INTRODUCTION

Digital recruitment is the process of leveraging technology to the source, attract, assess,
select and hire candidates for vacant positions.

This includes leveraging job boards, career websites, mobile recruiting, online assessments,
and social recruiting.

While most companies these days use at least one of the aforementioned tactics, they are
still a long way from being classified as a digital strategy.

So, what are the different ingredients that make-up a digital recruitment strategy?

How can you spice up your recruiting stew by adding some nuggets of digital into it?

Let’s find out.

 Mobile-friendly careers website

Optimizing career websites for mobile might seem like an obvious thing to do, but
surprisingly not many companies are doing it.

In fact, by 2016, only 19% of recruiters were investing in a mobile career website.

Optimizing for mobile is not an option anymore owing to increased smartphone adoption
and usage.

Seventy-seven percent of job seekers check company websites to look for jobs.

What happens when they open these websites on their phones only to find that the Submit
button is not working?

Or worse still, their resumes are not getting attached, or any other such inconvenience which
sets them back a few steps?

They switch tabs to some other website that works on their device. Result: your company
just ended up losing a potential “stellar” candidate.

Companies must ensure that their careers website, landing pages, or any other digital
resources are readable and work on mobile devices.
Incorporate digital recruitment strategy into every step
Examine your current recruiting process to see how digital recruitment tactics can make
them more efficient.

For instance, if you have a long application process on your career website to collect
information about candidates, see if replacing that with a quick LinkedIn import will reduce
the bounce rate (the rate of people who leave a website after visiting it) of your ca reers
page.

Alternatively, check if a video interview reduces the overall cost of the hiring process (saves
the cost of flying in a candidate, accommodation, and other expenses).

Examine each step of the recruiting funnel – from sourcing to selection to studying how
digital practices and technology can reduce the time or the cost involved.

 Leverage social media

There are many advantages to using social media for recruiting – starting from the quality of
hire.

Employers who used social media to hire found a 49% improvement in candidate quality
over candidates sourced only through traditional recruiting channels. (Source: Jobvite)

It is also an excellent channel to spread brand awareness.

Nearly 80% of Millennials look for people and culture fit with employers, followed by
career potential (Source: Collegefeed, March 2014).

Apart from scouring websites, millennials look to social media channels to gather more
information about the company.

All these factors make it crucial for companies to have a social recruiting strategy.

But with the wide array of channels available, which are the ones that a company should be
using?

Take a look at the following sample social recruiting strategy.

You can see that the career site is in the center, being the most crucial, and c ontains job
postings and landing pages.

All the other tactics are orbiting around it and have been prioritized and labeled as such
based on the company objectives.
The first step to social recruiting is to create your own social recruiting universe and
understand where your targeted candidates are present.

Create a recruiting strategy to engage and convert active and passive talent on these
channels.

This can include job postings on LinkedIn, videos showcasing employee stories or company
culture on YouTube, tweets about company awards or events on Twitter, and much more.

Create social media accounts on channels actively used by your target audience and update
them frequently.

Information on company culture, mission, values, people, and any other information that
gives active and passive candidates insight into the company and what it stands for.

Create social media accounts on channels actively used by your target audience and update
them frequently.

Information on company culture, mission, values, people, and any other information that
gives active and passive candidates insight into the company and what it stands for.
  More is not always better
We have talked about the importance of having a digital presence.

It is commonly believed that the more platforms you are available on, the better it is for
your digital recruitment.

While we understand the importance of being accessible, this has to be balanced with your
team’s bandwidth. Digital is only a means to an end, it shouldn’t become an end in it self.

Otherwise, you will find your teams spending more time managing these online channels
and less time actually recruiting talent.

Identify the top channels that work for you, and see how these can be used in a scalable
way, to search, shortlist, and select candidates.

 Customize it to your business

A company’s digital recruitment plan is as unique as the company and its goals. Something that
might work for your competitors might not work for you.
We cannot emphasize enough the importance of customizing the recruitment plan to a
business and its goals.

If your competitors are using Instagram, for instance, examine if having an account on
Instagram is truly useful for your business and communication plan.

If your target audience isn’t engaging on that channel, it’s best to skip it and save yourself
time going through pictures of toes and colorful but inedible food.

Let’s take a look at another example.

Assume your standard applicant is not a millennial but a baby boomer; she might not be
comfortable with interviews scheduled via text messaging.

Instead, she might prefer emails followed by a face-to-face interview, and not a video
conference.

The combinations are varied, and only a company that knows its goals and target audience
clearly will be able to create a customized plan that meets its needs.
  Partner with technology
Any discussion on digital recruitment is incomplete without talking about the technologies
that support it.

Recruiters can use a recruitment management system (if they’re not using one already) to
post jobs on the website and multiple job boards, screen and rank applicants, and integrate
with their human resource management tools for seamless operations.

Companies can to identify high-performing individuals and screen them using convenient
tests which can be administered remotely.

There are tools that can identify passive candidates or the ones who are not actively looking
for job changes.

Companies that have traditionally relied on checklists of college degrees and experience to
screen candidates are increasingly finding the approach redundant, not to mention time-
intensive and one-dimensional.

Recruiting tools use sophisticated algorithms to assess innate capabilities while giving
adequate weighting to the traditionally-important factors such as education and experience
and help companies find smart talent.

 Put a bow on it
All these different tactics need to work in unison like a well-played orchestra. While
digitizing your recruiting strategy, ensure that any change to the process is only making it
more convenient for applicants.

Make the whole experience seamless for applicants – whether they access the website on a
mobile, a desktop or their tablets.

They shouldn’t struggle with viewing company profiles or information, submitting

applications or expressing interest of any sort.

It is best to use a similar theme on all the social media channels, with the same icons,
banners, and company branding to aid quick recognition.

Ensure that the information is consistent across channels to avoid confusion.

For instance, if you announce openings for front-end developers on Twitter, but the careers
website that you’re directing the users to was not updated with information on the opening,
applicants are going to be left confused and would most probably turn away from the site.
  Look to the future
Traditional recruiting has passed the baton to digital.

The time has come to adapt, to transition from dinosaur recruiting strategies to technology-
backed modern ones.

By not utilizing these techniques, companies are not only letting go of an opportunity to
attract quality talent but also relinquishing a chance to reduce the burden on recruiters.

Savvy candidates are evaluating you like they would when making purchase decisions.

So, companies that are not hitting multiple channels to catch their attention, engage them,
and finally convert them with an easy application process will find themselves on the losing
side of this battle for talent.
 The Benefits of Digital Recruitment
Digital interviewing platform has many benefits for both the recruiter and the candidate.
Some people, however, are not in favor of this technique because it seems less personal.
However, that is not the case. Learn about the wide array of advantages that a offers.

 It offers an easy way to conduct and attend interviews from anywhere in the world

As a candidate, if you are applying for a job overseas, attending the interview in person may
include heavy travel expenses. Unless your employment has been confirmed, it does not
make sense to pay travel expenses. Moreover, it can also take up a lot of your time.

As a recruiter, you can expand your company and have diversity in culture in your office.
You can conduct interviews on your laptop, computer or phone if the candidate lives too far
away. This gives you the opportunity to hire potential candidates in a convenient, cost -
effective and flexible manner.

 It breaks the ice and makes the process comfortable

Digital interviewing platforms offer a seamless experience for the candidates. It eliminates
the tension and nervousness that candidates go through before the interview. Moreover, it
does not tire out the candidates from traveling to the site. Although the first interview can
be a daunting experience, it surely reduces pre-interview anxiety and nervousness.

When candidates are relaxed and comfortable, they can showcase their skills more
efficiently. As a recruiter, you will be able to assess the candidate’s skills, strengths and
weaknesses better this way. Often, potential candidates do not make it through an interview
because of anxiety. Viewing the recruiters on a screen makes it easy and comfortable.

 Offers flexibility in scheduling the interview

Digital interview platforms make scheduling a lot easier. Besides a live video interview and
phone interviews, the certain digital interviewing software also take care of the scheduling.
It eliminates the long chain of emails exchanged to set up a particular date or place.
Additionally, it minimizes the time spent in interviewing a candidate and also allows the
interviewee to attend the session at a suitable time.

A digital interview is a great way to save a considerable sum of money. By spending less
time and efforts on interview sessions, companies can greatly benefit it. Hence, it is
beneficial for recruiters as well as candidates.

Talscout provides a host of interviewing platforms for audio and video live interviews,
panel and automated interviews, along with campus hiring recruitment solutions. Its
advanced features and automated functionalities are created using the most advanced and
cutting-edge technology, that is secure, reliable and efficient.
 Launch Your Digital Recruitment Strategy With These 3 Tips

The task of finding top candidates to hire for their open positions is a constant pain point for
companies looking to grow fast. An effective way for companies to tackle this challenge is
to embrace and to deal with the rapidly changing world of talent acquisition.

With the proliferation of digital means of communication, the best people your company
seeks to hire are now able to identify and scout their potential employers way before
recruiters even glance at their online profiles. This new breed of passive, yet interested, job -
seekers have the means to quickly measure a company’s suitability as a potential employer
by looking at their presence and activity on various digital media channels.

A company’s digital recruitment strategy, powered by next-gen , can even influence whether
candidates will consider responding to its. In addition, recruiters and hiring managers
should go the extra mile and be active and responsive on social platforms when running a
digital recruitment campaign. Those who appear to be “snobbish” or non-responsive are not
likely to win the trust of the top talent they seek to attract. As a result, they will not be able
to penetrate this modern army of job seekers.

DIGITAL RECRUITMENT IS NOT JUST ABOUT HAVING A CAREER SITE WITH JOB LISTINGS OR

POSTING OF JOBS AS UPDATES ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

A major concern for companies today is to find out how they can effectively use to project
a strong brand to different types of audiences and to multigeneration job seekers. Given this
premise, it’s about time for companies to build and implement digital recruitment strategies
that help them reach their target audience wherever they are and before competitors do.
 Extend Your Reach with Mobile

Mobility has become so integrated in our daily lives that one might not even remember a
time when there were no mobile devices. It definitely makes sense to understand and
include mobile recruitment as an important part of a company’s digital recruitment strategy
for reeling in the right candidates.

Exacttarget’s indicates some interesting facts:

 85% consider mobile devices as part of everyday life

 3.3 hours a day is spent (on average) using a smartphone

 91% use smartphones to access email while 75% use it to access for social networking

 83% want a seamless experience when accessing content on their mobile devices In his , Jorgen
Sundberg mentions that 86% of job seekers claim to use their smartphones to look for a job,
while 65% use it to seek available positions. Clearly, your digital recruitment strategy should
ensure that potential candidates are able to easily access your company’s career site, job listings
as well as any other content through any mobile device.
When going this route, keep in mind to have a website that is optimized for smartphones and
tablets so that jobseekers have an easier time looking at your company information. At the same
time, however, quality of content and consistency in user experience must be maintained across
the different access channels.

Looking at some of the best companies and the online experience they have created for job
candidates is a great way to get your inspiration. It would help you understand how to achieve
seamless communication and information dissemination with potential candidates.
Improve Candidate Experience

By treating potential employees as customers, you are sure to create a lasting impression on
candidates and this could be the one difference maker that will make your top canddiates
consider your company as a place that they want to work for. Creating a positive experience of
openness and transparency can go a long way in .

When using different social and media channels in getting your content out, make sure that your
brand message is consistent across all of these platforms as it is essential to allow candidates to
experience the brand without getting them confused with inconsistent messaging.

The strongest company brands are simple, easy, yet impactful. Your digital recuitment strategy
must ensure that you stand out without losing your company’s true identity. With so much
hullabaloo of information online, it’s best to have that is simple yet powerful enough to make a
lasting impression.

Create Messaging That Matters

Creating the right kind of content that your audience cares about is also a digital recruitment
strategy that cannot be ignored in your overall recruitment strategy. Effectively managing
content means identifying the needs of your target audience and providing them with what they
might be looking for.
The true test is knowing how to differentiate yourself from your competition in your messaging.
The key is to tailor your content to the specific types of job seekers that you would to attract. For
example if you are running a campaign to attract interest from a particular generation of job
seekers, that is baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y or millennials – your message may need to be
different and customized for each.
Understanding online habits, motivations, and lifestyles can further help identify the type of
content appropriate for each group. This is the best time to get creative with content and use
meaningful and relevant pictures or videos to convey, and eventually convince, your targeted
talent that you want them onboard.