How to Find Great Workers: The 12 Best Methods

Great workers are essential to any business’s success. But finding the best candidates with the right skills and qualities required for your company is often challenging and time-consuming.

Fortunately, several strategies exist for finding qualified workers without incurring too much cost. These include using online and offline methods, engaging independent talent or staffing agencies, and enlisting recruiting services. Combining offline tactics and online tools can help you widen your candidate pool and streamline the process of recruiting workers.

So, where do you start? What are the best tools available? What can you do to make the worker search process smoother for everyone involved?

This article aims to answer these questions and discusses the 12 best ways for finding workers. Feel free to jump to any section of the article using the links below.

• Post to online job boards
• Find workers on freelance sites
• Post and advertise on social media
• Consider internal applicants
• Hire recruiters
• Have current workers help with the search
• Attend job fairs and conferences
• Let your customers know you’re hiring
• Work with nonprofit hiring organizations
• Advertise on search engines (PPC)
• Use local flyers and other traditional methods
• Revisit your candidate database from previous job applicants

Post to online job boards

One of the best ways to find workers is by posting opportunities across multiple job boards. These boards usually promote job listings posted by recruiters and employers. In general, jobs are categorized and searchable by career type, experience level, and industry. By posting job ads on several job posting sites, you will expand your reach for potential workers.

The biggest benefit of job boards is that they’re a low-cost way to advertise your job listings. In fact, some of the most popular sites allow you to promote your openings for free.

If you have previously tried job boards and failed to find qualified candidates, don’t dismiss them entirely before experimenting with your listing. You could:

• Add a more descriptive job title
• Include the key responsibilities in the job description
• Mention necessary requirements and qualifications
• List the benefits the company offers workers

Find workers on freelance sites

Freelance job sites have a treasure trove of potential candidates just waiting to be discovered. If you genuinely want to scout top talent for open positions or project assignments in your company, you might need to look beyond traditional job boards or search engines and familiarize yourself with freelance sites.

Many people prefer flexibility and freedom in their work environment and look to freelance sites for remote work. You may reach a whole new crowd of potential candidates by posting freelance projects, such as graphic design or content writing, on sites like Upwork.

Upwork helps connect you to freelance professionals best suited for your job listings. You then select the candidates of your choice and hire them on a short- or long-term basis.

Post and advertise on social media

In many ways, social media functions just like an online job board. Share information about your openings and reach out to qualified candidates within your social networks.

LinkedIn may be a great place to start since it’s considered the premium social networking site for working professionals. By logging in as a recruiter, you can post about roles on your company’s LinkedIn page; ask your workers to share the open opportunity with their networks for greater reach.

In addition to LinkedIn, you may want to try Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, you can use hashtags to target specific job candidates with the skill sets you’re looking for. And on Facebook, utilize groups created for sharing professional interests and job postings.

Consider these tips to make the recruitment process through social media more seamless:

• Publicize your culture. Add images, videos, and testimonials that showcase your company’s culture. This type of communication creates buzz and excitement about your company and incentivizes workers to prioritize opportunities within your company.
• Stimulate sharing. Encourage existing workers to share the listing with their professional networks. More sharing translates into a wider audience reach and larger pool of qualified candidates.
• Share contact information. Provide an email address or other contact details where interested applicants will be able to reach the appropriate person at your organization.
• Narrow your search. On Facebook, join profession-specific groups. On Twitter, use targeted hashtags.

If this seems confusing or daunting, consider hiring a social media manager on Upwork to do the work for you.

Consider internal applicants

In addition to searching for qualified candidates outside your company, you may find  internal workers seeking a horizontal or vertical shift within the organization. A benefit of this approach is that you or someone within your company is  already familiar with their skills and experience. Additionally, they already know the organization, so they will likely have a shorter time settling into the new job and understanding the work culture.

Internal hires are  great for upskilling existing workers and boosting engagement and morale. This is also a useful strategy if you need to build a creative team for a temporary, short-term project and don’t want to go through the entire hiring process of looking for new workers.

This way, you will save on recruitment costs and help reduce worker turnover. Low worker turnover is beneficial for any business and likely to attract more workers in the future.

Get a good start by ensuring your company has a job posting board or careers page where workers can seek new job opportunities within the organization.

Hire recruiters

If you’re willing to outsource the hiring process to another company, consider engaging a recruiting agency to take charge. This will save you from devoting extensive effort and time toward recruitment and allow you to focus your resources elsewhere, but may be costly.

Hiring an external company often simplifies the process significantly. All you have to do is specify the role you’re hiring for, the skills required, and the preferred qualifications. The recruiter will have the responsibility of providing screened candidates.

Have current workers help with the search

Another simple, and generally inexpensive, way to spread the word about job openings is through word-of-mouth marketing using your existing workers. This widens your search beyond simply using online platforms.  

Ask your workers to recommend people they believe would be a good fit for your open roles. Consider incentivizing this process by creating a brand ambassador program where interested workers represent your company at recruitment events to earn rewards. Or you could organize worker referral programs where you reward workers who refer quality candidates to the company with a bonus or other perks.

Attend job fairs and conferences

You can contact and even pre-screen dozens of job seekers by attending local job fairs and conferences. These events give potential candidates the opportunity to physically network with current workers, ask about your organization and work culture, and learn more about the open roles.

Job fairs and conferences may also improve your likelihood of finding good workers because you get to showcase your company. Some potential workers may never even have heard of your business before the job fair. Your existing workers can also share their first impressions of potential new hires from interactions at these events.

Startups and small businesses looking to hire often find attending job fairs and conferences especially helpful, as they don’t usually have the hiring resources of big companies.

Even college job fairs are bursting with new talent and job seekers eager to break into the job market. Consider attending at least a few of these.

In addition, attend events intended for minority groups to provide opportunities to those who are often underrepresented. This search can help you find qualified candidates and also support the diversity within your organization.

Let your customers know you’re hiring

Why not reach out to existing customers and let them know you’re hiring? These folks are already familiar with your brand and, in most likelihood, have a positive impression of your company. Ask them to spread the word among their contacts, improving your company’s reach.

Since you’re communicating with current customers using an existing channel, this is another low-cost way of advertising your job openings. Post banners or links on your company website, send email updates or a newsletter to your contact lists, or put up posters inside your store.

Email marketing is an excellent way of keeping your customers in the loop about upcoming opportunities. If you’re not sure how to get started, consider these email marketing recommendations that you can quickly implement.

Work with nonprofit hiring organizations

Nonprofit organizations that work with veterans, immigrants, and other underrepresented groups seeking work are great resources for finding motivated workers. These individuals may be trying to find ways to get back into the workforce. They have also probably received some level of training from the nonprofit, providing a solid platform you can build on.

Often, these organizations complete extensive background checks, which can be a big help. When you hire screened workers from such organizations, you will know that each candidate has been vetted, giving you one less thing to worry about. One example of a nonprofit organization that helps with hiring is the Wounded Warrior Project.

Advertise on search engines (PPC)

Another way to maximize your outreach is by posting on job search engines. Platforms like Indeed bundle thousands of listings from various online sources, usually reaching a wider audience compared to individual online job boards. Posting your job openings on a search engine even helps you target specific candidates.

Some platforms use a pay-per-click (PPC) model. Essentially, you pay a fee every time one of your listings is clicked.  You may want to hire a PPC specialist to help navigate the process and choose the best platform to match your needs.

Use local flyers and other traditional methods

While online methods are a great way to reach candidates, don’t forget that you can use traditional offline methods as well. These conventional methods may not be the most effective when used in isolation, but they can be helpful in conjunction with other methods.

A simple “help wanted” sign is often effective in starting an offline recruitment drive. This notice might help bring in foot traffic through existing customers, passersby, and other potential job candidates. You could also hang your signs and job posters on bulletin boards in shops and areas around your office. Make sure you include contact information so that job seekers know how to reach you.‍

Revisit your candidate database from previous job applicants

You’ve probably received hundreds, if not thousands, of impressive resumes from qualified candidates in the past, but the individuals weren’t suitable for the specific roles open at the time. So, why not archive this information, instead of discarding it, and reconsider these individuals for future job openings?

Creating a candidate database is an excellent solution. This practice can help you save and store resumes that could come in handy when a suitable job becomes available. Index the database by keywords attached to each candidate’s resume, facilitating the process of searching for the right candidates with the necessary skills or qualifications.

Make sure to also note additional information from the first time you interviewed candidates, such as any impressions they made and tests they completed. Most importantly, store their contact information for future access. Even when you don’t hire them the first time around, be sure you conclude the interviewing process on a positive note so that they’re willing to reconsider your company in the future.

The benefit of looking at past candidates is that you’ve already interviewed and evaluated them. Reconsidering past candidates allows you to shorten steps in the hiring process, saving you valuable time and money.

In review: The best ways to find workers

At the end of the day, the most important approach to finding workers is to design a consistently effective recruiting strategy that reaches a broad and suitable applicant pool. While engaging recruitment companies or temp agencies isn’t necessary, don’t hesitate to invest in them if you feel they can help you hire the best talent.

The right workers, after all, are the lifeblood of your company. They shape your culture and personify your brand.

When finding new workers to join your organization, our top recommendations are:

• Post on job boards and search engines.
• Leverage the power of social media.
• Consult freelance sites like Upwork.
• Consider internal hires.

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Upwork does not provide legal advice, and is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this section. These tips, tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.