Recruiting (sourcing, talent attraction, hiring – whatever we may call it) has changed in the past few years. Companies are now fiercely competing to attract top talent. The ones that are winning are using all their smarts to hire better people faster.

If your company is seeking access to this top talent here are five outdated tactics that should be retired in favour of modern strategies:

Design the application process with little thought to the whole applicant experience.

Every job searcher has come across a listing for a position that they can do, but on further investigation see the company’s careers page doesn’t offer much of an idea of what it’s like to work there. Desperate candidates will apply to a company they know nothing about, but top candidates won’t waste their time. They’ll look for opportunities that give more information up front.

A company’s website is a marketing tool used to convert visitors into customers. Take the same approach with your careers page only strive to convert visitors into applicants. Talk about your company’s philosophy, people, workplace and benefits. Include photos and videos of your staff at work and play and testimonials from happy employees. Measure the page’s performance and adjust as needed.

Same interview process for every candidate

Candidates are not all the same and shouldn’t be treated as such. This is especially true when hiring for a hard to fill role, candidates with the right skills and background can be few and far between.

When an impressive candidate applies you need to strike while the iron is hot. Don’t schedule an interview for next week. Try to meet with them right away to discuss the position and their interest in it.

You’ll have a pool of suitable candidates to screen for most the roles you hire for and in these cases, following your company’s standard hiring game plan is fine. But occasionally you need to step outside of this process to secure a great candidate before another company grabs them!

Ignoring previous applicants

You’ve probably interviewed some great people that were not successful, we tell these candidates they’re impressive and encourage them to apply to future openings. But how often are you proactive in seeking them out when another role goes live?

Every person who has applied to your company should have a profile stored in your applicant tracking system (ATS). Create talent pools for skill sets so that these great candidates can be easily found for future roles.

Sending bland communications with no personal touch

Talented people regularly receive emails and cold calls from recruiters. Unless they’re actively searching for a new role they don’t give these bland and flavourless messages much attention.

Do some homework and give the candidate a reason to respond. It is incredibly easy to learn about someone’s professional background these days; a tailored approach will always reap better results.

Months to make a hiring decision

The best candidates will not be attracted or retained by a multi-month, protracted hiring process and even average ones may be offered other positions along the way. Work fast and smart, companies need to move at pace if they hope to hire the best people in today’s market.

Use targeted media, talent pools and assessments integrated with your ATS to shorten your attraction and screening, then get to work ensuring that the rest of your process can be completed in under 2 weeks.

There is no perfect way to recruit but we have found tactics and approaches that work for us in today’s talent short market. We are also aware that the above tactics are still regularly being used in recruitment by both organisations and some recruiters representing those organisations. In these days of choice, and unprecedented exposure of organisations through multiple channels, those with tactics that no longer resonate with today’s candidates are behind before even beginning their search.

It might be time to take a good look at the tactics your organisation is employing in the attraction of top talent.