PART 1

The Basics

WHAT IS OUTBOUND HIRING?

Outbound Hiring is a targeted, candidate-focused approach that coordinates personalized talent acquisition and business efforts to hire people who succeed in your company.

Targeted: Analytics-driven understanding of the specific pools of talent that needs to be engaged. A zero-waste strategy that maximises efficiency.

Candidate-focused: built for the candidate. Helps you deliver a consistent, fantastic experience across the candidate’s journey.

Personalized: leverages candidate-specific insights and content to maximize relevance and engagement.

Talent acquisition and business: enables both functions to work closely together through clearly agreed criteria, processes and metrics.

People who succeed: lays emphasis on quality of talent. Aligns hiring success to strategic business outcomes, not operational metrics.

Outbound hiring fundamentally flips the inbound recruiting funnel. Instead of waiting for the best talent to wander in, outbound recruiters proactively engage the right people at the very start by using social talent data and predictive analytics.

"Today’s technology makes outbound hiring the most intelligent and scientific way to scale recruiting.

SAVITA HORTIKAR

Head of Talent Acquisition - India, Thoughtworks

WHY OUTBOUND HIRING HAS THE EDGE

Returns on inbound hiring are diminishing

Business and Talent Acquisition teams are realizing that inbound methods today are proving frustratingly ineffective at attracting top talent. LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends 2015 Report concluded that while a lot of people look for jobs, most don’t apply. In fact, the report goes on to state that top talent tends to be highly satisfied with their current jobs, and will need to be proactively engaged. As Business begins to demand both speed and quality in hiring, waiting for the best talent to wander in simply doesn’t seem like a smart strategy.

Business + Talent Acquisition are aligning strongly

Growing emphasis on employer brand and leveraging data in decision-making has brought Business and Talent Acquisition teams closer together than ever before. While an analytical and ROI-driven approach to hiring has earned Talent Acquisition new respect in the C-Suite, increased engagement from Business has made Talent Acquisition more aware of the challenges Business faces. This alignment lends itself powerfully to the success of an outbound hiring strategy.

Technology has come together

Outbound recruiting has always been a viable strategy. Executive Search firms have leveraged outbound recruiting for high-value, strategic roles for decades. But today, new technologies and processes are in place to make outbound hiring much more scalable, including personalization, artificial intelligence, prediction-enabled targeting, social networks and more.

Data is available and easy to access

The explosion of social media, professional networks and job boards has enabled recruiters to access data that provides invaluable candidate-specific insights. This ranges from proof of a candidate’s past work to their growth patterns to their circles of influence and networks. All of this can be leveraged tremendously — from targeted candidate discovery to personalized engagement to passive talent nurturing.

Analytics is ready

While candidate-centric data has become easier to access, the analytics required to put that data to work is also ready. Data-driven hiring solutions today can quickly learn and suggest candidates who match your hiring needs; recommend engagement tactics that deliver high results, and even highlight potential red flags in your hiring process.

It just makes sense — for everybody

As we noted above, top talent today doesn’t apply. Poorly-written job descriptions, mass-targeted ads, broken application platforms all serve to drive them away. And why should recruiters spend precious hours sifting through irrelevant resumes or engaging unqualified candidates? Think about the prohibitive cost your business incurs in the process. Which is why a hiring process that helps you quickly spot and proactively engage top talent makes much more sense.

The Statistics Are Telling

Let’s take a glance at research studies that demonstrate how inbound hiring is at a disadvantage:

Screen to Hire Ratio

Source: The Adler Group

"Underlying the inbound process is the flawed assumption that there is a surplus of fully qualified people who are willing to take a generic job... - Research shows that the best talent is hired via outbound where candidates and companies alike conduct the proper due diligence.

LOU ADLER

CEO and Founder, The Adler Group

"The age of ‘post-and-wait’ hiring is over... - You can’t afford to wait until the top candidate you want happens to find