Unlike before, the current job market favors candidates more than employers.

Talented candidates know they are in demand, and if you don’t leverage the right online hiring strategies, you could lose your dream employees.

So, what’s the secret to hiring and retaining the top talent?

Differentiate your company from other employers that are looking to hire. 

Offer candidates great experiences, show them what they stand to gain, and how you can help them reach their career goals.

Additionally, learn to seek out candidates where they conduct their job hunt.

According to research, job seekers today find and search for job openings via job boards, social media, and friends.

Once you find them, what online hiring strategies should you leverage? In this post, we discuss the best strategies for hiring and retaining top talent.

Online hiring strategies that get you the right candidates

Besides running the right marketing strategies, your company’s success also hinges on finding candidates who jump right in because they have the necessary skills and expertise.

And guess what?

Leveraging the right online hiring strategies can streamline your recruitment process. They can enable you to find the best candidates, communicate with them, and get them on board.

But which online hiring strategies are these?

Find out below:

1. Create employee referral programs

Employee referral programs can speed up the screening process while allowing you to tap into pools you may not have accessed as a company.

Just like other referral programs, the referrer, in this case, your employee, feels valued, which can lead to higher retention rates.

However, to find success with the program, you need to let your employees know about the open positions, your expectations, and corresponding benefits they will get from referring.

Additionally, have a policy governing the program, simplify the referring process, and regularly evaluate your success. This way, you can keep an eye on the number of people hired from the program, employee participation rate, and satisfaction levels of everyone involved.

2. Have a strong employer brand

Things that influence your employer brand include your reputation among those already working for you, past employees, and those looking to join your company.

In other words, how do they perceive you as an employer?

And if you want to include your brand among the top online hiring brands, you need to ensure people have a positive perception of your company.

But how can you build a strong employer brand?

Start by creating a website with a hub or a web page detailing your company vision, mission, values, culture, and employee testimonials. 

Additionally, have a blog post where employees and company leaders write content, post updates, and highlight initiatives your company takes part in.  

Next, encourage employees to share their experience at the company on social media and recruitment review platforms like Glassdoor. You can also organize events and encourage them to post images or videos as they take part. Highlighting your employees’ engagement is a great way to attract qualified and motivated candidates.

3. Use social recruiting

According to a study, besides using social media to keep in touch with friends, internet users also use these platforms for brand updates and work-related networking or research.

Social recruiting, therefore, becomes one of the most crucial online hiring strategies your brand can leverage. With it, you can discover candidates from their passions, and determine if a candidate suits your bill without asking for a resume.

But what’s the best approach to social media when including it among your online hiring strategies?

Start by creating social media content that showcases your company as the best place to work. Talk about your culture, share behind-the-scenes video footage, or participate in relevant online conversations.

Then, integrate these social media online hiring strategies into your plan:

• Join niche networks, groups, forums, and Q&A sites.
• Encourage employees to share openings along with their positive work experience.
• Complete your company profiles with matching information across social platforms.
• Try and connect with potential candidates on platforms like LinkedIn via direct messaging.

Pro Tip: You can do a partnership with Influencers who have high engagement and relevant niche. Influencer marketing cost is low and it’s a good option now for online hiring. Influencers create and post high-quality content that can boost your online recruitment campaign reach.

4. Use paid listings

One of the online hiring strategies employers overlook involves paid listings. 

And we don’t just mean focusing only on job boards and recruitment agencies. No, we mean doing more than that and leveraging online hiring strategies, including:

• Paid ads: Bid for keywords that ideal candidates would look for and write engaging content that includes them.
• Paid social: Use social ads to promote your positions. Leverage the targeting features on each social platform and target candidates based on interests, experience, location, age, etc.
• Display ads: Leverage the Google display network to target candidates by their behavior, content preference type, demographics, and whether they actively need a job. 
• Retargeting: Use retargeting ads to recapture the attention of potential candidates who visited your career site but didn’t apply.

5. Leverage technology

Go beyond the traditional hiring methods and leverage advanced techniques to find the best possible candidates for your vacancies. These include:

Artificial intelligence: Incorporating AI chatbots can help you direct potential candidates to the right roles and save time. You can also leverage AI tools that help you with sentiment analysis and talent rediscovery.

VR/AR: Use virtual reality and augmented reality to engage potential candidates in immersive experiences, introduce them to your culture, and show them what’s in store for them.

Video interviews: Use them to screen candidates and eliminate less suitable ones before a face-to-face meeting.

Applicant tracking tools: Use them to log candidate information, track hiring campaigns, and streamline your hiring process.

Screening tests: Attach them to the application process so that you can quickly access a candidate’s qualification for the role.

Attract the right candidates with online hiring strategies that work

Leveraging solid online hiring strategies can help you save money, secure top talent, and improve your HR team’s productivity.

And if you combine all these online hiring strategies instead of leveraging only one, you can make better decisions regarding a potential candidate’s fit.

Which of the online hiring strategies we’ve mentioned will you try first? Share your reasons for choosing it and why you think it’s a great fit in the comments section below.