7 effective ways to recruit high volumes of early-career talent for your growing business
Finding the right staff to support your growth ambitions is essential when it comes to launching your scaling plans, but what are the most effective ways to recruit high volumes of early-career talent for your company?
Attracting the right talent at scale can be a major challenge, but technology is actively transforming the recruitment process in a number of ways, from building organisational awareness to screening candidates.
Technologies like applicant tracking systems (ATS), AI, and machine learning (ML) are all helping to incorporate automation tools into the hiring process, while social media platforms like LinkedIn are becoming powerful ways to engage with potential candidates.
But how can you use technology to recruit a large number of early-career candidates? Let’s take a deeper look at seven key ways to build your workforce at scale:
1. Harness the power of social media
To recruit high volumes of early-career candidates, it pays dividends to have a recognisable social media presence. Sourcing candidates on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and even TikTok can help build your workforce effectively.
Here, it’s essential to showcase your brand and resonate with your target audience to discover candidates who match your criteria.
Social listening tools can also pay dividends here, and using hashtags and relevant keywords related to your industry and location will help to reach out to people who are having conversations that are related to your business.
Your recruitment drive should incorporate social media, and it’s essential that your posts effectively champion your company’s culture, values, and benefits. It’s also certainly worth sharing your job listings on social media.
2. Develop an employee referral scheme
When it comes to recruiting a substantial number of early-career talent, it can be difficult to cope with the large number of positions you’re looking to fill. Another tricky aspect of your recruitment drive may be that it’s harder to screen CVs that don’t have much prior experience.
It’s for this reason that employee referral programs are especially effective in recruiting early-career candidates at scale.
Your referral program should be incentivised to encourage more recommendations, either with a paycheck bonus or other easy-to-source but appealing freebies. You should also create a seamless avenue for employees to make their recommendations.
Companies like Intel and Deloitte thrive on their referral programs that have been found to improve both hiring efficiency and retention rates, helping more businesses to keep their best performers for longer.
3. Deploy screening software
Artificial intelligence is transforming the quality and efficiency of recruitment, particularly when it comes to assessing high volumes of candidates.
Here, using AI in recruitment can help businesses to accurately screen CVs and application forms. The technology, which leans heavily on ML, can then score candidates based on how well they align with the available job role.
One of the most effective ways that screening software can bring efficiency for employers is during pre-employment checks, where the technology can collaborate with HR teams to flag inconsistencies or risks to help save time and resources being wasted.
4. Develop a graduate program
Candidate programs can be resource-intensive to create, but they can also be extremely effective in nurturing high volumes of early-career talent.
If you have the resources to develop a graduate program, you can onboard skilled workers into your business while developing their competencies by allowing them to explore different teams and areas of interest within your organisation.
With a structured program in place, you can operate annual recruitment drives to attract more early-career candidates and build further awareness of your business.
5. Offer tailored benefits
Younger employees have different priorities from their counterparts and crave a healthy work-life balance as well as evidence that their employers care for their mental well-being.
With this in mind, you should prioritise access to remote work and flexible work locations and styles to help improve your attraction to early-career recruits.
Tuition reimbursement can also be highly advantageous to enhance the overall value proposition that you present to employees. Adding perks that resonate with the goals of early-career talent, such as health-focused benefits like gym membership discounts, can go a long way to improve your attraction.
6. Set up hiring events
When it comes to recruiting high volumes of candidates, job fairs and hiring events are great strategies for any enterprise seeking to attract more applicants.
Job fairs allow you to meet and assess candidates in a face-to-face environment, helping to add greater efficiency to your processes and grow your ability to access a diverse talent pool.
Likewise, virtual career fairs can offer greater flexibility in reaching a broader audience without needing to leave your office. With the help of social media, you can set up a virtual career event and speak to candidates while boosting your company’s brand awareness.
7. Celebrate your company culture
Early-career talent want to find a company that resonates with their values. Be sure to ensure that your company culture is not only promoted online but also celebrated with the help of social media.
This can be achieved in many ways. From making behind-the-scenes videos to showcasing employee spotlights to provide insights into the company, this can be your chance to show young professionals that you’re about more than just a place of work.
Appealing to the masses
Early-career talent is entering the job market in high volumes every year, and it’s your task to appeal to them ahead of your industry competitors.
By using social media and boosting your visibility, you can build your appeal considerably. By also taking the time to create bespoke benefits and offers, it’s easier for you to create an environment that will continue to appeal to your new recruits.
Technology will help to support high-volume screening, easing the burden on your recruitment team. With the right strategy in place, you can continue to nurture the star employees of tomorrow as you embark on your scaling journey.