The world keeps on turning and the recruiting landscape keeps on changing. With new approaches to talent acquisition popping up all the time, it can be difficult to keep pace with the latest trends. Here’s one new approach you should add to your vocabulary: ever heard of reverse recruiting?

What Is Reverse Recruiting?

Reverse recruiting flips the traditional roles of candidates and recruiters. Instead of candidates applying to companies, companies apply to candidates. 

In order for reverse recruiting to work, companies need to provide candidates with more detailed information in their first encounter than they normally would. This information includes compensation and benefits attached to the role.

After candidates sift through their potential job opportunities, they decide which recruiters they’d like to meet for an interview.

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Why Should You Care About Reverse Recruiting?

Reverse recruiting’s advantages are far and wide. If you’re not convinced that reverse recruiting matters, check out its benefits below.

Adapt to the Evolving Hiring Landscape

It’s still a candidate’s market; there are two jobs for every available worker. More likely than not, these candidates have a variety of job opportunities to choose from. To adapt to today’s market, talent teams must evolve their hiring methods. 

Posting job openings on LinkedIn may be a popular approach to finding talent, but with candidates being inundated by opportunities on job boards, it’s not always the best way to stand out. 

By applying to candidates, companies differentiate themselves from other organizations by making their interest in a candidate incredibly apparent.

Better Chance of Winning Coveted Talent

Reverse recruiting proves to be especially useful when recruiting for in-demand roles, such as software engineers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 25% growth in software development jobs from 2021 to 2023.

Directly conveying to a candidate that you’re interested in them effectively captures their attention and increases your chances of filling the in-demand role.

Increase Your Candidate Pool Diversity

If one of your recruitment team’s goals is to boost the diversity among candidates, reverse recruiting is a proactive way to do it. Revere recruiting puts all of the power in your hands to seek out and uplift diverse, underrepresented talent.

Identify Talent With a Perfect Skill Set Match

If you have trouble finding applicants who match the hiring manager’s wish list of skills, reverse recruiting can solve this problem. Applying to talent allows companies to connect with just the candidates who possess the desired skills.

This also eliminates the amount of time spent sifting through applications upon applications that just don’t contain what the hiring manager is looking for.

How To Prepare for Reverse Recruiting

We’ve covered the basics of what reverse recruiting is…but how should recruiters put reverse recruiting into action? Before reaching out to candidates, follow the steps below to guarantee the highest success rate.

Carve Out Your Candidate Profile

The first step of reverse recruiting involves considering your ideal candidate profile. What experience is required? Is a specific skill set or mindset most important for this position? 

This step shouldn’t feel unfamiliar; it’s a pivotal action item for practically all types of recruiting. However, your candidate profile is especially important when reverse recruiting. You’ll leverage it when explaining to a candidate how they would be a great fit for a specific role. 

Establish the “Why”

“What’s in it for me?” That’s one of the first questions a candidate asks themself when approached by a recruiter. It’s important to get clear on the “why” behind your reverse recruiting efforts. Why would a candidate want to work for your company? Why would they enjoy the role? 

Identify the compensation, benefits, and perks of working for your organization so that you can effectively relay them to your candidate.

Refine Your Employer Brand

Your company’s reputation as an employer can be discovered in just a few clicks. Tidying up your employer brand before you reach out to candidates is a must. 

In fact, organizations that invest in their employer brand are three times more likely to hire quality candidates.

There are countless ways to improve your employer brand. From boosting your careers page (and ensuring that you actually follow through on the page’s promises), to nailing down your employee value proposition, to committing to DE&I, the choice is yours.

Supercharge Your Recruiting Methods Today

Whether or not reverse recruiting is ideal for your talent team to employ, there’s one opportunity that your team simply shouldn’t pass up on: leveling up your recruitment tech stack.

GoodTime Hire automates coordination, builds genuine connections with talent, and gathers actionable data to optimize the entire process. (Plus, you’ll save major time and money along the way).

Discover how GoodTime Hire’s interview scheduling software can take your recruiting to the next level.

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About the Author

Rachel Heller

Rachel is passionate about creating and distributing powerful, engaging, and expert-vetted content. As the former Content Specialist at GoodTime, she covered the latest trends, insights, and expert recommendations for all things talent acquisition and recruiting.