Top 8 Outbound Recruiting Trends to Watch Out for in 2024

If you’ve been in the recruitment space for quite some time now, you‘ve probably experienced how uncertain the talent industry has become. Hiring teams must deal with exceptional pressure, work long hours, and race against time to fill open roles. Especially during the last five years, talent shortages followed by The Great Resignation, and now the daunting signs of recession have made talent acquisition even more tricky.

With the growing challenges of recruiting, the primary approach toward getting quality candidates is changing. Although recruiters have largely relied on inbound applications for the past few decades, it doesn’t work effectively anymore. An effective outbound recruiting strategy solves a major chunk of recruitment problems.

Like sales, outbound recruiting revolves around proactively reaching out, engaging, and closing candidates. With over 73% of candidates today being passive job seekers, recruiters cannot afford to wait for good applicants.

So the road to redemption is – embracing outbound. It’s a productive, scalable, cost-efficient, and effective approach that helps in hiring quickly and empowers quality talent acquisition.

This blog will discuss why outbound recruitment is booming and the top 8 trends you must know to ride the wave and optimize your recruitment. Let’s get started.

Why is Outbound Recruitment the Key to Acquiring Top Talent Today?

It’s a candidate-driven market landscape, and recruiters need to take control of their hiring. The demand for skilled talent is considerably higher than the supply, and outbound recruitment is the perfect opportunity for hiring teams to target the right candidates and hire fast.

Here are the top reasons why outbound recruitment has become the need of the hour:

• Access to Passive Candidates: Outbound recruitment allows you to reach out to passive candidates who may not be actively looking for a job but could be a great fit for your company. These candidates may be open to hearing about new opportunities if approached in a professional and non-intrusive manner.

• Personalized Candidate Experience: Like in sales, getting a candidate’s complete attention and interest is only possible through personal touch. Unlike inbound, the outbound approach allows for initiating highly welcoming conversations. As a result, you build good relationships with your potential employees.

• Increased Reach: Outbound recruitment tactics such as social media, email campaigns, and targeted advertising enable recruiters to reach a wider audience and increase their chances of attracting top talent. For example, suppose your company is looking for a software engineer with specific experience in a particular language. In that case, you can target ads and LinkedIn posts to individuals with that language listed in their skills section.

By reaching out to passive candidates, increasing reach through various sourcing tactics, and building relationships with potential hires, companies can create a pipeline of top talent for current and future hiring needs. Additionally, outbound recruitment helps companies stand out from their competition by proactively seeking out the best talent rather than simply waiting for resumes.

Top 8 Outbound Recruiting Trends in 2023

#1 Hiring Powered by Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are rapidly shaping how companies approach outbound recruitment today. These technologies automate most manual and time-consuming tasks associated with outbound recruitment, freeing recruiters to focus on more strategic and value-adding activities.

One of the key ways in which AI and ML impact outbound recruitment is through chatbots. Chatbots can be integrated into a company's career website or social media channels, allowing candidates to engage with the company and receive information about open roles 24/7. Interestingly, these intelligent chatbots can also use natural language processing to understand and respond to candidate questions, providing a more personalized and engaging candidate experience.

‍

Another optimal use case of AI in outbound recruiting is predictive analytics. It can analyze large amounts of data, such as candidate resumes and application information, to identify top candidates and predict which individuals are most likely to be a good fit for a role. Companies can then identify and prioritize the most promising candidates, shorten the recruitment process, and improve the chances of making a successful hire.

Additionally, scheduling interviews and other recruitment-related tasks can also be streamlined using AI. The goal is to reduce the administrative burden on recruiters and improve the overall efficiency of the recruitment process. 

Remember, the AI-based performance analysis of your outbound recruitment campaigns provides valuable insights into what is working and what needs to be improved.

#2 Virtual and Hybrid Recruitment

The shift towards remote work has led to an increased usage of virtual recruitment methods, such as virtual interviews, online assessments, and video conferencing. Hybrid recruitment, which combines in-person and virtual elements, is also becoming popular as companies balance the need for personal interaction with the convenience of remote recruitment. According to a survey by FlexJobs, 69% of job seekers would be interested in a hybrid work arrangement, where they could work from home part of the time.

Virtual recruitment has become increasingly popular due to the pandemic, as it allows companies to continue the recruitment process even when in-person interviews are impossible. It also offers candidates greater flexibility, as they can participate in interviews from the comfort of their own homes. Furthermore, virtual recruitment can help companies to reach a wider pool of candidates, as geographical restrictions are no longer a factor.

‍

Image Source

‍

On the other hand, hybrid recruitment offers companies the best of both worlds. It allows for a combination of virtual and in-person recruitment methods. This strengthens companies’ relationships with candidates and helps them assess their fit with the company culture through virtual methods while conducting more in-depth interviews and assessments.

#3 Social Media Recruitment

Companies use social media to showcase their company culture and values, attracting top talent who align with their company mission. 

92% of recruiters use or plan to use social media for recruitment. By leveraging social media, organizations can reach a large and diverse audience, increase their visibility, and improve their brand reputation.

If you’re wondering about the effectiveness already, job postings shared on social media receive 30% more applicants compared to conventional postings. 

Here are the top reasons why you need to consider social media recruitment as an outbound recruitment approach:

• Allows companies to showcase their brand and company culture to a wider audience.
• Provides an opportunity to engage with potential candidates and post job listings.
• Targets specific audiences, such as alumni or current employees.
• Reaches passive candidates who may need to actively search for a new job.
• Allows hosting virtual events, such as webinars and live Q&A sessions to engage potential candidates further and showcase company culture.
• An effective and cost-efficient way to attract top talent.

With the ability to reach a wider pool of candidates, engage with potential hires, and receive higher applicant volumes, social media recruitment is a vital tactic for companies looking to make their recruitment process more effective and efficient.

#4 Personalized Outreach 

One aspect that outbound recruitment can only be effective with is personalized outreach. No doubt it was a trend in 2022 too, and is only growing in 2023. Personalized outreach involves tailored and targeted communications with potential candidates. This approach focuses on building relationships with potential candidates and creating a positive candidate experience.

A survey by TalentLyft found that 70% of job seekers say that personalized communication during the recruitment process would increase their interest in a job. It not only helps  companies to stand out from the competition but also makes an impactful impression on potential candidates.

To get started with personalized outreach, companies can:

• Research the potential candidate's background and interests
• Personalize the subject line and message of emails and messages
• Address the candidate by name and use specific details about their background and experience
• Show that they have taken the time to understand their career goals and aspirations

#5 Employee Referral Programs 

Referral programs are a popular and effective way for organizations to source new talent. The idea revolves around incentivizing current employees to refer friends and acquaintances for open positions within the company. This often results in higher quality candidates and saves time and resources typically spent on traditional recruitment methods such as job postings and agency searches.

Image Source

‍

Studies show that referred candidates are more likely to stay with the company for longer periods and have higher job performance than those hired through other means. In fact, SHRM reports that referred candidates are 15% more likely to be hired and have a 45% higher retention rate than those sourced through job boards or other recruitment channels.

Moreover, employee referral programs can also improve company culture and employee satisfaction. When employees feel valued and invested in the company's success, they are more likely to refer top-notch candidates who align with the organization's values and goals. 

#6 Diversity & Inclusion

If you look at the most emerging trends in outbound and the overall recruitment space, organizations chasing diversity and inclusion stand out. An inclusive workplace not only attracts top talent, but also leads to better business outcomes, such as increased innovation and employee satisfaction. Hence, it’s becoming increasingly popular among recruiters and candidates as a decision-making factor.

In order to evaluate your current diversity and plan your recruitment, here are some questions for you to begin figuring out:

• How diverse is your current workforce?
• Have you made diversity and inclusion a priority in your recruitment efforts?
• How can you ensure a more diverse candidate pool in your recruitment process?

Let’s go through some of the easy and instant ways you can get started with your diversity and inclusion efforts:

• Review your job descriptions and ensure they are inclusive and non-discriminatory
• Reach out to underrepresented groups and communities
• Partner with diversity-focused organizations or recruitment agencies
• Consider diverse sources for job advertising and networking
• Train your hiring managers on unconscious bias and diversity and inclusion best practices

#7 Programmatic Job Advertising 

One of the most optimal and emerging ways for companies to reach targeted audiences with highly personalized and relevant job ads is through programmatic job advertising. 

This technology automates the process of buying and displaying job ads, making it easier to reach a large audience and track the performance of recruitment campaigns. Programmatic job advertising can result in a 70% increase in candidate applications and a 50% decrease in cost per hire. 

It uses algorithms to automate the placement of job ads across a wide range of online platforms, ensuring maximum exposure to the right audience.

Here’s how it functions:

• It evaluates and selects the best online platforms for maximum exposure to the target audience.
• Ad placement and targeting are constantly optimized in real-time based on performance data.
• This leads to efficient, cost-effective, and targeted job advertising.

#8 Talent Communities

For modern organizations, engaging with potential candidates is not a ‘nice-to-have’ aspect anymore, they need to strategize it even before they have an open job position to fill. 

Talent communities provide a way for organizations to build relationships with top talent, keep them updated on company news and opportunities, and have a pool of qualified candidates ready to apply when a suitable position becomes available.

Take a look at some of the biggest brands successfully leveraging talent communities:

• Airbnb has built a strong talent community of travel enthusiasts and hospitality professionals passionate about the company's mission. They engage with this community regularly through events, webinars, and exclusive content, building a strong talent pipeline in the process.

• Hubspot, a leading inbound marketing SaaS company, has built a talent community around its company culture and values. They regularly engage with members through virtual events and provide resources and opportunities for career development.

Jobvite survey suggests that the number of companies using talent communities has increased by 60% in the past two years, and 92% of companies using talent communities reported success in attracting new hires. In another study by the Talent Board, 80% of companies reported that talent communities improved the candidate experience.

With their proven success and growing popularity, talent communities have emerged as a fascinating outbound recruitment trend that organizations should consider incorporating into their recruitment strategy.

Boost Your Outbound Recruitment Efforts with Nurturebox

Outbound recruitment is the present and future of hiring. With the market landscape changing and most candidates being passive talent, fast-growth companies cannot wait for quality applications to kick in. 

However, sourcing candidates, continuous engagement, and maintaining your talent pipeline can add to the hassle of already piling up recruitment tasks. Nurturebox enables you to accelerate and amplify your outbound recruitment efforts with complete automation of the talent pipeline. The Chrome extension works seamlessly with LinkedIn allowing you to connect with candidates through different channels, and integrates with your existing recruitment tech stack. Hence, you can focus on the human side of recruiting and automate the rest! 

Also read: How to Automate Your Outbound Recruitment using Nurturebox