Let’s be honest: staffing is difficult. In fact, staffing is so difficult, we exist as a company. If finding quality candidates and filling open positions was as easy as a click of the fingers, recruitment agencies would be scraping pennies together (or I’d be in an entirely different industry). Not only does it take significant company time to find employees, but it takes significant company funds to bring them on and onboard them. Overall, shopping your open positions around can be a risky endeavor.
While we would love to state that we have an end-all-be-all way to find top-tier talent, we don’t. The old standards of job boards and fairs work, sure, but they aren’t guaranteed. In fact, muddying up the waters with a metric ton of applicants can make things tougher (especially if you are a small business or don’t have an HR department).
But, we live in the modern age of technology and creativity. There are constantly new and interesting ways to handle modern problems. What about staffing? What are the creative ways to find amazing workers that break outside the Indeed-shaped box?
As a staffing agency, we know a few. Here are 8 creative hiring ideas for your next open position.
Are Unique Hiring Ideas Necessary?
Once again, job boards and postings on your company website are always going to be the gold standard for finding candidates. It’s hard to break the tried-and-true method. Not only are job boards popular amongst search engine narratives, but they are pinpointed by job searchers. You aren’t screaming about your job opening into the ether, hoping some of the random people actually want a job.
There are a few negatives surrounding the normal job-posting methods. The biggest downfall is cost. For example, even Indeed costs company cash. A single job posting costs $5 a day, every day that it’s posted. If you opt for their free method, you lose the outreach of a paid posting, limiting your staff search immensely.
Ultimately, the point of the article is to point out fairly inexpensive (or outright free) ways to find employees. Furthermore, we are discussing ways to find employees you may have never seen or worked with. Sometimes a talent pool can shrink immensely if you have a niche company or continue to work within a local field. Sometimes you need to reach outward to find candidates you haven’t already vetted or worked with.
Should You Include Hiring Incentives?
It seems like we can’t go a single article without mentioning the Great Resignation that has shell-shocked and improved the working world. We’ve written about it so much that I start to mutter resignation definitions in my sleep. My spouse is becoming worried.
Jokes aside, the Great Resignation is as follows:
Quote from our article, What Is Frugality in the Workforce? – Guide to New Work-Life Trend
Stating that the COVID-19 pandemic was life-changing would be an understatement. The pandemic not only rocked an entire planet with tragedy and loss, but it modified the way that we will do things going forward. Consequently, we can only speak for the United States in this regard (as a company in America), but it doesn’t take much inferring to see the global impact.
As far as employers and employees go, the pandemic had a massive shift in how we do things and how we view things. For example, NorthOne reported that we have seen a 91% uptick in remote work over the last decade. There is a mass majority of jobs located remotely, a pandemic-caused trend. The differences that remote-only jobs cause is an entire article in itself. That’s just one example.
The biggest cultural change in the workforce is that of the Great Resignation. Ultimately, a life-threatening pandemic caused workers to reevaluate both their work-life balance and their work happiness. This renaissance of sorts led to a plethora of employees deciding to take up more enjoyable careers or fight for more work-life balance. It was more than just a phase. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, 47.8 million U.S. workers quit their jobs in 2021.
Quote from our article, What Is Frugality in the Workforce? – Guide to New Work-Life Trend
Stating that the COVID-19 pandemic was life-changing would be an understatement. The pandemic not only rocked an entire planet with tragedy and loss, but it modified the way that we will do things going forward. Consequently, we can only speak for the United States in this regard (as a company in America), but it doesn’t take much inferring to see the global impact.
As far as employers and employees go, the pandemic had a massive shift in how we do things and how we view things. For example, NorthOne reported that we have seen a 91% uptick in remote work over the last decade. There is a mass majority of jobs located remotely, a pandemic-caused trend. The differences that remote-only jobs cause is an entire article in itself. That’s just one example.
The biggest cultural change in the workforce is that of the Great Resignation. Ultimately, a life-threatening pandemic caused workers to reevaluate both their work-life balance and their work happiness. This renaissance of sorts led to a plethora of employees deciding to take up more enjoyable careers or fight for more work-life balance. It was more than just a phase. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, 47.8 million U.S. workers quit their jobs in 2021.
So What?
All that leads to the main point: with the increase in employee self-worth comes an increase in demands. Employees aren’t willing to sign on to just any job, they want a career with forward-thinking attributes. They want incentives.
In June of 2021, Indeed reported that searches for hiring incentives per million job searches on Indeed jumped 131% compared to January 1, 2021. People are looking for incentives. People want extra time off for mental health, sign-on bonuses, health benefits, and so on. They are not willing to settle for less.
Within any hiring method (including the ones we are about to list) there should be an expression of incentives. Even if something simple and free (i.e. extra time off), you should still note it. We’ve reached the point in employment reach that expressing incentives is necessary. You are trying to sell the job to employees. It’s a two-way dance.
How to Fill Open Positions With Unique Ideas
Tired of reading? We are, too. Let’s get down to brass tacks.
Here are our top creative ways to fill your open positions! Note: these aren’t in any specific order, though countdowns are fun.
1. Stay Right At Home – Use Your Employees
If you have a staff of excellent workers already at the helm, then you are on the right track. Whatever you (or your hiring managers) are doing is working. You have managed to form a team of like-minded professionals with an eye for success. You are the Professor X of your industry.
Why not find new candidates through your already trusted workers?
Not only can you trust your great workers and their references, but you can trust them to understand what makes a good applicant. They are the ones to do the job every day, after all. They are the ones that know what qualities would fit best. It can be beneficial to ask your employees their opinions. It can also help your established employees feel important in the company (a win-win for everyone).
Encourage your workers to share references, crosspost job openings on social media, and so on.
Offer a Rewards Program
If you really admire your established team and believe they can bring excellent employees, establish some type of reward system for recruitment help.
Referral bonuses are popular amongst bigger businesses and can be cheaper than your normal job board posts. For example, offer event tickets, a new television, or some type of other prizes for employees that successfully refer candidates that get hired. Not only does this help expedite your recruitment process, but it helps build team morale. What’s more fun than winning free stuff?
2. Stay Right At Home – Use Your Neighborhood
Another method to finding local employees starts right in your neighborhood.
Look around your town for community events your company can become a part of. Once there, take the time to advertise open positions or hand out fliers. For example, if your neighborhood SPCA is holding an adoption event, see if you can sponsor it in some way. Have a company booth there to advertise open jobs and other company information. This goes for opening a stand at a local event, allowing events to happen at your location (if size permits), and so on.
Getting involved with your community is a significant way to find talent that’s already ready to jump on board. You don’t have to worry about relocations and other vetting processes. Furthermore, you can meet some of these people in person, skipping over the phone interview process.
On the other hand, helping out with local events helps boost your business brand and local culture. It gets your company out there and lets people know you care (especially if it’s a charity event). This helps bring awareness to your company for its solidified ideals, which can ultimately lead to more people learning about your open positions.
Finally, it can be cheaper to help or appear at these events than it is to maintain a job posting online. There are little-to-no downfalls with this method.
3. Job Fair – Online and In-Person
You know that you are getting old (ancient, even) when a tried-and-true method has dwindled its way into becoming creative and unique. It may sound crazy in 2022, but job fairs are still a thing, and they can help you fill positions with great employees.
If you are uncertain about a job fair, it’s a simple process. A job fair goes a lot like the booth idea from the above tip. Your company sets up a booth at a fair of other businesses and hands out pamphlets or business cards to jobseekers. They are especially prevalent at college campuses, helping vet college students get close to graduation (or searching for internships).
Not only will this work help you pinpoint actual job seekers and fresh minds, but it helps you establish a bit of community (like the tip above). They are often extremely cheap to join, too. Significantly less than the normal recruitment process.
Online Job Fairs Are the Rage
Much like the increase in at-home work, at-home job fairs have become a new fad in the modern age. Handshake offers virtual job fairs for college students and graduates. You can meet with job seekers and get a feel for their personalities and qualifications before moving on with the recruitment process.
There are also VR hiring events through Remote Bridge. No, really. You can meet with people virtually and have discussions with them. It also prescreens all of their qualifications before they enter the chat room, making the process easier for all parties involved.
Imagine getting a job at a virtual reality job fair. What a weird and wonderful world we live in.
4. Interesting Titles
You can’t always judge a book by its cover. You can catch the attention of would-be readers with an interesting cover, though.
When creating job posts for job boards, think of titles that may stand out from the rest. There are millions of form-fitting titles already on Indeed. Why not create one that catches the eyes of unique and impressive professionals?
For example, there are countless SEO or digital advertising job openings on the web. Why not call your open position Content Specialist or Content Creator? It’s not lying or trickery to garner attention. You are just providing an eye-catching name for the same position. It helps weed out those that are paying attention and not just applying to every available position in their field.
Consequently, it’s important to reiterate the point above. This does not mean you should lie about the role. Don’t completely fabricate a unique title that doesn’t reach or explain the job at hand. Just see if there’s a unique and truthful way to word it.
5. Advertise As Flexible
Zippia found that 26% of employees in the U.S. now work remotely (as of 2022). Furthermore, according to a study from GOBankingRates, 29% of Gen Z say they prefer to work remotely (the lowest of all generations), and 27% say remote working is a necessity (the highest of all generations). Though conflicting information on paper, the idea is clear: Gen Z doesn’t like to work from home, but they understand the importance of it for both mental and physical health.
The world is going remote. Younger workers are enthusiastic about implementing remote and hybrid roles into our workforce. The future is now, old man! Therefore, you can significantly increase your employment pool by looking across the country for workers.
If your business is located in a small area or you have problems relocating workers, ponder the concept of moving your open positions to remote (or hybrid) roles. Now, you can scour the entire country (or world) for the perfect candidate, increasing your employment pool by millions!
On job boards, remote jobs have their own sections of the location tag. For example, you can choose remote jobs as a search query on Indeed. Try placing your job in this category if applicable. It may help you find the perfect worker.
Sure, this may require a change to the way you run things, but it’s something to think about. If you worked through the pandemic, you probably already have an in-person process in place. Weigh the pros and cons of hiring remote workers going forward. Sometimes the ability to bring in the perfect employee (not just ones that live nearby) can be worth the effort.
6. Unique Ads
Just the other day I was perusing Youtube when I saw an ad for an open position. While it may appear to bug some, it does cross in front of the eyes of millions (if not billions) of viewers. Though not all may be jobseekers, it’s still an interesting way to get your job out there.
Advertising your open positions on entertainment sites and social media like Twitch, Youtube, video games, and Spotify may seem like a weird and useless idea, but it works in theory.
Think about it this way: while the majority of viewers may not be job seekers, you may just impress or attract someone that’s willing to apply. That may be an amazing candidate that would have never found you. You have just increased your odds of finding any employee by some astronomical percentage.
“We wanted to avoid the traditional route of promoting job opportunities on job boards. Instead, we decided to stream our job openings on Spotify.”
– Leanna Serras, chief customer officer of FragranceX, told Yahoo Finance in 2022,
Remember the days of radio? It’s kinda like that.
Ultimately, think about the audience you are trying to reach. Are you trying to reach writers? Maybe place your ad on Audible. Is your job tech-related? Place it on a tech site.
7. Blogs and SEO
Sometimes it’s easier to win the attention of viewers through other methods. Sometimes it’s easier to promote yourself as a business before promoting your job openings. Writing blogs and other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) items can get your company and/or website in front of viewers without downright advertising the job. Then, at the top of your site, you have the open positions listed.
That’s called organic traffic.
For example, we got this article to rank by placing keywords, writing unique content, promoting our website, and various other Google-based methods. Now, you are here to read about hiring techniques. But, if we had an open position listed, you would notice it. Maybe you would share it. Maybe you would like this article enough to share it. Therefore, sharing the advertised position inadvertently.
Maybe this is all trickery. Maybe this is just how you promote things without being overly showy or needy in 2022. Who’s to say?
Furthermore, you can also follow through with this method by guest posting on other sites. For example, if you are a tech company and feel you have useful information to share, reach out to tech websites and see if you can create a post for them regarding news, information, or press releases. Then, you can mention your open positions there.
8. Use a Staffing Agency!
It’s that time again. It’s time to talk about ourselves.
If you don’t have the time to spend on any of the above methods, you can always work with a staffing agency. As expert and experienced recruiters, we have a talent pool already screened and ready to interview. Furthermore, we have working relationships with universities and businesses nationwide. We have quicker access to a wide array of candidates you may never be able to reach.
Staffing agencies can make the process quick and easy, saving you time and resources.
Still not sure? We broke down all the positives and negatives here.