9 Outbound Recruiting Strategies To Hire Faster

From going that extra mile managing your contacts to using the boolean search method, here are nine answers to the question, "What's one outbound recruiting strategy that you use to hire faster?"

• Go the Extra Mile Managing Your Contacts

• Cultivate a Talent Pool

• Build Relationships With Candidates

• Take Advantage of Social Media

• Target the “Open to Work” Badge on LinkedIn

• Customize ATS Links for Employees and Staffing Companies

• Message LinkedIn Accounts With Matching Skills.

• Use an Open-Source Recruitment System

• Try the Boolean Search Method

Go the Extra Mile Managing Your Contacts

While recruiting, we come in contact with many great candidates who may not be a good fit, for whatever reason, for the position that they applied for. 

Keep an ongoing contacts list of people you'd like to be back in touch with in the future when the opportunity presents itself. Your recruitment contacts list should include their name, contact info, the position they applied for, and what caught your eye about them. 

Put a reminder on your calendar to simply scan your list once per month to keep potential great candidates top-of-mind.

Niki Ramirez, Founder & Principal Consultant, HRAnswers.org

Cultivate a Talent Pool

Rather than wait for anyone and everyone to apply, we proactively create our own talent pool. We reach out to potential candidates and invite them to participate in pre-employment testing, and found this is a great way to improve hiring. 

With this strategy, we're able to identify future high-potential employees through competency-based assessments and have their information already ready to go whenever we're ready to go. 

This saves a lot of time and stress in the recruitment process, so if you're looking to reduce your time to hire, you should also consider proactively using pre-hire assessment tools to build a talent pool you can tap into at any time.

Linda Scorzo, CEO, Hiring Indicators

Build Relationships With Candidates

One outbound recruiting strategy that can speed up the process is to focus on building relationships with candidates. This can be done by staying in touch with potential candidates even when no open positions are available.

By keeping in contact and getting to know them personally, you'll be able to move more quickly when an open position becomes available. In addition, this strategy can also help to build a pipeline of qualified candidates, making it easier to find the right person for the job when the time comes.

Wendy Makinson, HR Manager, Joloda Hydraroll

Take Advantage of Social Media

Social media is a great way to reach out to potential candidates. You can use social media to post job openings and target specific groups of people. 

For example, if you're looking for candidates with a certain skill set, you can use hashtags to reach out to those people specifically. You can also use social media to build relationships with potential candidates. 

By interacting with them and engaging with their content, you can start to build a rapport that will make them more likely to apply when you have an open position.

Tzvi Heber, Founder, CEO, & HR Head, Ascendant Detox

Target the “Open to Work” Badge on LinkedIn

2022 has completely changed the landscape of hiring. In this current market that is driven by job seekers, I've learned to become much more intentional in my search for candidates. 

One strategy that has worked wonders for me is targeting the "Open to Work" badge on Linkedin. Targeting individuals with the Open To Work badge that have the desired skills, education, background, and location for the role I'm looking to fill, has helped me fill roles quickly and successfully. 

The Open to Work badge is a great tool that talent acquisition professionals and hiring managers can utilize when looking to fill vacant roles quickly.

Brittney Simpson, HR Operations Manager, Walker Miller Energy Services

Customize ATS Links for Employees and Staffing Companies

I create custom links via an ATS for each employee who wants to help with referrals and for each headhunter or staffing company. 

This helps flood the pipeline faster while giving people proper credit for their referrals.  This approach pairs well with an employee referral bonus program.

Susan Snipes, Chief People and Culture Consultant, GoCo

Message LinkedIn Accounts With Matching Skills

One outbound recruiting strategy I use is to search LinkedIn for potential candidates. I'll look for people who have the skills and experience that I'm looking for, and then reach out to them directly. 

I'll send them a message letting them know that I'm interested in speaking with them about a potential job opportunity. This strategy has helped me to hire faster, because I'm able to find qualified candidates quickly.

Grace He, People & Culture Director, teambuilding.com

Use an Open-Source Recruitment System

There are multiple ways to source and find the best talent, but considering the time to file in contrast to the urgency and need of the right candidate can sometimes discourage recruiters and HR leaders.

One recruitment strategy that has always worked for me and my organization is to start the pre-funnel process immediately after budget approval. This strategy allows us to passively build our pipelines actively before we officially open a requisition.

We use “Open Source Recruitment” to attract candidates for future roles. Each department has a link and process to source mine qualified candidates.

Aside from hiring budgets, your recruitment metrics could also help determine your future openings, growth in headcount, and turnover, giving you enough room to prepare for your open-source recruitment using your unique Open Source hiring strategy.

Florence Idowu, Chief Talent Strategist, Bavarde Talent Solutions

Try the Boolean Search Method

If you're looking for a specific role, a simple boolean search on any of the following platforms, LinkedIn, Twitter, StackOverflow, Dribble, Google, Hubspot, Medium, and GitHub, can help you locate valuable talent. 

You can also use boolean search techniques to crawl through job boards and find only the talent pool you're looking for. It truly is a powerful tool. With it, you find resumes and cover letters and, in many cases, emails or social media profiles to reach out directly and recruit.

Jarir Mallah, HR Specialist, Ling App