This is a blog piece by Lee Biggins. He is the CEO of Resume-Library, one of the fastest-growing job boards in the U.S. and founder and managing director of CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job board. With industry experience spanning nearly 20 years, Lee is a pioneer of online recruitment and is passionate about the latest developments in the market.

How to Stay Proactive in Your Hiring Efforts
With national employment rates continuing to climb in the U.S, hiring professionals are under intense pressure to be proactive in their hiring efforts; or risk losing out on top talent to savvier competitors. But how can you stay one step ahead and boost your chances of finding, attracting and hiring the very best professionals? 

Well, thankfully there are a number of ways in which you can achieve this. The first step is to put yourself in the candidate’s shoes; where and how are they looking for jobs? What information do they want to know? Why would they want to work for you over someone else?

Then, you need to consider the areas that you can control. For example, are the tools you’re using helping you to stay proactive? How well are you managing your hiring process?

In this article, we’ll delve deeper into these points, explaining how you can hire the very best workers, by staying proactive in your hiring efforts.

Focusing On Candidate Experience
We hate to break it to you but candidates still hold the power in the current market. And that’s why it’s important to focus on the job seeker experience throughout your hiring process.

Start with your job advert. What does it say about your company? Does it clearly explain who you are, why you’re hiring, and the key roles, responsibilities, and perks of the job? If you were looking for a job, what impression would you have?

Alongside this, consider your application process. Most job hunters prefer not to fill out pages and pages of application forms these days. So consider whether a resume and cover letter provide enough information. If in doubt, include some screening questions; this enables you to ask a few key questions, without putting candidates off with lengthy forms.

Finally, think about how you can nurture these relationships. You don’t want to risk losing a potential recruit part way through the process, all because you didn’t keep them up to date on next steps.

Boosting Your Employer Brand
Another great way to ensure you stay proactive in your hiring efforts is by boosting your employer brand. Over the last five years, employer branding has become a key focus point for companies that are looking to recruit.

This is because candidates are pickier than ever; a high salary is no longer enough to sway someone. They want to work for brands that truly value their employees and reward them with great perks. Therefore, it’s important to consider what makes your company stand out. What gives you a competitive edge. Do you offer perks that other companies don’t? Are you particularly passionate about well-being or flexibility?

Whatever it may be, communicating this effectively with candidates is important. Remember, if you’re going to be proactive you need to get them engaged with your brand and ultimately, make them think about leaving their current position.

Using the Right Tools
Organizations can no longer afford to sit back, relax and wait for job applications to roll in. Instead, many are recognizing the benefits of taking the reins and proactively sourcing top talent themselves mainly via resume databases.

Not only is this cost-effective, but it also enables you to get the most targeted results, ultimately helping to fill your roles quicker.

What’s more, many job boards are partnering with Applicant Tracking Systems to make the process as seamless as possible. Here at Resume-Library, we’ve integrated with Zoho Recruit to help its users save time by conducting searches in a singular platform. Effectively, they can continue to search for candidates as usual, but now have access to an additional 12 million resumes directly from our database; it’s as simple as that!

Are You Staying Proactive in Your Hiring Efforts?
Based on the above insights, how proactive can you say you are in your hiring efforts? In the current market, you can’t afford to not be. So think about changes you can make to your recruitment process to help you target more candidates and keep them engaged with your brand.