Digital recruitment is more than just posting vacancies on online job boards and social media. It involves a whole host of digital tools and strategies that span the entire recruitment process, from sourcing to hiring.

Examples include:

• Job board advertising

• Posting on career websites

• Mobile recruiting

• Online assessments

• Social recruiting

Digital recruitment is the process of using technology and the internet to find, attract, assess, and hire candidates to fill your open job roles. You might already be using one or two of the methods listed above. However, an optimized digital recruitment strategy will use several modern tools. Here’s some of the benefits you can get from digitizing your recruitment process:

• A more extensive reach: Recruiters can reach remote and passive candidates from anywhere in the world.

• Greater efficiency: Sourcing, selecting, and hiring candidates takes less time with better communication tools and automation.

• A higher ROI: Though an initial investment is needed, a digital recruitment strategy allows recruiters to hire top-performing candidates in a shorter time frame.

How to build a robust digital recruitment strategy:

1. Create and share relevant content

Refine your messaging so you can engage with different groups of candidates more efficiently. This means taking the time to discover who your ideal candidates are and using this to fuel your copy. This targeted approach will also give you a better idea of where to share the content. For instance:

• Your company website

• External blogs

• Social media handles

• Email newsletters

There are many strategies that you can use to make your content more compelling for a specific audience. For example:

• Using stories and testimonials from current employees

• Publishing industry salary reports

• Posting industry news and updates

Research what your potential candidates are interested in before launching a digital recruitment strategy.

It’s also worth noting that, to create and manage content effectively, you’ll need to discover the needs of your candidates and provide them solutions. The better your solutions, the more you distinguish yourself from your competition.

This means tailoring content to engage with your ideal job seeker. To do this, you must understand their:

• Online habits

• Interests

• Lifestyle

• Average expected income

With this info at your disposal, you can better create informative pictures, infographics, or videos that explain and eventually convince potentials to apply to work for you.

2. Have a solid social media recruiting strategy

A strong social media presence is vital in today’s recruitment industry. Once your company profiles are up and running, try to publish informative posts or videos and engage in discussions with potential candidates.

Social media platforms are also a great place to develop your employer brand. This may sound time-consuming, but it’s worth it. More than 80% of applicants assess a company’s culture before they send out an application.

You can also identify where your ideal candidates are hanging out online by publishing content that engages and converts talent across all social media channels. The best way to find this talent is by:

• Publishing job postings on LinkedIn

• Using videos to showcase employee testimonials on YouTube

• Tweeting about company awards or events

• Establishing a presence on Facebook

Aside from traditional social media platforms, you can also join forums that are specific to your niche. Making a name there is an excellent way to connect with passive pools of talent.

3. Prioritize your candidate experience

It’s hard to be objective when reviewing the recruitment experience a company offers. You must test out your application and selection process first hand. This is one of the most effective ways to get a real understanding of how candidates experience your recruitment strategy.

With this feedback, you can then refine and improve your plan. However, if you are lost for a place to start, here are some overall tips:

• Communicate with candidates as regularly as possible

• Provide updates about the status of their application

• Stick to the hiring timeline

The key is to build a rapport with candidates. This bolsters the number of prospects that complete your recruitment process from start to finish.

Don’t forget to optimize your career pages, job postings, and applications for mobile phones. Mobile users should have a frictionless experience when exploring your company and its opportunities online.

4. Build your reputation

We all want to develop and maintain a reputation for being a top-notch employer. It’s up to you to create a brand for potential employees just like marketers create a brand for customers.

Branding yourself as an employer will take a little time and effort, but it’s well worth it. Companies with a strong employer brand experience up to 50% reductions in their cost per hire, and they also receive 50% more qualified applicants.

Create a strong employer brand online. Ensure that your messaging is consistent across your email marketing, social media, website, and more. This is essential for building a stronger, more memorable brand, and it’s less likely to confuse candidates with inconsistencies.

You recruitment team must maintain and update all your online profiles as well. They must ensure that the photos they’ve uploaded are current, links work, and descriptions are 100% accurate. If they receive a negative review, they shouldn’t ignore it.

5. Design a digital candidate selection process

The ultimate goal is to create a selection method that’s a positive experience for both your team and your candidates. This is done by building something easy to navigate, so everyone can easily move through the recruitment process.

This means being completely transparent with candidates every step of the way.

For instance:

• Assess applicants for the basic skills required for the job

• Provide genuine insight into your company’s culture

• Offer realistic job previews

By setting the right job expectations for your candidates right from the start, there’s less likely to be confusion and misunderstanding later down the road.

Furthermore, your team will get access to valuable data about these candidates, making the whole recruitment process data-driven and less biased.

6. Pick the right software

A digital recruitment strategy will only be as good as the tools it employs. Period.

It’s a good idea to select software to launch, develop, and refine your current process. Take the time to look at your hiring requirements, and then consider what tools you’ll need to achieve these objectives.

Understand what resources you’re already using and how your business or agency is leveraging them. What recruiting software helps you achieve the best results, and why is that the case? From there, work out what’s needed to take their recruitment strategy to the next level.

Is it an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)? Pre-employment assessment tools? A social recruiting program? Whatever it is, it’s better to research first. Before spending any money, be sure that all these tools integrate!

7. Train your team

Now that proper software is in place, you need to ensure that the software is easy and convenient for the whole team to use. This calls for training. If you are choosing to invest in software, make sure your team uses these tools to the fullest to see the best ROI possible.

8. Create a feedback system

A feedback loop in recruitment is when you ask candidates what they think about your recruitment process. Once you have comments and opinions to analyze, you can look for ways to improve and refine your strategy. This process needs to be continuous.

9. Track recruitment metrics

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” It is as simple as that. Think about the focus of your digital recruitment strategy and measure your progress using industry-standard performance indicators.

Setting a precise objective, selecting the right metrics to measure success, and keeping a close eye on the data will enhance the success rate of any digital recruitment strategy. Once data-driven improvements and modifications are made, you can confidently take action and see whether your adjustments lead to a better result.

10. Make your recruitment funnel consistent

The experience we provide candidates has to be consistent.

If they see a brand as an innovative and creative place to work because of an excellent employer branding, you must not spoil it by having a cumbersome application process. The best digital recruitment strategies prioritize exceptional candidate experiences and never falter to deliver even as technology advances and hiring methods evolve.