In September 2024, job openings reached their lowest numbers since January 2021. For HR professionals, that makes having the best recruitment strategies in place even more important. Finding the best talent for new openings is always important, but when there’s so much competition on the job market, it’s in your organization’s best interest to improve the recruiting process to get an edge on the competition.
Here, we break down 13 recruitment strategies that can help your organization attract top talent in 2025.
Recruitment sourcing and strategy foundations
1. Creating a compelling employee value proposition (EVP)
An employee value proposition (EVP) is the set of benefits, values, and offerings that a company provides its employees. A complete EVP includes:
- Total rewards, such as compensation, benefits, and incentives
- Work environment and culture
- Professional development opportunities
- Flexibility and work-life balance
- Recognition and upward mobility
A compelling EVP helps companies attract and retain high-quality talent that is dedicated to the corporate mission. Not only that, but it can also guide current employees to reach their peak potential at the company.
To create a good EVP, you must understand what motivates employees at your organization and make those motivations a core component of your company’s mission and values. Use data from surveys and feedback to figure out what your employees like about your organization and their most wanted benefits — whether it’s an unlimited time-off policy, upskilling opportunities, or something else. The things your employees value the most about working at your company should be included on every job description and inform the types of candidates you reach out to directly.
2. Engage passive candidates
Passive candidates are individuals who are currently employed and not actively looking for a job. They may have submitted a resume on a job description just for the heck of it or are presently working with a competitor. Recruitment efforts should include passive candidates who may not be seriously thinking about changing jobs.
Oftentimes, the top talent is already employed. As an HR professional, it’s your job to identify that talent and at least gauge whether they might be interested in a change. Likewise, it’s vital to look closely at job applications. Candidates aren’t always motivated to thoroughly complete an application or submit a cover letter. That doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified.
3. Leveraging social media for recruitment
Social media is one of the most effective recruitment strategies and practices. Sharing job descriptions on platforms like LinkedIn can be low-hanging fruit that will let your employees circulate openings to their professional network. Don’t stop there, though. Posting on Facebook, X, and Instagram in addition to traditional job boards will broaden your reach and attract different types of talent. For instance, some of the most creative people may not actively use LinkedIn, but they could be a lot more active on Instagram.
4. Fostering employee referral programs
People enjoy working with friends. Crazy idea, right? Employee referral programs can be both recruitment and retention strategies. Not only will a referral program help attract talented people that current employees have worked with in the past, but it’s a good way to assess a culture fit right from the outset. Employees are far more likely to refer people they think will fit in at the company rather than people they struggled to work with in the past.
Moreover, a strong employee referral program that brings a tight professional network together in the same place can improve employee retention. People are ten times more likely to stay in a job if they like their coworkers. Not to mention, happy employees are 12% more productive.
5. Nurturing talent communities
A talent community is a recruitment tool that creates a pipeline of passive candidates who are interested in your company but aren’t ready to apply. Using candidate relationship management (CRM) software curates candidate information, qualifications, and experience in a single location so you always have a ready-made list of potential candidates for a variety of positions. With this technology, you can easily segment communities to find people best suited for a variety of positions.
It’s important to nurture these communities by staying in touch with automated messaging campaigns. Let candidates know what’s going on with the company, what roles may be open on the horizon, and any other significant developments that may make the organization more appealing.
Candidate evaluation and experience
6. Implementing skills-based hiring
Skills-based hiring is a recruitment strategy that focuses on candidates’ skills and abilities rather than job history or educational background. This practice can help reduce bias in the hiring process by elevating the importance of practical, job-specific skills over an impressive university or company. The takeaway is that just because somebody worked at Google doesn’t mean they’re automatically the best person for the job.
7. Enhancing the candidate experience
Hiring isn’t just about churning through applications and interviews. Candidates are assessing your company, too. The candidate experience is an important, but often overlooked, part of the hiring process. The typical corporate job listing has more than 250 applications. The vast majority of applicants won’t get an interview. However, the simple gesture of an automated email thanking applicants for their time can keep your organization in their good graces. You never know when a past applicant might be a better fit down the line.
More importantly, you should value job candidates’ time like you do your own. Show up on time and prepare for interviews, allow the candidate to ask questions, and always follow up promptly about next steps.
8. Streamlining the interview process
This goes part and parcel with the previous point. Interviewing can at times be tedious, but it doesn’t have to be. Work with hiring managers to narrow down applicants and only give interviews to candidates who managers are excited about.
Don’t make them go through several rounds of interviews first to narrow down finalists. Reducing the number of interviews saves everybody time and helps you get a more focused approach to hiring.
9. Ensuring cultural alignment in hiring
Workplace culture is a delicate balance. Whether you’re hiring your first employee or your 100th, it’s always important to consider cultural alignment. Workaholics who completely immerse themselves in their work may not be thrilled at a company with mandatory PTO and an open, collaborative workspace. Likewise, social butterflies may not fare well in hyper-competitive meritocratic companies.
Advanced recruitment techniques
10. Campus recruitment strategies
College students are natural options for entry-level jobs. While internship programs can be a great way to attract young talent to your company, don’t assume that all the best and brightest are doing internship programs every summer.
Attending job fairs at college campuses and posting on school job boards or even putting up flyers around campus can help recruit new talent to your organization.
11. Automating recruitment processes
Automation is a key benefit of a CRM. As you gather information about potential candidates, a CRM allows you to store candidate profiles and market open positions to them with ease. You can segment by expertise, experience level, location, and more to streamline the recruiting process. With automated emails sent out to candidates that are already on your radar, you could skip the manual cold calling recruitment process.
12. Utilizing niche job boards
While major job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter are helpful, when you have specialized jobs, it’s better to go straight to the niche boards. There are many job boards out there today that focus on specific industry or role niches that can allow you to hyper-focus your recruiting. There are more general options like TechCareers, which serves jobs in the tech industry, or very specific ones like MedReps, which is for healthcare sales.
Depending on the role you’re looking to fill, spend some time researching niche boards that can support your search.
13. Data-driven approaches in recruitment
Data isn’t just for sales and analytics teams. HR professionals should use data, too.
Utilizing recruitment metrics
Recruitment metrics help organizations measure the success of their hiring practices. Some common metrics include:
- Cost per hire: Cost of recruitment divided by number of hires in a given period.
- Time to hire: Number of days between a candidate’s application and hiring.
- Offer acceptance rate: Frequency with which candidates accept offers.
- Early turnover: Number of candidates who leave within one year.
Refining hiring processes with data analysis
It’s important to regularly visit recruitment metrics to see how numbers change after any given action. For instance, if you remove a question from your job application process, does it raise the application completion rate? If you build out a more dedicated onboarding process, does it lower the early turnover rate?
Data analysis is an ongoing process, and the best way to improve your recruitment strategies is to understand the scientific impact that certain decisions have on your hiring.
Stay ahead of HR trends to attract top talent
You know the HR basics for SMBs, and with this guide you’ll be well on your way to mastering the art of recruitment. If you’re ready to take your human resource efforts up a notch, check out OnPay’s HR software and explore even more content around people management. Best of luck as you attract new hires in the year ahead!
