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8 Out of The Box Creative Recruitment Ideas

With an ever-changing labor market, it can be difficult to make the hires that you need. It’s important to ensure you brainstorm creative recruitment ideas that will make your potential candidates feel more valued and show why your company is the right one to work for.

Remember: effort and thought must be put into your hiring strategies to win over, attract, and retain these candidates. While some of the time and effort may be taken up by researching out of the box recruiting ideas, we decided to make your job easier and provide 8 creative recruitment ideas that can work for you today.

Creative Recruitment Ideas

The following 8 recruitment strategies cover different stages of the hiring process, ranging from posting effective and engaging job descriptions to internal referral programs. Ready to get started? Here’s what you can do:

1. Film Employee Testimonials/Stories

A great way to boost your hiring strategies and brand name is to film employee testimonials of their experience at your company. The best way to do this is to film short segments from varying departments and seniority levels so viewers may have a glimpse in a day in the life of particular employees. Be sure to include these videos on you careers page and post them on your social media channels for maximum engagement opportunities.

Here are some questions to ask your employees:

  • What is the company culture like?
  • Tell us about the company and its duties
  • Please describe your role, responsibilities, and how long you have been here
  • What does your average day look like?
  • What has been your favorite experience working here or something you look forward to at work?

2. Use Social Media for Social Recruiting

Another creative recruitment idea is to use social media to attract and excite potential candidates. Social recruiting can serve as a compliment to traditional recruiting methods. It’s important to keep in mind that social recruiting is also becoming more commonplace and may soon outpace traditional recruiting as the hiring process standard.

According to a report by CareerArc, 92% of employers use social media to hire candidates and 96% of candidates use social media when conducting a job search. Some tactics you can use to inform both you and your candidates of how well they would fit in with your company are:

  • Using LinkedIn to post jobs and learn about a candidate’s prior/current professional experience
  • Monitoring Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see how candidates portray themselves online to family, friends, and strangers
  • Engaging with candidates on Twitter to learn about their opinions, interests, and what they value. This can also help gauge how well they fit into your company culture
  • Filming YouTube videos that showcase your company values, mission, and culture (e.i. senior management interviews, company events)
  • Job promotions using hashtags on Instagram or TikTok. Using these platforms can show audiences what it’s like to work for your company in short video format (e.i. employee testimonials, shadowing a position)

3. Turn Job Descriptions Upside-Down

Upside-down? What does that mean? When posting jobs online, companies typically put the job description and generic company information before including benefits. By turning job descriptions upside-down and putting the benefits first, job seekers may be more likely to click on and apply to your position if they can easily understand what they get out of it. This creative recruitment idea may be small in change, but can have big effects when candidates are combing through dozens of applications.

4. Wrap Your Vehicle

Does your company have a car, truck, or van that could use a makeover? Or maybe you have an employee who wants to become more involved in the recruiting process and is willing to let you use the real estate on their car. Whatever the case may be, wrapping a vehicle with your company logo, ad for a job, and contact information is a literal “out of the box” recruiting idea that your company can implement to attract talent out on the road or parked in a lot.

The benefits of wrapping a vehicle include the mobility of advertisement and brand recognition. Everyone knows the purpose of a billboard. They will likely dismiss the content as they pass by it on the road. However, when you use a vehicle as a medium of advertisement, it can capture attention. This is because it presents itself as out-of-place from the norm since it’s not as commonly seen as a form of recruitment.

5. Incorporate a Chatbot on Your Careers Page

When candidates visit your company’s careers page, they will typically be searching for positions that best suit their expertise and skills. If they find something they like, they may apply for it through your site. However, if they have questions or want to find out more than is presented in the job application, they may have to do additional research or contact your company. To ease the candidates job seeking process, the creative recruitment idea of incorporating a chatbot feature on your careers page can solve this dilemma.

While you may already have a chatbot feature on other parts of your website, including one that is dedicated to your careers page to answer FAQs, provide additional information, and put candidates in touch with the appropriate employees where needed can greatly improve your recruiting process and free up both you and your candidate’s time.

6. Utilize an AI Talent Acquisition Tool

Looking to step up your hiring game? Utilizing an AI Talent Acquisition tool such as Talroo can make your recruiter’s life easier. With tools such as these, it lets them better focus their energy on the most pressing work at hand. They can assist you in advertising jobs, activating hiring events, and strategizing your insights to not only help you achieve making the hires that you need, but ensure that you receive only the most qualified and insightful candidates.

7. Establish an Employee Referral Program

Getting your employees to enroll in a referral program is another notable recruitment idea that will bring benefits. An employee referral program is a recruiting strategy in which employers encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates in their networks to positions in your organizations you are looking to fill. These programs normally come with the promise of rewards for each referral hired.

You can incentivize your employees with rewards such as:

  • A paid day off
  • Gift cards
  • Cash rewards
  • Points they can redeem for a prize
  • A feature in a company meeting or newsletter

8. Hold Informational Interviews

Holding informational interviews with potential candidates is the last on the list of creative recruitment ideas. Hosting these kinds of interviews allows your potential candidates to get to know your company, team, and department. It also gives them a sense of what it’s like to work there and whether it’s a good fit. This is valuable for them to know before they decide if they want to move forward in the application process.

The best way to inform when and where these interviews are happening is posting them on social media. Another option would be to send them out in a newsletter. You can host these events in-person at a local coffee shop or restaurant or if you’d prefer, host them online. If you host them online, include a gated sign-up link to collect essential information such as name, phone, and email.

A good sign of increased retention and reach is if potential candidates decide to move forward after the informational interviews.