As we head into 2024, recruiters have tall orders to fill—competition is fierce and employers are battling it out for the best talent. (Plus, there are all those layoffs adding an air of uncertainty to the market.) Following some smart recruiting tips can help you stand apart from other recruiters and hire your ideal talent.

The talent market has changed, the skills gap is widening, and top talent is harder to woo. Amid these shifts, recruitment pros are having to strike a balance between traditional strategies that have stood the test of time, and more innovative approaches that are demonstrating tangible results.

Employee referral programs, for example, remain one of the most effective talent-sourcing channels, with more than a third of workers landing their job this way according to recent research by Payscale. Referral programs aren’t a new concept, but they’ve remained effective over the years. On the other hand, we’re seeing new methods—like the rise of recruitment automation—gain traction, too.

So, what strategies should you continue with, and where do you need to make changes? Let’s dive in.

What makes a recruiter successful?

A successful recruiter is ultimately a facilitator: they find the best mutual fit for employers and job seekers. In other words, they help people find their dream jobs, and organizations find their dream hires. 

Successful recruiters don’t lose sight of this goal, and they use the right strategies and tools to help them accomplish it. This involves sourcing from the right channels, using automation to save time, working on improving the candidate experience, and continuously learning along the way.

8 smart recruiting tips to help you kill it in 2024

We hope these eight tips for recruiters give you some inspiration for hiring in 2024.

1. Work on your employee value proposition

If you’re looking to improve your recruiting process, putting a good employee value proposition (EVP) together is stage zero. Your EVP sets the foundation for the rest of your recruiting activities. 

An EVP includes everything your organization has to offer an employee—from compensation packages to benefits and your work culture. Communicating this proposition in your messaging and branding will help you attract top talent.

Because of how important your EVP is for attracting talent, strive to make it authentic. Tangible benefits, like salaries and compensation, are easier to identify and quantify. But you also need to tap into aspects like your approach to diversity and inclusion, and other factors. What would make someone want to work with you? And what does your ideal fit look like?

2. Get team members involved—especially for specialized roles

Talking to team members can help you refine job descriptions, prioritize what skills and experience to look for, and generally streamline the recruiting process overall. 

So when you’re in the early planning stages, it’s good practice to talk to the team about the position that you’re looking to fill. Get their input on not only the required skills and experience, but also what traits and characteristics they’re looking for. This information helps you refine your search and make sure that you don’t waste resources on applicants that aren’t right for the role. 

3. Work on your job descriptions

Again, talking to team members will help you refine your job descriptions. You don’t want to, say, ask for more years of experience than necessary or for skills that aren’t required for the role (these steps could discourage good applicants from applying).

But there are additional steps you can take to make sure your job description is solid. Here’s a quick checklist:

• Write your job title clearly.
• Communicate your EVP.
• Use an “about us” section as an opportunity to attract your ideal talent. Tailor your message to the values and ambitions your ideal talent shares. 
• Make sure the requirements and “nice-to-haves” are clearly communicated.
• Communicate the role’s responsibilities.
• Use inclusive language — Gender Decoder is really helpful for decoding bias from your job ads.
• Let interested people know the next steps. Make it easy for them to apply, let them know when they’ll hear back by, and share any other details that they should know.

Your job description has a big impact on the application process, so it’s worth taking the time to get it right. 

4. Use different channels to reach your ideal talent

Nowadays, people are looking for jobs on different platforms and forums—make sure you meet them there. This means covering your traditional spaces, like job boards, universities, and LinkedIn, but also branching out to specialized platforms—like Wellfound for hiring start-up talent, or WeWorkRemotely for recruiting virtual employees.

And again, don’t forget your employee referral program. Referred employees typically have a lower cost per hire and higher retention than traditionally sourced hires. So, it’s definitely worth looking into having one in place and using it effectively.

5. Don’t overlook the power of technology

Technology can be a massive help! There are heaps of tools that can help you with every stage of the recruiting process, and there are loads of repetitive tasks you can automate (like updating your ATS or scheduling interviews).

With the help of recruiting automation and technology, you can streamline a lot of laborious processes and focus on what really matters: connecting with talent and finding the best fit for the role.

Given how many recruiting tools there are, though, it’s easy to get confused about where to start. Our advice? Look at your existing recruiting process, zero in on inefficiencies, and check out tools that can solve the bottlenecks. For example:

• If you have trouble tracking applicants, look into using an ATS.
• If you aren’t getting the most out of recruiting on LinkedIn, consider using LinkedIn Recruiter to help you source your ideal talent. 
• If assessing applicants at scale is a nightmare, look into using an online skills assessment platform.
• If you could be streamlining your tab-toggling and copy-pasting processes, check out Magical.

You don’t need to go crazy and use every recruiting tool under the sun—just prioritize ones that directly address your pain points.

P.S. Check out these must-have recruitment tools—you might find what you need. 

6. Grow your talent pool

Easier said than done, right? We get it. But if you’re regularly sourcing talent to fill new roles, growing and maintaining a talent pool is worth the investment. 

A talent pool isn’t a physical entity—it’s a term for your entire talent network, which includes job seekers and people who are interested, or might be interested in, joining your organization. 

This could include people who have previously applied for a role at your company (but weren’t a good fit for the position), job seekers that engage with your company on social media platforms, and students from universities that you recruit from. 

A talent pool brings prospective applicants into your network, giving you the opportunity to promote your employer brand, discover best-fit talent, and source talent more efficiently. 

7. Simplify your messaging

There’s a lot of messaging involved when you’re recruiting people. You’re reaching out to job seekers to learn more about their skills, and what they’re looking for in a job. Then, when things start moving forward, you need to brief them on the application process and take them through the recruitment stages.

Don’t forget to work on your messaging. Make it as easy-to-follow as you can. Communicate expectations and next steps clearly. In everything you write, make sure you:

• Make your messages concise. When you first reach out to someone, you just need to determine if they’re interested in the role. So avoid giving them too much additional information—just make it clear why you’re reaching out, and what the opportunity is.
  
• Add a personal touch. Addressing the recipient by their name and tailoring your message to their experience, skills, or interest humanizes your outreach. It makes your message seem less like it’s a result of a mass-sourcing campaign.
  
• Make the next steps clear. When you reach out to someone, don’t assume they’ll know what to do next. Make it easy for them to take action by clearly communicating what needs to happen and when. Should they reply expressing their interest, or is there an application portal they should visit? 

8. Collect feedback and improve the candidate experience

As many as 8 to 9 out of 10 job seekers will change their mind about a company if they have a poor experience. Worse yet, almost 60% report having negative candidate experiences. 😮

So, improving the candidate experience is clearly an area that many organizations need to invest in. Just like companies continuously strive to give customers the best experiences, they need to prioritize talent in a similar way. 

That involves scrutinizing the recruiting process and finding out where the candidate experience can be improved. For example:

• Does your team follow up with candidates on time? Are some people left hanging?
• Is your interviewing and testing process efficient and candidate-friendly? Or is it tiring for the applicants?
• Is the application process easy? Or is there a lot of friction here?

Initially, it might be difficult to figure out exactly which touchpoints are causing trouble. But that’s why it’s so important to keep collecting feedback from applicants. 

Even if some applicants don’t make it further along your recruiting funnel, try to gauge their experience at every touchpoint (surveys are helpful here). Use this feedback to keep making improvements. 

How’s your 2024 recruiting strategy looking?

You might need to rethink some parts of your recruiting strategy in 2024—like what exactly your organization has to offer, which channels top talent is using to find you, and how to improve the candidate experience. If you do, your recruiting efforts could come out tops!

Here’s to meeting your hiring goals in 2024—and beyond.

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