Businesses have never done as much recruiting as they do today. According to Ideal.com, 61% of recruiters plan to hire more people in 2020, which makes for an even more competitive market. Finding rare and specialized talent is possible and there’s a number of ways you can find the perfect candidates for your positions.  

Before you begin looking for your perfect candidate, it’s good to develop a recruiting strategy based on the specialized job. Recruiting for hard-to-fill positions requires a fresh approach to your traditional recruiting techniques. Know if the position your filling is permanent, on a contract or if it’s a one-time project. It’s also wise to estimate a budget for advertising and salaries. Having this information could save a lot of time and money for a business. 

Recruiting for Specialized Talent

Recruiting for positions that typically have a quick turnover rate is different from specialized hiring. If a business is searching for qualified candidates, it typically means they are looking to find specialists, leaders, or future executives for their company. Other companies prefer hiring specialized talent for one-time projects as they may not have it in their budgets to keep an experienced worker in the office all year round. It’s important to note, some candidates with specialized skills may be currently employed and companies will have to connect with them first. But don’t worry, there are a number of ways to engage in specialized talent. Here are a few tips!

Target the Right Audience

Many skilled candidates don’t use traditional channels to find specialized jobs these days. If you expect a ton of skilled applicants from a simple newspaper advert then you may be disappointed. Skilled workers are usually employed and not active job seekers so traditional channels won’t be as effective. 

Instead, you have to deliver your message using content that qualified candidates are looking at, and a huge chunk of skilled candidates are searching online. Spending time to research where your candidates spend most of their time can help you market job positions to them in an effective manner. 

Attract them with a Killer Job Description

It is crucial to have a killer written job description in place for each unique position. A specialized job needs to have a specialized job description. Having a written description accomplishes many important things that shield and help your business from wasted time and energy. Effective job descriptions give details on the primary functions of the job. It will state all the necessary skills that are needed to perform the job. It should anticipate employee growth and an average salary rate. You’ll be able to use your job description in a number of different ways once it’s completed. Just remember, it’s a reflection of your business in a way so make sure it’s clear, concise with all relevant information available to the candidate, including information on the company and its beliefs. 

Build a Strong Company Image 

A strong brand image should communicate your values, establish the brand’s credibility and bring to mind a positive emotion or feeling about your company. According to LinkedIn’s research, 18% of Gen Z, 23% of Millennials, 23% of Gen X, and 32% of Baby Boomers view a company with a purposeful mission as a top factor when considering a new job So, a well-developed brand can have a powerful impact on whether a candidate will want to work with you.

Once you have a strong company image, you can target your candidates effectively on a number of social networking sites. You can also build company pages on career sites and social media sites, too. Candidates can save potential companies and brands they trust or find value in their favorites. This can help businesses find specialized talent all year round by simply staying in the minds of future potential candidates and engaging with them regularly.

Contact Digital Agencies

They say the future for many industries lies on the internet, well, recruiting isn’t much different. Digital Agencies are advertising agencies that have evolved to meet the changing needs of marketing in the digital age. They specialize in cost-effective solutions that only target the audience you are interested in. This is a great option for small businesses that may not have an HR department to focus on hiring. These online agencies can do most of the hard work for you but at a fee, of course.

Digitial recruiting agencies are businesses, and businesses need to make profits, so consider these fees if you decide to work with an agency.

• Temporary Worker Fees: These workers typically range from entry-level to skilled workers who are actively looking for work immediately. As they are “temporary workers,” it's the agency’s responsibility to hire and pay the candidate. There is no standard percentage and can range from agency to agency. And, this fee changes as well depending on the sector and/or location your hiring for. 
• Temp-to-perm fees: After some time, your business may want to offer a permanent position to a candidate that’s currently working for you on a temporary basis. A temporary-to-permanent fee will be charged. It's important to remember that temp workers are technically employed by the agency, so when a business wants to take on a temp worker full time, the agency is entitled to charge a transfer fee to cover the “lost value.” This is usually discussed and agreed upon before a contract is signed.
• Permanent Placement Fees: This is simply put, a one time fee a business pays for a full-time position to be filled. If you’re looking for a specialized candidate on a permanent basis, this would be the best option for your business. Standard recruitment costs tend to range between 15% and 20% of a candidate's first annual salary, but this can go as high as 30% for hard to fill positions. 

There is also a retained recruiting fee that can be applied for permanent positions. If the role requires a particular set of skills or experience, then an agency may be paid on a retainer basis. An agency is usually paid in three parts for this process. There is an up-front payment, a payment upon producing a shortlist, and a payment when the placement is made. 

Consider Assistance from an RPO

Recruitment Process Outsourcing or RPO is outsourcing all or part of the recruitment functions to an external service provider. An RPO provider can give as much or as little help as needed from sourcing, hiring, and onboarding.

RPO helps companies address fluctuations in hiring activity. They can scale up the team during a hiring surge and scale down when things slow down. This can be very important if a company raised its capital or has recently landed a big client and needs assistance in an efficient manner.

How to use RPO to Outsource for Specialized Talent

If you’re outsourcing your recruiting to help find top talent, make sure you find an RPO provider with experience in hiring in your geography and in your business sector.  A simple recruitment agency could find a new employee quickly and easily, but it’s much harder to source candidates with genuine talent in this manner. 

The first process with using an RPO is selecting the right third-party to partner with. This third-party must understand the company's goals and must have an in-depth understanding of what candidate you’re hoping to hire. 

Once you’ve found the right RPO, you’ll need to formulate a recruitment strategy together to begin finding potential candidates. This will include writing a killer job listing and with their help, market the job offer to all of your targeted candidates. 

RPO can also run background checks, monitor applications and check for qualifications, and then collect relevant data from candidates for interview questions. Other data that’s collected can be used to make improvements to the recruitment process in the future. This will ensure a smoother and more effective result for your hiring needs in the future. 

Use Freelance Websites for One-Time Projects

If you’re a small business or your hiring budget isn’t stretching across every field, then hiring a skilled and qualified worker for one-time projects could help you succeed in areas that your business may be struggling with. It’s difficult for small businesses to compete with larger companies in all aspects. Larger businesses have higher brand awareness and following but it’s even more difficult to compete with companies in regards to salaries, too. Hiring a specialized freelancer has become easier now than ever. 

According to Upwork’s 2018 Future Workforce Report, 48% of businesses hired freelancers in 2018, up from 43% in 2017. Additionally, 9 out of 10 hiring managers stated they were open to hiring freelancers over hiring temporary workers through their local recruiting agencies. These statistics prove that companies are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits freelancers provide; outside of sites, you can also use a recruiting company to better match you with employees, even if they are part time. 

An HR department or recruiter can browse and filter through dozens of specialized positions and candidates on multiple online freelancing websites. In the U.S. this year, 57 million people worked as freelancers. That's approximately 35% of the U.S workforce so candidates are there actively and inactively looking for contracted or one-time projects on these sites. 

So whether you’re looking for designers, developers or I.T specialists, there are hundreds of specialized candidates that may be a great fit for your business. Always remember to have a strong brand image and use your recruiting strategy to target your perfect candidates. These tips along with keeping up to date with recruiting strategies may save your recruiting budget thousands in the future.