Recruitment Online: Tips & Tools

Hiring Success Glossary
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What is online recruitment?

Online recruitment refers to the sourcing of candidates using the internet. This can be done in a variety of ways from social media recruiting to online job boards.

Online recruitment for job seekers

While most articles providing information for online recruitment speak to the questions and concerns of employers and recruiters, our informational summary will also provide answer to the other half of the equation - job seekers. Therefore, the following factoids provide strategies for online recruiting to the job applicants themselves.

How to apply for jobs online

Below is a summarized account of the necessary assets you must possess to apply for jobs online:

  • Resume: In order to apply to online jobs it's crucial to have your resume ready and up to date. Since the employer will be basing you off your resume and cover letter it's extremely important that it is polished.
  • Employment history: Make sure you know all of your employment history. Employers often want to know at least 10 years of employment history so make sure you are ready to deliver, even if it's not on your resume.
  • Create an account: Creating an account on top job seeking sites will allow you to utilize features like Easy Apply. Creating an account can be a great way to streamline your application and cast a wider net.
  • Upload resume and info to account: Uploading your resume and relevant info to your online job seeking account can be a great way for recruiters and potential employers to further assess you as a candidate.
  • Search for jobs online: Now that you have created an account is time to start searching for jobs. Using keywords around the jobs you are looking for will help increase the efficiency of your job search.
  • Email communication: Most likely once you have moved to a further round in the job application process, an employer will reach out to you via email. It's important to be readily available on email in order to have clear communication with a potential employer.
  • Employment tests: Often employers will want to test a candidate before they hire them. Online employment assessments are common today. These tests assess your hard as well as soft skills and let employers know if you would be a good fit for the role and company.
  • Follow ups: Once you have applied for a job or had an interview, it's key to follow up with an employer and thank them for their time. This lets the interviewer know that you are appreciative and can handle yourself professionally.

Resume Template

As aforementioned, the foremost requirement of applying for a job online is to have a fully updated resume. Thus, we thought it would be a worthwhile to provide readers of our article a free resume template, which you can download in PDF or Microsoft Word format.

Online recruitment for employers

Now that we have covered the job seeker portion of online recruitment, below is information pertaining to tips and tools that employers should utilize while recruiting online. Below are the top six ways to recruit prospective employees online:

    • Professional association websites: Posting your open position to a professional website can be a great way to source candidates. Candidates can see your posting on a website they frequent, but professional sites also often send out email blasts to their members as well as other publishers.
    • College and alumni organizations: Often colleges and universities will allow you to post jobs to their websites for free. This allows you to tap into a candidate pool that is actively or soon to be actively looking for jobs. College and alumni organizations often have specific job boards for internships, or degree specific jobs.
    • Government resources: Local and state governments often have websites where they list job openings for job seekers. These websites often have high volumes of traffic, and are a great free or low cost way to get your job ad seen.
    • Job boards and aggregators: Job boards and aggregators are a great way for your posting to be seen by thousands of people. While they tend to be more expensive than the aforementioned options they often provide excellent results.
    • Social media: 73% of Millennials (18-34 age group) found their last position through a social media platform. Growing your company's social media presence and posting job opportunities on various social media platforms is a great way to source younger candidates.
    • Company website: Using complicated application forms is a sure way to drive candidates away. Think of your company website as a funnel for applicants. Capitalize on your website traffic by including a call to action for candidates to apply. Make sure to make the application process as easy as possible

Tools for online recruitment

The above tasks might seem daunting and laborious to pursue; thankfully, however, there are many tools that will allow you to increase the efficiency of your online recruitment process as an employer. Below are some of the best online recruiting tools:

Programmatic job advertising: Programmatic job advertising will allow your hiring team to post jobs to a variety of talent pools almost instantly, freeing up time for more pressing activities. Programmatic job advertising also allows for optimization of recruitment advertising using data driven insights on your advertising campaigns.

Candidate testing: Candidate testing is a highly efficient way for employers to screen and see if a candidate will be a good fit before investing a lot of time and energy into said candidate. Online tests can now test a candidate' hard skills, soft skills, knowledge, and even personality.

Collaborative hiring: Modern applicant tracking systems will allow hiring teams to engage in collaborative hiring. Collaborative hiring allows teams to rank and comment on candidates in a collaborative fashion, giving a variety of collaborators appropriate access levels. Collaborative hiring allows for faster decisions as well as the engagement of all team members.

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