1. Develop and communicate your employment brand: Many organizations work on their employment brand as part of their strategy for attracting talent and communicating what differentiates them from other companies. How do you define your employment brand? What differentiates you from other companies in your industry? Why would you be a better choice for employment than your competitors?

2. Target your employment marketing: Do you position yourself differently for different generations? For example, many employers view younger generations as more socially conscious and interested in more flexible work arrangements. Therefore, they proudly highlight their community involvement activities, and their remote work, as part of the recruiting process.

3. Leverage the staffing process as a differentiator: Applicants for positions often cite the “black hole” experience when they apply to a company; the fact that they don’t necessarily hear anything back, often can’t speak with anyone, and generally feel victimized by the impersonal process many companies use. One way to distinguish yourself would be to reinvent your recruiting process, be much more responsive to and personal with job applicants.

4. Employ creative recruiting strategies: What creative recruiting/screening strategies or tools do you use? For example, some technology organizations post complex problems or equations to solve as a way of engaging the right kind of applicants and also screening which ones to interview. What are your most creative recruiting or selection strategies?

5. Encourage employee referrals: Many organizations think an employee referral program in general brings in higher caliber applicants, ones that are more productive quickly and are likely to stay longer. Do you have such a program and does it work well for you?

6. Learn/continuously improve: Do you study or analyze your previous hiring to see what strategies have brought you the best hires? Taking stock of what works well; what attributes do your best hires share that could help you in future recruiting efforts.

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