What is a recruiting strategy?

Your recruiting strategy is the way you find and hire new employees. You can use lots of different recruiting strategies, from traditional job boards to promoting openings on social media. Within those strategies, you can use open or targeted methods, which refers to how you promote your posting and to which groups.

What is an open recruiting strategy?

An open recruitment strategy means you market to and welcome applications from anyone, regardless of background, demographics or other characteristics. You cast a wide net rather than look for a specific type of candidate. When you use this method, you might hire people who would traditionally be excluded, such as someone with a prior record or without job-specific experience. This method is often used for a position that doesn’t have specific skill requirements, and employees are chosen based on their ability to do the job regardless of whether they have previous experience. 

What is a targeted recruiting strategy?

With a targeted hire strategy, you’re looking for a specific type of job candidate based on skills, experience or other factors. You target your marketing for the job opening to people who fit that group. This approach might mean advertising on niche sites, restricting ads to your target audience or creating ads that appeal to your preferred applicants. It’s often used when a position requires specific skills or is a hard-to-fill job. 

Benefits of a targeted hire

When you use a targeted hire strategy, people who have your desired characteristics should primarily see your advertisements. By narrowing down who sees your ads, the applications you get should be better suited for your hiring needs. Some benefits of this recruiting strategy include the following:

• Job fit: If you need certain skills or experience, the targeted approach makes it easier to find a candidate with those requirements. It can narrow your search faster with fewer unqualified resumes to weed out.  

   

• ROI: When you spend your job marketing budget on targeted advertising, you often get a better return on investment. This expense helps you find candidates who match your requirements, so it’s money well spent. 

   

• Branding: Targeting your applicant searches to a specific type of professional can help with branding. You become known for hiring in that niche and employ a team of reliable, experienced employees who help give consumers a positive experience. 

   

• Less training: Focusing your search on job seekers with the skills and experience you need can reduce training time. They’re often equipped to jump into the job quickly. Open hiring often results in hiring employees without job-specific skills and experience, so they might need more training and time to reach full productivity. 

   

• Diversity: While skills and experience are a common focus, you can also target your search to people in underrepresented groups, such as people from different ethnic backgrounds or with disabilities. This approach can help you improve your workforce diversity.

   

• Expertise: If your company is missing an expert in a particular area, using targeted recruiting can help you find someone with that knowledge. This method can help you expand your operations, improve your processes and position your company as the go-to for that specific skill or expertise.

   

Benefits of open recruitment

Open hiring can also have some benefits depending on your hiring situation. Some of those benefits include: 

• Helping overlooked job seekers: Certain groups of people, such as those who are homeless or have a prior record, often get passed over by other employers. When you use open recruiting, you give them an employment opportunity they might otherwise struggle to find.

   

• Faster hiring: When you don’t restrict your hires to a specific skill set or experience level, you can often speed up the hiring process. Fewer requirements make it easier to place someone in an open position.

   

• Retention: When you hire often overlooked applicants, they might be more likely to stay with your company. They might be grateful for the opportunity and offer you loyalty in return. Improving your employee retention can keep productivity higher and reduce hiring costs. 

   

Targeted recruiting strategies

All targeted recruitment methods should focus on the specific qualifications you’ve chosen for the position. The following targeted recruiting strategies can help you find candidates for your vacancies.

1. Pay-for-performance advertising

Traditional advertising requires you to pay for the spot based on duration or other factors. With pay-for-performance job advertising, you only pay when a particular result happens, such as a job seeker with the right qualifications filling out an application. You can also limit who sees these ads to make it more likely that the people in your preferred group see them. 

2. Trade journals

If you’re hiring in a specific industry or for a highly specialized position, advertising in trade journals or industry magazines can help you find a targeted hire. People in that industry are the primary audience members for those publications, whether they’re print or digital versions. This approach can help you reach people in the industry who maybe haven’t heard of or considered your company. 

3. Professional associations

A similar option to trade journals is targeting professional associations related to the industry or job position. Members of these groups have degrees or experience in the field, which means they’re likely a good match for your job needs. These organizations often have job boards where you can post your opportunities, or you can become a member and network with others in your field. 

4. University partnerships

If your business is near a university with a major that matches your preferred qualifications, partnering with it can support your recruiting efforts. You might offer internships or work with professors in the specific department to find desired applicants. 

Choosing between targeted and open hiring

If you’re unsure which recruiting style to use, consider your needs for the position. Think about the current vacancies and what their duties and responsibilities are. Consider the confidentiality of information and the significance of the position. Also, think about the talent you want to add or whether you want to focus on improving your diversity. 

Targeted hiring is often better if you have a specialized position that requires specific skills or certifications. You can find someone who already has those qualifications by limiting your job marketing to those people. It can also be a good approach if you want to add diversity intentionally to your workforce. 

Open hiring can be beneficial if you have lots of entry-level positions to fill that don’t have strict skill, educational or experience requirements. These are positions that you can easily train someone to do even if they haven’t done it before. 

You might also use a mix of open and targeted hiring within your organization. For example, if you run a restaurant, you might use open recruitment to fill server, runner and cook positions. When you need to hire a manager, marketing professional or other specialized positions, you might use targeted recruiting to make it easier to find someone with the right experience.