3 Tips to Reverse Recruiting
3 Tips to Reverse Recruiting
The recruiting landscape is shifting to a candidate driven market. Around 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive candidates, ones who are not actively looking for a job. This is where reverse recruiting comes into play, in a nutshell meaning that companies apply to candidates, therefore exchanging the roles of a classic application process. It is a relatively new experience for recruiters, especially within traditional conservative companies.
But why should you include reverse recruiting to fill your open positions? There are a number of benefits:
- they most probably fit the qualification – a skillset is visible when actively searching and matching
- they provide diversity – sourcing in a new talentpool previously unexposed to you
- they are not applying somewhere – less competition for you
- (if) they are currently working – they already provide value somewhere
How can you pursue a successful reverse recruiting strategy?
1. Think about who you are targeting
It needs to be clear what profile you are searching for, the skill sets and experience they require. But then you need to be able to answer the question each talent asks: “what’s in it for me”? Think about what benefits that profile might be looking for. Monetary incentives alone are increasingly falling into the background, and factors such as work-life balance become more important.
The “war of talents” can only be won by those who are authentic and can assure their company can meet the requirements of the talent regarding their working environment. According to LinkedIn Global Talent Trends 2020, generations share more similarities when it comes to what they value at work. Similarities being in: Compensation & benefits, work culture, inspirational colleagues. Differences being in: Purpose & Mission, training provided. Gen Z for example values work culture and training the most. Address the new selection criteria for career choices in your targeting.
source of image: LinkedIn Global Talent Trends 2020 Report
2. Employer Branding is vital
A key component of reverse recruiting is the public presentation of the company. Don’t start the conversation of what makes this company special in a job interview. Start earlier. Work on implementing an employer brand messaging in everyday activities, like social media postings. The open communication of your employer brand and benefits is a basic requirement of reverse recruiting.
A prevailing keyword on the subject of reverse recruiting is “transparency”. Nowadays GenZ and Millennials expect employer branding transparency.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What are the potential strengths and weaknesses of the company? You can start by consulting with your current employees to get an overview.
- What are the essential components of corporate identity and what kind of employee fits into the company? Build a clear positioning once you identified who you are and where you want to be.
- What can I offer employees that sets me apart from competitors? Differentiate yourself where possible and get creative.
3. Plan your reverse recruiting strategy
Being faced with the dilemma of an ever increasing shortage of skilled workers, we encourage you to rethink your recruiting strategy. It requires a change in attitude with candidates – thinking about their wants and needs and most importantly meeting the applicant at eye level. Participate in offline events and use online platforms/services that can support your reverse recruiting.
At Lionstep we work with reverse recruiting daily. We address the job description and profile with our clients and then use our matching algorithm and platform that sorts through various of profiles. After that a Lionstep-recruiter actually talks with matched candidates to discuss the open positions.
Check out our valuable learnings we made along the way:
- Take care of who you contact → Remember that first impressions count. Really match your job requirements with the candidates skills. Our experience with candidates is positive, because we do great due diligence in contacting people who actually fit. They are often surprised and excited to be seen as “attractive” to the company. Of course this might take a lot of time to do manually, which is why services like ours help make this step efficient through the use of technology.
- Use pictures and videos: Our candidates ask us about the employer brand and are interested to see pictures of their potential workspace and the team. Don’t use stock images in a job description, use actual footage of the company. This further provides credibility and transparency.
- Provide feedback: Be fast in the decision making process, because the best candidates are off the market within 10 days. While some passive candidates might be currently working and don’t necessarily feel an urgency – they still care about feedback. It is closely related to the employer brand and values. Even if you choose to hire another candidate, provide this feedback in a polite manner and leave your door open for the future.