The two largest recruitment strategies used to search for outstanding talent are Inbound and Outbound.

These terms get used quite often, and you may not know which method to use.

What are Inbound and Outbound recruiting ? Are they effective ?

This article will cover which form of recruitment is more beneficial for your company!

What's the difference ? 

Inbound and Outbound recruiting are the two fundamental recruiting strategies and have become commonplace to hear around the office.

Why are they so pivotal? Well, to put it simply, it’s a matter of, “Who is searching for who?” Inbound Recruiting is a potential employee reaching out to you, whereas Outbound Recruiting is the opposite; you reach out to potential hires.

Now both of these approaches to the recruiting process aim for the same resolution: finding your next ideal employee ! There is a distinct difference between these two recruitment strategies.

Push or pull?

The goal of inbound Recruiting is to create a pathway for candidates to find you, create engagement and awareness that will entice them to apply.

Outbound recruitment is straight to the point; you have a vacancy in your company that needs to be occupied, so you go straight to the application stage by putting the position on the market and begin sifting through the applications.

Which strategy is more effective ? 

The effectiveness of your decided strategy truly depends on urgency. Do you need this position filled by the month’s end, or are you looking for something for the long run?

Inbound Recruiting is the ideology that most modern companies and businesses utilize to find their perfect candidates.

If your usual approach to the hiring process is an outbound strategy, you may want to consider switching it up.

Nowadays, a simple posting of an available position won’t help you find the next employee of the month, statistically speaking.

Outbound is best used when in a pinch or when you just need the chair filled for the time being.

Most of your employees should come through Inbound Recruiting. With the Inbound approach, you will begin gathering a larger group of quality employees that will help your company grow in the long run.

Recruiting = Marketing !

Imagine your available position as a product that you need to sell, and the potential hires are your potential customers ! If we change the terminology, recruitment strategies can be viewed as marketing and sales strategies.

Just like in marketing practice, potential buyers have deal-breakers ; there are quite a variety of circumstances that can chase a potential client away from a sale.

It could be the price of the product, a lack of interest in the product, or even a lack of chemistry with the seller.

Inbound Recruiting allows the potential applicant to read about the position, check reviews, and sift through all aspects of the company that could be a potential “deal-breaker.”

Recruiting is also Marketing

Being upfront with potential hires provides a clear picture of your company’s available positions. It will increase the interest and consideration of the candidates that the position is the right fit for them.

Alternatively, an Outbound approach would be similar to a salesman's approach. You bring on these potential hires, or ‘leads,’ and if you make a sale, this does not guarantee that they will enjoy the product (i.e., the position and role they are applying for).

The “deal-breakers” are still unknown to both you and the new employee, which could lead to problems down the road.

Which Method Should You Use ?

All successful companies utilize both strategies, but the Inbound approach is most effective at finding candidates that meet the company’s needs.

It is not to say that Outbound is ineffective; however, it should be kept as a backup plan.

Let’s say you accumulate your body of potential hires, but no one is quite the right fit for the position. In this instance, Outbound Recruiting would be an effective solution in the intermediate-term.

The position would be filled, but you still give your company more time to find better-fitting applicants.

As a result, both strategies complement one another and serve to meet company needs, whatever they may be at the moment.

What is the best way to implement these tools ?

Inbound : 

When implementing the inbound recruiting strategy, you should ask yourself, “what kind of employee am I looking for?”.

You want to entice potential hires to the new position and use an Inbound approach to achieve this.

The first thing a job-seeker will do is read the details of the position. What’s the job? What’s the salary? Is it a friendly work environment? Is there PTO? Is there room to grow within the company?

It is important that you mention every aspect of the job and give a clear picture of what a new employee should expect when he comes into the office.

It’s important to be as open and descriptive as possible because there are a variety of circumstances that an applicant could perceive as “deal-breakers.”

Don’t forget, deal-breakers are a good thing. You want all of your cards on the table so that the potential candidate is left with no surprises.

Secondly, you want to paint the picture of your perfect new hire. Elaborate in the listing about what work qualifications, work ethic, and attitude your applicant should have.

Doing this will ensure that only the right people are applying for this job. Remember to be precise about what you want.

Lastly, compel them to join your business! Sculpt a captivating description of your company for them to fantasize about.

For your clients or candidates, know how to describe your company

Be sure to mention the traditions and moral standards of the business. This can be achieved through social media, blogs, and videos portraying the image of the company!

Once this is completed, make yourself accessible to candidates. Be certain that they can have a number to call, an email to message, and an accessible application form that can be easily filled out.

Outbound : 

In outbound recruiting, you want to jump straight to the application stage to make your job offer. However, technology and the internet have changed the way companies recruit.

Utilizing effective sourcing tools is your best option. Tools that allow you to search the internet and review databases, forums, blogs, and social media platforms can be extremely helpful for sourcing.

To attract quality talent, you need to do more than just promote your job openings.

The key to finding skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable candidates is to search proactively and selectively, using specialized conferences, educational seminars, and other similar events to meet potential candidates.

Recruiting process : 

Once you create a pool of candidates, the next step is to have a process that will help you separate the most suitable candidates from the rest.

Most recruiting processes include three main steps:

Application: The candidate reaches the company’s website and fills out a submission form or sends his resume via email or through a sourcing company.

Pre-screening tests: This is the first chance for the candidate to make a good first impression. The goal for many companies is to gain a better understanding of where the employee truly fits in their pipelines.

A lot of companies choose pre-hiring test providers such as AON, Criteria, and Wonderlic to do the heavy lifting for them.

On the other hand, employees try to improve their chances of success by using companies that prepare them in advance.

So if, for example, a young investment manager submits his resume to Vista Equity and he knows that the company uses criteria style tests, he could use JobTestPrep’s CCAT Test type of preparation to get ready for the exam or even practice free CCAT practice questions.

Interview: Once the applicant submits his resume and manages to score a high enough grade on the pre-hiring assessment, the next step is to invite him to an interview.

The interview questions should be oriented and specific to the position, so if, for example, a candidate applied to an engineering position, then the questions should focus on coding and specific requirements of the job.