Recruitment Strategies

1. Use self-selection to find out who's really interested

adding another layer between resume-submission and the one-on-one

interview. One option is inviting all eligible applicants to an open group
event, such as an Open House.

2. Handpick dream candidates and show them you want them

Passive candidates (those who are already employed and not actively
jobhunting) are most likely to be your dream hires, but you'll never attract
them without letting them know how much you want them.

Reaching out in a really personal manner demonstrates that you're willing

to go out of your way to get their attention.

handpicked 100 ideal candidates and got to "know" them by researching

their social media profiles and past work. The startup then sent each one
a personalized iPod equipped with a welcome from the CEO.

3. Look for talent in unlikely places

hires fast while maintaining its corporate culture standards: by

looking for great people in unexpected places.

For example, the company once conducted a "blitz" of local retail

stores and restaurants, sending employees out to interact with workers
and offer interviews to those who really stood out.

"Too many companies focus on industry experience when they recruit...

We can teach people about finance. We can't teach passion, urgency
and a willingness to go the extra mile

4. Attend events that are NOT job fairs

Job fairs often turn out to be somewhat useless, since the best candidates
probably already have a job. So you should try looking great talent at other
events that aren't traditionally recruiting-related.

Search forums such as Meetup for group events that are likely to be attended
by people qualified for your open position. For example, if you needed a
graphic designer in New York City, you could attend a graphic design-focused
meetup in the area and look for potential candidates. You'll already know
they're passionate about what they do, and you'll be able to get a feel for
what they're like in person.

5. Make yourself stand out with non-traditional media

 A written job description on a jobsearch site won't necessarily make you
stand out. A video or podcast, however, will do just that.

Using non-traditional recruiting media is also a chance for you to convey

something about your corporate culture to jobseekers. Whether it's
through a fun video on YouTube showing how awesome it is to be an
employee at your business, or a recorded podcast describing the position
and your company

6. Advertise in places frequented by your ideal candidate

Online communities, as opposed to all-inclusive job boards, are another

good place to target your recruitment process at a specific demographic.
For example, if you're looking for a developer, try searching for the terms
"developer forum"; you'll find multiple places just for developers where
you can publicize that you're hiring.

7. Consider past candidates

In the past, you may passed over a good candidate for some reason or
another -- perhaps their salary requirements were too high, or they
weren't an ideal for that other position.

8. Publicize referral incentives

You just have to let people know that you're looking. A financial reward for
the referrer is standard if you end up hiring their referral; if the referrer is
an employee, non-monetary perks can work, too (i.e. a premiere parking
spot for the year, extra vacation days, etc.).

To publicize outside the company, a great way to to spread the word is to

include a note in your e-mail signature indicating that you're hiring and
what you're looking for

9. Great Applicants are Like Great Customers - Treat them Well

Treat your recruiting strategy like you do your marketing and sales
funnel. If you receive a high quality lead, would you wait 3 days to call
that lead? Then dont do that to a high quality candidate. A high quality
candidate is in high demand. You should move heaven and earth to
accommodate that candidate, impress them and treat them to a great
hiring experience.

Does this sound counter-intuitive to you? Do you feel like you're supposed
to be tough on potential applicants, or that you don't have the time to call
them right away?
 I can't stress this enough. Recruiting is really one of the most important
things to achieving growth, and one of three things a CEO should do.
Remember that it is as important to bringing on top talent as your
customer brand is to acquiring customers. Treat it as such. You can start
by sending new employees a personal welcome letter. Little things go a
long way.

10.Understand the Cost/Benefit of a New Employee Before You Hire

There are a lot of ways to try to answer this question, but one of the
best is using cold, hard math. Before you hire, you need to know what the
potential costs and benefits are.

Costs: Recruiting, Salary, Benefits, Equipment, Space, Training,

Onboarding

Benefits: Sales, Expansion, Relief, Development

ROI for employees in the top third of their performance is 15 percent more
than average. But getting top employees may require higher
salaries, more money spent on recruiting, and having a great hiring
process in place. A) only hire top performers, and B) only hire when you
know the ROI is greater than the hiring cost.

A lot of the experts stress taking your time when you hire, which is hard
for startups to do - they're used to moving fast. But as Debra
Wheatman points out, we need to take time to be sure the value is there.

11.Not Ready to Hire? It Might be Time for a Freelancer

If you hire a freelancer and they nail major goals, then you may want to
approach them for a full-time role.

12.Hire Employees that Thrive at Each Stage of a Startup

You'll need the kind of people that can navigate a fast changing
landscape with little oversight and guidance, and quickly learn new tasks
as they become necessary.

That's why it's a good idea to look for adaptable people who have
previously worked in fast moving environments. Hiring someone whos
been in a corporate environment doing the same task for years and
moving them into a 5 person team can be challenging, to say the least.

13.Strengthen Your Employer Brand With Content Marketing

 A brand that the top talent in your space has heard of, and wants to work
for, so that when they learn about a position at your startup they're
excited about the opportunity, and not wondering who you are

The internet has made publishing inexpensive and doable for any
business, and content marketing is a great way to raise awareness about
your brand.One of the key components to content marketing is sharing
your knowledge to attract customers.

Each member of your team probably has an area of expertise. Help them
find ways of sharing this in a variety of places, whether it's writing a short
article on Medium or your company blog, tweeting short tidbits of wisdom,
or answering questions on Quora.

Your work culture is another great content marketing asset. Share it with
Instagram photos, use Facebook's live broadcasting feature, and write
about how it informs day-to-day decisions at your company

14.Embrace A Coaching Culture To Attract Millennials

If you're not working to attract millennials to your company, then your

recruiting strategy is heading nowhere.

They don't want to just settle in for the long haul for the next 20 years,
they want go know where they're going in the next 2. Help them learn and
grow, and you'll attract and keep them.

15.Create an Office Space Millennials Want to Work In

How you design your workspace should be part of your recruiting

strategy. Open office plans are much more popular among millennials than
the rat mazes of yesteryear.

Beyond open spaces, the office is also becoming a destination for

millennials - a place where they work, exercise, eat and even sleep. Think
about what you can offer employees that makes the office a destination.

16.Use Data to Optimize Your Hiring Time

To help you gauge if you're getting the timing right, you'll want to start
measuring your time to hire. From deciding you need a new employee to
actually bringing them onboard, how long does it take?

The biggest hiring mistake that I've made repeatedly is being too
desperate. Desperation takes on many forms. Sometimes we think that
 the person in front of us is the greatest person ever. And we don't
establish the right relationship with them from the beginning because
we're just too eager to hire them.

Sometimes desperation makes us hire somebody even though we don't

think they're the right person, but we feel we HAVE to fill the position right
away. Regardless of how it shows up we can't let desperation creep into
the hiring process.

17.How Your Strategy Can Attract the Best Cultural Fits

Great companies are honest about their culture. Check out Infusionsofts
careers page. Right near the middle it says, A word of warning:
Infusionsoft isnt for everyone. Or Bonobos (super awesome) career page
that lets you know, Working here is very challenging.

When you're promoting your employer brand, whether it's on your career
page, social media or at an event, be honest and convey real information
about daily life at the company. Most people dont want to work
for companies where they dont think theyll fit in.

The biggest mistake is hiring purely on technical talent, rather than

personality. Personality, especially in a small team, is vitally important to
the culture and mood of your startup hire a technically brilliant but
socially devoid person, and youll have trouble keeping a cohesive team,
all focussed on the same mission.

18.Recruit Passive Candidates On Social Media

75 percent of people who aren't even looking for a new job, but would
consider an offer if it came their way. These people won't see the job ad
you post to your favorite job board, nor will they visit your company
career page.

The best passive talent may not be checking out job boards, but they
probably have accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media. If
you're just getting started, you may want to try newer social media
platforms such as Snapchat and Periscope

19.Address Prospect Pain Points In Your Job Ad

You need to create job posts that get into your candidate's head and talk
about the specific things that make your job better than the one they
already have. Here's an easy way to do it.

i. Go to Glassdoor and search for the job you want to hire for.
 ii. After you search, jobs will popup on the left side of the screen. Click
a job.

iii. To the right, you'll see more info about the job and a tab titled
"Reviews." Click the tab.

Biggest hiring mistake when recruiting is not treating their job

descriptions like marketing pieces. More often than not, you remove the
company name and location and I would wager that the job description
the startup is using is the same as any other company seeking talent with
the same job title.

Rather than doing what everyone else is doing, startups should do

something different by making their job descriptions remarkable. Instead
of text, why not use infographics on your website? When posting to job
boards, use a short tweet style description of what you want then, link to
a video (or audio message) where you can capture the imagination of the
job seeker. Moreover, look beyond the same talent pools everyone else
does.

20.Ensure a Mobile Friendly Candidate Process

The importance of responsive sites and a mobile friendly experience for

customers. And with at least 45 percent of job seekers using mobile
devices for their search

Do you know if your recruiting process is truly mobile? First, do it yourself.

Go through your entire application process, start to finish, on a mobile
device. Make note of any parts that were difficult or impossible via mobile.
Then have a look at these items.:

i. Can you apply via mobile? How hard are the application forms to fill
out?

ii. Can applicants check their status via mobile?

iii. Are your email communications, such as confirmations and status

updates, easy to read on a mobile device?

iv. Visit your company careers page. How does it look on mobile,
compared to desktop?

v. Check out your current job board postings. How do they look on
mobile?

vi. How many people drop out of your mobile application process, vs.
the desktop process?
21.Unlock The Power of Employee Referrals

Your best source for finding new employees is most often your existing
team.

If youve done your job and hired great people to begin with, then this has
a network effect. If your current employees are happy, working on great
stuff with a great team and making customers happy, then they're
inclined to refer their friends and colleagues to join them.

Here are a few tips for making sure your employee referral program is
successful.

i. Train for success. Make sure you've trained employees on how to

use the program.

ii. Make it social. One of the easiest ways for employees to reach out
to their network is social media.

iii. Offer rewards. Let employees know you appreciate the time they
take to help with referrals by rewarding them appropriately.

iv. Make employees look good. If they're going to refer friends,

they'll want to know their friends are being treated well. Run a tight
application process, and communicate often and clearly with
applicants

22.Nurture Your Talent Pool With Drip Email Marketing

Most of the time we can only hire one person for a position. That means
we may have to turn down some really talented people. Don't let the work
you did finding that talent go to waste. They can become a stable of
potential employees ready to fill your next position.

One easy way to make this work is through drip email marketing. Once
you've made the decision to hire for a position, put the rest of the
promising candidates into a campaign that sends a drip email 2-3 times
per year.

Keep the emails simple. Remind people who you and your company
are, ask them how they're doing, and make it easy for them to check out
your careers page and connect with your company on social media if they
want more info. Over time, you'll build up a list of people who remember
you as a potential employer, who you can hit with an email once you've
got an open position they qualify for.

23.Top Off Your Talent Pool with Rehire

 Looking for another source of candidates? Keep up with former employees
if they performed well and left under positive circumstances. After all, they
already know your company culture, and you know them.

Turning rehires into a source of employees is easy as well. First of all,

make sure that they're treated with respect when they exit, and that you
do a great job with communication as they go.

On their way out, encourage them to keep up with the company via social
media, and then set them up for a drip campaign, similar to what we
mentioned in tip 16. Just send out a simple email a couple times per year
to see how they're doing. Over time you'll build a network of people that
know your company and the positions you hire for.

24.Study Your Best Employee to Scale Your Recruiting

Look at the performance of your best employee to date.

What makes that person special? Is it domain expertise? Is it hunger and

drive? Is it raw intellectual horsepower? Maybe it's the will to learn and try
new things?

Whatever it is about that person, use it as a gauge to create your core

values, and then hire for those values. Imagine a company where your
entire team performs at the level of your best employee.