When it comes to sourcing the right candidates to apply for your vacancy, it has always been challenging to say the least, but now especially during the COVID19 period when the Jobseeker payment has increased to the extent that there is no incentive for people to look for new employment opportunities. This of course does not put every person receiving Jobseeker in the same situation; however it is more challenging to reach these candidates.

There are three things to get RIGHT.

· Your Pitch

· Your Marketing Strategy

· Tap into a Healthy Database

So where do you find the right candidates and how do you get them to apply for your vacancy? How will you reach candidates that are NOT actively looking?

Well, it all boils down to the power of marketing, time and effort.

Your Pitch (Write a Powerful Job Ad) A job advert has always been a marketing pitch. However, in today’s environment, it needs to get noticed among a tsunami of information. Dull advertisements (or ads) that sound like a cut-and-paste from a position description, will simply not engage top-talent, and last minute, hastily prepared advertisements will rarely hit the mark. Generally, for optimum results, an ad should be 400 to 600 words.

Your Marketing Strategy Identify the right sourcing strategy based on the position you are looking for. Remember to spend time on the planning of this task as there is no ‘one size fits all’. The wider you spread your net the better your outcome..

Here are a few known methods to consider:

· Job-Boards: SEEK is a popular option, but it all depends on your industry and the role itself

· Social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc

· Utilise your professional network

· Utilise your team to recommend your vacancies to their circle of friends and family.

Tap into a Healthy Database:

Identify recruitment and/or employment agencies that have a healthy database of candidates in your industry.

Recruitment agencies verse Employment agencies

Recruitment agencies are usually private companies who charge a fee for their services. Generally, they find you the right candidate by tapping into their database as well as utilising the power of their network and marketing strategies. They tap into a database of candidates that might not be actively looking for new opportunity. For example, we have over 70K of candidates on our database, accumulated over 20 plus years.

Employment agencies are usually NGOs and rely on funding through the government once they place a candidate into a position. These candidates are unemployed, and the longer the person is unemployed the better the funding that accompanies them. This service is usually free because the government pays them once they place people into a position.

Another important thing to consider is knowing what generation you want to attract. Gen X, Millenniums or iGen are attracted to different messages and use different platforms to look for positions.

Filling your vacancies with the best possible candidate in the marketplace as efficiently and effectively as possible is what you should ultimately aim for.

If you are looking to recruit now and would like assistance in how to go about it, book a FREE strategy session with me to set you in the right direction.

Vlasta Eriksson