4 ways to find employees online fast in 2022

Knowing the best way to hire employees is an important part of finding great employees online fast. However, when it comes to doing so quickly, there can be differences involved in finding the most appropriate approach. That’s why we’ve got all the best insight into the four key ways to find employees online fast.

When time is of the essence, it’s important to know exactly what to do so that you’re not stuck waiting too long to employ the right candidate for your business. Time is money and if you’re short on staff, you need to be able to fill those vacancies quickly. Having said that, you still want the best candidates which is why it’s important to go about it the right way. Some ways are more obvious than others but this is the time for efficiency so you get the best value proposition.

Read on while we take you through the four best ways to find employees online fast, while not missing out on quality candidates either. In no time at all, you’ll know exactly what to do to make sure your business is well staffed and efficiently run with plenty of great options for new employees. It should also lead to a better quality of new employee too, as we appreciate that you want the best staff for the job, even when moving fast.

1. Post on a job board website

It’s an obvious one but it’s vital that you post the position you’re looking to fill on a job board website. These days, almost all potential candidates will check out the best job search sites before considering any other options. These sites offer multiple benefits that make it really worthwhile for them to be your first port of call. They allow candidates to check out available jobs from anywhere, both in terms of geographical location and by allowing them to check from their smartphones while commuting, their laptops at home, or their tablets in bed. It’s vital you also post the job on the best job board website possible. We’re big fans of ZipRecruiter. The company lives up to its name by aiming to make the hiring process as quick and efficient as possible. That goes for both you and your future employees, so it’s a great first impression of your company for them.

Rather than being a standalone job search site, ZipRecruiter connects you to more than 100 job boards. These include Google, US News, Jobrapido, Trivet, Patch, Neuvoo, and over 100 more places. The list also includes veteran job sites like Veteran’s Job Exchange, Jobpath, and Veterans Enterprise, so it really covers a breadth of options. That means that you can create a job listing on ZipRecruiter before the service instantly posts it across its hefty network of job listing websites. It saves you the need to use multiple different job boards yourself. Essentially, you’re casting the net wide without having to go to the effort of doing so yourself. It’s a huge time saver while ensuring you get the absolute best candidate for the role.

Just that one advantage to ZipRecruiter sounds like the main selling point but it also does so much more than that. For you, signing up is a breeze. You just enter your name, company name, and a few basic details, and you are good to go. From there, there’s a clear template for entering a job listing. You enter the job title, along with the location, and whether it’s possible to perform the role remotely. The latter is increasingly important these days in a world where remote working is more viable and efficient. It’s an ideal system whether you’re looking for someone local or you don’t mind them being based elsewhere in the country. It’s possible to be very flexible with your job description, with options to add as much key information as you want. Of course, with this information traveling across so many different job boards at once, it’s a smart move to spend some time getting things right. After all, it’s the best way of ensuring you get the candidates you need at your firm and quickly.

A really neat feature about ZipRecruiter is that once you’ve filled in the job description, you can add a 140-character sales pitch. It’s a one-line kind of entry that is there to help you sell the job fast. Think of it as if you were selling the job to a friend. This is the opportunity to point out if there’s a particularly nice work atmosphere or if you get a day off for your birthday. From there, you simply tick some boxes to explain any benefits thrown in and you can post the job listing. ZipRecruiter smartly suggests if your salary range is a little low compared to local competitors too, giving you a chance to change that if you’re in a position too.

The efficiency of ZipRecruiter doesn’t stop there either. It’s possible to add a series of screening questions to your job listing. That way, you can skip all those tedious questions you find yourself asking at the interview stage, saving you the need to even call some people to an interview. You can choose whether these questions are deal-breakers or not ensuring that ZipRecruiter filters out anyone that doesn’t match your essential requirements. It saves everyone time as it means you don’t have to keep asking the same questions when interviewing someone and the candidate knows exactly what to expect. It also makes you look far more professional in the eyes of potential candidates. Adding interview questions takes seconds to do and can be as simple as checking if someone is authorized to work in the U.S. or verifying if the candidate can commit to overtime when needed. It’s all down to your needs with the option to create your own questions if your business has some very specific requirements.

Worried that these filters are too restrictive? Don’t be. You can always check back on the list of applicants and look past the filters. It’s likely you won’t need to though as ZipRecruiter is very efficient at finding the best candidates for you, so you can pick from the very best. ZipRecruiter will also pair you up with the best candidates, using clever AI to ensure that you are matched with the right resume and person for your business. From there, it encourages people to apply to only the best jobs and by best, that means your company of course. It saves everyone time, ensuring you’re noticed by the right person for the job. You can even choose to invite matched candidates to apply if they don’t apply first, speeding up the process even more. It’s a really streamlined approach that means you and your prospective employee feel in control of the process while keeping things moving along quickly.

2. Post on Social Media

Social media is the best way to get your company’s name out there. That doesn’t just matter when it comes to getting people to consider your business as a potential client, but also when it comes to recruitment. Obviously, it’s important to know all the ins and outs of your recruitment plans but one of the very best ways to get the message out is to do so via social media. This can be done in a variety of different ways. At its simplest, you can make a job post on ZipRecruiter before sharing it elsewhere. ZipRecruiter offers plenty of sharing options, allowing you to post the role on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. That way, you can use your existing social media presence — whether that’s your firm’s or even your own — to get the word out and potentially attract new candidates easily. The advantage here is that the reach of services like Twitter and Facebook is vast. Once other users begin sharing your posts around, you can attract people that might not have previously considered your company or been followers of it before. Even better, you can appeal to potential employees who were not originally considering a change of role any time soon. After all, job sites specifically target people who are actively looking for work. By reaching out via social media, you may find yourself attracting people who hadn’t contemplated a new role until they saw yours advertised.

It’s important to plan your social media campaign effectively. Do you want to post a link to an existing job role such as on ZipRecruiter or would you prefer to encourage others to email or get in touch directly? Either can work, and both options are effective depending on the position you’re looking to fill. For instance, a temporary role may benefit from you posting an entry on Twitter or Facebook rather than filling out a full entry on ZipRecruiter, however, we’d generally recommend the latter. Having a full job post means that you can communicate more of what’s expected of a candidate, ensuring the right people apply for the job and you only have the very best that suit your needs to evaluate.

When recruiting, especially quickly, you want to get the right candidate as soon as possible. By posting an entry on ZipRecruiter or a similar job board, you convey a certain sense of professionalism that can put you in good stead for recruiting a similarly professional person. By laying out everything you need and can offer, from what the role entails right down to what benefits they can enjoy, everyone knows exactly where they stand. The sweet spot is to set up screening questions via ZipRecruiter before posting on Twitter and Facebook so that they can answer all your questions. It means you get the best of both worlds without missing out on a place where your dream candidate could be looking. Remember — not everyone knows they’re looking for a new job until they come across the ideal role while browsing the internet.

Depending on the role, you may also wish to consider branching out to other forms of social media. Apps such as Instagram and TikTok can be useful for recruitment in certain situations. In particular, if you’re looking to attract a younger audience, they are more likely to use such services compared to Facebook. Ultimately, expanding your social media presence as wide as possible is beneficial both in terms of marketing and in terms of recruitment. It’s good to have as many options as possible, although when it comes to narrowing down candidates, that’s where using a service like ZipRecruiter proves useful.

3. Create an Employee Referral Program

You’ve already got some great employees within your company so one of the best recruitment tactics is to ask them to recommend people that they think would be a good for the business. They’re likely to know who is the ideal fit, as well as who has the skills to help improve their (and your) work practices. By listening to their recommendations, you save time on having to seek out new and unknown staff, as well as being more confident you’ve hired correctly the first time. Your employee will also feel more valued which will boost loyalty to the firm. The best way to encourage your employees to refer candidates is to create an employee referral program. It allows employers to skip past the traditional recruitment route such as needing to write a job ad and waiting for candidates to get in touch, and move straight ahead to interviewing and recruiting. Such referral programs rely on you rewarding the employee for recommending the right candidate. This could be done via offering a financial bonus or additional vacation days.

Generally, referral programs are seen as offering multiple benefits. They reduce the time to hire as there’s no need to wait for job ads to display and be noticed on job boards. Also, it saves money as you don’t have to worry about paying fees for a job to be listed somewhere. Additionally, the quality of the hire tends to be far superior to hiring a potentially unknown quantity. That’s because your employee is likely to know the referred candidate far better than any resume or interview can ever lay out. With a superior hire, you’re likely to save money on training and avoid the need to rehire staff in the future too. As always, happy staff sticks around for longer. Using such a program also instantly builds a form of loyalty as the new candidate already knows someone within the firm and knows what to expect. That tends to mean that the candidate is more likely to stay in the job for longer than through traditional recruitment methods. Because the candidate has been referred by someone, they often already have various established skills so you can save time and money on training and onboarding. That proves particularly useful when looking to hire someone quickly and have them up to scratch within your company.

When setting up an employee referral scheme, it’s important to plan it out. Consider what your goals are. What positions are you looking to fill and what traits are most important? These are the kind of questions you need to ask when placing a job ad but the process is typically faster through referral schemes so it’s important to plan ahead. It’s a good idea to figure out the process involved too. It can be as simple as asking someone to call someone in for an informal interview or it can be a much more organized process with a resume that includes a section for having been referred by someone. Consider the bonus or bonuses you will offer the employee or even the new candidate and plan out when these will be provided. It’s a good idea to set some kind of length of service before offering the bonus rather than it being immediate, so as to reduce turnover.

Make sure to keep your employee updated on how the process is going so that they feel part of the recruitment process. It helps build up loyalty within the firm as well as encourages them to recommend other potential candidates in the future. Be sure to acknowledge good referrers so that they know their efforts are appreciated. Doing so will also encourage others to become part of the program. Make sure the program is as user-friendly as possible for everyone involved. With better staff, your company will work more efficiently, enjoy a better reputation, and everyone will be happier overall. As you track your referral program, you’re likely to see considerable savings while also enjoying better staff retention than before.

4. Poach from Competitors

Poaching an employee from a competitor is an ethical gray area, but rarely illegal unless their contract prohibits it. While it won’t make you friends with your competitors and can cause issues within certain fields, it is also a highly effective way of recruiting a great new member of staff and quickly. When you poach from a competitor, you gain the benefit of knowing that the employee knows exactly what to do within your field. It’s likely that you won’t need to spend excessive amounts of time training them, with only basic onboarding likely to be needed. However, it can be deemed rude by your competitors and you will often have to pay a considerable sum to entice the very best to your ‘side’. If you want to make friends within your industry, it may be a bad idea to poach other employees, especially if your industry is relatively small in nature.

Poaching from a competitor doesn’t have to be vicious or obvious. It’s possible to hire a search firm to find candidates for you meaning you’re somewhat detached from actually poaching the person you have in mind. A good search firm is subtle and uses vague terms to gauge interest rather than being too obvious and unwelcoming. It’s important before diving into poaching a candidate that you plan ahead. Make sure that you’re hiring genuinely good candidates. Particularly for smaller firms, it can be easy to hire based on a resume rather than look at whether someone’s personality and nature fit into the role. That’s why it’s important to conduct reference checks, even when hiring someone that looks fantastic on paper. Such checks can confirm whether the employee has the same mindset and attitude that the rest of your staff have, ensuring you don’t hire someone that can cause issues amongst the rest of your team.

When hiring, you want to be confident that you can offer an unbeatable deal to the new candidate. Plan accordingly and arrange a contract and deal that is better than where they are currently working. If you can’t offer a financial incentive, ensure that the company’s culture matches their requirement so that they are happy with where they are working. That won’t always work if they are already happy at their original company but if there’s some resentment there, this could be the ideal time to lure them into jumping ship. In some cases, simply having a better atmosphere or knowing other people at your company can help. That’s also where an employee referral program can help substantially.

With any potential poaching of candidates, it’s vital that you don’t get into any legal trouble. Check that the member of staff you wish to hire doesn’t have a non-compete agreement within their contract. If they do, you may face a lawsuit if you hire them until after that limitation expires. In some cases, that can be many years but it could be worth waiting that long for one of the best. Consult an employment lawyer beforehand to ensure it’s fine and not a breach of contract. Also, ensure that no company secrets are shared illicitly due to a switch of employer. Remember that these things can go against you as well. While you consider poaching a competitor’s prime candidate, they can do the same to you. Make sure that your staff is happy, suitably well-paid, and content in their roles so that they aren’t tempted to switch elsewhere.

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