Inbound and Outbound Recruitment: What’s Better (for You)?

Generally speaking, there are two major methods used in talent acquisition – Inbound and Outbound Recruitment. Each method represents a completely different strategy of hiring candidates for the organization. Both the methods come with their own game plan and approach.

In short

In inbound recruitment, the candidate reaches you for the job.

In outbound recruitment, you need to search for the candidate.

 

Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Recruitment

Inbound and Outbound recruitment are entirely different philosophies with different strategies, but the same goal – hiring the right candidate for the organization. Let us discuss in detail about both the philosophies and what are the actual differences between them. We will also dive deep into the advantages/disadvantages of inbound recruiting and outbound recruiting and assess which one you should adopt.

Inbound Recruitment

Inbound recruitment or inbound recruiting is a method of creating targeted and branded content for marketing specifically for the purpose of enhancing organizations’ brand recognition and candidate engagement for future hiring.

It is a strategy where you market the open positions and continually attract candidates to make them choose you as his next company. For instance: If you follow inbound way, you would be writing engaging job opening descriptions and creating a brand image on social media and websites to attract candidates.

You can read more about Inbound recruiting here.

Outbound Recruitment

Outbound recruitment or outbound recruiting is a hiring strategy where you proactively search for and contact potential candidates with an aim to fill the open positions in your organization. The outbound recruiting process yields candidates who are more likely to be qualified and eligible for the open positions.

For instance: If you follow the outbound way, you would be searching for the potential candidates on various job portals and social media websites, reach them and offer the job position.

Advantages of Inbound Recruitment

Bigger Pool of Candidates

Inbound recruitment attracts a bigger pool of candidates which allows the organization to choose from a wider range of talent. You can have hundreds of candidates competing to get hired for the open position.

Reduce Hiring Cost

Recruitment is certainly an expensive process and involves a lot of money and time. Inbound recruitment allows making use of social media and job portal which are a cheap but efficient way of finding candidates for your organization.

Better Candidate Experience

In inbound recruitment, the relationship between the candidate and your organization starts when he interacts with the job description you have posted. This is also the time when a candidate starts evaluating your organization which helps in deciding whether to apply or not.

Strong Employer Branding

In the world digital marketing, candidates do not get attracted by the companies; they get attracted by the brands. Inbound recruiting helps you to project your company in such a way that it seems like the best choice for the applicant.

Better for Long-Term

Once the inbound recruiting method is in place, it remains in place for a long time. You can utilize your resources to attract candidates for n number of positions. You won’t need to start the process from scratch every time.

Advantages of Outbound Recruitment

More Specific Hiring Technique

Outbound Recruitment drives better results by providing more specific candidates for the open positions. This is certainly a huge advantage as it saves a lot of efforts of the HR department.

Fewer Efforts in Background Check

Inbound recruitment demands great efforts in sorting the candidates as the number of applicants is extremely high. In outbound recruitment, you initially filter out the candidates from the pool and determine who are worth pursuing.

Better Engagement with Candidates

Many organizations prefer outbound recruiting method as it provides an opportunity to engage with the candidates enhancing personal touch. The method is more related to engaging with the customers rather than reading the resumes.

Which One to Choose?

Neither one is clearly better than the other one. It only boils down to the requirements of your organization. If the open job position requires a highly specific skill set and qualifications like a manager or a CEO, you can opt for outbound recruitment. If you require to fill multiple entry-level positions, inbound recruitment could be the choice for you.

Getting confused about what to choose and how to hire? Reach us and forget all the worries of the hiring process. We’re just a call away.

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