Filling a niche role can be a challenge for many organisations.
You need to find a pool of suitable candidates, with relevant skills and expertise. You may have concerns about timescales, or perhaps an immediate vacancy to be filled.
But recruiting for a niche role doesn’t have to be a hard slog. We explore a few ways to simplify the hiring process and find the right candidate.
1. Make your job description specific
It’s important to be clear and highly specific in a niche job spec. You may feel that you need to keep things a little more general to encourage applications, however this can just create additional work filtering CV’s without the right experience.
Be realistic about what levels of experience will be required, but you don’t want to compromise on vital skills and experience. So if you’re looking for something specific, don’t be afraid to outline this clearly in the job brief.
2. Chose the right job boards
There are a huge number of job boards out there, including some large established players. Whilst these have value for a wide range of roles, they aren’t always the best place to source candidates for something niche.
The online recruitment landscape has changed enormously over the years and job seekers are going to go specific, and so should you.
Spend some time identifying job boards that specifically target your niche. Some of these may be attached to industry publications.
Next, you want to make sure that they can generate results. If performance data isn’t published, request this directly. Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as posting a job and waiting for candidates to flood in. Performance needs to be carefully reviewed and managed to get the best out of these platforms.
3. Make sure your salary and benefits package is current
It goes without saying, but competition for candidates in niche sectors can be particularly fierce.
In order to attract the right candidates, you need to ensure that your salary and benefits package is competitive. If you have a low budget, consider what additional benefits you can offer to attract candidates, such as flexible working, training or opportunities for development.
4. Share the job brief with targeted networks
Next, try to circulate the job brief with targeted networks. Social media is a great way to build up networks of contacts in a key niche.
LinkedIn will probably be your first port of call, whilst Twitter is a useful resource to build out lists. You can even do this within the network itself. This may not offer a solution for a role that needs filling immediately, but you can gradually start to create networks to use for future hires.
5. Speak to a recruiter
Many organisations don’t have time to research and build contacts in a particular area. Recruitment agents can help to quickly identify the right people and reach groups of candidates you may not find on job boards.
When it comes to niche roles, the experience and networks that recruiters have will be an invaluable resource.
An experienced consultant should also be able to advise you on the current market, how to appeal to candidates, and manage the hiring process from start to finish. This can save valuable time and resource and prevent disruptions to day-to-day operations.
If you’re looking for help with a niche role, why not contact a member of our team for an informal chat? We have years of experience in filling various office professional roles across a wide variety of sectors.
