The Best Recruiting Channels That You Should Know About!

5 Recruiting Channels to boost your hiring workflow:

Since there seems to be an infinite number of recruiting channels, I’ve decided to organize them by type of channel (I took creative liberty when it comes to each category’s name):

• Online job platforms: These are the classics, you have your LinkedIn, your Indeed, your Welcome To The Jungle (for our France-based audience), etc.
• Industry-specific platforms: These are job boards that candidates target for specific roles. Some are orthodox, some are less so. Stay tuned to find out!😉
• La Growth Machine: You know I have to mention our awesome tool among these channels! Don’t discard it as promotional nonsense, it will make sense once you read it.
• (Mostly) Offline channels: Networking events, referrals, the classics.
• Miscellaneous: I haven’t found a name or uniting criteria for these channels/methods. Any suggestions are more than welcome, hit the comments!

We have a lot to unpack here, let’s get started!

Recruiting Channel #1 — Online Job Platforms:

We start with the classics. I won’t spend too much time on this since we all know these and love (to hate) them! That said, I’ll make it worth your time by sprinkling some expert tips here and there brought to you by the expert recruiters among our clients:

LinkedIn:

Unsurprisingly, LinkedIn is at the top of the list. With almost 1 Billion active users, it remains THE platform for recruiters and candidates alike who are looking for new talent or opportunities respectively.

That’s why LinkedIn has even made it a whole premium subscription: LinkedIn Recruiter (Lite). This premium plan would seem like the go-to for recruiters and hiring managers since it provides you with substantial benefits.

However, as you might have guessed, we have a different take on this topic:

The Rest:

Obviously, I’m not going to bore you with every single online job board there is on the market.

For one, we all know who they are, you got Indeed, by far the most famous job site, with over 350 million (yes million) unique visitors per month! You also have:

• Glassdoor: The play on transparency, as the job seeker can easily access detailed information about the company, salary data, culture, etc.
• TheLadders: Enables job seekers to access well-paid opportunities. It’s where you’ll find seasoned managers who have more experience under their belt.
• Handshake: This is the ultimate job board for college students, they have so many partnerships with universities around the world. You can sign up for online career fairs and meet/recruit people from all around the world! A similar platform would be HigherEd.

There are so many well-known job platforms it’s kind of amazing, even Google has made its way into the job market! That said, we advise against putting everything on the online job platforms’ line.

It’s good to throw a shot in the dark and see if maybe a good candidate or two applies. But we find that this kind of generalist approach is a waste of time and resources.

Instead, check out our next recruitment channel:

Recruiting Channel #2 — Industry-Specific Search:

Like I said, it’s not very useful to, nor efficient to look for your perfect candidate on general job boards like the aforementioned ones. Instead, focus on what your need is and what profile you’re looking for.

Understanding Google commands:

Before we actually get into the different communities that exist for each profile, you need to understand one very useful piece of information; Google commands.

These are operators that you can use to refine your search on Google, since it’s an ocean of information. This will be relevant in the next step. For now, here’s what you need to know:

• “site: www.lagrowthmachine.com“: This will only return results from the website lagrowthmachine.com
• “inurl:’blog’“: Search for pages with a particular word in the URL. 
• Exact match: To look for a specific word or sentence, put it in between quotation marks ( ” “ ).
• Excluding results: To exclude terms from your search, use the minus ( – ) sign.

There are quite a few more of these operators that you won’t need for the next part. If you’re curious however, here’s a full list of Google Search Operators.

Industry-specific websites:

Quite self-explanatory, you’re looking for someone for a specific job, you have to cut through all the noise and chase them in their own communities.

So what does that look like? Easy!

For Developers:

For developers, for instance, you have a couple of useful websites, notably the almighty GitHub.

You can also search for candidates on StackOverflow using the last 2 methods. The difference is this platform sorts users by their reputation as well.

I couldn’t find any apps that help you look for specific profiles such as OctoHunt, however, I have the next best thing; An SQL Query Generator.

Follow the steps and fill in your criteria. If it seems intimidating, don’t worry! They have a full demo guide on how to perform the search. It’s very UX-friendly! 🙂

For Data Specialists:

For Data profiles, you can check out the Kaggle community. A simple advanced Google search will get you what you need!

Feel free to play with this as you like!

For Designers:

If you’re looking for UX designers, for instance, check out these communities:

• Dribbble: Head to Inspiration > Search for what you need (e.g. Landing pages) > Check out the individual work. Dribbble also offers you Hiring subscriptions, so you can try that out!

• Behance: Same thing as Dribbble, search for the relevant keyword and check out the different designs!

You get the gist! Check out a community and try to recruit the specific creator whose work you liked. If all else fails, you can always turn to your trusty Google search.

Recruiting Channel #3 — La Growth Machine + Sales Navigator:

I won’t dwell on this since we just released a full guide on how to use both tools for recruiting with a well-known recruiting strategy as an example: Account-Based Recruiting.

Use La Growth Machine to contact candidates one their personal emails!

Learn why you need the candidates' personal email address and what to do with it on LGM.

Learn all about it!

So for this post, we’ll switch it up with another pretty cool strategy – Using time spent in a role to your advantage:

• Step 1: In the “Lead” section, apply the main relevant criteria you need in your candidates:

• Step 2: Simply add the filter “Years in current position” to your search. The range between 2 and 5 years is usually when people start thinking of changing companies.
• Step 3: Review the search results and initiate contact with profiles that align with your job opportunity.
• Step 4: Ask if they’re up for trying something new and challenging!

Recruiting Channel #4 — Offline Channels:

Let’s get back to basics, shall we?

With the rise of digital, remote work, etc. People have really started underestimating the power of offline. Don’t get me wrong, online events are a great way to meet people and find opportunities literally from around the world:

• LinkedIn events
• Online career fairs (such as the aforementioned Handshake fairs)
• Virtual interview sessions
• etc.

These are all amazing options to promote job roles and meet candidates online.

Nevertheless, don’t forget that human beings are social animals after all, and we need human contact. This is why in-person events just have a different feel to them!

I won’t linger on the pros and cons of each type of event, so here are some ideas for offline channels you can use to your advantage this time:

Events:

The same examples we mentioned earlier, just remove the “Online”; job fairs, industry-specific events, you name it!

These are not only great for scouting great talent, but they can even be fun! You’re meeting new people, hearing exciting stories, having some great food, what not to like?

And worst-case scenario, you don’t find anyone good on the spot, well, that’s called networking! You keep any interesting (but unavailable) profiles in a database somewhere, and you can contact them later!

Employee Referrals:

Your current employees are the best spokesperson for your company! If you did things right, they should match your values, know your vision, and know what you’re looking for!

This makes them the ideal individuals to speak for you and how great working in the company is! Think of them as your walking, breathing advertisement (good press).

And since word-of-mouth is still one of the strongest and most persuasive communication channels, use it! They’ll refer to you the candidates they think match your criteria the best, and it saves you the hassle of the screening process.

Internal Recruitment or Mobility Policy

An employee may start as a Sales Rep in your company, but after a year or two, they may have aspirations for a different position. Your role in the company is to offer them the opportunity and a clear path to how they can achieve said aspirations.

This is an awesome idea for two main reasons:

• Your own employees know the internal processes better than anyone and they don’t need any onboarding or integration work.
• It’s a great way to keep these employees around and motivated as they know they have the ability to move forward within your company.

Channel #5 — Miscellaneous:

This part is all the information that doesn’t really fall under any of the previous channels, but I decided to compile it into a quick section. Think of it as more of a Best Practices section:

• Don’t be afraid to check out your competitors’ employees who have been there around the 2-5 years period. It might be time for them to make a change. They know your industry, internal tools, probably your processes, etc.
• Use automations to save yourself some time. Tools like Zapier are great. You can connect it to your Calendly, your Slack, we even have a full guide on Amazing Zaps to use with LGM
• Use this OSINT Framework (Open-Source Intelligence Framework) to find anything you can think of.
• If you’re having trouble with Boolean searches in the previous channels, here’s a website that will help you out immensely.

Final Thoughts:

In the vast ocean that is recruitment channels, the quest for the perfect candidate or dream job can be overwhelming. Budget constraints add another layer of complexity.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but I’ve tried here to introduce you to five great recruitment channels – from classics like LinkedIn to specialized gems and unique strategies.

Embrace the journey, explore these channels, and adapt as needed.

Nonetheless, once you find your ideal candidate(s), you need to reach out to them, want to learn how?

Use La Growth Machine to contact candidates one their personal emails!

Learn why you need the candidates' personal email address and what to do with it on LGM.

Learn all about it!