In order to maintain your competitive advantage, your business needs high-quality team members with the skills necessary to help boost your position and improve your standing. As a result, you need to put your recruitment efforts into the avenues that are going to bring you the best results for your business. You don't just want employees for the sake of filling open roles; instead, you want to recruit top talent who can advance your business, create opportunities for innovation, and help you continue to build your position in the industry. Just what are the best avenues for recruitment? Consider some of these options. 

1. Your Company Website

Your website is an incredible tool, not just for marketing your company to potential customers, but for marketing your company to interested employees. Through your website, you can share the details of why your company is such a great place to work and why prospective employees, especially the top talent in your field, should genuinely want to work for you. Your company website should include:

• A clear mission statement. Eighty-six percent of millennials would consider taking a pay cut to work for a company whose values are the same as their own. 
• A listing of open jobs and the requirements for them. This section can help attract job seekers who are genuinely interested in your company, not just in any position within the industry. 
• An explanation of your company culture and the benefits you can offer, which will help weed out candidates who don't fit as well within that culture or who expect more in terms of benefits than you can offer.
• A simple application process that job seekers can easily follow. If they can't figure out how to apply, they will abandon their search and move on to a different employer quickly. 

2. LinkedIn

A prospective employee with a LinkedIn profile can provide a much more extensive view of what they can accomplish, including a better snapshot into their specific skills. Your company’s LinkedIn profile can likewise provide candidates with a better look at exactly what it will be like to work for your company and what you expect from your employees. Eighty-seven percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to conduct a search for potential employees to fill an open role. Want to use LinkedIn as an effective recruiting tool? Make sure you:

• Look through prospective employees' networks for referrals
• Create a comprehensive employer profile that shares extensive information about your company
• Utilize the question and answer section to answer questions frequently asked by prospective employees
• Target passive candidates, who might be interested in changing jobs, but who might not be actively job searching at any given moment

3. Social Media

Social media often proves to be a highly effective tool for sharing information about open jobs within your organization. Eighty-two percent of organizations have used social media to actively recruit passive job searchers and 79% of job seekers use social media in their job search. You want to create a specific social media account, separate from the account used to connect with customers, to allow you to recruit candidates for your open positions. Encouraging employees to share your posts can help extend your reach and allow you to find more candidates. 

4. Job Boards

An average of nearly 19% of new hires come from job boards. To use a job board effectively, try to use both broad boards and niche boards related to your industry. Craft a compelling description of your open position, and make sure to include information about what makes your company a great place to work. You can also link job board descriptions to your website or social media pages for additional information. 

5. Referrals

Around 16% of new hires come from referrals, often from people who already work for your company. Let your existing employees know when you have a new position open and what you need from an individual to fill that position. You may consider offering referral bonuses to employees who successfully recommend new candidates who stay with your company for a set amount of time. 

6. Radio Ads

Radio ads are also a great way to expand your reach when recruiting new candidates. Putting your ad out on job boards or in the newspaper generally only connects you with candidates who are actively looking for a new position--generally, those that are unemployed. With a radio ad, on the other hand, you can reach a broad segment of the population, an estimated 89% of whom are eager to start a new position. In your radio ad, include a snippet about why your company is such a great place to work, what kind of talent you're looking for, and where candidates can go for more information. 

Recruitment is essential to continue bringing in the best candidates for your business. It's important, therefore, to allocate your resources to the best sources of recruitment. By carefully evaluating the platforms that work best for your business and tracking your results over time, you can often better identify the strategies that most effectively help you move those candidates into position in your company.