Talent shortage is and will be the biggest recruiting topic of the HR industry. The german survey “Recruiting Trends 2012” of the Center of Human Ressources Information Systems (CHRIS) and Monster says that every third vacancy is hard to fill (with upward tendency). Especially high qualified employees are rare on the job market. But there is still hope. Even 35% of german employees with a secure job are wiling to change, particularly employees of the generation Y are known for their willingness to change their job. Therefore, if you are looking for talents it does not make sense to only focus on the common recruiting channels. Firstly here are also fishing all the others and secondly the big fishes are rarely looking actively for new jobs. So it is time to check out alternative recruiting strategies. Here are four proposals to recruit high potentials for hard-to-fill-jobs:

Recruiting strategy 1: Open yourself for alternative recruiting sources

The first strategy isn’t really a strategy but more a question of attitude. Like we said overfishing is not only related to the oceans but also to talent pools and in both cases you cannot ignore it. So do not only focus on the busy waters – even though you already know them by heart – but be open for alternative recruiting ressources. The internet offers much more recruiting options than only the big online job boards and the own career website. To look for new recruiting channels, active sourcing and social media recruiting might first seem to be time intensive and unfamiliar but provides you with a significant advantage in the war for talent – recruiters of the future have to be proactive!

Recruiting strategy 2: Find digital niches of your potential candidates

Surely you sometimes read recruiting magazines and blogs (like this one), visit online platforms or you are part of an active online recruiting community just because you are interested in the topic. This also applies for all other professions. Special communities on Xing or LinkedIn are definitely a good place to go, but not for all industries and professions. If you are for example looking for a WordPress-Software Engineer, you might make a find in the WordPress forum. You should also take a look on specialised job boards: dasauge.com is for example a much-frequented online community for the creative industry with a job board and a community containing profiles and portfolios of the members. German software engineers are further preferring it-projekte.de. Last but not least your candidate might be waiting for you in the croud of specialist blogs and magazine authors.

Recruiting strategy 3: Take a look on associations and alumni networks

Associations like the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT) or the SAE International, an international association for engineering in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries as well as alumni networks are further recruiting sources you should take into consideration when looking for experts. Next to member lists you find here information about special events and fairs which are the next two great recruiting pools. Pay also attention to the key note speakers on such events.

Recruiting strategy 4: Implement an employee referral program

Engineers know a lot other engineers from their university or their previous employers, web designers know other web designers, computer scientists know other computer scientists. Furthermore they are actively involved in corresponding networks and communities. Involve these people in your recruiting strategy and implement an employee referral program. For hard-to-fill vacancies you are more than welcome to reward your employees with nice bonuses.