Finding and hiring new employees for any job is a process. You have to screen each resume, each interview, individually — meaning it’s time-consuming as well. How can you get your hands on the right talent right off the bat? How can you pull from a larger pool and still be able to decide who the best, most knowledgeable workers will be to fit your multifamily housing openings? Some companies are getting creative with how they recruit these days. Take a look at some of the methods others have been using to find the best talent.

Traditional recruiting methods may be falling short in giving you the workers you need. Sometimes, a bit of an investment upfront can help you recruit the people you need to help you run your multifamily housing community, and it can also lead to happy employees that stay with your company for a long time. The job market is growing at a wild rate, meaning hundreds of thousands of jobs open up across the country each month. This means stiff competition between you and other companies looking for the best workers. It’s important to stand out from other recruiters by finding innovative ways to catch the eye of new talent.

Some companies have been having technology and websites to do the work for them. By programming chatbots and texting systems to work for you, prospective employees can answer several questions at once and be screened by a computer before you even see their application or resume. This way, you can select the skills you want to see in new talent while you’re busy doing other things. Instead of going through each resume on your own, or asking critical questions in interviews, a computer can have all this information for you ahead of time.

By using social media with a location feature, applicants can see ads for the job listing when they’re in the areas you designate. If you want people to see an ad for your multifamily housing job openings, you can buy a geofilter or a location-based ad on almost any social media account out there, including Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram. This could find you incredible office managers, property managers, maintenance workers, or any other talent you’re trying to procure, and you could be drawing from a pool that may not have applied in the first place.

If you want to present more information on the job listing, consider buying a 5-15 second video ad on social media. These videos should be quirky and eye-catching while still keeping the content simple. You don’t want to confuse your prospective employees before you even hire them! See what other big companies are doing for their ads. Take notes on what you notice the most, what information stands out to you from the ads, and what elements you’d prefer to leave out. Your company doesn’t need to drop a ton of money on video ads, as you may already have some interns with great smartphone cameras and creative ideas just waiting to come to the surface.

In the same vein of social media advertising, you can encourage your current workers to advertise for the position or positions on their social accounts. This creates a personal connection to possible new employees that you won’t get by collecting applications on a job posting site. If your current employees post a job listing along with their personal take and experiences on the work they do for you, it could be seen by hundreds of their friends and followers. There’s an element of trust, there, too– people are more likely to believe the experiences of those they’re already friends with than a review from a worker they don’t know. New recruits are also more likely to reach out to their friend for questions about the job or application. Consider offering a bonus or other perks to employees who bring in qualified talent. This can be a slippery slope, as authenticity matters on social media, and you’ll want your employees to come off as wanting to help grow the company rather than their wallets.

Be careful with asking an employee to post about job listings on their personal accounts, however, as referrals should only come from employees who are happy with their jobs. If a referral comes from someone unhappy with their work it will more than likely drive applicants away.

In opposition to social ads and advertising to extremely specific local audiences online, using large-scale advertising like billboards or ads at sporting events will alert a very large audience that your multifamily community is looking for new talent. Large-scale ads force you to be creative, as people may be passing or driving by quickly and will need to take in as much information as they can while still showing as little text or details on the ad as possible. With these ads, you can be specific on who you’re looking for, such as community managers or builders, or you can post something as simple as “Now Hiring.”

Searching for a new job can be a lot like looking for a new place to live. As a business in the multifamily market, you probably already know how to sell a home to someone! You can cultivate new applicants in many of the same ways. Consider hosting an open house for potential workers to meet many people at the same time. You can meet very talented people who may not be right for the job you’re searching for, but you’ll have them in mind for the next opening. You can have your staff chat with potential employees and vice versa, you can conduct informal interviews, and hosting an open house will allow your candidates to see who you are as a company.

The job world is changing very fast with and without the use of technology, which means it may be time to revamp your recruiting ideas. There are many different jobs and tasks that need to be accounted for in multifamily housing, and it can be difficult to figure out how to hire the right talent for each area. If you have questions about how to fill open positions in your multifamily organization, let us help! MSB Resources specializes in recruiting for property managers, maintenance, and other multifamily positions.