Understanding what represents main recruitment channels, along with each individual advantages and limitations, is the first step for successful talent hire for all organisation. The followings are 5 proven recruitment channels that no sane HR should ever miss it.
1. Social Media
According to research, Thai people spend their time on social media for 3 hours/day
The age majority of people on social media is between 25-34 which is in a working age
Facebook is Thailand’s biggest platform with over 50 million users (about 70% of its total population)
Needless to find further numeric data to prove such popularity of social media among Thais. It has blended nicely as part of our daily lives. A communal place of gathering, this is a platform where HR could potentially find and recruit the right talent in a very broad coverage, with significantly lower cost, and more specific to target group. Using social media as a recruitment channel is like killing two (or even more) birds with one stone.
Practically, in the present we also see many large modern firms use social media as their main recruitment channel for a specific position, such as Uniqlo with its UNIQLO Manager Candidate position being strategically announced and communicated on Facebook.
In addition, social media has a variety of features that match consumer behavior, such as video, that can provide certain experiences beyond other channels like a type of ‘days in the life of…’ video.
However, each social media platform specialises differently and, therefore, has different kinds of users. Linkedin, a popular social networking platform, is generally a place for middle-high workforce level. Many executives and managers are successfully hired through Linkedin. While senior-level recruitment is merely conducted on Facebook. So, HR should never overlook the optimization of different platforms for different target groups.
2. Online Job Board
Online job board is a large recruiting website like those Jobsdb, Jobtopgun, or Glassdoor. These sites are still major recruitment channel for Thai workforce market that everyone is familiar.
With its credibility, user-friendly, and rivers of companies posting jobs, they are the sites’ causes for great numbers of active users. It’s still a top-of-mind awareness once someone begin looking for a new job.
Nonetheless, different online job board targets different workforce levels. For instance, Jobsugoi mainly targets candidates into Japanese corporations. While, Jobthai focuses on small-medium size domestic Thai corporations. Whereas, GetLinks aims at startups and technological companies. So it’s challenging to choose the right channel for your specific target.
Also, it takes HR’s tremendous efforts and time to screen mountains of candidate profiles (as well as competing with other HR in various companies)
Last but not least, this channels possess substantially high cost to perform in job posting, and it cannot autonomously manage the media everything as they wish.
3. Job Fair
Job fair brings recruiters and candidates together. It comes in many forms. For example, job fair managed by many collaborating parties like Japan Job Fair, one of the largest job fairs in Thailand (recruited into Japanese corporations). Or University Job Fair, of which we’re all familiar, that many leading firms come to look for fresh talents.
Most job fairs are conducted in semi-formal environment. Participants are basically someone who has a keen interest. Candidates have a fair chance to chat and talk with recruiters one-on-one. If the conversation is nicely clicked, they can proceed on to an interview (even successful hiring!). Job fair also offers a great opportunity for any organisations to promote themselves, especially large yearly job fair.
However, job fair is somewhat a highly competitive event that individual company has to compete with each other and try to stand out above the crowds. A substantial resource is expected to spare. Take any large job fair as an example, each company booth has to make herself beautifully outstanding, job description and responsibility must be clear, physical appearance of the standing staff, or simply negotiation skills. These factors contribute to the experience and judgement of interested candidates.
Moreover, job fair is a costly recruiting channel as a company has to pay for showcasing. A large amount of specific human resource and time are to be sacrificed as well.
4. Referral
This might be a totally cost-effective recruiting channel compared with the rest. It’s also extremely credible because, according to a survey, a candidate referred by a current employee is likely to have the right skills and abilities required by the applied position, as well as higher possibility of cultural compatibility which translates into a higher employee satisfaction yet reduced turnover rate.
This is understandable because the current employee must contemplate carefully before finally referring someone, who might have to sit and work with them long after that. If the new referred employee turns out to be incapable of the role, the employee who was the referral suddenly loses credit.
However, referring someone into a company’s position must be carefully executed for many potential risks, such as transparency in the process or positions with highly specific qualifications, of which company employees in general probably have a limited social network.
Furthermore, a company might need to design a powerful referral program to motivate its employees to make a referral. For example, an employee who successfully refers someone would get a prize or extra bonus. It’s an attractive way but at first it needs a creative effort to design the program which is never simple.
5. Corporate Website
Back to basic! We’ve been out to find someone else. Now it’s time to get back to our base which is our corporate website.
This recruitment channel is a passive way where candidate comes to the company. The candidate usually already has a keen interest. Recruitment through career site that has sufficient information for decision making, as well as attractive site design, is an effective channel in itself.
Yet, since its nature of passivity, it’s certainly not a method to recruit a broad range of talents. Therefore, it’s a challenge for any company who wishes to do so. A highly effective strategy, in the end, must be created to achieve this goal.
Now we come to the realisation that each channel has its own different advantages and limitations. But mostly, they contain complicated processes and require significant resources. However, there is one method that gather everything and complete it with ease. Under such sophisticated system, it is called “Recruitment Management System,” or RMS.
What is RMS?
RMS is a holistic recruitment system that serves as a one-stop service from job posting in various channels, screening and scheduling candidates, assessing their qualifications to find the right one, and eventually hiring someone.
RMS help reduces complicated procedures, diminish complexity, or eliminate those unnecessary paperwork. It’s a win-win situation for both recruiters and candidates since many of the process runs autonomously in inself with pace and effectiveness.
Feature Examples of RMS
Applicant Tracking System (ATS): tracking and scheduling candidate, and update results
AI & Machine Learning: self-learn previous employments for better future recruitment.
Centralized Database: collecting all applicant data, serving as a talent pool for future job openings.
Analytics: systematically examining campaigns and projects of the recruitment.
RMS is increasingly gaining a spotlight for HR geeks and modern entrepreneurs. Many already begin investigating and looking for effective applications to their organisations. It’s also one of Creative Recruitment Techniques that majority of HR is trying to contemplate in 2020. Nonetheless, ScoutOut is among one of the successful pioneers in this subject in Thailand.
In the current situation, strategic recruitment to find the right talent is a highly competitive market. We should keep in mind that each organisation is run by people. Hence, the better and more talented people you have could potentially define your future organisation!
