It’s one thing to suggest revamping your hiring strategies; it’s quite another to know how and where to begin. A good starting point is evaluating each job type to determine the most efficient and speediest path to hiring high-quality and highly qualified individuals.

First, look at how you’re attracting candidates. Are you setting clear expectations in your job descriptions? Are they well-constructed yet succinct? Your messaging should be targeted to the role but not overly wordy.
Next, consider your interview process. There may be some ways to maintain the control you want while moving everything along. For instance, you may be able to streamline background checks or drug testing. You may also find that offering virtual or hybrid interviewing options allows you to cast a wider recruitment net.

The objective should be to strive for continuous improvement to maximize your hiring outcomes. The tighter your recruitment, the easier it will be to diminish churn and open the door to scalability. When candidates aren’t frustrated or confused, they’ll be more willing to follow your lead and throw their hats into the ring.

Fresh Recruitment Strategies to Try

Your specific hiring needs will help guide any overhauls you make to your recruitment tactics. Nevertheless, you may be able to use some of the following ideas as springboards to build a stronger, more reliable talent pipeline.

1. Identify KPIs to evaluate recruitment effectiveness.

Ideally, every recruitment change you make to your hiring practices should be reviewed for ROI. Whenever you make a change, you should identify a corresponding KPI to measure whether it meets your desired goals. This allows you to review and monitor changes, as well as see when you need to make another pivot.

Remember to define KPIs around the sources you try, too. It’s a good idea to attract talent through social media and major job boards. However, you still need to understand what you want to get out of each source. One source may only net a few applicants, but if they’re all exceptional, it may end up being more effective than another source that only brings in lots of unqualified applicants.

2. Ask employees for feedback on the candidate journey.

Who knows better than your employees—especially your newest ones—about what it feels like to go through your recruitment process? Tap into their insights by eliciting feedback from your existing cadre of workers. They may point out gaps in your hiring and onboarding that you weren’t aware of.

Don’t be discouraged if the first feedback sessions uncover more issues than you expected with the candidate or employee experience. As a PwC investigation into recruitment showed, 93% of upper-level executives said their hiring strategies deserved a facelift but only about one-third had done anything about it. In other words, you’re not alone in your situation. Plus, by addressing concerns now, you’ll get a head start on competitors stuck in the recruitment past.

3. Leverage your historical data.

Unless you’re a startup, you should be sitting on a wealth of historical hiring data. It will come in handy now to help you design your updated recruitment methods. Case in point: Look through your data to figure out how many applicants you need at different points in the hiring process. Do you require 100 online applications to get three solid interviews at the backend? Or will 50 applications suffice?

On closer inspection, your data may reveal many opportunities for you to rethink everything from sources to timelines. If you’re having trouble understanding how to use historical data, working with a recruitment partner can help.

Conventional techniques to attract, evaluate, and retain strong performers have become outdated. By applying some innovative thinking to this problem, you can spruce up your hiring strategies and build a superior team for your company.

Brandon Blanton is the vice president of national client service operations at Integrity Staffing Solutions, a full-service staffing agency that ranks in the top 2% of agencies across the country for quality service based on ClearlyRated’s “Best of Staffing” client survey. Integrity strives to generate opportunities for everyone to thrive by