Finding the right candidates boils down to amplifying job openings to current employees and leveraging their networks. In order to make the best use of their resources, reduce recruiting costs and improve performance, companies need to engage internal candidates and referrals.

Nearly three in four recruiters say that finding top quality job candidates is their primary challenge, according to a 2014 Recruiting Trends survey. Other top challenges include filling roles requiring specific job skills, filling job requisitions in a timely manner and reducing time spent on sifting through resumes.

Find Talent in Your Employee Network

Recruiting top talent shouldn’t be a headache, especially with a large network of employees who can refer quality candidates and move into new positions themselves. More than half the recruiters cite employee referrals, internal candidates and social networking as being the top sources of candidates. They don’t just provide a bucket full of candidates, they’re top-notch candidates too.

The top sources of the highest-quality candidates, according to a Recruiting Trends survey, are:

• Employee referrals: 73 percent
• Career web site: 52 percent
• Online job boards: 48 percent
• LinkedIn: 44 percent
• Existing employees/internal hire: 35 percent

Technology Is Part of the Solution

The numbers show that recruiters value referrals and internal candidates, so why aren’t more companies leveraging these resources? A lot of companies fail to use a unified recruiting strategy. Only 4 percent of organizations use a technology solution to identify internal candidates, with most relying on an internal career site, “asking around” or having HR identify internal candidates. Worst case, they don’t have a way to identify internal candidates, a category which unfortunately one in five organizations fall into.

Social recruiting plays a key role in hiring internal candidates and employee referrals. Yet, almost half of organizations have applicant tracking systems withnosocial capabilities, according to Recruiting Trends research. Companies must ditch the archaic ways — spreadsheets and paper — of tracking applicants and employ a technology solution.

How a Unified Solution Improved New Belgium Brewery’s Recruiting

For hard proof of the value of a unified recruiting solution, let’s look at its impact on New Belgium Brewery. The third-largest craft brewery with 500 employees struggled with long lead times for recruiting talent, but all that changed once they employed a unified recruiting system.

New Belgium Brewery is now able to identify qualified candidates faster while collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams during the recruiting process to hire the best talent.

When companies turn to unified recruiting solutions, they see improvements company-wide. Here are some of the benefits:

1. Visibility into internal and external talent pools
2. Candidate pipeline using networks and social media
3. Higher quality candidates
4. Improved employee retention
5. Collaborative hiring

Want to learn more about the capabilities and results of a unified hiring solution? Read the whitepaper “Tapping into the Recruiting Power of Existing Employees”.