Sourcing Qualified Candidates: Traditional vs. Modern Ways of Recruitment

It is essential to attract the top talent to build an organization’s future. If you look forward to getting ahead of your competitors in the market, it is inevitably essential to formulate a top-notch recruitment strategy. For sourcing qualified candidates, It is important to develop creative sourcing strategies and modern ways of recruitment.

Employees are the key to success for every organization, and recruitment is, therefore, a challenging process. The human resource manager spends invaluable time searching for the best candidates online through a wide talent pool to fill the vacant positions. Undoubtedly, everyone looks forward to hiring a candidate who enhances the organization’s performance and takes it a step ahead of the competitors. 

For that reason, several recruitment methods are practiced in organizations. However, the modern methods of recruitment have proven to be more effective than the traditional ones. This blog will uncover a comparative analysis of traditional and untraditional recruitment methods for sourcing qualified candidates.

Traditional Methods of Recruitment 

Millennials and Generation Z makes up around 50% of the entire workforce. The fact to be noted is that they do not turn to newspapers for searching the relevant jobs. Rather, they are more likely to explore the new job openings through their mobile phones. Even then, 73% of the employers fail to fetch the relevant talent from the market primarily because of the traditional recruitment methods adopted by the organization.

We can’t deny the fact that traditional recruitment methods are outdated now and have nothing phenomenal to offer. Let’s look into some of the most common and traditional ways of hiring that are still practiced by various organizations. 

Traditional Ways Of Hiring 

1. Local Advertisements in Newspapers

If you are searching for the best candidates by posting an advertisement for the job opening in a local newspaper, you will certainly miss the opportunity to hire a suitable candidate not by the geographical boundary alone but also by chance. That is to say that your desired candidate may not read the newspaper at all or just skim through it and miss out on the relevant ad. Thus, only those job seekers who by chance come across the ad and choose to apply are going to be scarce.  

Research has shown that 70% of the top talent is passive. That means they are not actively searching for a job, so you can not fetch these talented individuals by merely relying on the traditional methods of recruitment.

2. Hiring through Local Office Employment Postings

Several organizations hire candidates by posting ads at local unemployment offices. That is because people are looking for jobs all the time, and they are likely to find some candidates. However, there is limited access to talent and diversity in such places. It does not make sense in a technology-driven era to post ads at local offices.  

On top of that, in a local job ad posting, there is not even enough space to mention all the job post requirements and other details. So, the options get limited if you decide to go this way.  

3. Recruiting through Word of Mouth

Another popular method of hiring commonly observed in the traditional market is hiring through word of mouth. In this method, usually, the employer asks the already hired employees for sourcing candidates to hire. This can affect the brand name to a great extent. A company’s reputation may get colored by personal opinions as you get a little chance to elaborate about your company and the job description.  

Moreover, such kind of hiring creates a bad reputation for your brand and can limit your company’s chances of success. A survey was held among candidates to reveal their employer preferences, and 55% of the candidates said they refrained from applying at the companies that had bad reviews. 50% of the candidates said they would never work for an employer having a bad reputation even if they were offered extraordinary incentives. So this is how sensitive the traditional hiring process can be. 

Modern Methods of Recruitment  

Technology has significantly upgraded in the 21st century, and its effects on the recruitment process are also evident. It is seen that the modern recruitment methods have grown and have created a difference in the process of recruiting new candidates for the organizations. Following are some of the potential and traditional recruitment methods that can assist organizations in hiring suitable candidates.  

1. Hiring through Social Media Platforms 

The technique of social media recruitment is still unknown to the followers of traditional recruitment methods. Social media has potentially gained a say in the scheme of things. Now, employers simply post jobs on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram to reach a greater audience and more candidates. Research has shown that 79% of candidates actively search for a relevant job opportunity over social media. Thus, social media platforms provide higher exposure and visibility. Moreover, the HR managers ensure that each job posted on social media is seen by the right candidate and vice versa. 

2. Conducting Video Interviews before Hiring 

Video conferencing software has gained popularity in recent times. As a modern recruitment method, video interview conference is conducted by many organizations as an integral part of the recruitment process. This allows the managers to speak directly to the candidates and shortlist them to proceed in the recruitment pipeline. This method is also helpful if they are located away from their business region. For example, If you are located in Kansas, and a candidate from New York applies to a job posted by your company, you can easily conduct a video conference and assess the candidate’s skills and abilities concerning the job position. 

3. Artificial Intelligence Techniques 

Among the modern recruitment techniques, the artificial intelligence system is trending for searching for candidates online and hiring suitable ones. AI has the potential to assist you with assessing the candidates and even in making significant adjustments to your job descriptions. Moreover, AI enables you to filter the job applications that are received from all over the talent pool. You can also scan your job posts and descriptions to ensure that you have optimized your language. This means you can add relevant terms that the candidates usually look for during the job hunt. In addition to that, you can utilize the AI system to directly communicate with the applicant. 

Although the modern methods of recruitment sound much better than the traditional ones, however, there are several drawbacks to them. For example, you can’t add a subjective touch to the modern methods of hiring. A recruiter who is hiring traditionally can assess a person through his personality or can ask for more details. He can even ask the candidate to share his opinion on any subject from a large pool of topics. This personal touch is, however, missing in the modern hiring process. 

One Solution to Avoid Drawbacks of Traditional and Modern Recruitment Process!   

Since both modern and traditional methods of recruitment have certain lackings, there is one tried and tested way to surpass these drawbacks of hiring, and that is: Stop recruiting by yourself! All you need to do is outsource your recruitment process to the RPO experts.  

Recruitment process outsourcing has become one of the best solutions for the leaders of the corporate culture, and many businesses have adopted RPO to ease their hiring process for sourcing qualified candidates. Following are some popularly hailed benefits of RPO in the industry: 

1. Get Quality Candidates Onboard 

It is challenging for an organization to bring an experienced and qualified candidate on board. Moreover, for an organization’s overall success, a candidate’s personality and work attitude also matter. The previous achievements of the applicants must also be considered while hiring, as this adds value to their future participation in the projects. The recruiting managers can not keep an eye on all these aspects as they have several positions to fill. But outsourcing the hiring process to RPO experts can certainly solve this issue. The RPO experts work as your partners and take responsibility for direct search.

2. Enhanced Brand Reputation 

Reputation is the driving force for a company. A reputable brand bolsters the identity of an organization and encourages the top talent to apply for the opportunity available at the company. A company is only regarded as reputable when all the steps of its recruitment process are in line with the professional rules and regulations. RPO firms ensure that your recruitment process is as transparent as possible and this, in turn, enhances your brand name triggering the interest of other potential candidates to apply to your organization. 

3. Access to Latest Technology for Hiring the Suitable Candidate 

Technology has taken hold of almost everything at the workplace. More and more businesses switch to RPO every year because the external recruiters are trained enough to utilize the latest technology and search for the best candidates online for your company. They can also design custom technical suites for companies, including tracking systems. They create automated emails and chatbots so that the candidates are updated regarding their application status. 

Ready to Dive in for RPO?

Outsourcing4work is here to assist you in this Journey! 

In the digitally charged era, the modern methods of hiring are popular, and the traditional ways are becoming obsolete. The debate between traditional and untraditional recruitment methods seems to have no end. Therefore, outsourcing your recruitment process to qualified professionals remains a feasible option remains outsourcing your recruitment process to qualified professionals.  

The best part about outsourcing is that you don’t need to do anything and can still get the desired results. On top of that, your organization becomes an appealing place to work essentially because of the RPO. Outsourcing4work is your one-stop-shop for resolving and optimizing the recruitment process difficulties. Our hiring experts blend their expertise with technical knowledge while sourcing qualified candidates for your company. So, book a free consultation with our experts!