9 Fresh Recruiting Ideas + 10 Best Practices

Updated January 13, 2022

Surpass your hiring targets in 2022 with fresh recruiting ideas. Add new tricks to your repertoire.

9 Fresh Employee Recruiting Ideas for 2022 + 10 Tried and True

The techniques presented here worked for the companies that used them. Some may work for your organization.

1. Target Employees Recently Laid Off

A Mumbai-based firm took advantage of huge layoffs at competing start-ups. They bought Facebook and Twitter ads with messages like ‘Got Laid Off & Having Sleepless Nights? We are Hiring!’ (Source)

2. Offer Free Training to the First 10 Ad Responders

Mike Surikov needed three people with advanced MS Office and VBA skills. He posted an ad offering the first ten people free, fast-paced training.

Within a day I had enough people respond. A week later, I started the training both remote and occasionally meeting in a classroom. After three months I had an idea of who learns how, their personalities, if they’re easy to work with and how their attendance is. I also knew their exact skill level. At the last day, I asked the ones that I thought would be a good fit if they wanted a job. Three said yes. Hired them and it’s been going really well. (Source)

3. Use a Recruiting Chatbot

Intel created an informational chatbot for website visitors. (In other words, potential hires.) The response thread was customized with information according to the users’ questions. (Source)

4. Use Your ATS Tools for Career Counselors

Establish relationships with career counselors at applicable schools. The tools in your ATS can help. Connect frequently. They will start referring promising grads.

5. Employee Video Competition

Set up an employee video competition. Individual employees (or teams) create a short video using their cell phones. The purpose of the video is to highlight your company culture in creative ways. Give prizes to the winners. Post the best videos on your careers page, LinkedIn, and social media.

6. Host a Poker Tournament

Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas invited top-tier MBA students to a poker competition/meet-and-greet. (Source)

7. Use a Wrapped RV as a Mobile Hiring Center

REES Capital founder Amy Rees Anderson bought a large RV and wrapped it with a company job ad. Then she parked it in public lots next to companies where she wanted to poach employees. Impressive chutzpah! (Source)

8. Internships for People Returning to the Workforce

Goldman Sachs helps fill its talent needs by welcoming non-traditional candidates with resume gaps. The internship program is aimed at parents who took a break from work to raise children. And veterans who didn’t return immediately to work after deployment. (Source)

9. Movie Theater Video Ads

Pitch to a captive local audience waiting for the show to start.

We asked employees to create their own 6-second video at home of them performing their dumbest talent ever. We told them to be as silly and random as possible. Then I had my graphics person create an intro slide for the video that showed our company logo and then flashed the words ‘Featuring the Elite Talent of [Company Name].’ We also created a closing slide that asked “What is Your Elite Talent? Apply now” with our recruiting web address displayed on screen. (Source)

10 Best Recruiting Ideas and Practices You May Not Be Using

Let’s talk about recruiting methods that aren’t necessarily ingenious. But they will take your basic best practices to the next level.

1. Create a 2022 hiring plan. We give you step-by-step instructions here.
2. Write an Employment Value Proposition (EVP) and include it in your job descriptions and on your careers page.
3. Conduct ‘stay’ interviews. Ask engaged employees why they enjoy working at your company. Use their responses to flesh out your EVP.
4. For hard-to-fill positions, where possible, loosen education requirements if the candidate has the necessary on-the-job experience.
5. Turn job descriptions upside-down. Lead with what your company can provide the candidate. Instead of tacking it on the end as an afterthought.
6. Tout your humanitarian initiatives in job descriptions. If your company is eco-responsible, make sure that is included as well.
7. Make a company career paths infographic. Post on your careers page and social media sites.
8. Ask your vendors and business partners for resumes.
9. Consider moving some onsite job roles to remote positions. Your hiring pool will expand exponentially.
10. Use EVERYTHING your ATS does. As an ATS provider, we see some clients fail to take advantage of everything our robust platform does. We list several underutilized features here.

If you try some of these recruiting ideas, let us know how it goes. Good luck!