How to Recruit Employees Who Will Thrive at Your Company

Article

Understanding how to recruit employees who will succeed at your company is a necessary skill for any successful manager. After all, the cost of a bad hire can be significant, not only in terms of time and money spent searching for a suitable candidate, but also by negatively affecting team morale. In fact, 30% of hiring managers in a recent Robert Half survey say they’ve made a bad hire in the last two years, underscoring how common recruitment missteps can be.

Robert Half is an expert at finding top talent, and we’re sharing some of our top tips on how to recruit employees to help your company thrive. From knowing what you’re looking for in your next hire to recognizing those qualities when you see them in the candidates you interview during the recruitment process, our resources can help you feel capable and confident throughout the employee recruitment process.

How to Find and Hire Great Employees

What is an employee recruitment strategy?
Employee recruitment strategies: How to attract and hire great talent
Let a talent solutions firm help with employee recruitment

What is an employee recruitment strategy?

A recruitment strategy is a plan for attracting, identifying and hiring qualified candidates to support your company’s goals.

What the employee recruitment process looks like:

1. Define the role—Clarify the responsibilities, required skills and goals for the position. This sets the foundation for a targeted recruitment effort.

2. Identify your hiring needs—Consider your broader business goals. Do you need permanent employees or contract professionals?

3. Source candidates—Use a mix of job boards, referrals, niche platforms and recruiting partners to reach the right talent.

4. Screen and shortlist—Review resumes and conduct initial assessments to identify top contenders.

5. Interview—Structure interviews to evaluate both technical skills and cultural fit.

6. Evaluate and select—Gather feedback, compare candidates and make your final choice.

7. Extend the offer and onboard—Present a competitive offer and create a smooth onboarding process to set your new hire up for success.

Whether you’re building a team from scratch or recruiting employees to fill high-priority roles, effective strategies for employee recruitment ensure your efforts are targeted and competitive. From job postings to interview processes, every step of the candidate experience should reflect your company’s values and the qualities you’re looking for in future hires. Below we’ll explore some of the best ways to recruit employees.

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Robert Half matches companies with skilled contract and full-time talent in finance and accounting, administrative and customer support, legal, technology, and marketing and creative fields. Let us help you.

Employee recruitment strategies: How to attract and hire great talent

Recruiting top talent isn’t as simple as posting a job and waiting. Hiring may be more cautious in today’s economy, but demand for specialized talent remains strong. Businesses are focused on strategic hires, prioritizing critical roles that support core operations and future growth.

At the same time, skills-based hiring has taken center stage, as employers look beyond job titles to find candidates with the capabilities needed to thrive. Now’s the time to rethink outdated hiring models. Emphasizing capabilities over titles can unlock access to a broader, more qualified candidate pool.

Write job descriptions that showcase your culture. A job description should do more than list responsibilities and qualifications. Use it to convey what makes your company a great place to work: your mission, team dynamics, career development opportunities and work environment. Candidates want to picture themselves succeeding in the role and thriving at your company.

Optimize your careers page. Your website is often the first place candidates go to learn about your organization. Make sure your careers page is mobile-friendly, easy to navigate and rich with information about benefits, culture, ESG initiatives and growth paths. Bonus: Add employee testimonials and videos to showcase your company culture.

Post on targeted and niche job boards. Instead of relying solely on large job platforms, post roles on niche or industry-specific sites where your ideal candidates are more likely to be searching. This can improve visibility and attract applicants with the right expertise.

Launch or refresh your employee referral program. Employees often know people in their field who could be a great fit. A well-structured referral program with meaningful incentives can help you tap into trusted networks and bring in pre-vetted candidates more efficiently.

Make every candidate interaction count. Every touchpoint in the hiring process shapes how candidates perceive your company, from the job description to the final follow-up. Even small gestures, like clear communication or personalized interview feedback, can leave a lasting impression. In a competitive market, those positive experiences can be the reason top talent chooses you over another offer.

Put a trusted talent solutions firm to work. Don’t go it alone, especially for hard-to-fill or high-impact roles. A specialized recruiting partner can help you source skilled candidates faster. See the next section for benefits of working with a staffing agency and making the most of the partnership.

Let a talent solutions firm help with employee recruitment

Finding skilled, reliable employees isn’t just time-consuming, it can also be risky and expensive if done wrong. That’s why many employers are turning to staffing experts to help sharpen their recruitment strategy and reduce the chance of a bad hire. Partnering with a talent solutions firm can give you a major edge, offering the following key benefits:

Tighten up your hire time. A lengthy recruitment process can cause you to lose top candidates to faster-moving employers. Delays in decision-making or extended interview timelines can frustrate applicants and damage your hiring outcomes. In a recent Robert Half survey, 39% of hiring managers answered they spent less time on job postings, interviews and screenings by partnering with a staffing agency.

Spearhead your recruitment strategy. A recruiter can help you craft a job post that’s more likely to draw the attention of the best applicants. 

Scout the talent. The best talent managers have access to a large pool of skilled professionals, including passive job seekers—professionals who are not actively searching for a new position but would be open to changing roles for the right opportunity. In fact, 40% of hiring managers said working with a staffing agency gave them access to pre-vetted, high-quality candidates.

Make your workforce agile. An employment agency can help your business recruit contract, seasonal, permanent, contract-to-permanent, project-based, remote, on-site, one employee, an entire team—and advise on the best mix for your company’s specific  needs and business cycles. 

Decrease turnover costs. Dealing with a bad hire takes up too much of management’s time, especially in a small business. In a recent survey, 54% of employers say their biggest hiring mistake was failing to properly assess technical skills and qualifications, while 46% cite overlooking soft skills and company culture fit. When you engage a talent solutions firm, you gain access to professionals who’ve been thoroughly vetted for both skill set and cultural alignment, helping reduce costly turnover.

Try out a new person for your team. A contract assignment with the option to go contract-to-permanent after a certain period is a good method for evaluating a candidate’s skills and work ethic before committing to a permanent arrangement.  

A thoughtful, well-executed recruitment strategy not only saves you time and resources, it helps you build a team that’s ready to move your business forward. Whether you’re filling one key role or scaling an entire department, taking a more intentional approach to recruitment can make all the difference. With the right tools and partners, you’ll be well equipped to hire with confidence.

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