Blog▸ Employers ▸ Ways to entice and hire Candidates during difficult times

Ways to entice and hire Candidates during difficult times

30th March 2020

By Vahid Haghzare, Director Silicon Valley Associates Recruitment &

Victor Chen, Senior Recruiter, Silicon Valley Associates Recruitment

One of the top IT Recruitment Agencies and recruiters in Singapore, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Japan, Dubai, and Hong Kong SAR, SVA Recruitment is an IT and employment agency that provides jobs, executive search, and recruitment services.

We have had clients recently ask us for advice on how to keep attracting great talent at times when candidates are especially cautious and hesitant. Our own sourcing has also obviously come face to face with this resistance in the market.

When business gets tough and the market experiences any kind of contraction, companies have to get creative in their hiring approaches. Great talent is always needed to succeed - and to get out of any slump. So what can companies do to continue their recruitment successfully?

The answer to finding passive candidates in hard times lies in being creative, maximizing low-cost digital channels, and focusing heavily on meaningful, values-led content. Here at Silicon Valley Associates, we follow and preach that these tactics can be very effective:

Upgrade your job advertisements

Now isn't a time to write a long list of must-haves and skills. Instead, utilize storytelling and make your job postings engaging, content-rich, and designed to appeal to candidates' intrinsic values and motivation. Tell the candidate what they will do in the role, how they will grow and develop, and what they will achieve.

Build those referrals

Candidates are far more likely to want to hear from you when they have been referred by a trusted contact. So mention that name early-on and create that all-important link to take the conversation forward.

Tailor messages

Different generations want different things from jobs. Gen X workers may still be enticed by bonuses, financial rewards, company cars, and the corner office, but Millennials and Gen Z workers are more likely to want progression, development opportunities, interesting projects, and more intrinsic rewards.

Think about your values

Similarly, many of today's workers are keen to work for companies that mirror their own values. Make sure your company stands for something. Support your community, support charities, encourage your team to volunteer, and give back to the communities that you operate within. Have clear policies for social, ethical, and environmentally-conscious businesses and stick to them.

Work on your content

Don't aim to push candidates to apply for a specific job in as short a time as possible with heavy sales techniques. Instead, sell the career. Sell the experience and the culture and values of your company. Talk about what it's like to join your company and what employees benefit from over the course of their careers there, such as interesting projects, responsibility, training and development, progression, and so forth. Sell the story as a marketer would and get your employees to do it for you in their own words.

Develop your social media

Social media is free and powerful. Work out which channels your targets use and build your brand on there. Be active with your content, your engagement, and your storytelling.

Spend time researching

Speak to the best employees that your company recruited recently. Find out what it was that enticed them to join you. Find out how they found out about you, what channels they used to learn more, how they were approached, and so forth. This kind of data will help you to build a picture of success. When business is hard, it makes sense to spend time researching and doing the analytical tasks that often fall by the wayside during busy and regular recruitment periods.

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Silicon Valley Associates is ideally positioned to support the continual demand from tech companies and IT Departments looking to hire in Hong Kong, Asia, and Worldwide. Please let us know if you would further advise on the above topic or your hiring needs