Live hire, not live wire: What's so special about live recruitment?

If you wanna add a load of extra engagement and speed to your hiring process, live recruitment is the way to go!

Let's take a li'l look at this approach and how you can get stuck in:

What's this live recruitment malarkey and why should I care?

It's simple really. Live recruitment is any technique that allows recruiters or hiring managers to start chatting with candidates as soon as they've shown interest in a vacancy.

But, is it really worth shaking things up and going all-out on live recruitment? Darn right it is! Here's why:

Candidate experience

Live recruitment will bring some serious credentials to your candidate experience.

First up, it'll slash the time candidates have to wait around, which is sure to put a smile on their faces. No more posting a conventional ad and waiting months until you collect a stack of CVs and cover letters. Instead, as soon as your ad goes live, so do you!

Jumping right on in there with your candidate communications will help you catch them when they're most interested. On top of that, it'll make candidates feel involved enough to stick an application out 'til the end.

Admin time

And, live recruitment's not just great for candidates.

You might need to switch up your recruitment processes, but live recruitment can save you some serious admin time. Think about ditching your application form for tech that can intelligently scan CVs and cover letters, and back this up with a brief chat.

You can also rule out a load of candidates that might've otherwise made it to interview stage - based solely on your early interactions. 

Cool. Let's get started!

As is the way with most things hiring-related, there's no magic recipe for live recruitment!

You can use all sorts of snazzy recruitment tech to get stuck in, like:

• Social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc.)
• Live chat features/chatbots
• SMS
• Video-calling
• Online tests/skills-related games

A recruitment drive based on live recruitment might look a li'l like this:

1. Create a job ad, optimise it for the social media channels you're gonna use and ask applicants to PM you if they're interested.
2. Post it from your company account, try to get it seen by some relevant specialist communities and ask your staff to share it far and wide.
3. As soon as someone interesting comes your way, jump back onto social media and start up a chat. Thank them for their interest, ask them if they've got any questions and see if they can ping over a CV/cover letter.
4. If you think they're your bag, ask them if they'd be willing to take a basic online test right off the bat, then send them the relevant link.
5. So, they pass the test with a pretty high score, but you still want to keep interviewee numbers down. Now's the time to book in a quick video call to help you sort the best from the rest.
6. The video call goes to plan and you're happy to book them in for a face-to-face interview. Just remember to tell them how to reach you quickly if they've got any questions.

So, what are you waiting for?