Many employers rely heavily on application and resume scanning programs and other computer-based recruiting systems to help them find qualified candidates. Although these tools do help weed out unqualified applicants, they sometimes miss qualified ones because of insignificant errors. Most programs don’t have the ability to imagine an applicant’s potential based on their work history when their skills don’t perfectly match the job requirements. Tapping the following human resources during the referral stage continues to be the best method for finding and hiring quality candidates in an efficient, inexpensive, and timely fashion:

Employees

Existing employees represent an already-trained talent pool. Always give first consideration for any new position to existing employees, including part-time and temporary workers. Additionally, don’t forget to ask your employees for internal and external referrals. Managers and team members within a department that has one or more open positions are best suited to already know people in their industry, work, and social circles who are perfect for a position.

Community

Before you publish job ads, seek out talent locally via word-of-mouth inquiries. Mention to community leaders and neighbors whose judgement you trust that your company is hiring soon and you’re giving local applicants priority. Perform job fairs and interviews at local public settings that also experience high foot traffic by skilled workers, such as at libraries or universities. Qualified candidates often choose employers who leave a positive impact on their community. All of these actions make you look like you care about improving individual lives and the local economy.

Online

Every follower of any of your company’s social media accounts is a potential new employee. Maintain a list of people who have mentioned online that they have useful skills, work in your industry and/or would love to work for your company. Additionally, never forget to advertise via social media as far in advance of job fairs and interview dates as possible to get the word out, and include a link to your online resume submission and basic testing page.

Once you’ve finished with this initial hiring phase, rely on additional human interactions to narrow down your search: For example, rigorous background checks should include face-to-face conversations between interviewers and each applicant’s references to help expose fraudulent statements via non-verbal visual cues. You should also require applicants to visit your work site to observe operations and interact with existing employees to see if their personalities and ideas are a good fit. For greater hiring success, revise your hiring process to include more human elements today.