How to Find Employees for Free: Job Search Sites, Social Media

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When you’re hiring talent for a large enough team, you want to be able to bring in people with a variety of skill sets from a variety of different backgrounds. If you feel like you’re getting the same types of candidates who keep coming in the door, then it might be time to reevaluate your online hiring strategy — and getting super specific in your job postings may not be the right answer.

The best way to find job candidates online is having a game plan that’s both active and passive. You want to be able to actively reach out to candidates who you know will have the right background for the position, but also attract passive job seekers who may be unexpected gems you’ll want to consider. We understand that there’s many tools to consider when you start posting jobs online, and you may get flooded with an influx of applications, especially if you’re using a more popular job site.

In a tight labor market, it’s imperative to use a variety of methods to find qualified job candidates to fill critical roles. Locating, wooing, and successfully bringing in candidates online is also made easier if you beef up your own company’s digital presence. Below are some of our best tips for ways you can find the right candidates yourself, as well as let the candidates come to you and your business.

1. Cast A Wide Net On Job Search Sites (Then Narrow Down)

The best way to set yourself up for success and find employees online is through job posting sites. This way, you can cast a wide net on your first round with a large enough resume database at your fingertips to comb through later when you filter for necessary qualifications.

Online applications are also enticing for job seekers who lack the interest or the time to go through excessive click-throughs, timed tests, or job landing pages not designed for mobile. Many job board sites are also free to apply for job seekers, so you’ll get a decently diverse pool on the first round just from lack of restriction. Some of the best sites to find employees online include ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and CareerBuilder.

But when you need to narrow down the pool, make sure you’re looking for a site with tools you can use to track applicants, create targeted postings, or at least a specific way to track and filter for quality candidates. You don’t want to needlessly eliminate a bunch of worthy candidates just because you’re staring down a large number of applications.

ZipRecruiter, specifically, has a powerful matching algorithm and AI technology to create instant matches between your listings and the right candidates. Using information about a job seeker’s skills (such as education, skills, and experience), it can connect all kinds of businesses with millions of potential employees currently on the web through their browser site, mobile app, and email program.

There’s two plans available, a Standard and Premium job listing plan. While they don’t list their official pricing online, the Standard plan is for more budget-friendly hiring, and will give you distribution to 100+ job sites, unlimited candidate applications, and one reusable job slot. Before you starting looking over your candidates, you can always try this #1 rated hiring site free with ZipRecruiter’s free trial plan.

2. Identify and Strengthen the Company’s Online Presence

A company’s digital presence is one piece of criteria that signals an organization’s reputation as an employer to job seekers online. It’s now not just about the job description matching up to a potential employee’s background — potential employees want to know that a company aligns with their goals and values. Consider having your job listing speak to the other facets of your company, whether that be opportunities to “give back” with employee volunteering, describing the workplace atmosphere, or how leadership views company growth.

One way to check on this is to see what current and former employees are saying about working at your company on sites like Glassdoor, Salary or CareerBuilder. Make sure your social media sites align with your company’s brand, too — this may provide insight into the number of applications you’re receiving, as well as the kinds of applicants are applying.

3. Create An In-Depth Candidate Database

If we’re speaking to diversity of job backgrounds, searching for qualified candidates who have either switched industries, or may not be from your industry as all from can be time-consuming — unless you have the right system in place. Building up a candidate database will help you more easily access resumes, relevant experience, and contact details. Not only that, but maintaining a database will allow you to track and reach out to diverse candidates if you want to dive a bit deeper into their experience.

Ziprecruiter has a smart, easy-to-use dashboard that helps you sort, review, and rate the candidates you’ve received, so you can see unique candidates that stand out. It also intelligently learns from your ratings and sends you similar applicants to the ones you liked. Their “Invite to Apply” tool also finds candidates for open roles before they even apply, showing past employers’ detailed information about the candidate. This includes experience, education, veteran status, certifications, and a rating indicating how strong a match they are for the role.

4. Target Passive Job Seekers

To source passive job seekers, look to where they’re congregating online, and target specific networks of talent that you think might be interested in your job position. Social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, alumni sites, and industry-specific professional networking sites are a great landing places for hiring passive job seekers who you may find to be the best candidates.

If you want to reach out to a new audience on social media instead of targeting specific candidates, ZipRecruiter‘s “TrafficBoost” will help give your job posting a little extra range, including increased placement and visibility across their linked job boards. TrafficBoost helps secure more eyeballs, too, since the tool will promote the position until it receives the number of views you’re aiming for (100-300 views per post), or for up to 30 days.

Facebook and Twitter have a variety of professional networking pages that you can informally post your job listings on, some of which can get as specific as you need them to be. People who have just been scrolling through their feeds will see your add or your post and may just decide to apply.