How to find candidates who aren’t on job board sites
Struggling to get traction on your job ads? It’s a common problem among Australian employers – you publish high-quality ads across an array of platforms, but get only a minimal return. No one seems ‘right’.
The good news is the issue might not be your ads, but rather the job boards themselves. These websites are excellent places to find more common roles, but they limit your access to harder-to-find talent.
So what’s going wrong, and what’s the alternative? To get the best people for your business, it’s all about going beyond the boards. Here’s why.
Why you must look beyond job boards for the best candidates
The reality is, job boards are extremely limiting.
While relatively inexpensive and quite easy to use, they only ever capture a small percentage of the talent market. If someone isn’t searching for your role in the right place, at the right time, on the right website, they won’t see the ad. The best candidate for your position could miss you completely.
Job boards also don’t capture candidates who are open to new opportunities but aren’t actively looking. These are called ‘passive’ candidates, and in our experience in the Northern Beaches recruitment market, passive talent accounts for about 60% of people. They're perfect for your position, but you won’t find them on a job board.
Lastly, job boards aren’t good at showing off your company’s culture, or the dynamics of your team. You can claim that you have a great culture, but everybody else will be claiming the same thing. It’s a constrained format which doesn’t show off the unique benefits of working at your company.
How to recruit ideal talent without relying on job boards
Finding top talent without a job board requires a lot of time and patience. Think of it more like networking and relationship building rather than recruitment. It involves going out into the market, seeing who’s out there, opening dialogues and nurturing relationships.
Some of the steps include:
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Searching your network for people who would be a great talent and cultural fit.
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Asking members of your network for referrals.
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Asking employees for referrals.
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Getting involved in associations and communities to expand the size of your network.
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Attending conferences and events, again to expand the size of your network.
Most passive talent won’t accept a job offer straight away, either. You must work out what they want from a new role, build their trust and then see if they could be open to something new. Passive candidates need clear answers to their motivations if they’re to consider leaving their current employer.
This is a time-consuming process, which is why job ads are so popular in the first place (even if they aren’t as effective). Most business leaders find they get more cost-effective results by turning to an expert local recruiter instead.
How an expert recruiter helps uncover the best talent
A great local recruiter can dedicate the time to networking that you can’t. When you turn to an agency like mme, you’re not just accessing specialist local knowledge but also their entire network – a network which has been cultivated and nurtured for potentially years.
This helps you to essentially skip the queue, accessing the best talent immediately without spending time nurturing new relationships.
A great recruiter also goes beyond the CV
Modern candidates want more than just a role – cultural fit and benefits are extremely appealing. As such, great recruiters go beyond the CV to check that each hire will be a good cultural fit for your team, and that your team is right for them too. The same goes for your new leaders, where ‘boss’ fit (management style, personality, leadership values) are equally important, if not more so.
Expert recruiters humanise the recruitment process by taking time to understand not just your role, but the personality of each candidate and the dynamics of your team too. This helps them to find top talent with not only the right skills, but that perfect cultural and boss fit – people who feel like family from the moment they sign up.
Through job ads, you might get someone who needs the job and has the right skills, but who doesn’t align well with your company. With a recruiter’s help, you’ll access the best talent and the right skills, plus you’ll get someone who is far more likely to be genuinely suited for the role.
Need help? Let’s find your crew
Here at mme, 80% of our clients have been with us for five or more years, using us exclusively. Why?
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We know how to find the best talent on the Northern Beaches and wider Sydney markets. Our database contains over 59,000 candidates, and our Facebook job board has nearly 40,000 members. Our networks can identify the best talent and cultural fit 2.5x quicker than the industry norm.
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We utilise up-to-date market insights and intimate local knowledge to make highly strategic hiring decisions. Our strategies are 4x more likely to attract the right person than job boards alone, and can reduce costs up to 40%.
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Our recruiters can showcase your organisation’s unique value proposition, plus the personalised dynamics of your team and management – areas that job ads alone can’t effectively address.
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Our people stay – 63% of candidates placed through mme stay for more than five years.
When you need great talent in the Northern Beaches, North Shore and Greater Sydney, we’re the team for you. Learn more about our service here, or contact us to talk about your business.