Every minute your company is understaffed is efficiency (and money) lost. Make sure you get plenty of applications during your next hiring cycle with these six candidate engagement tips, and never have to run with job vacancies ever again.

Hang flyers around town

It might be the digital age, but that doesn’t mean the physical flyer has gone out of style. Print marketing catches people’s attention while they’re doing their day-to-day activities. You don’t have to worry about them searching for your job opening or finding you organically on social media. Your ad is right there!

The keys to an effective hiring flyer are an eye-catching design and strategic placement.

For the eye-catching design, it’s best to use templates. You’re busy interviewing candidates and don’t have time to create professional designs from scratch. There are thousands of free hiring flyer templates available online from websites like PosterMyWall that you can customize in just minutes. It’s the best way to get professional designs without needing professional design skills.

As for placement, you want to post your flyers in places where your ideal audience spends their time. For example, if you’re hiring for an entry-level machine operator, putting your flyers in places like local vocational-technical schools is sure to boost your candidate engagement because vo-tech students are most likely looking for jobs in that field.

Post openings on your company website

Some candidates might want to work for your company specifically. Rather than send them on a chase through the internet looking at job boards, post your job openings directly on your company website.

Putting your job listings on the company website helps to boost visibility to anyone who might visit your site. Plus, you can then share the link to your job openings page on social media and other online platforms to give candidates an easy one-stop-shop if they’re looking for a job.

Engage with followers on social media

Many social media sites are starting to add recruiting features. And with over 5 billion active social media users worldwide, your reach is basically unlimited!

Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn are great for posting job openings. Plus, you can directly engage with interested parties by replying to comments and direct messages (DMs), commenting on others’ posts, and even sharing your post directly through the platform.

The more you engage with potential applicants, the better they’ll feel about your business and the more likely they’ll want to apply. Plus, you can view applicants’ profiles, giving you a sneak peak of who might be the best candidate for the job.

Attend local job fairs and recruiting events

If you want to get more applicants for your job opening, you have to go where people looking for jobs might spend their time. And anyone actively looking for a job will attend as many job fairs and recruiting events as they possibly can.

To fill open positions quickly, set up a booth at any local job fairs and events. Bring your hiring flyer templates to hand out quick information about your business and talk to as many potential candidates as you can. These events are great for interacting with leads and filling job positions quickly.

Start an employee referral program

One of your best recruiting tools is already at your office: your current employees!

Your current employees all have friends and family members, some of whom might be the perfect fit for your job opening. Give your employees a little push to actively recruit people they know by offering a referral program.

For example, tell your employees you’ll give out $100 to anyone who refers a qualified candidate who gets the job. That will encourage your employees to think about their friends and family who might be well-suited for the job and get them to fill out an application.

Post to online job boards

When people need a job, they go to the internet. According to research, 80% of jobs are found online! And most of them are found through online job boards like Indeed, Monster, and Zip Recruiter — just to name a few.

If you want your job listing seen by more people, post it to as many online job boards as you can. However, these sites can get pretty crowded, so make sure you include all the important information about the job as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Here are the essentials to include in any online job posting:

• Job title
• Responsibilities
• Qualifications
• Salary range
• Company information
• Hiring manager contact information

Job seekers scan through dozens of job listings at a time. The easier it is for someone to learn about your job opening, the more likely they’ll be to apply.

Fill job openings quickly

Don’t let job vacancies slow your business down. Engage with more job seekers by printing physical flyers to post around town, include job openings on your company website, connect on social media, start a referral program and post to as many online job boards as you can.

The more places your job listing can be found, the more likely you’ll fill the vacancy quickly.