With a relatively low unemployment rate and potentially millions of people out of work battling long Covid, it can be tricky to find the right employees these days. There has never been a better time to make the switch to more effective digital recruitment and leave traditional hiring practices in the past.

What is digital recruitment? What is the difference between digital recruiting and traditional hiring? What are the advantages of digital recruitment?

From the experts at DigitalHR, here’s what you need to know about digital recruitment. Want us to help with your digital recruiting efforts? Request a quote today.

What Is Digital Recruitment?

Also known as online recruitment, digital HR, electronic recruitment, or remote recruitment, digital recruitment refers to using technology and the internet to conduct and manage the entire recruitment process, including finding, selecting, and hiring candidates.

What’s the Difference Between Digital Recruitment and Traditional Hiring?

While traditional hiring relies on publishing job postings in print media and receiving paper applications and resumes in the mail, digital recruitment brings the entire process online. Not only does digital recruitment give you access to a wider pool of candidates, but you can use tools to help you filter through resumes and promote your job to the people who would be the best fit for the position.

The Importance of Digital Recruiting

A 2015 study found that 79% of Americans used online resources in their most recent job search. Between technological advances and the Covid-19 pandemic, you can bet that number has increased significantly since then. Simply put, digital recruitment is an absolute must these days to find the best candidates.

Advantages of Digital Recruiting

Digital recruitment has many advantages compared to traditional hiring practices. Here are some of the biggest advantages you should consider.

More Applicants and Wider Reach

Digital recruiting allows you to reach a significantly bigger pool of applicants with an unlimited geographical reach.

People are looking to move to a new state for a wide variety of reasons these days, from weather to politics to wanting to be closer to family. Digital recruitment allows you to reach people who don’t live in your area yet but are already considering making a move.

With a larger applicant pool to choose from, you’re more likely to find exactly the right people for your open positions, potentially improving employee retention, which benefits everybody, including your customers.

Flexible

If you post a job in a newspaper, that information is generally permanent. With digital recruiting, you can constantly change details, edit ads, and try new things to attract the right kind of candidates for your available positions.

Expedited Hiring Process

Since you don’t need to wait for paper resumes to filter into your office and through the HR division, you can shortlist and contact highly qualified candidates as they apply. With the ability to pull an online ad almost immediately, you don’t need to set specific deadlines and wait for all the applications to come in before deciding who would be best.

Improved Efficiency

There are a variety of tools available to help you digitally sort through resumes and filter out unqualified candidates automatically, without wasting the time it would take for a human to review every resume to pick the best ones. Additionally, the ability to add, alter, or remove job postings almost instantly saves time compared to traditional recruiting methods.

Allows Confidentiality

Online recruitment allows employers to keep their company names private or reach out to qualified candidates directly without advertising their open position to the general public. If your organization or the job role itself is too controversial or too sensitive to be advertised traditionally, online recruitment can provide the appropriate level of secrecy.

Cost-Effective

Not only can posting jobs online be cheaper than traditional job postings, but conducting interviews via Zoom or other communication platforms saves you from reimbursing candidates for parking or travel expenses.

Tips for Developing a Digital Recruitment Strategy

Creating, developing, and launching a digital recruitment strategy requires a solid plan. Here are our top tips for developing a digital recruiting strategy:

• Produce consistent content. You may already be creating content as part of your SEO strategy. Dedicate some of your content production to employee information, company stories, general tips from your industry, and other information that could entice potential job applicants.
• Build your branding as an employer. Just as you focus on branding your company for customers, you should brand it as an employer and create enthusiasm about the idea of working for you.
• Be smart about social media. While you likely already have a strong social media presence to engage with potential customers, you should also use it to engage with potential job candidates. You need to know where your best potential candidates spend their time online. While older social media users tend to stick to Facebook, professionals put their effort into LinkedIn, and younger people spend more time on Instagram and TikTok.

Request a Quote from DigitalHR Today

You don’t need to tackle online recruitment alone. The experts at DigitalHR have years of experience helping clients generate a high volume of applicants by putting an engaging Careers section on their website and advertising positions via social media, search ads, job postings on appropriate sites, syndicated press releases, social ads, and other Digital PR tactics.

Learn more about how DigitalHR can help you find the best candidates for your open positions, and request a quote today.