Are you looking for new ways of counteracting the personnel shortage and acquiring qualified specialists and managers? According to the Federal Statistical Office (BfS), there are currently more than 100,000 unfilled vacancies in Switzerland – high time to firmly establish your position as an attractive employer on the market with the aid of inbound recruiting.
Inbound recruiting is gradually increasing in popularity in recruitment. It relates to a method which has been inspired by marketing, by means of which companies can attract more suitable talent than they can using traditional measures such as job advertisements and headhunting. The purpose of inbound recruiting is to build up a pipeline of potential candidates who are interested in working for a company. We are going to show you how this succeeds, and which methods are useful for implementing inbound recruiting.
In inbound recruiting, the distribution of power between HR managers and applicants is reversed. Instead of waiting for applicants to come to them, companies use inbound recruiting methods to attract applicants and convince them that they are the employer who has the best workplaces for them.
Inbound recruiting consists of targeted appealing to a target group with relevant information for reinforcing the employer brand, but above all for acquiring qualified specialists and managers to work for the company.
The difference between inbound and outbound recruiting
Both inbound recruiting and outbound recruiting have their origins in marketing, and use both pull and push factors. Whereas push factors such as job advertisements, cold calling or career fairs are intended to provide greater reach and employer awareness among talented people in outbound recruiting, in inbound recruiting the focus is on a targeted appeal (pull factors) to a previously defined target group (candidate persona).
Companies analyse exactly who they wish to address and where they can reach these candidate persona with which kind of content. They then distribute information that is important for their target group via a wide variety of channels (company website or social media). In this way, companies provide their target group with a sufficient number of incentives (pull) to deal with the company – and therefore also the career opportunities.
The difference between inbound and outbound recruiting
Inbound recruiting
direct addressing of your target group using relevant content
qualified talents will independently become aware of your company
long-term solution for reinforcing your employer brand
personal appeal to candidates by means of active sourcing
short-term solution for personal bottlenecks
The advantages of inbound recruiting
Inbound recruiting is a long-term method for recruiting personnel which primarily utilises the (positive) reputation of a company, and establishes a connection to potential candidates which becomes increasingly intensive. The content appeals to different groups of people, such as talented university graduates or qualified and experienced specialists and managers.
Other advantages of inbound recruiting that you should exploit:
You will reach candidates who are not actively looking for new jobs.
You will reduce the costs of your recruitment.
You will carry out active persuasion work.
You will reinforce your employer branding.
Your company will present itself as an expert in a certain field, and show career opportunities.
The most important steps for your inbound recruiting strategy
To begin with, you should develop a strategy. Ask yourself the following questions: What do your preferred candidates look like? Which arguments would you like to use and can you use toconvince them of your company? And where do you actually reach potential employees?
Inbound recruiting covers the entire candidate journey – from unknown talent to enthusiastic employee. In other words, firstly you are confronted with the task of generating attention for your company in the attraction phase. In this way, strangers become visitors who you want to convince of your company. By means of interaction with your website, they become candidates who you win over for yourself and therefore become applicants. If everything goes well, the new employees will be hired by your company, and you should continue to inspire them in order to acquire them as brand ambassadors for your company.
In inbound recruiting, HR managers become recruiting marketing employees with the goal of promoting working in their own company. Specifically, this means: Target group analysis, creating content, reaching target groups and therefore reinforcing the employer branding – at every stage of the candidate journey.
What does your ideal applicant look like? Of course, it is not about appearances, but about an overall profile consisting of skills, qualifications, values or interests that this person fulfils and defines. Create a kind of identikit. The more information you collect, the more shape your persona takes on, and the clearer the picture of your desired applicant becomes.
Our tip: Give your persona a name so that you can empathise with them better in the ongoing process, and appeal to and convince them with targeted measures.
What does your ideal applicant look like? Of course, it is not about appearances, but about an overall profile consisting of skills, qualifications, values or interests that this person fulfils and defines. Create a kind of identikit. The more information you collect, the more shape your persona takes on, and the clearer the picture of your desired applicant becomes.
Our tip: Give your persona a name so that you can empathise with them better in the ongoing process, and appeal to and convince them with targeted measures.
Good content is content which focuses on the needs of the target group. And this is where your candidate persona comes in. Use your content to answer questions that your persona would ask you. Put yourself in the position of your ideal candidate and try to answer the following questions:
What values does the company represent?
What message does the company wish to convey?
What are the company’s strengths?
Where is the company positioned in the market?
What is the company culture like?
Do diversity and inclusion play a part in the company?
How much value is placed on work-life balance?
Is home office working possible?
Depending on the position, other questions may also be relevant, such as promotion opportunities and training measures.
Take your own look at formats which might be interesting for your content:
Posts in blogs or informative articles for reporting on your products, or even your company philosophy
Content in job descriptions that goes beyond the required skills
Content on your career page for providing information about your values, the team and any benefits
Testimonials from your employees for providing authentic insights into everyday work
Infographics to make the company statistics and processes clearer
Social media posts in which you transport your corporate culture (team building events, conferences and company outings)
Good content is content which focuses on the needs of the target group. And this is where your candidate persona comes in. Use your content to answer questions that your persona would ask you. Put yourself in the position of your ideal candidate and try to answer the following questions:
What values does the company represent?
What message does the company wish to convey?
What are the company’s strengths?
Where is the company positioned in the market?
What is the company culture like?
Do diversity and inclusion play a part in the company?
How much value is placed on work-life balance?
Is home office working possible?
Depending on the position, other questions may also be relevant, such as promotion opportunities and training measures.
Take your own look at formats which might be interesting for your content:
Posts in blogs or informative articles for reporting on your products, or even your company philosophy
Content in job descriptions that goes beyond the required skills
Content on your career page for providing information about your values, the team and any benefits
Testimonials from your employees for providing authentic insights into everyday work
Infographics to make the company statistics and processes clearer
Social media posts in which you transport your corporate culture (team building events, conferences and company outings)
Would you like to display your content in a way that is appropriate for the target group? Now it becomes a bit special. Because mastering the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing is just as much a part of inbound recruiting as the job interview is a part of your recruiting process. In this way, your company and, above all, your employer brand will be visible to a wide range of people.
Your company website is no longer merely a product platform for your customers. It becomes more of a medium or channel between your company and potential applicants. At the same time, this means: Content about your expertise, your corporate culture or your team allows your company to be found in search engines such as Google – which you can influence with targeted use of SEO. A blog on your website whose posts are oriented to the search intentions of your users can lead to you appearing at the top of the search results for relevant questions (SEOcruiting).
As well as your website, you should use the reach of social media channels for your business. Your target group can be found on platforms such asLinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, but also on Instagram or TikTok. In the best case, you will already have analysed which platforms to use to reach them in the target group analysis. Play out your content via a specially created company profile, interact with your target group and carry out social media recruiting.
Try to make yourself tangible as a brand, and present yourself in a sympathetic way. Potential applicants should get to know you and gain a first impression of working in your company.
Would you like to display your content in a way that is appropriate for the target group? Now it becomes a bit special. Because mastering the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing is just as much a part of inbound recruiting as the job interview is a part of your recruiting process. In this way, your company and, above all, your employer brand will be visible to a wide range of people.
Your company website is no longer merely a product platform for your customers. It becomes more of a medium or channel between your company and potential applicants. At the same time, this means: Content about your expertise, your corporate culture or your team allows your company to be found in search engines such as Google – which you can influence with targeted use of SEO. A blog on your website whose posts are oriented to the search intentions of your users can lead to you appearing at the top of the search results for relevant questions (SEOcruiting).
As well as your website, you should use the reach of social media channels for your business. Your target group can be found on platforms such asLinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, but also on Instagram or TikTok. In the best case, you will already have analysed which platforms to use to reach them in the target group analysis. Play out your content via a specially created company profile, interact with your target group and carry out social media recruiting.
Try to make yourself tangible as a brand, and present yourself in a sympathetic way. Potential applicants should get to know you and gain a first impression of working in your company.
Try to make yourself tangible as a brand, and present yourself in a sympathetic way. Potential applicants should get to know you and gain a first impression of working in your company.
Conclusion: Inbound recruiting means carrying out inbound marketing
If you are considering using inbound recruiting methods for your company, there are a few things that you should keep in mind. First, you need to create content which will grab the attention of potential applicants. This content can range from blog posts and articles to videos or photographs on social media. You should also create a powerful online presence, including a website and social media profiles, to help potential applicants to find out more about your company. Finally, you need to be patient: Inbound recruiting is complex and time-consuming, and success can often only be seen after a few months.
Do you need guidance through the recruitment jungle and valuable tips for recruiting employees? We’ll inform you about current methods and trends.
Recruiting funnel
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The recruiting process
If you approach your own recruiting conceptually, you will be able to fill your vacancies quickly and with qualified personnel. We'll show you how to do that.
