How To Recruit Employees: Creative Employee Recruitment Strategies

Recruiting is no longer as straightforward as adding a post to a job board and waiting for resumes to roll in. A new or growing business may need to devise more creative recruitment strategies to reach the most qualified individuals. Recent inflation and economic fluctuations have created uncertainty for both employees and job seekers in today's labor market, leaving many small and medium-sized businesses facing additional hiring challenges. Unsurprisingly, attracting and recruiting talent is the number-one HR challenge leaders face, according to our 2025 Priorities for Business Leaders survey.

As an employer, your hiring strategy should include offering competitive pay and benefits packages. It's also important to incorporate creative recruiting strategies to attract and engage talent. Using creative recruiting methods can help you connect with high-quality candidates quickly, putting your company ahead of the competition and positioning you as an employer of choice.

What Is a Recruitment Strategy?

A recruitment strategy is a blueprint for sourcing, attracting, and engaging qualified candidates to fill job openings in your business. It typically is based on your recruiting budget, resource allocation plan, and a game plan for assessing job applicants in the most efficient, cost-effective way. For example, a recruitment strategy may help recruiters connect with potential candidates through:

• Online postings
• Job fairs
• Employee referrals
• Industry events
• Industry publications
• Job search websites
• Networking
• Individual outreach
• Social media

A successful employee recruiting strategy can help you target appropriate candidates and encourage them to apply for the position you need to fill. This is often the first point of contact a candidate may have with your company, which means your recruitment strategy can be an essential contributor to long-term employee satisfaction.

How To Build a Recruitment Strategy

Before you post a job or attend a career networking event, your recruiting strategy should already be in place. With a solid plan, you'll be able to invest in efficient recruiting efforts that will help you find qualified candidates for the job you want to fill.

Here are 3 steps you can take to get started:

• Define, and align with, your overall business strategy. Talk to the company's executive team, department leaders, and direct managers to understand the company's strategic direction and align recruiting efforts with talent needs. As you create your strategy, evaluate your company's culture to help identify potential candidates that will be a good fit.
• Review metrics and goals. Incorporate overall hiring metrics and goals into your recruitment strategies, including cost per hire, number of applications received, recruitment timeframe, and long-term retention rate by recruitment channel. Setting goals helps position you to evaluate the results of your employee recruitment strategies and determine which methods ultimately attract the most qualified candidates.
• Invest in the right tools. The right tools can help you improve recruiting efficiency, candidate selection, and budget use. For example, an applicant tracking system can automate parts of the recruitment process, helping you screen candidates, schedule interviews, and respond to top applicants quickly – valuable features in a competitive job market. AI-assisted recruitment tools can help match your company with the best candidates, shortlist active talent matches, and simplify your hiring process.

15 Effective Recruitment Strategies to Hire Top Talent

As you build out your recruitment plan, you may need to expand on your current efforts with new ways to find candidates. Here are fifteen creative recruitment strategies to help you build your talent pipeline and improve the candidate experience.

1. Expand Your Candidate Pool

You won't typically find your ideal candidates knocking on your door, asking for a job interview. You'll have to take your recruiting efforts to them, which means understanding where they are and how to connect with them.

Consider branching out to new sources that you haven't used in the past:

• Learn where your best employees came from. Use existing data to determine where and how you recruited your most successful employees. For example, professional associations or academic programs can be excellent sources of quality candidates.
• Understand job seeker behavior. Determine where your ideal candidates spend time and connect with them there. Look for specialized professional groups, academic programs, job boards, LinkedIn groups, and other hot spots where candidates with the skills you need tend to congregate.
• Use technology strategically. Explore whether new technologies and platforms can help you find qualified employees faster. For example, can social recruiting or mobile-first recruiting add a new dimension to your employee recruiting strategy?

2. Recruit Actively on Social Media

Social media platforms and mobile devices have become increasingly important resources for recruiters and job seekers. Candidates increasingly look for jobs online and value the ability to browse job postings and apply for positions from their mobile devices. Job seekers may engage with social media platforms even before officially entering the job market, so advertising open positions on these platforms can help recruiters connect with top candidates early.

To get the best results from social media recruiting, do your homework on which platforms your target audience may use most often. Survey connections in the industry and familiarize yourself with the platforms that may appeal to job seekers in your market. Then, use those spaces to spread the word about your hiring needs. In addition, use your company's LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages to help candidates get to know your culture and values.

3. Refine Job Descriptions

Since much of the job search process takes place online, you'll need a written job description that stands out from a sea of digital information. Communicate with potential applicants clearly and show them what your company can offer.

Compelling job descriptions should include:

• Informative job titles that will attract candidates with matching skill sets.
• A clear list of core responsibilities that define job requirements.
• Employer branding that highlights your organization's culture and unique characteristics.
• A description of required skills or background knowledge that targets qualified candidates.
• An overall tone that reflects the level of formality in the work environment and matches your company's culture.
• Inclusive language that encourages a diverse range of candidates to apply. However, avoid any language that indicates a preference for any protected characteristic (e.g., age, race, religion, etc.).
• A pay range and benefits (depending on where you're located and in compliance with any local or state requirements around pay transparency). Consider including this even if no applicable law requires you to do so, as this may offer you a competitive advantage and demonstrate transparency to potential candidates.

4. Spread the Word at Trade Shows and Industry Events

Conferences and trade shows can be more than a promotional venue for your company. You can also connect with potential job seekers and trade ideas with other (non-competitor) business leaders on creative ways to recruit employees. With plenty of business cards and promotional materials on hand and a room full of people who are interested in your industry, use this time to connect with as many people as possible. You may be rubbing shoulders with someone who could lead you to your next star employee.

5. Offer an Onsite Job Fair/Open House

Hosting an onsite job fair or open house can make it possible to have multiple face-to-face interactions with quality candidates in one day. In this setting, you can easily create a sense of excitement around your job openings, showcase your company culture and work environment, conduct on-the-spot job interviews or set up follow-ups, and even make immediate offers for exceptional candidates. Be sure to promote the event widely, prepare job descriptions, applications, and interview questions, and create an engaging experience for candidates.

6. Work With Your State Employment Office or Employment Commission

Check with your state labor department or local employment commission about their services. These offices are focused on partnering with local businesses to employ those who may currently be receiving unemployment benefits while searching for employment. Most offices also have online job boards where employers can post positions, and they may provide onsite space to conduct interviews.

7. Contact College Placement Offices

Depending on the qualifications required for the position, you may consider contacting the placement offices at your local community colleges and universities to ask about a strategic partnership. You can establish a valuable recruiting pipeline by hosting information sessions, taking part in campus career fairs, or offering internship programs. These partnerships connect you with motivated entry-level talent while helping career centers provide industry-specific opportunities for students. Most career service offices welcome employer involvement and can provide resources like resume books, campus interview scheduling, and targeted outreach to relevant academic departments.

8. Use Online Job Postings and Searches

The vast majority of job searches take place online, which means it pays to be as versatile as possible in where you post. For example, in addition to posting open roles on your website and traditional job boards, consider:

• LinkedIn^®: Millions of job seekers use LinkedIn to search for jobs and network with potential employers.
• Industry Networking Sites: Industry-specific job networking websites like USAJobs.gov (federal jobs), the American Bankers Association^® (finance), and the National Association for Law Placement^® (legal) host job boards can help employers connect with qualified candidates.
• Google^®: Add job posting structured data to jobs posted on your website, and they will show up in Google search results based on keywords, location, and other parameters. If you use an external site to post jobs, you can integrate those postings with Google for increased visibility.

To leverage online websites to recruit employees, the hiring supervisor and/or human resources staff can perform investigative searches to check online for qualified and skilled candidates. An expanded search may reveal new sources such as industry-specific or non-industry-specific websites, simple job boards, or even more in-depth sites that require account setups for use. Once you have found a few good sites for your industry, make sure you bookmark them for future use.

For jobs requiring increased visibility, consider sponsored job postings. These paid listings can reach more matching candidates over a longer period of time.

9. Initiate Employee Referral and Boomerang Hire Programs

Many companies have established employee referral programs that reward employees with a cash bonus (or some other reward) for referring candidates from their networks. Because existing employees understand the company and know what it takes to succeed in specific roles, they can be a valuable resource for connecting with qualified people. If you haven't yet started a referral program, consider implementation on a trial basis for targeted positions before branching out to the entire workforce.

Boomerang hires are individuals who were employed by the company at one time but left. Enticing former employees to return may yield a double benefit: reconnecting with someone who understands your business and gaining a fresh perspective from their most recent position.

10. Revamp Your Careers Page

Many businesses devote little attention to their careers page and often rely on stock images and generic content to greet visitors to the site. Instead, consider revamping a "Join Us" page with a focus on added excitement and enthusiasm. Talk about your company mission, culture, and values, include a compelling vision of employee career growth opportunities, and share pictures of the workplace that can help candidates envision themselves in the role.

Many candidates are looking for a company that shares their personal values, so don't hesitate to share information about your company's sustainability goals, community involvement, charity work, and other details about what makes it unique.

11. Think Outside the Box When Interviewing Candidates

Infuse a fresh perspective into your recruiting strategies by reimagining the interview process. For example, after you have narrowed your candidate options to the best two or three, consider:

• Team Interviews: Invite candidates to an interview with the team they would be working with. Your veteran employees are often more familiar with the specifics of the available position(s) and can help to ensure a good fit by offering feedback about the candidate.
• Virtual Interviews: Consider offering virtual interviews for long-distance candidates. This approach can help you save money on travel expenses while also connecting more personally with the candidate compared with a phone interview.
• Creative Questions: Ask outside-the-box questions that move beyond qualifications and skills to help you understand how a candidate thinks. For example, ask them what they miss about their previous job, what was the most interesting thing they have learned recently, or what they think about your current branding (if relevant to the role). Remember: All questions should relate back to the job in question.

Creative interviews may offer unique perspectives and feedback on whether the interviewee may be a good fit for your business. Plus, if one of these candidates is hired, there's already an established connection with others on the team.

12. Invite Candidates to Lunch

Formal job interviews can show you how well a candidate reacts to the pressure of being questioned by one or more team members, but they don't always show you a candidate's true personality. Taking individuals to lunch offers the opportunity to interact in a more informal setting, possibly even before a candidate has officially expressed interest in a position. Chatting over lunch also gives you the chance to encourage candidates to apply for other open positions within your company or recommend people in their network who may be a good fit.

Employers are reminded that compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act and similar state accommodation laws should be considered during the recruiting process and to ensure non-discriminatory access to all phases of the selection process for all applicants.

13. Incorporate AI-Supported Tools

Early uses of AI in the hiring process included resume screening for help in finding qualified candidates quickly. As AI-based recruiting technology has advanced, innovative applications are designed to help employers find qualified candidates by creating personalized candidate experiences, crafting tailored outreach messages, and developing custom onboarding plans that align with individual learning styles. Additionally, advanced analytics may help predict candidate success and retention by looking at and perhaps identifying patterns in successful hires, allowing recruiters to consider prospects that may be more likely to thrive within the organization's unique culture and work environment.

Employers and recruiters alike must continue to ensure full compliance with anti-discrimination laws when sourcing, interviewing and selecting applicants.

14. Connect Top Candidates With a Peer

Peer matching, the practice of connecting candidates with current employees in similar roles to the one they're pursuing, creates a comfortable space where candidates can ask candid questions. For example, they might have questions about workplace dynamics, management styles, and day-to-day responsibilities that they might hesitate to raise with hiring managers. Peer conversations help candidates gain a better picture of career growth opportunities, work-life balance, and team collaboration that formal interviews cannot capture. They also build trust and may improve retention by enabling potential employees to evaluate cultural fit before accepting an offer.

15. Nurture and Invest in Candidates

While the term "candidate experience" may sound like recruiting industry jargon, the idea behind it is sound. Building meaningful relationships with potential candidates helps foster dialogue even if you're not hiring immediately. When a position does open up, you may already have a pipeline of interested candidates who are ready to apply.

Once a candidate sends an application, ensure that they have positive encounters by taking proactive actions:

• Streamline the hiring process. Use an applicant tracking system to make it easier to apply for jobs, see the status, and manage communications. Applicant tracking systems streamline the process for applicants and hiring managers alike; candidates can easily submit all their materials online, and hiring managers and HR personnel can access all the information they need from a single interface.
• Prioritize candidate communication. Create automated messaging and focus on shortening the cycle of communications after applications, interviews, and other milestones. “In my experience, this step can reduce uncertainty for the candidate, keep the candidate engaged, and strengthen the employer brand,” says Paychex Talent Enablement Partner Jessica Vitous.
• Ask for feedback: Assess and refine your hiring process by asking for input from candidates and recent hires to better understand their experience.

These are only a few of the many affordable recruitment strategies at your disposal. Using the right mix can help you find your next quality employee faster while reducing costs.

Let Paychex's Hiring Services Improve Your Employee Recruitment Efforts

Learning how to successfully recruit employees is a marathon, not a sprint. But it's a business imperative: Creative recruitment can be as much about promoting your brand as it is about evaluating candidates for open positions, allowing you to learn more about what makes your business stand out from the pack.

Sometimes the most valuable employees can be very selective about where they choose to work. By using out-of-the-box recruiting strategies and partnering with Paychex's hiring and recruiting experts, you can put yourself in front of the best candidates and give your company a competitive hiring edge.