25 Fresh and Creative Recruitment Ideas (Tips and Tricks) For 2024

Last updated: May 24, 2024

In a booming economy and tight labor market, filling open jobs requires the use of recruitment ideas and tips that set you apart from the dozens of other recruiters and staffing agencies that are working with the same pool of talent.

Since it is genuinely tough to come up with new recruitment ideas that can be executed on a limited budget, we talked to some of the recruiters we work with to see if they could offer up any that are not already in widespread use.

We received a bunch of interesting submissions and from there, we divided them up into three groups: general, tech and low skilled workers.

If you have an original idea that we missed, leave it in the comments below.

General Recruitment Ideas

We know that our audience is a bit savvier than most so we wanted to steer clear of recruitment ideas like “network at professional events”, “use social media”, “go to job fairs” or upgrade your applicant management system. While we can’t promise that you’ve never thought of any of the ideas below, we’re hopeful that there is at least one that will jump out at you.

Contact a personal email address

When making your initial outreach to a potential candidate, do your absolute best to find their personal, rather than corporate, email address.

Some people view it as unprofessional to be solicited for a new job from their work account and will not respond even if the opportunity is a good fit. Others have a legitimate concern that their email accounts are monitored and do not want to risk getting outed by their IT department for using company time to find another job.

The challenge for the recruiter is that finding a personal email can be a lot of work. If you are looking for a Chrome extension that can help, your best bet is ContactOut. Of all the email finding extensions I have used, it is the only one that regularly returns personal email accounts.

If you have a larger budget, you can also try an option like Pipl. It is a great tool for finding contact information without the need to also have the person’s social media account.

If you don’t want to do the work yourself, you can outsource it to a virtual personal assistant. Email [email protected] to be connected to assistants that we can personally vouch for.

Text when you can

The search method you use to find emails can sometimes result in a phone number that you can use to good effect (if you are careful). Most people are going to assume a text from an unknown number is spam so make sure to explain who you are and how you got their contact info in the first sentence if you want the potential candidate to continue reading.

If you can establish a quick rapport, text may actually be the best communication method available. People check their texts far more often than their email and tend to respond at a higher rate, both initially and to follow ups.

Host educational events

Some of the best unique recruiting ideas are activities that, on the surface, aren’t directly related to hiring. Hosting events like workshops, lectures, seminars, and webinars is one of these. This type of educational offering doesn’t just give you a chance to connect with skilled professionals who may be excellent candidates for your open jobs, but it also establishes you as an expert and thought leader in your industry. This can build your reputation as a skilled recruiter even among candidates who don’t attend the events but see them advertised or watch highlights from the event on your site.

You’ll often get the most value out of events around topics that will be of general interest to professionals, not just those currently looking for a job. For instance, you could host a workshop on how to set career goals, or bring in an established executive to give a talk on key leadership skills for the modern workplace. By doing this, you’ll attract potential passive candidates, not just active job seekers.
You can host these events either in-person or online, and both have their advantages. An online event is often cheaper and less time consuming to organize, and will also enable you to connect with candidates from a broader geographic area. On the other hand, an in-person event allows you to interact one-on-one with attendees, which often forges stronger ongoing relationships.

Whichever format or type of event you host, it can connect you with professionals who are invested in their career progress and actively working to improve and gain new skills, and that’s exactly the kind of candidate most employers are looking for.

Collaborate with industry influencers

A lot of people think of influencers as young social media stars who talk about makeup and fitness, but the truth is that’s just one aspect of the influencer scene. Anyone who has a large audience that trusts them as a source of reliable information and advice can be considered an influencer, and just about every niche and sector has its key players who function in this role.

If you’re looking for examples, consider the rise of “finfluencers”, or influencers in the finance space. The most popular finfluencer currently is Humphrey Yang, who has built a following of over 54 million by sharing tips on topics like tax credits, personal finance, and nonprofit financial management. Other top finfluencers include figures like retired attorney Delyanne Barros and The Neatness Network CEO Anthony O’Neal.

The key trait of an influencer is that they already have an audience. If you can tap into that audience, you can get your job posting in front of a lot more eyes than you would have otherwise.

Finding the right influencers is often the first hurdle. Check on social media, professional organization websites, industry-related forums, and other places candidates in your niche tend to congregate. Look for individuals who have a high number of followers and get lots of engagement with their posts and content.

Once you’ve identified your influencers, there are multiple ways to take advantage of them. You could ask them to promote your job on their channels, write a guest post on their blog, or be a guest on their podcast, just to name a few examples.

Offer virtual reality workplace tours

This can be an especially appealing option for those who recruit remote candidates, or job seekers from other parts of the world who can’t reasonably visit the workplace in person. Even for local jobs, though, giving job seekers an immersive tour of the place they’ll be working if they’re hired can help them to picture themselves in the role and get a feel for the facilities and culture.

The easiest way to provide this experience is through a video walk-through. Make sure that this video looks professionally done, with effective lighting and good sound quality. Depending on the employer, some places won’t want their full facilities available for anyone to see, but you can at least show an example of the desk or office where the candidate will work.

If you have more technical skills available on your team, you could take this tour up a notch with an interactive VR tour that allows job seekers to navigate themselves through their potential new workplace. Whatever format you use, it’s also smart to include interviews with current employees about the work environment or culture, giving candidates first-hand insights into what it’s like to work there.

Wrap your car

This one is a bit offbeat but it’s worth trying. Wrap your car and turn your daily commute into an opportunity to attract new candidates. Before you try this, make sure you know how to do it right.

First, your recruiting or staffing business needs a clear niche to make this most effective. Marketing yourself as “Boston’s #1 recruiter” isn’t going to grab too many eyeballs but if you’re “Boston’s #1 recruiter for startups”, you’ll find that the right people are much more likely to take notice.

Second, your car wrap needs to convey a single call-to-action that is quickly understood. For example, if you recruit in retail, something like “Looking for your next retail job? Visit retailrecruiting.com today” is catchy and memorable.

Third, make sure that you park in the right spots. When parking in a large lot, park your car near the road, not the entrance, to maximize visibility.

Talk to new hires during onboarding

When a new person comes on board at one of your client’s companies, their memory of the best performers at their old company is still fresh. Make sure to ask anyone who you help get hired for a list of people that you should target for your next search.

You can even offer cash bonuses for anyone who they refer that is ultimately hired with your clients.

If you want to go the extra mile, write out a templated email that they can send to their old colleagues. This will ensure a much higher response rate than if you were to reach out yourself.

Check your client’s Glassdoor page

This one is a bit different than the rest in that it won’t directly help with recruitment but the indirect benefits can be significant.

Let’s start with a common scenario. You reach out to a candidate and tell them that you have a job they might be interested in. They ask for more information and you give it to them, including the company name. From that point on, it’s crickets. Now, there are a number of reasons why that might happen but one distinct possibility is that your candidate checked out the company’s online presence and found some awful reviews on their Glassdoor or other business profile page like Google Business or Indeed.

A situation like this is going to make your job a lot harder than it already is. To fix the problem before it comes to pass, do the research that your candidates are going to do and note any problem areas. Make sure that they are reported to the client so that they can take corrective measures (though it can be hard to get your clients to fix a problematic company culture!)

Get your jobs listed on Google Jobs

To get your job postings ranked in Google Jobs requires some serious search engine optimization (SEO) but if you can get listed, then the candidates with the right skills might just come to you.

The specifics of how to execute this strategy are a bit too complicated for this post but you can check out the Job Postings section of our on-page SEO guide for some more information on how to write great job descriptions. Once you’ve wrapped your head around that, you are going to want to consider doing link building as well, either with a HARO or copycat approach.

Recruitment Ideas for Tech

Recruiting in the tech sector may be the most daunting task that a recruiter can face. Employment is expected to grow 13 percent by 2026, faster than the average for all occupations. But forget 2026! Candidates are in high demand today and the supply of qualified applicants cannot keep up.

If you want to set yourself apart from the thousands of other recruiters in the tech space, make sure that you think about the following tech recruitment ideas.

Learn to speak the language of your tech candidates

People with a computer science background have earned a reputation as being a bit prickly, especially when dealing with people who clearly don’t know what they are talking about. If you are going to competently recruit in this sector, you have to understand the basic jargon. If you don’t know the difference between an API and a GUI, Python and Ruby on Rails or the agile and waterfall development philosophies, you need to learn – and fast.

What’s the best approach? You could spend hours reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos but I don’t think that is the most productive use of your time.

Instead, go to Upwork and create a job posting looking for a native English-speaking developer with a speciality in one of the areas in which you recruit. Ask the person you hire to go through a job description for a typical job in your industry and explain everything you need to know about every line you don’t understand. Make sure to let them know why you’re asking these questions so they can also give you advice on the best way to speak to developers about this type of role.

Partner with coding bootcamps and upskilling programs

Short-term, targeted skill building programs like bootcamps can be an excellent source of fresh talent. This is also among the best creative recruiting ideas for connecting with more diverse tech talent. Bootcamps are a popular way for people who lack a tech degree to get the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in the industry. This often includes people switching from other careers, as well as military veterans and people from disadvantaged communities who never had the opportunity to go to college.

When recruiters and employers partner with bootcamps, it’s a win-win. Bootcamps want to advertise a high job placement rate, and the more recruiters who want to connect with their graduates, the more likely students will be to find employment quickly after completing the program.

A partnership can be as low-effort as simply having your contact information in the list provided after graduation. If you have the time and resources, though, taking a more active role can garner more candidates. For instance, you could give a talk on how to stand out to recruiters for those about to leave the program, or could offer one-on-one consulting to review and improve their resumes.

Find your local tech scene – and get involved

Every major city in North America and Europe has a tech scene and you need to be a part of it. From hackathons to meetups, these events offer you a prime opportunity to get in front of the best candidates in your city and pitch them on working with you. How do you find your scene? It’s actually pretty straightforward. Just search for “[your city] + tech meetup” and you’ll have a long list of options to sort through.

Look for Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Meetup.com events and Eventbrite pages and you’ll quickly find yourself inundated with opportunities.

To figure out which ones are the best to attend, look for those with networking opportunities and those that are sponsored by companies that can draw crowds. I’m not going to give you tips on how to network but I will warn you not to be overly surprised if some people are not interested in speaking to you at first. You’ll have to work on a pitch that builds a quick level of trust and doesn’t scare people off.

If someone isn’t interested in chatting, ask them if they know of any companies that are hiring or anyone that is looking for a job so you can at least get a referral out of the conversation.

Host hackathons, codeathons, and competitions

To take the previous idea a step further, you don’t necessarily need to just attend events that other members of the local tech scene put on–you can also host these events yourself, and doing so can have a lot of benefits.

For one thing, codeathons and competitions are fun recruitment activities for candidates. You’ll get to see how potential applicants interact with a team when they’re doing something they actually enjoy, as opposed to how they act when they’re in a nerve-wracking environment like a job interview. Along with this, you’ll get to see them using their skills in real time. This can be a great way to assess, not just their technical capabilities with a given language or process, but also soft skills like problem solving, teamwork, and communication.

Usually, the winner of these events gets some kind of prize. A monetary prize is often the most effective at attracting a lot of people, and though they may not be actively looking for a job right now, they are still individuals you can add to your talent pipeline for the future, or ask for recommendations of other colleagues to reach out to.

Look for tech talent in the right places online

Tech talent can be tricky to find online if you look in the usual places. Posting to your standard job boards will only find you the most active candidates when it is the passive candidates that you are likely seeking.

To have a chance to get in front of top tech talent, consider posting your job on Stack Overflow, the number one place on the Internet for developers to ask and answer questions. Your job will be featured prominently and you’ll have a chance to get in front of some of the industry’s top talent.

 

Another way to find developers in a short time is to check out YouTeam. This developers’ marketplace provides a white-glove matching service and can source candidates according to the client’s brief within 48 hours without charging any fees.

You should also consider Reddit Ads, a cheap way to be seen by one of the most engaged communities on the Internet. r/programming has over 1.4m subscribers, many of whom would be top candidates. However, before you go down this path, make sure that you get a sense of how the Reddit community operates. While ads can be highly effective, you will need to test out a few approaches to avoid getting slammed as a low value spammer. Check out this guide to get started.

Understand the tech position you are looking to fill

This point is an extension of the first one but a clear distinction needs to be made. It is one thing to understand the general jargon of your industry. It is quite another to deeply understand what the job you’re looking to fill actually entails. In some industries, you could easily get away with not quite learning the full picture but tech is different. Developers will see through you quite quickly and will have no problem jumping down your throat if they think you’re bullshitting them.

When you take on a new tech job, use the understanding you’ve acquired either through your experience or by speaking with developers and make sure you systematically go through every last line of the job description with the person who is ultimately in charge of hiring for the job. Next, go back to Upwork and find someone who can give you even more advice on what qualities to look for in a person that will be qualified for this position and what to avoid.

Armed with a complete picture of the job, you are far more likely to have success when reaching out and talking to candidates.

Consider quizzes and challenges as a lead gen tool

Developers and other tech people love a good quiz so if you can offer them one that grabs their interest, you are sure to find some high-quality candidates. Quora is well known for this approach. In fact, they have a dedicated Challenges page that they use to collect email addresses in exchange for solutions to difficult questions.

You can build a similar page on your site by, once again, engaging an Upwork developer who understands your area of expertise and can point you in the direction of the right type of quizzes. You may even be able to get that same person to code it on your site. To market the page, drop it in the appropriate subreddit or Facebook group and with enough persistence, your quiz may even go viral.

Before you do all this work, make sure you have a process in place for identifying and following up with any high quality people that submit their email addresses.

Build relationships with young, emerging talent

Most recruiters already actively scout talent among the graduates of undergraduate or graduate programs. The thing is, when it comes to tech, by this point it might already be too late. No amount of creative recruiting ideas are going to be effective to hire people who are already happy with their job prospects, and this is the case for many in the tech sector by the time they have their degree, particularly those with in-demand skills in areas like AI/ML, data science, and VR/AR systems.

This is why it can be beneficial for technology recruiters to plan ahead when building their talent pipelines. Instead of focusing on seniors and recent graduates, look for ways to connect with students in their first or second year, or even with recent high school graduates about to enter a tech degree program.

As far as how to connect with these students, a lot of the ideas listed in this article are a good place to start. Fun recruitment activities like quizzes, challenges, and hackathons will likely appeal to emerging talent. Similarly, you can talk to local schools about offering coaching, workshops, and other educational content for their students, or can even offer internships or scholarships if you have the resources to do so.

Recruitment Ideas for Low Skilled Workers

Recruiting low skilled workers involves a very different process than what is used for professional level jobs. Anyone who operates a staffing agency already knows this but we’re hoping we can share a few interesting recruitment ideas that you may not have previously considered.

Think mobile first

Studies have shown that low skilled workers may not own a laptop or desktop computer and are therefore reliant on their smartphone for Internet access. However, there are still many job listings out there that don’t work well on mobile. When thinking about whether a job listing is appropriate, make sure to get some actual phones that your applicants might be using and test everything thoroughly.

You should also consider the process by which people share their work experience. If someone has a resume in a Word doc, it will not necessarily be easy to attach it from their phone. Consider giving people the option to email their resume as an attachment after the application is submitted to ensure that the process is straightforward.

Use the right job boards

When it comes to the world of professional recruiting, people often rely on the same job boards across a variety of industries. Indeed, Monster and LinkedIn are the big three that tend to generate most of the ad spend. However, when it comes to low skilled workers, these should be carefully reviewed to see if they offer the same level of performance. Low skilled workers don’t frequent them as often so your money can often be better spent elsewhere.

You can even consider a free option like Craiglist or Kijji. While no business looking for a manager would ever post here, they are littered with job offers for hourly positions. Why? Because this is where low skilled workers tend to congregate when looking for a job. In addition, you may also want to contact your local social service agency and ask if they have a job board. If your position is appealing, they may even recommend it to their clients, saving you a lot of money in recruiting costs.

Hold pop-up job fairs

While job fairs on their own aren’t particularly unique, having them in unusual places can turn them into creative hiring ideas–and potentially very effective ones. One perennial piece of advice for recruiters is to meet candidates where they are. For low-skilled workers, this often means getting out into the communities where they live and spend their time.

The best venues for pop-up job fairs are accessible locations with a high amount of foot traffic. This can include shopping malls, community centers, or organizations that offer resources for unemployed or underemployed populations, such as churches and libraries. Also consider whether there are any community festivals or events coming up where you could get a vendor space or booth.

Wherever you have it, you’ll get the most value from a pop-up job fair by making it as easy as possible for potential candidates to approach you and apply for a position. Have paper applications or a dedicated computer where they can fill out an application, or even offer on-the-spot interviews.

Identify and connect with untapped talent pools

Both of the above tips focus on addressing one common problem with hiring low-skilled workers: they aren’t always going to be found in the same talent pools where you recruit for other types of roles. This means, to connect with them, you need to use more unique recruiting ideas that help you think outside the box about where to find talent.

Members of some often overlooked talent pools are an ideal fit for these types of roles. These include the formerly incarcerated, military veterans, working parents, and neurodivergent workers. In many cases, these individuals are actively seeking work but have been passed over often for other roles. As a result, they can become very loyal employees because they’ll be grateful for the opportunity to contribute.

As an added bonus, some common traits of low-skill positions that are often seen as negatives may actually be benefits for people from these groups. Shift work or part-time roles could be ideal for a working parent, for example, since it gives them more flexibility to be available when their kids need them. To give another example, people with autism often thrive in environments that are logical and predictable, which can make repetitive work that may seem boring for other people a perfect match for their needs.

The best way to connect with these talent pools will depend on which one you’re targeting, but it gets back to meeting people where they are. Kid-focused events can be an ideal place to meet working parents. Organizations that focus on helping veterans or the formerly incarcerated transition back into civilian life can also be very useful for meeting potential candidates from those communities.

Think of social media as your friend

While the organic (non-paid) reach of social media posts continues to drop precipitously, paid ads continue to demonstrate solid returns for those companies that use them effectively. If you are looking to find low skilled workers, you should strongly consider Facebook as your primary social media advertising platform. All of the data suggest that Facebook is the platform of choice for these workers. In addition, Facebook’s demographic targeting criteria make it easy for you to target your ads by variables such as income and education, allowing you to hone in on exactly who you think may be a good candidate for your job.

If you go this route, make sure to study up on the best approach to Facebook advertising including learning how to write compelling ad copy and what to do when a candidate expresses interest in your job posting. To learn more, you can download Social Media Advertising For Recruiters: The Complete Guide.

Use employee referrals wisely

Employee referrals are typically used across all sectors because they work. However, to maximize their effectiveness when hiring low skilled workers, make sure to think about the details. Since low skilled positions often have high turnover, referral bonuses should be contingent on the length of time that a person spends at a company. This will incentivize your employees to only refer people who they believe are responsible and motivated enough to hold down a job.

You may also want to consider what types of bonuses will most motivate your employees. While cash bonuses are always a viable option, you may want to experiment with other bonus types such as gift cards or merchandise. The precise demographics of your employee base will tend to dictate what works best so make sure to test everything out.

Be upfront about the downsides of the job

When hiring low skilled workers, some employers take the approach that they do not need to be upfront about the details of the job. In fact, I’ve had a recruiter tell me that they have heard employers say things like “Such-and-such person should be lucky they even have a job”. This sentiment is unproductive when hiring low skilled workers.

Instead, be as upfront as possible about the downsides of the position. If the role has an inconsistent schedule, part-time hours, night shifts and no benefits (or some of the above), make sure you make that clear to the person who is interviewing. You will otherwise find that many people will accept the position only to find that it is not the right fit for them a couple of weeks down the line. This will lead to increased turnover and training costs that can easily be avoided with a more transparent approach.

Engage on Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok

This tip is definitely only going to apply to a subset of people reading this post but it could be a useful one, especially in certain industries like beauty and fitness.

While the approach is going to be different depending on the particular platform (Instagram is going to be more image-based than TikTok, which, of course, only allows for video), the general idea is the same. If you can be found on these platforms in the right industry, you will have the credibility that is required to recruit in these industries. There is no one-size-fits-all approach with any platform but if you find your voice and build an audience, your candidates might just come to you.

Your Recruitment Ideas

Do you have any recruitment ideas that you’d like to share? Leave a comment below with your best one.

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