What 900+ recruiters say about the best recruitment methods

Over 40% of transport & logistics hiring managers are involved in sourcing candidates themselves. So for many, sifting exasperatedly through CVs that aren’t up to scratch isn’t the only problem. Knowing which recruitment methods can help them find those elusive quality candidates is. Skills gap aside, you can tip the balance in your favour if you’re failing to find what you’re looking for. (Whether that's finding candidates yourself or influencing HR to change their methods). As with anything in business, data is your friend. That’s where Eploy’s 2018 Candidate Attraction Report (published in December 2018) comes in very useful. 900 in-house and agency recruiters rated recruitment methods according to quality and quantity. So read on to help you uncover the sweet spot recruitment methods for your team, along with top tips and further resources for the top three methods.

In-house

Employee referrals

"Job seekers trust a potential employer’s current staff ahead of anybody".

The Future of Recruiting

It’s easy to see why these top the list for the best quality candidates. The best candidates will share similar values and so we're more likely to find these with people we mix with socially and professionally. (And most senior-level employees wouldn’t risk their professional reputation by recommending a poor candidate!) Top tip

• Referrals don’t generally produce enough candidates. Consider this source as an amazing side dish to your main recruitment strategy.
• Offer incentives for staff referrals. (But remember: employees are more motivated by experiential rewards than cash or vouchers).

Professional/social networks

This source came in at second-place, striking a good balance between quality and quantity. Agencies rate this source higher for quality but they have access to LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Top tips

• Build your professional brand on LinkedIn and connect with a pool of contacts with the quality skills you are looking for.
• Trial LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
• Consider implementing (or optimising) an employee advocacy programme. People trust your experts and regular employees much more than CEOs or journalists. (Edelman Trust Barometer 2019)

Helpful resources

LinkedIn SSI: the missing link to employer brand awareness? (Cast UK) How important is the LinkedIn SSI score? (Tog Dog Social Media) Employee Advocacy: The Ultimate Guide to Launching a Social Media Advocacy Program (Tribal Impact)

Specialist job boards (followed very closely by PSL/agencies and ATS/CRM/Talent Pool

Specialist job boards produce better quality candidates than generalist websites for in-house recruiters, without sacrificing too greatly on quantity. Top tips

• Experiment with which specialist job boards to see which produce the best quality for you.
• Remember the Pareto Principle: 20% will produce 80% of the results. You may be able to reduce the number of job boards you use.

Helpful resources Pros and Cons of Job Boards

Agencies

CRM/ATS/talent pool

This comes as no surprise to us, as recruitment consultants speak to candidates daily (and are always on LinkedIn!). It’s therefore much easier to build up a hotlist of quality candidates with the right skillsets. Yet the numbers generated are quite high. That is fine if recruiters are doing an effective screening job for you. It's not so fine if they fire over every decent candidate (after only promising you three!) The survey suggests this may well be the case: In-house recruiters place PSLs/agencies in fourth place for quality, behind job boards. Yet this could be a few reasons:

• They’re working on a contingency fee basis. (Agencies themselves rate the quality as less when fighting to place a candidate on a contingent basis versus a strategic, retained basis.)
• The consultants aren’t specialised enough e.g. by sector and geographic region.
• They’ve not dug deep enough to understand your skills and culture fit requirements.

Top tips

• Choose your recruitment agency wisely. Do they have consultants that are sector and geographic-specific?
• Consider the recruitment fee basis that you’ve opted for. There is a reason that retained fees are higher and you get better quality candidates.
• Does your recruitment agency offer video interviews? These help you to screen candidates in or out much quicker for skills and culture fit and get feedback from other decision-makers.

Helpful resources Retained v Contingent Recruitment 10 Essential Red Flags to Look for When Hiring a Specialist Recruitment Agency

Professional/social networks

As we’ve already discussed, recruitment consultants have access to a greater number of tools (and they’re often in tune with social selling). So it follows that they can most likely find better quality candidates on social quicker. Top tips

• Check your recruitment agency’s social network reach.
• Check their connections - are they highly targeted to geography and skill sets they recruit for?
• Follow them and see how they promote candidates and roles. Do they do so effectively? Would you be happy with their approach?

Specialist job boards

Recruitment agencies also rate the quality of candidates on specialist job boards highly but they don’t get a high quantity of candidates from this method. Is this because they are already in contact with the very same candidates on LinkedIn or via their talent pool? Yet any recruiter would be foolish to ignore specialist job boards.Not everyone is on social media or in their existing talent pool! Top tips

• Check which specialist job boards your recruitment agency uses.
• Agencies should be using all tools at their disposal to cover the whole market.

It can be difficult to decide what the best recruitment methods are for you but hopefully we've helped you navigate the maze. And remember: each employer will find that different methods work for them. So test and then review the data. 

Another major factor in securing the candidates that you need is reducing your time to hire. A recent HireVue survey supports this - 46% of candidates had withdrawn from a ‘bad’ recruitment process due to their time being disrespected. (The no.1 reason.)

In our easy-to-digest guide, we give the secrets to dramatically reduce your time-to-hire - from foolproof job ad tips to slicker interviewing and quick process fixes to attract your perfect candidates.