How to Recruit in 2023: Finding Ideal Candidates
In 2021, the world witnessed a record number of job openings. Fast forward to the end of 2022, and the numbers don’t seem to get much better. Yes, 10.7 million job openings are better than 11 million last year, but the challenge is very real – it’s hard to find the ideal candidates.
If we assume that the talent shortage will diminish in 2023, this will make it more likely for businesses to find good candidates for the jobs they offer. So far, it’s been hard to find any candidates, not to mention people who are a good fit.
This is why you need to be prepared. The competition will still be big. Your competitors will try to find and wow the ideal candidates, which makes it more important than ever to optimize your recruitment strategy and figure out how to attract and recruit in 2023.
That’s what this article is all about.
Why hiring the ideal candidates is important
Everyone wants to hire the ideal candidate for the position, but is this really necessary? After a while, the person you hire will get accustomed to the position and learn how to do the job right. That’s one way to think about it.
And it is the wrong way.
The ideal candidate isn’t necessarily a person that will know everything about the job position from the start. It is the person that has the qualifications, soft and hard skills, and motivation to work toward your company’s goals. This is the person you should aim to hire.
The benefits of hiring the ideal candidate make a very long list, but the top benefits would be:
- Increased productivity. Hiring the right people will increase the overall productivity of the company. If everyone does their work well and is a good fit, the company will work with maximum productivity and minimal problems. If you hire the wrong person, they can diminish not only their productivity but also that of others.
- Big savings. On average, every employee you hire costs $4,000. Now imagine having to replace multiple employees because you hired the wrong people. This adds up to incredible expenses that you could have avoided simply because you hired the right person.
- Saves time. When you have to train or rehire an employee, this takes a lot of time. If you hire the ideal candidate from the start, you can onboard them and they’ll start working for your company’s goals.
- Increases customer satisfaction. You can replace the wrong candidate after hiring them, but repairing the damage they did to the customers is not so easy to fix. One unhappy customer will tell an average of 15 people about their bad experience with your brand. And, if they decide to leave you 1 negative feedback, well – it takes 40 positive testimonials to undo the damage!
You probably want to avoid these problems for your business and find the right person as soon as possible. If this is the case, here is what you should do.
How to find and attract the ideal employee in 2023
Offering a job to potential employees is not as simple as it was in the past. You can’t just send in a short ad to a newspaper or place a piece of paper on your store’s door saying: “employees needed”. Now that the digital world is a job seeker’s hub, you need to utilize it to find the best candidates.
You can’t wow anyone without finding them first. After you find them, you can’t wow them unless you offer them the right things. Here’s what you should be doing to optimize your search and hiring processes:
- Use dynamic ads
- Add video content to your job post
- Use keywords to optimize your job posts for SEO
- Say yes to social recruiting
- Consider hiring remotely
- Optimize their onboarding ahead
Want to know more about this? Let’s delve into the details.
Use dynamic ads to target the right people
Dynamic ads are a very useful way to show the right person the right imagery, landing page, or copy. Chances are, you’ll be hiring people for different positions, possibly even at the same time. With Creatopy’s dynamic ads feature, you can target the candidates with the right job description and things they’d be attracted to.
Dynamic ads were mostly used in industries such as ecommerce. Today, their usage is much more widespread. Recruiters started using this strategy to persuade the audience to open their website and click on their job ads.
The thing that makes them even more effective is that they are based on a job feed. It will basically be the list with your job openings, job titles, and descriptions. You’ll make it more likely that the right people see the ad they are perfect for, and will save you tons of money because you won’t have to design multiple ads and target different segments with them.
Before dynamic ads, recruiters had to manually create postings for different job openings and post many ads for each. With a data feed, you’ll create a single ad, add a few dynamic elements, and technology will change them depending on the viewer.
Not only that, but Creatopy even allows you to create dynamic ads in multiple languages, or use geographic variables to target people in specific locations!
Add video content to your job post
People today love videos! They watch dozens of them every single day, especially on social media. This has been going on for a while, so it’s no wonder that the recruitment world also caught up on the trend.
Today’s job seekers seem to love video content and respond a lot to it. The application rate for a job post with a video in it increases by 34%, according to research.
So, when you’re posting a job ad for an open position, consider creating a short video to complement it. Some good ideas for this are:
- Video testimonials from people who work for you
- A peek into how the company works (‘behind the scenes’ video)
- Motivational video from the CEO or company owner
Use keywords to optimize your job posts for SEO
It won’t matter how many perks you offer or how great your job posting is unless it gets to the right people. You need to make sure that your message reaches the right audience. How do you do this?
The answer lies in search engine optimization.
If you want to find the ideal candidates, the people that your competition is dying to get to, you need to get to them first. To do this, use keywords. Find the keywords that job seekers might type in search engines to find the position you are offering.
You have little room to include these in job posts and job posting titles, so do your best to find the perfect keywords to rank higher in search results. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a good start for this.
Say yes to social recruiting
Early on, we all thought of social media as a place to build social connections and get access to interesting content. Who would have thought that platforms like LinkedIn will become one of the most powerful channels for recruiting?
Hiring today is made much simpler thanks to social platforms like LinkedIn or even Facebook. Everyone can hop on LinkedIn and search for talent in their field. Right now, there are over 58 million registered companies sourcing talent on this platform, and that’s just one of the places to do social recruiting.
Social recruiting is one of the top trends in the recruiting world today. Employees today create their social accounts and optimize them to find good jobs, which makes this a great opportunity to source the right talent.
Consider hiring remotely
Hiring remotely will widen your reach tremendously, giving you more chances at finding a highly qualified, ideal candidate for the position. Not just that, but this is considered one of the most desired benefits in recruitment today. Job seekers today will sacrifice up to 20% of their salary to enjoy more flexibility at work!
Optimize their onboarding ahead
“I’ll find the ideal candidate first and I’ll onboard them as I go”. If this is your plan, try again! Onboarding new employees isn’t a cakewalk, especially if you are not prepared for it. There’s a lot involved in the selection process, but you should also think about how you’ll welcome, prepare, inform, and train your new team member to help them adjust to the new job efficiently.
Whether you decide to invest in onboarding software or create a detailed plan that will smooth this process out for the candidate, you should do this as soon as possible. According to PwC, you can find the ideal candidate but lose them because 49% of respondents decline a job offer after a poor recruitment experience.
Ready to hire in the 2023 market?
This new year has the potential of bringing some amazing people to work at your organization. But, it’s your job to find and attract them. Hopefully, these 6 tips will help you find the ideal candidates for the open positions in your business. Good luck!
About the Author
Nadica Metuleva is a freelance writer who’s passionate about creating quality, original content. She holds a Master’s degree in English teaching and a Bachelor’s degree in translation. With 8 years of experience in the freelance writing industry, Nadica has become proficient in creating content that captivates the audience, drives growth, and educates. You can find her on LinkedIn.