Beyond Job Boards: 5 Alternative Hiring Strategies For Employers

Online job boards like Indeed and Monster can be a great place for attracting applicants. However, placing adverts on job boards is just one of many hiring strategies – by trying other strategies you can broaden your net and reach out to other potential candidates. Below are just several alternative hiring strategies that could be worth trying.

Headhunting

Instead of letting applicants come to you via adverts, why not approach potential candidates directly? This could include finding potential candidates via LinkedIn or scoping out candidates at networking events. There are headhunting companies that can do this work for you – such companies may know exactly where to look and exactly how to approach potential applicants. The best thing about headhunting is that you can target active jobseekers and passive jobseekers (people who may be thinking of getting a new job, but haven’t started looking yet).

Employee Referral Programs

An employee referral program involves using your current employees to recommend and source potential candidates. Your employees may know of friends or past colleagues who could be a good fit for the role. These candidates may fit well into the team, as they will already know at least one of your colleagues. You can encourage your employees to help you find candidates by offering rewards such as a bonus or extra paid leave.

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Social Media

Social media can also be a great tool for finding potential candidates. LinkedIn is the obvious example of this – however you can also use Facebook and Twitter to fill vacancies. You may be able to headhunt candidates through these platforms by searching for relevant profiles. Alternatively, you could try posting an advert on your company page or even posting adverts on relevant Facebook pages (there could be local community group pages and specific industry job hunting pages that accept job adverts – just make sure to check the group rules).

Job Fairs

Job fairs can be a fun way of attracting proactive jobseekers. They are sometimes hosted at universities and schools and targeted at students. Others may be targeted at the general public and hosted at community centers and conference halls. You can look for upcoming job fairs online and apply to rent a stall or booth. Be wary that there could be competitive businesses also attending the job fair, so you may want to invest some money in making your booth as attractive as possible. Job fairs aren’t always suitable for smaller companies due to the amount of investment that is necessary.

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Past Applicants

Think back to some of the job interviews you may have conducted for roles in the past. Were there any applicants that you nearly hired? Some of these applicants that narrowly missed out could be a perfect fit for your company and could be worth reaching out to again. It’s possible that they may have found a new job since then and that they may be happy there, however they may still view your job as the better opportunity if you gave a good impression during the hiring process.