Inbound recruiting is a set of techniques and strategies closely related to inbound marketing. It helps attract qualified candidates to a company and convert them into employees.
Given the various recruitment challenges and the ever-increasing demands of candidates towards their future employers, this strategy can become an effective lever to optimise recruitment processes.
In this article, discover the different concepts related to inbound recruiting as well as the advantages it offers.
Understanding inbound recruiting
More than just a concept, inbound recruiting is now an integral part of many organisational recruitment strategies.
Inbound recruiting was adopted by companies and recruitment professionals following the positive feedback from inbound marketing, which involves developing a communication strategy that attracts customers to the company.
By applying this same principle and adapting it to the recruitment needs of organisations, they naturally attract promising candidate profiles, either for immediate or future vacancies.
Inbound recruiting thus provides effective solutions to several recruitment sector problems.
Differences compared to traditional recruitment methods
Traditional recruitment methods follow the same pattern: recruitment requirement, job advertisement, job interview with candidates, integration of the selected candidate(s) into the team.
However, they do not necessarily allow finding the best candidate profiles or generating interest from those who are not job hunting. Yet, these represent the majority of the available talent pool in the job market.
Unlike traditional recruitment, which can sometimes be considered intrusive, inbound recruiting allows these candidates to be attracted. It leads them to take an interest in the company, to the point of inquiring about the job opportunities it offers.
Fundamental principles: attract, convert, engage, and retain
Four fundamental principles govern all the strategies deployed within the framework of inbound recruiting:
- Attract: the first principle of inbound recruiting is to attract the right candidate profiles to the company. This attraction phase is based on effective content marketing;
- Convert: once the company has succeeded in arousing the interest of potential candidates (whether they are job hunting or not), it must convert them into candidates;
- Engage: the third principle is to engage or recruit the candidate. Specific actions must be taken by the company to convince the candidate to join the team;
- Retain: the last principle, and not the least, is to retain the recruited candidate.
Steps of inbound recruiting
It is possible for a company to implement an inbound recruiting strategy. To do this, it must follow five distinct steps.
Step 1: Define the target and create personas
The first step in implementing an inbound recruiting strategy is to define the personas.
Here, a persona represents the ideal candidate profile for a position. The characteristics it presents will guide the HR marketing efforts in the right direction. These characteristics can be as follows:
- Professional qualities;
- General skills;
- Professional objectives, etc.
It is recommended to limit to three candidate personas per organisation. However, this number can go up to five for large companies.
Step 2: Create attractive and relevant content
Creating attractive and relevant content is the cornerstone of your inbound recruiting strategy. The application of this phase is almost entirely digital.
To do this, the company must attract talent with interesting and relevant content. This can include optimised articles, an active blog, or exclusive events that reflect its expertise on a given topic.
More specific content can also allow it to communicate its values and send the image of a strong employer brand. This includes:
- Employee testimonials;
- Presentation of the company’s teams and premises;
- Description of the jobs;
- Information about the company’s HR practices, etc.
Step 3: Distribute the content on the right channels
To reach the right target, content must be distributed on the right channels. In inbound recruiting, the most exploited distribution channels are as follows:
- The company’s career site or blog;
- Social media;
- HR fairs and events;
- Emails;
- Newsletters.
Step 4: Capture leads and applications
By regularly producing quality and relevant content and distributing it via the right channels, the company will generate many visitors to its sites.
Thanks to calls-to-action, contact forms, a well-crafted landing page, and free and high-value electronic products, visitors will be transformed into leads (active candidates).
Step 5: Engage and maintain the relationship with candidates
Inbound recruiting does not stop at obtaining applications from qualified profiles. It is important the relationships with these candidates are continuously improved, as with inbound marketing.
Maintaining this relationship extends over two areas: On the one hand, the company must keep in touch with qualified candidates who haven’t directly applied or been recruited, by offering them increasingly personalised content.
On the other hand, the company must retain and value the talent it has recruited so that they become its ambassadors. Internal events, feedback on quality of life at work, internal newsletters are some ways to maintain a good relationship with engaged candidates and reduce turnover risks.
Advantages of inbound recruiting
Adopting the inbound recruiting strategy offers several advantages. These benefits are noticeable in the short and long term.
Better candidate quality
One of the biggest advantages of inbound recruiting lies in the fact that it attracts candidates whose profiles match the needs and values of companies.
Its effectiveness is even more remarkable when the position to be filled has specific requirements. It allows directly targeting only the profiles that truly meet these requirements.
Moreover, the best candidate profiles are those who are not job hunting (passive candidates).
Inbound recruiting allows reaching this talent pool and presenting your company’s job advertisement as an opportunity. Additionally, it helps the company integrate a new employee into its team.
Reduction of recruitment costs
Traditional recruitment methods involve significant financial, material, and human investments for companies. They can extend over several weeks without necessarily guaranteeing satisfactory results.
Inbound recruiting presents itself as a solution that reduces recruitment costs while finding the best talent at the same time.
Since it provides access to a portfolio of already qualified profiles, the company will no longer have to invest significant sums in job advertisement distribution, event organisation, or for the services of a recruitment agency.
Improvement of the company’s image
Inbound recruiting gives a very positive image of the company both externally and internally. It also allows it to:
- Convey values;
- Assert strengths;
- Increase engagement of future hires;
- Retain employees long term.
Thanks to this method, corporate culture is at the centre of the recruitment process. All these elements contribute to building a strong employer brand.
More efficient and transparent process
Thanks to inbound recruiting, the entire recruitment process is optimised, and companies save a significant amount of time.
Certain time-consuming steps such as sourcing candidates and acquiring leads are simplified or eliminated since the company already has a database of perfectly qualified candidates for the positions to be filled.
Moreover, implementing an inbound recruiting strategy implies that the company demonstrates transparency by communicating its values, HR practices, jobs, career prospects, and opportunities it offers, etc.
This transparency is a real positive point for future candidates, as it allows them to project themselves into the company and identify with its values.
Tips for successful implementation
In addition to following the various steps of inbound recruiting, applying the following recommendations can help successful implementation.
Invest in creating quality content
As mentioned earlier, content is the most important element in implementing your inbound recruiting strategy. The company must allocate a relatively significant budget to it to achieve satisfactory results.
Several forms of content can maximise your strategy: SEO-optimised articles, white papers, podcasts, videos, etc. All this content must be created by qualified professionals.
Use the appropriate technological tools
To implement your inbound recruiting strategy, you will need specific tools:
- An ATS (Applicant Tracking System): also known as an application management and tracking software, the ATS is an indispensable tool in your inbound recruitment strategy. It allows you to identify the different candidate profiles interested in the company from the content publication stage to the candidate selection and integration stage;
- A CMS (Content Management System): the content used to attract candidates to your company must be managed optimally. A content management system will allow for greater autonomy when publishing career sites and blog articles;
- Marketing automation tools: maintaining relationships with your qualified leads involves personalising your messages and campaigns. Marketing automation tools are used to personalise content and distribute it at the right time, automatically. They also allow you to analyse campaign results;
- Analysis and tracking tools: tools like Google Analytics allow you to accurately evaluate the impact of recruitment strategies. They measure the reach of published content, the traffic it generates, conversion rates, etc. They also present several relevant performance indicators that will help you adjust your strategy if necessary.
Involve the HR team and managers in the process
Implementing an inbound recruiting strategy is a collective project. It is necessary for the entire HR team and managers to be involved.
To do this, a constructive dialogue must be initiated between both parties to understand their needs and constraints. A working framework favouring effective collaboration between the HR team and managers should also be established.
Moreover, establishing effective communication and taking into account feedback from each party is one of the keys to the success of your inbound recruiting strategy.
Inbound recruiting: What to remember?
Inbound recruiting is a recruitment method that a company seeking talents cannot do without.
Indeed, although traditional recruitment methods are still useful, the expectations of future employees towards the company that wishes to hire them are increasing.
Companies therefore have an obligation to adapt to this new variable. With inbound recruiting, they will find it easier to find qualified candidates, reduce recruitment costs, retain their employees, and improve their reputation.
Inbound recruiting is thus an essential lever that allows companies to acquire higher quality human resources.
