As Buddy the Elf and his fellow elves once said, “Everyday is meant for magic.” Why should recruiting be any different?
The holiday season can be filled with joy and wonder as much as it may be met with disappointment and burnout. As the year comes to a close, we often spend time reflecting. Company victories like successful new hires or an improvement to the hiring process might come to mind! But there might also be discouragement around a longtime vacant position or an unmet monetary goal.
Whether you’re feeling the joy of the holiday season or experiencing burnout, you have the chance to build on your warm fuzzies or to combat your weariness as you look forward to recruitment in 2024. All you need is a little recruitment magic!
Take a moment to think of the year ahead with fresh eyes, especially if you’re coming off of a tough year. Give yourself a chance to dream about what a magical year of recruitment could look like!
To get the ideas swirling, we pulled together 5 strategies to bring your recruiting to life in 2024:
1. Prepare for varied work models.
The increase in those working remotely doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. As of 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees work from home, while 28.2% work a hybrid model, according to Forbes. Nonetheless, 59.1% of the workforce still work on-site.
Of course, some industries are more apt to accommodate remote or hybrid work than others. For example (and unsurprisingly), the computer and IT industry leads the pack for remote work. Additionally, the post-pandemic and digital landscape has likely contributed to the fact that those aged 24–35 are most likely to work remotely.
These statistics don’t necessarily say you HAVE to offer certain work models (nor do they state that every 32-year-old will want to work remotely), but they are cause for consideration. Hence, prepare for varied work models. Do you need to make changes to your offered models to current employees or future hires? If so, how would a change affect morale, productivity, culture, and other factors?
What excites or scares you about the possibility of expanding your work models?
2. Evaluate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
By this point, companies know that prioritizing DEI is important. As Forbes explains it, the focus of DEI has shifted from determining why it is essential to how organizations should put it into practice.
As you look to 2024, lend a critical eye toward your existing DEI initiatives to discern how it aligns with your company’s goals and people. Review your data. Be open. Ask questions. Take time to celebrate what worked this year and what can be improved next year. If you haven’t been tracking demographic trends within your organization, make a point to do so in 2024.
3. Prioritize employer branding.
Positive employer branding can be effective in attracting top talent and also in reducing recruiting costs (on average, a 50% cost-per-hire reduction). While not solely responsible for a potential candidate’s consideration, it can be a supporting factor. LinkedIn reported that, “A strong employer brand … is twice as likely to be linked to job consideration as a strong company brand.”
Consider what your company invested in employer branding in 2023, and evaluate how that can be adjusted for the year ahead. What can you do in the coming year to promote the personality of your company? Evaluate your company’s website, social media channels, job postings, and more. Get outside perspectives to identify what important details are missing from that messaging.
Employer branding can be hard to prioritize when you have many other tasks on your plate, but giving it the right attention can also bring about big wins for your company.
4. Incorporate empathy.
Encouraging empathy within the workplace is not only beneficial for company culture but also in boosting the effectiveness of your recruiters. We’ve talked before about the detriment of recruiters ghosting candidates, which often stems from a lack of time and competing priorities rather than ill intent. Your candidates are people too, and no matter how much we infuse technology into our processes, recruiting still demands personal, human interaction.
What’s great about incorporating empathy is that it doesn’t require additional costs, and it doesn’t have to guzzle time. So, what does that look like? Here are a few ideas for incorporating empathy into your recruiting strategy:
- Review your bank of interview questions. If they have an interrogative tone, consider how they can be softened, personalized, or more open ended. Consider the emotion your questions might evoke. Role play with employees to identify coldly-worded questions, even if the intent was warm!
- Send personalized communication over automated messages. This might look like sending a personal email to a candidate following a job application. Even if you reference a templated message, you can customize it to create a more authentic connection.
- Provide honest feedback. Not every job candidate is a fit for your company. Instead of sending generic rejection letters, tell candidates why they missed the mark. Be succinct but kind. This shows care by simply offering insights on how they can improve or better themselves for future job opportunities. Plus, maybe they aren’t a fit now but will be in the future.
Don’t lose sight of what it was like when you were brand new to the working world or making a job change. You can present your company well by making a candidate feel comfortable and valued by showing empathy through the recruiting process.
5. Be transparent with pay.
Even in the past year, pay transparency has become prevalent. The rise in pay transparency laws has certainly contributed to this. Some employers still want to hold that card close, but a survey conducted by ZipRecruiter showed that 72% of employers say they post salary information in all job postings. The same study found that job postings with salary information not only received 50% more applicants but were also three times more likely to deliver quality candidates.
Posting pay can feel vulnerable — because it is! The fact of the matter is there’s risk either way. When employers are transparent with pay, they may feel a loss of control when a candidate negotiates compensation. It opens doors for top talent to compare your pay rates with competitors. At the same time, research seems to point toward more benefits than drawbacks to pay transparency, such as attracting quality candidates and improving recruitment efficiency.
Cultivate recruiting magic
Maybe you’ve been in recruitment and talent acquisition for decades. If the fairy dust of recruiting is wearing off, let us leave you with a few reminders of its magic.
Recruiting magic is…
- …making an impact on people. Recruiters present opportunities, help fill jobs, and encourage candidates in their skills and abilities.
- …building trust and credibility with your recruiting team. Recruiters play a special role in recommending candidates to hiring managers.
- …discovering top talent. Recruiting the right candidate for the right role can be exhilarating and rewarding!
In the words of J. B. Priestly, “I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.”
What recruiting magic do you hope to create in 2024? We’d love to hear what recruiting innovations you intend to implement!
If you need more inspiration, Beacon Lane can help. With a forward-thinking strategy specially designed for you, our End-to-End Recruitment Optimization is bound to bring you recruiting magic!
