How To Find Employees In 2024 – Forbes Advisor

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One of the most important things you will ever do in your business is hire employees. They are the most important asset and expense that any business has. There have never been as many tools available as there are today to find potential employees, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easier than ever. It can be hard knowing where to find the right employees for your business.

Here are the best methods you can use to find the right employees in 2024:

1. Job Boards

Job boards are the obvious first step that any business needs to take in order to advertise their job openings and let people know what they are looking for. It’s important to post strong job descriptions on the right job boards in order to maximize your chances of reaching the right candidates you can choose from. Many recruiting platforms also offer connectivity with these job boards.

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Some of the most popular job boards include:

• LinkedIn: While known as a social media tool, LinkedIn has a huge job board that is used by most white-collar professionals today.
• Indeed: Indeed is a good entry-level job board and middle-management job board for specific industries such as manufacturing and transportation.
• Glassdoor: Glassdoor aggregates jobs from multiple sources and puts them on its own job board. It’s a mix of a lot of different types of jobs.
• ZipRecruiter: ZipRecruiter is a very popular job board, specifically for hourly jobs such as ones in the retail, restaurant or hospitality industries.
• Wellfound: Wellfound is formally known as AngelList Talent. It is a great job board to find roles at growing startups.
• Dice: Dice is primarily a tech job board for developers and other related jobs in the technology industry.

There are countless job boards that you might be able to take advantage of, many have a very specific niche that could align with what you’re looking for in your search. Some focus on remote jobs while others focus on specific industries such as healthcare. The key to finding the right candidates with a job board is a combination of proper advertising and well-written job descriptions. And for even more granular tracking of candidates from job boards, you can also use an applicant tracking system that ingegrates with these platforms.

2. Social Media

Social media is another great way to find potential candidates for open jobs. If your company has a strong culture and following on social media, then it provides an instant audience of people who are interested in what you’re doing as a business. Companies with big followings can typically generate hundreds of applicants for a single role just by putting a note out on social media that they are looking for someone.

Here are some social media channels that can be successful at finding applicants:

• LinkedIn: As a professional social media app, it is pretty easy to target management, tech or professional-level jobs. It’s a great place to get creative and show off your culture to find the right candidates.
• Instagram: If you’re trying to attract younger professionals, then Instagram is a great place to build a following. You can show off the fun and exotic part of your culture. The more exciting and fun you make working for the business look on Instagram, the easier it will be to get applicants when you ask for them.
• Twitter: Many startups and very niche businesses find applicants through Twitter. Businesses that share how they are building or growing their business on the platform find it the easiest to get applicants when the timing is right because they’ve already attracted an audience of interested parties invested in how well the business does.
• Facebook: Facebook is a good way to find applicants in niche roles. There are a lot of groups that network jobs in niche industries, markets and specific types of roles. Getting the word out that you’re hiring in those groups can bring high-quality applicants even if it doesn’t promote a large quantity.
• TikTok: Today’s younger generation watches a lot of TikTok. If you’re a creative business, then you could easily build a following or even just put out the right video to find the applicants you want.

It should be noted that most hiring efforts on social media take effort before you put the word out that you’re hiring. It involves building an audience and making sure people are paying attention to you. There is typically also a paid option but that doesn’t fully unlock the power of hiring on social media.

3. Your Network

Your professional network and the network of your workers are one of the best ways to find the highest-quality candidates. Not only are your team members the best ones to identify people that they’ve enjoyed working with in the past, but people are less likely to recommend those who they don’t think would work well in the business where they work.

Here are some tips when looking for referrals from your internal team:

• Make It a Priority Internally: Talk a lot about finding the best people to work with inside the organization. If you want a lot of referrals, then you need to build a program that gives people a reason to recommend people. Make your business a place where people want to work and want to bring their friends to work.
• Offer Bonuses: If you offer a bonus for referrals, then people are much more likely to find the best in their network and convince them to work with you. They will do the heavy lifting on selling the business to candidates before you ever talk to them because it is in their best interest to do so.
• Hire the Right Fit: Just because someone refers a potential candidate from their network does not mean you need to hire them. You still want to make sure they are the right fit for the job before moving forward. They should be interviewed the same way you would interview them cold.
• Ask for Referrals: Every time you post a job, make sure your team knows that it is open and ask them for referrals. So many businesses post jobs and their internal employees have no idea that they are hiring but would have had a potential candidate if they knew.

Referrals can be some of the best hires who are also the easiest to find. It’s important, though, that you don’t just hire anyone who is recommended by your employees. You need to make sure that you’re providing the right culture that receives referrals and that every single referral gets a fair shot, but all of them still need to go through your hiring processes.

4. Colleges and Universities

Another great place to look is at colleges and universities. This is a strategy that can work at any college around the country if you’re hiring for remote roles. It also works great at local colleges and universities if you need to hire a role where the individual needs to show up in person. There might even be a way for you to become part of a work-study program if that is something that interests you and it aligns with the work that you need to have done.

Here are the two ways that colleges and universities can help your search:

• Hire Students: You can hire students who are in school for internships or you can hire students who are graduating to fill roles for you. It’s a great way to find people who you can train and help grow into the current role you have open as well as future roles that you may open.
• Hire Alumni: Many colleges and universities also have an alumni association that includes a job board and even full-time employees who are there to help alumni find work. You could ask them to find applicants for you.

This is a great opportunity to find potential candidates if the roles align with the strategy. It’s best to find candidates for entry-level positions or to fill internships.

5. Professional Associations

Another great way to find candidates is through professional associations. Many roles are very difficult to fill as they are either ultra-competitive or it is just hard to find qualified candidates. This can be a sign that a professional association is needed in order to target the right applicants. These associations typically have their pulse on the ins and outs of specific niches and have the ears of many potential candidates who might be looking for work.

Here are some tips when working with professional associations:

• Quality Over Quantity: This type of strategy can provide some of the highest-qualified candidates that you’ll find but it isn’t known for driving massive amounts of applicants to your openings.
• Develop a Relationship: It’s important to develop a relationship with the members running the association if you want the best results here. They have conversations with members and will know who might be qualified and looking.
• Find the Right Association: Make sure that the type of candidate you’re looking for is a frequent target member of the association if you want the best results.
• Don’t Rely on Association Job Boards: The best value out of using an association isn’t the job board that it may offer. Those aren’t typically frequented that often and your best results will come from getting their help in attracting applicants that are probably still employed.

6. Physical Signage

You can always go old school with your applicant search and just put out physical signs. This is especially beneficial if you are looking to hire for a retail position since you have an audience of customers who already like your store and come in every single day. If a customer is looking for work, then they could make a good potential candidate to fill whatever vacancy you have. This isn’t the only way to do this though.

Here are some ways to use signage in order to attract candidates:

• In-Store Signs: As mentioned above, hanging a help wanted sign in your store can be a great way to find the right applicants.
• Flyers: Restaurants and other businesses can give flyers with the products that they sell to help them find and attract the right potential customers.
• Billboards: Any business can get creative and use a billboard to try and attract some high-quality applicants.
• Hang Signs Around Town: There are numerous places you can put a flyer or hang a sign around your town that promotes what you’re looking for in an applicant. Get creative.

Find Your Next Great Hire Through ZipRecruiter’s Online Employment Marketplace

Try ZipRecruiter today by creating a free account!

Post a Job

Tips on Finding Great Employees

The key to finding great employees really is going to depend on what you’re hiring for and what culture you’re trying to build at your business. A great employee can be defined very differently depending on what you’re trying to build. For example, a fast-growing startup might emphasize the hours you put in or the costs you cut while an established business might emphasize how well customers praise the service you provide.

Here are some tips for finding great employees:

• Be Specific About What You Want: If you know what a great employee looks like to you, then be upfront about it to potential candidates and in your job descriptions. Ruthlessly find what you’re looking for.
• Craft a Hiring Process for What You Want: Not every hiring process should look the same. If you know what you need, then your hiring process should be testing for those things.
• Use the Right Tools: When you’re posting jobs, you should find places that will attract the type of candidates you’re wanting to hire. Don’t post a job on a job board, for example, just because everyone does. Instead, use the job board that targets what you want even if it means getting fewer applicants.
• Ask Your Team: Ask your team about what makes employees at your business great and try to find those things. Getting feedback from the ones doing the work every day can be instrumental in getting those attributes correct.
• Be Aggressive: Don’t sit back and hope that the right candidates find you. Instead, ruthlessly go out and find the candidates you want. If your process doesn’t work, then correct it until it does.

Bottom Line

Finding the right candidates is important if you’re going to really benefit from hiring a new employee. You shouldn’t rely on a single source to find all of your applicants and instead should test multiple routes so you can find the one that works best for your business. It’s important to find as many methods as possible that don’t cost you money during your search so that you can scale your process without spending more than you need to on hiring.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the best place to find employees?

The best place for you to find employees is going to depend on your business. You can use job boards, but depending on your open role, the job board you choose could vary quite a bit. You could also use social media if your target audience is there. It really depends on the culture of your business and what type of jobs you need to fill, which will typically tell you the direction to go.

How do I find employees fast?

You find employees fast by putting in the work. The fastest way to go from job posting to hiring is by getting a referral from a member of your team, but any route you take can potentially bring in an applicant right away that you end up hiring. For most roles, you should take the time to find the right candidate.

How can I find employees for free?

The best way to find employees for free is by getting referrals from employees. You can also use organic channels such as your own social media channels for free. Many companies work on building a culture that potential applicants follow and just get enough applicants by putting their roles on their own website and on free job boards. You have to find the right mix for you and your business.

What is recruiting software?

Recruitment software helps hiring teams manage and optimize the entire hiring process to improve hire quality, reduce administrative work, improve collaboration among decision-makers and reduce the time it takes to fill a role.

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Jeff is a writer, founder, and small business expert that focuses on educating founders on the ins and outs of running their business. From answering your legal questions to providing the right software for your unique situation, he brings his knowledge and diverse background to help answer the questions you have about small business operations.

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