8 Ways To Find Candidates Without Using A Job Board
Darren Westall
February 10, 2022
Recruitment
The recruitment industry is not what it once was. Back in the day, recruiters had filing cabinets full of CVs and the phone was their lifeline. Now, the huge range of avenues a recruiter can go down to source candidates is incredible, and the number of options is probably only going to increase going forward.
For now, we’ve chosen the 8 best and most valuable routes to go down when you are searching for candidates and want alternatives to job boards in 2023.
1. Utilising your CRM for email campaigns
The first route to go down when searching for candidates should always be your existing candidate pool in your company’s CRM. Instead of starting from scratch with every candidate search, emailing your existing list of contacts will be the best way to start conversations with suitable candidates who might be interested, even if they aren’t actively looking.
Before sending mass emails to candidate pools, you need to ensure that all data is clean and up to date (this may be one for your marketing or IT department, but it’s still one for recruiters to check beforehand). If you think you’re emailing 500 potential contacts but 300 of these contacts have out-of-date details in your system, this will slow the process down massively.
Once you know your data is as clean as possible, be sure to keep your emails short, but include all the necessary details that will interest the best and most relevant candidates. If there are any absolute must-haves that the client is looking for, ensure that they’re included in the initial email to save time.
2. Company website
A great deal of recruitment companies are still prioritising investment in job boards over their company website. However, investing in your website means that not only will you get more visitors directly to your own site, but you also don’t have other companies’ job adverts to contend with alongside your own.
If you are currently interested in finding out more about alternatives to job boards, the likelihood is that job board pricing may be a factor that is steering you away from them. Investing in your own website is the easiest way to ensure all job adverts are written effectively, everything is on brand and you can track which applicants are coming through the website. The benefits are almost endless!
3. LinkedIn
Social media as a whole is a brilliant example of an alternative to job boards, but LinkedIn in particular (depending on the sector you recruit in) is usually the go-to for recruiters. Why? Because it is a huge database with people’s job titles, work history, location and experience all in one place – with the ability to contact them too, of course.
Ensure you’re utilising LinkedIn effectively. Expand your network with people relevant to the sectors you recruit in, with both potential candidates and clients. Briefly introduce yourself to every connection you make. Engage with people in your network on their posts, and start conversations with people. LinkedIn isn’t just about searching for candidates when you’re recruiting for a specific role – it’s about building your personal brand over time so candidates and clients know who to come to when the time is right.
4. LinkedIn messages
If you use LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiter Lite, you know the importance of getting your first message to a candidate exactly right before you press send. If you give them too much or too little information, it could be the reason they delete your message or read it and don’t reply.
The same applies for recruiters who don’t use Recruiter, or any LinkedIn user for that matter – the way you word your LinkedIn messages matters. No matter how brilliant the job is that you’re recruiting for doesn’t necessarily mean that every potential candidate will agree with you.
If you’re messaging a LinkedIn connection about a job that might be suitable for them, don’t strike up a seemingly innocent conversation to then start asking them if they are open to hearing about new jobs – it’s best to get to the point straight away. Be polite, introduce yourself, give a brief overview of the role, the company, the location and the salary, and end with your contact information.
5. Host an event
Don’t panic – we can see you recoiling – it doesn’t have to be as painful as it sounds. You don’t have to hire a venue and invite 200 people to see a few guest speakers, with the hope of possibly meeting a few candidates. (Of course, if this is something you’re comfortable with, go for it – in-person networking doesn’t have to be a thing of the past!)
Why not host a LinkedIn live event if that’s more up your street? According to LinkedIn, LinkedIn Live videos get, on average, 7x more reactions and 24x more comments on average than native video produced by the same broadcasters. It may seem daunting the first time you do it, so try joining a few other live videos first to see how other people engage with their audiences during live events.
If you are able to engage with more candidates by hosting fortnightly or monthly LinkedIn Live events, it’s definitely worth taking the bull by the horns and trying something new.
6. Referral campaign
Do you personally, or your organisation as a whole, utilise referrals effectively? Referrals are one of the oldest tricks in the book, but that doesn’t mean it’s outdated.
Asking candidates if they know any friends, family or colleagues who are looking for similar positions is obviously your first go-to when asking for referrals. However, using an incentive to get more contact details for candidates is definitely a proven way to not only increase your referral success, but a brilliant way to expand your LinkedIn network and add more relevant candidates to your CRM.
Add it to your email signature, and make sure it’s an ongoing campaign on your company’s social channels, too. If your business is offering £100 or £250 (for example) per referral, this may encourage more candidates to get involved.
7. Headhunting
Headhunting is another old trick, but still one of the best alternatives to job boards when it comes to finding top talent. If you advertise a role openly on your website or your social channels, you may receive plenty of applicants – but are they all who you are looking for?
With headhunting, you can actively seek out the people with specific skillsets, required qualifications and the needed industry experience on their CV that applies to the brief your client has given you. Headhunting is a far more targeted and direct way of finding candidates – you approach specific individuals based on their work experience, as opposed to people tailoring their CV to suit your roles.
8. Facebook community groups
Bye, Bye Facebook Jobs – you are in our thoughts. But not for too long, as we still need to find candidates for jobs, with or without you.
For recruiters with a large target audience being active on Facebook, it doesn’t mean you’ll no longer be able to reach these people – you just won’t be able to advertise jobs on there anymore (in the traditional sense).
Instead, utilise Facebook Community Groups that are relevant to the sectors and industries you work in. Don’t over-post, and only post about jobs in groups that allow it. But this is a great way to stay in touch with candidates who were once applying for jobs via Facebook and are now unable to. Keep in touch, post jobs in your community groups, engage in conversations and find the candidates that aren’t necessarily on the traditional job boards.
Get in touch
Paiger doesn’t just schedule your content to go out on social media. It’s also a great recruitment tool – no matter which CRM you use, when your job advert goes on there, it also goes on your website, LinkedIn and everywhere else. This can increase your applications by 30-50%. Get in touch with us about a demo today.
Recent Posts
Resilience and risk-taking in recruitment: a conversation with Will Pearce
Check this out
2023 updates and tips to get the maximum reach of your posts
Passive Aggressive Marketing T-Shirts, All For Charity
Learn how a startup is tackling marketing
Featured Posts
Resilience and risk-taking in recruitment: a conversation with Will Pearce
Paiger acquires The Lonely Marketers
