6 Innovative Recruitment Methods Top Recruiters Don’t Want You to Know
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6 Innovative Recruitment Methods Top Recruiters Don’t Want You to Know

Post Author - James Elliott James Elliott Last Updated:

The recruitment market is hyper-competitive. And, given that by 2030 there’ll be an 85 million person talent shortage, top-tier candidates will only become more sought after. If you want to keep up, you’ll need to implement some innovative recruitment methods. 

In this article, we’ll give you the rundown on the best-kept innovation secrets in the recruitment industry. Harness some of these, and you’ll have top talent eating out of your hand – But shhh, keep them to yourself! 

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What is Innovative Recruitment?

Let’s start with a definition of innovation:

“Innovation is a process by which a domain, product, or service is renewed and brought up to date by applying new processes, introducing new techniques, or establishing successful ideas to create new value.”

This applies to recruitment as well. When we talk about innovative hiring, we’re covering: 

  • New and exciting innovative recruitment methods 📄
  • Game-changing innovative recruitment strategies 📊
  • Innovative recruitment ideas that pivot the industry 💡
  • New organizations delivering innovative end-to-end recruitment services 💼

In an industry as competitive as recruitment, organizations are always looking for ways to make things faster. This ensures they create an edge over their competitors to secure top talent. 

Recent Innovations in The Recruitment Industry

Before you implement your own innovative recruitment methods, it’s worth understanding a bit of background. As the digital age has boomed, so has the recruitment industry. 

Here are three of the key areas we’ve seen innovation in recruitment over the past five years: 

  • Access to more candidates. Digital technology, social media, and mobile advertising have created gateways for recruiters to reach a massive number of candidates worldwide. Crucially, through social media, outbound recruitment has become super powerful. This is because platforms like LinkedIn allow recruiters to target even the most passive candidates with their latest vacancy.
  • Automated candidate screening. More candidates mean more applications and more applications mean more screening. To handle this volume of applications, leveraging technology has created a range of innovative recruiting solutions to automate previously manual tasks.
  • Video. Video is now everywhere in recruitment. Whether that’s recruiters promoting their personal brand, asynchronous screening, or conducting interviews online, video helps recruiters build authentic human connections without actually being face-to-face. 

6 Creative and Innovative Recruitment Methods

So, now you know all about the latest recruitment industry innovations, it’s time to get ahead of the competition. Here are six creative and innovative recruitment strategies you can implement in your business straight away. 

#1 – Ditch Resumes for Skills Testing

Not only are resumes so 2015, as applicant numbers grow, innovative recruiters simply don’t have time to filter them. Instead of asking candidates to write down their skills, knowledge, and experience on a word document, why not try something more creative? 

Startups, industry leaders, and disrupters are all ditching resumes in favor of skills tests. Why? Skills testing is fast, engaging, cheat-proof, and cost-effective, allowing you to cut through hundreds of applicants to find the top-tier talent. 

Naturally, we love skills testing at Toggl Hire, so don’t just take our word for it, here’s how Monese used Toggl Hire skills testing to innovate their recruitment process. 

  • A simplified application process attracted 350 candidates for just two roles 📝
  • They automatically shortlisted candidates against a score threshold 🎯
  • This meant Monese reduced their hiring process from 5 steps down to 3 ⚙️
  • The results? Monese cut their time-to-hire by 72% ⏱️

Like the sound of that? Check out how we do skills testing at Toggl Hire:

#2 – Harness the Power of Video Interviews

If you want to stand out in the recruitment world, video is the way to go. The best and most innovative recruiters use video to showcase roles, sell their organization’s story, and, crucially, connect with candidates. 

While the pandemic has forced companies to take their interactions online, those who take a video-first mindset to interview are winning.

While this can mean mastering Zoom, Teams, or Webex, take the time to research dedicated video interview software. These tools let you take private notes, talk between interviewers, and record interviews to watch back later!

Plus, with video interviewing, there’s less time wasted travelling to interviews, it’s more flexible for candidates, and it compliments remote working!

#3 – Multiply Time with Asynchronous (One-Way) Video Interviews

Want to really take video to the next level? Asynchronous, or one-way, video interviews are revolutionizing the recruitment industry. 

With asynchronous interviews, recruiters record questions via video for candidates to answer in their own time using their laptop/phone’s camera and microphone.

At Toggl Hire, we do async interviews through our Video Intros feature. This gives the recruiter and the candidate the chance to get to know each other early on in the recruitment process!

Here are some of the benefits for both parties: 

innovative recruitment

Crucially for recruiters, Video Intros allow you to record your questions once and send them out to multiple candidates, enabling you to truly hire at scale.

If you like the sound of that, you can hear how we do it below: 

#4 – Target Passive Candidates on Social Media

Top candidates don’t hang around on job boards, they’re spending their time networking on social media. If you’re a recruiter looking to connect with the very best people in your industry, you need to focus on innovative social media techniques. 

Whether that’s playing the talent acquisition long-game or using targeting social media advertising, there are many different ways to build your network. 

The best bit of all? Unlike job boards, passive candidates are on social media too. This helps you get ahead of your competition and start building relationships with future candidates before they’re thinking of changing roles. 

#5 – Get To Know Your Data

The best way to innovate is to know your strengths and weaknesses inside out. If you’re not already, put monitoring recruitment metrics at the heart of your strategy. 

This could be through an ATS, your skills testing tool, or your chosen job board to ensure you’re collecting all of your critical data points. Understanding your best acquisition channels, the number of candidates per vacancy, time-to-hire, and offer acceptance rates (just to name a few) will help you identify areas of improvement. 

Innovative recruiters know their data like the back of their hands and use it to make intelligent decisions to optimize their performance

#6 – Leverage the Gig Economy

If you need high-quality, short-term talent to fill your business needs, diversify your talent network and start engaging with freelancers in the gig economy. The great resignation is changing the landscape of the talent market, and innovative recruiters are adapting to stay ahead. 

Platforms such as UpWork, Toptal, Freelancer are great places to start, with UpWork and Toptal in particular only accepting the very best freelancers in each industry. Because you’re shopping in the freelance market, time-to-hire is typically faster as candidates don’t need to work out long notice periods and are available immediately.

This innovative strategy means you can tap into a whole new pool of amazing talent, allowing you to fill vacancies faster and deliver for your business. 

Summary

The recruitment market is fierce right now, and it’s only going to get more and more competitive. To stand out, recruiters need to innovate to attract the best candidates on the market. Most innovation opportunities lie in the digital world, so becoming more tech-savvy is a must. 

At Toggl Hire, we’re here to help you along the road of innovation. Our Smart Tests allow you to ditch resumes and automate the testing and screening of candidates at scale. If you want to get to know your candidates better, Video Intros deliver flexibility and speed while creating an environment to build great relationships with the very best talent on the market.

James Elliott

James Elliott is a Strategy Manager and Writer from London, UK. When not working on the day job, James writes on a variety of business and project management topics with a focus on content that enables readers to take action and improve their ways of working. You can check out James’ work on his website or by connecting on LinkedIn.

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