--- title: The Startup's Guide to Accelerating Talent Acquisition description: Talent aquisition is a big deal, especially for cast-poor startups. These tips and tricks can help get you going the right direction for sustainable growth. image: https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/The%20Startups%20Guide%20to%20Accelerating%20Talent%20Acquisition%20-%20Copy-01.png --- [ d ](https://www.smartdreamers.com/) Menu Solutions TALENT ATTRACTION ### [Social media advertising](https://www.smartdreamers.com/social-media-recruitment) [All your social media channels available on one platform.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/social-media-recruitment) ### [Retargeting](https://www.smartdreamers.com/remarketing) [Bring back career page visitors and generate more applications.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/remarketing) ### [Employer branding](https://www.smartdreamers.com/employer-branding) [Your target audience and your EB brought together.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/employer-branding) ### [Diversity and inclusion](https://www.smartdreamers.com/diversity-and-inclusion) [All your D&I platforms in one unified platform.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/diversity-and-inclusion) TALENT EXPERIENCE ### [Career page CMS](https://www.smartdreamers.com/career-site) [Take control of your career page and make it outstanding.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/career-site) ### [Landing pages](https://www.smartdreamers.com/custom-landing-pages) [Create custom branded landing pages at scale.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/custom-landing-pages) ### [Forms](https://www.smartdreamers.com/convert-forms) [Build lead capture or any other forms, integrated with your ATS.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/convert-forms) ### [Talent Community](https://www.smartdreamers.com/talent-community) [All you need to build a Talent Community, on one platform.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/talent-community) TALENT ANALYTICS ### [Sourcing channels analytics](https://www.smartdreamers.com/sourcing-channels-metrics) [All metrics, from all sourcing channels, in one interface.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/sourcing-channels-metrics) ### [Career pages analytics](https://www.smartdreamers.com/career-page-analytics) [Track candidate behavior on all your career pages.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/career-page-analytics) ### [ATS data tracking](https://www.smartdreamers.com/ats-and-crm-metrics) [Connect SmartDreamers with your ATS to track soucing channels' ROI with precision.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/ats-and-crm-metrics) AUTOMATION ### [CRM](https://www.smartdreamers.com/crm) [Build and nurture relationships with all candidates](https://www.smartdreamers.com/crm) ### [Processes automation](https://www.smartdreamers.com/recruitment-marketing-automation) [Make your talent acquisition ecosystem fully automated](https://www.smartdreamers.com/recruitment-marketing-automation) --- ### [Integrations](https://www.smartdreamers.com/integrations) [Learn how SmartDreamers integrates with your ATS and other tools, creating a streamlined Talent Acquisition process from the first interaction to hiring.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/integrations) Insights [**Blog**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog) Insights from the world of recruitment marketing. [**Resources**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/resources) Ebooks, podcasts, and more from the talent acquisition space. [**Help Center**](https://helpcenter.smartdreamers.com/en/) [Advice and answers from the SmartDreamers Product Team](https://helpcenter.smartdreamers.com/en/) **[Building The Ultimate Career Website](https://www.smartdreamers.com/building-the-ultimate-career-website-book)** In and outs on creating the ultimate career website. [![ebook-Oct-12-2023-03-56-43-0425-AM](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/ebook-Oct-12-2023-03-56-43-0425-AM.jpg "ebook-Oct-12-2023-03-56-43-0425-AM")](https://www.smartdreamers.com/building-the-ultimate-career-website-book) [**Press Release**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/smartdreamers-recognized-in-fosway-9-grid-talent-acquisition) [SmartDreamers Climbs in the 2024 Fosway 9-Grid™ to Potential Leader](https://www.smartdreamers.com/smartdreamers-recognized-in-fosway-9-grid-talent-acquisition) [![Fosway-2024](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/Fosway-2024.jpg "Fosway-2024")](https://www.smartdreamers.com/smartdreamers-recognized-in-fosway-9-grid-talent-acquisition-2024) Customers [**bp**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/bp-case-study) [Driving talent marketing with the power of AI efficiently and at scale.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/bp-case-study) [![Artboard 2-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2499-AM](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/Artboard%202-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2499-AM.svg "Artboard 2-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2499-AM")](https://www.smartdreamers.com/bp-case-study) ### [L'Oreal](https://www.smartdreamers.com/case-study-loreal) [Scaling recruitment marketing in over 30 markers across the globe.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/case-study-loreal) [![Artboard 4-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2689-AM](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/Artboard%204-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2689-AM.svg "Artboard 4-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2689-AM")](https://www.smartdreamers.com/case-study-loreal) [**Johnson Controls**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/johnson-controls-case-study) [How Johnson Controls increased the careers website conversion rate 3.8 times](https://www.smartdreamers.com/johnson-controls-case-study) [![Artboard 5-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2280-AM](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/Artboard%205-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2280-AM.svg "Artboard 5-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-2280-AM")](https://www.smartdreamers.com/johnson-controls-case-study) ### [Infosys](https://www.smartdreamers.com/case-study-infosys) [Transforming talent acquisition without replacing the ATS](https://www.smartdreamers.com/case-study-infosys) [![Artboard 3-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-1449-AM](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/Artboard%203-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-1449-AM.svg "Artboard 3-Oct-15-2025-11-44-54-1449-AM")](https://www.smartdreamers.com/case-study-infosys) [**Read more customers stories**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/customers) Learn how leading global companies are transforming talent acquisition with the SmartDreamers platform. Company [**About us**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/about-us) [Learn how it all good started and how we envision the future.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/about-us) [**Careers**](https://careers.smartdreamers.com/) [Join our journey in building the leading talent marketing solution.](https://careers.smartdreamers.com/) [**Contacts us**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/get-in-touch) [Questions, bug reports, feedback, feature requests - we're here for it all.](https://www.smartdreamers.com/get-in-touch) [**Hiring now**](https://smartdreamers.com/smartdreamers/career-page/job-sales-engineer/182366) [Sales Engineer, Remote.](https://smartdreamers.com/smartdreamers/career-page/job-solution-architect/290077) ![sales-engineer](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/sales-engineer.jpg "sales-engineer") [**Hiring now**](https://smartdreamers.com/smartdreamers/career-page/job-growth-hacker/190137) [Growth Hacker, Remote.](https://smartdreamers.com/smartdreamers/career-page/job-growth-hacker/190137) ![growth-hacker](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/growth-hacker.jpg "growth-hacker") [ Login ](https://smartdreamers.com/login) [ Demo ](https://www.smartdreamers.com/demo-request) # The Startup's Guide to Accelerating Talent Acquisition - ![](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/SD-Logo.jpg) - By [SmartDreamers Team](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/author/smartdreamers-team) - • - 5 mins read ![](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/The%20Startups%20Guide%20to%20Accelerating%20Talent%20Acquisition%20-%20Copy-01.png) In the world of startups, growth is good. Not just good, growth is pretty much the holy grail of startup culture. [Growing a business](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/recruitment-marketing-business-growth) comes with a lot of built-in risks. Most startups are working with limited cash flow, limited time, and a limited amount of built-in hiring expertise. According to [CB Insights](https://www.cbinsights.com/research/startup-failure-reasons-top/), 70 percent of upstart tech businesses fail, usually about 20 months after first raising financing. Among the many reasons, 23% of startups cited an inadequate team as a causative factor in their failure! In this specific context,  everyone is jockeying for positions, for funding, and for people. It’s that last one that we find the most interesting since, well that’s our thing, but also because the need for talent acquisition means the HR department (or the person multitasking as HR) has to be able to scale rapidly as the company grows. ![top 5 reasons (1)](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hs-fs/hubfs/top%205%20reasons%20(1).png?width=900&name=top%205%20reasons%20(1).png) ![top 5 reasons (1)](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hs-fs/hubfs/top%205%20reasons%20(1).png?width=900&name=top%205%20reasons%20(1).png) And in order to scale talent acquisition, it’s key to have recruiting tools in place early on that can support and even help accelerate that growth. There are, of course, best practices around all of this, and today we’re going to be discussing four of our favorites. Follow the suggestions and tips here, and your growing HR department will have a much easier time keeping up with the astronomical growth ahead for your fledgling startup. ## Social media presence: have a robust strategy in place Social recruiting is a large and growing segment of the business world. And if your target candidates are millennials, it’s even more important to have a solid social media aspect in your recruitment marketing plan. According to a [LinkedIn](https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/talent-solutions/resources/pdfs/inside-the-mind-of-todays-candidate1.pdf) survey, a full half of professionals are following one or more companies on social media for the sole reason of staying updated on openings. ![social media presence](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hs-fs/hubfs/social%20media%20presence.png?width=900&name=social%20media%20presence.png) When it comes to creating your [RM social media strategy](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/social-media-changing-recruitment), there are a few key items to remember: **Channels matter:** Choose wisely and the payoff will be immense. Choose unwisely, and you could be throwing money down the drain. Know where your target audience is already spending their online time, and focus there. Check the metrics often, and adjust the plan accordingly, never fear dumping an underperforming platform, that means you can refocus your budget and energy on the ones that are returning quality candidates. **Know your personas:** Target your posts and ads directly to them, as individuals. By making it personal, you can open up potential candidates to starting a conversation and ultimately joining the company when an appropriate opening appears. **Plan your posting:** Creating a content calendar is the best way to have a clear plan of action that the whole team can access. Regular posts are also the best way to keep people interested and tuned in, waiting for the next installment. **Automate:** Wherever possible, begin using automation. This allows for scalable growth in the company, as the automation tool will be better able to keep pace while you focus on filling positions and not on how many people you need on your team just to feel caught up. Interaction and engagement are the key pieces to a successful RM social media strategy. Don’t just post and walk away. Stick around, read the comments, and say thanks for the shares. This turns your employer brand from an abstract into a tangible thing people can envision working with. ## RMA: the startup HR department’s best friend Being a cash-strapped startup doesn’t mean you have to skimp on the solutions you use. By being selective with the processes you automate with [recruitment marketing automation (RMA)](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/how-rma-promotes-diversity-in-hiring), you can have a huge impact with minimal investment. Recruitment marketing automation is one of these areas with fantastic ROI. By having your RM posts pre-scheduled, automated, and integrated with your ATS, the time and energy saved on the part of you and your team can go into the creative aspects of the job. Not to mention interviewing all those applicants!   And by automating these processes early on, you allow more human energy to be focused on growing the company as a whole, rather than spending all of your energy trying to grow your own team in an attempt to get ahead of the curve. One person can set up a month’s worth of posts in a matter of hours, and incoming applicants can be automatically directed into the company careers portal and straight into the ATS without any further human intervention. ![rma](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hs-fs/hubfs/rma.png?width=718&name=rma.png) ## ATS integration Speaking of automation and your ATS, a big chunk of using RMA is to integrate your marketing efforts directly with that applicant tracking system. That way, when someone clicks through from a social media post or ad, their contact info can go directly where it counts instead of being in an email waiting for someone’s attention or just simply dropping off everyone’s radar in the ATS black hole. When a potential candidate clicks on a Facebook ad and enters their contact info to receive more information on an opening, what happens next? If your systems aren’t fully integrated, you may not even be able to answer that question. On the other hand, if you have an RMA solution in place that talks to your ATS, their info went straight into the database, they received a thank you email that you created especially for this occasion, and they’re entered into a workflow for potential candidates. That workflow might be based on the search criteria they entered, or it can be based on the specific opening they clicked on the ad for, you get to set all of those criteria. Now, rather than sitting at home wondering what they did wrong that you never contacted them, the candidate feels cared for and they can see that you and your company value their time and energy. ![candidate nurtuing-1](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hs-fs/hubfs/candidate%20nurtuing-1.png?width=600&name=candidate%20nurtuing-1.png) ## Employee referral program: Don’t forget about your people Perhaps the #1 resource you have as an HR department in a small startup is your existing coworkers. They are your go-to when you need to fill an opening, because who else knows the best engineers but other great engineers? This plays on the fact that people trust other people, and they trust their friends even more. So if your current employees talk up the company when they’re out with friends, those friends will remember that when the time to change positions comes around. Turning your employees into EB ambassadors isn’t difficult either. Make sure they’re up-to-date on the inner workings of the company, social responsibility initiatives, upcoming releases, etc. And make sure they know there’s an incentive (nothing fancy, maybe a spa day or sports tickets) for referring someone to the company who ends up accepting an offer. These tips are meant as thoughts to get you going. Take them as the starting blocks for the race your company is about to enter, the race for scalable growth. By remembering to have your systems in place, automating wherever you can, and never forgetting the resources sitting next to you, the road to outstanding ROI and accelerated talent acquisition is wide open! - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/startup-talent-acquisition) - [Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/startup-talent-acquisition) - [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/startup-talent-acquisition) ### What to read next [![](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/rpa-1.jpg) ](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/what-is-rpas-role-in-the-future-of-recruitment-marketing) - [**Automation**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/tag/automation) ### [What is RPA’s Role in the Future of Recruitment Marketing?](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/what-is-rpas-role-in-the-future-of-recruitment-marketing) - By SmartDreamers Team - • - 3 mins read [![](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/unnamed%20%284%29-1.jpg) ](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/5-best-practices-for-rma) - [**Automation**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/tag/automation) - [**Employer Branding**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/tag/employer-branding) ### [5 Best Practices for Recruitment Marketing Automation](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/5-best-practices-for-rma) - By SmartDreamers Team - • - 3 mins read [![](https://www.smartdreamers.com/hubfs/How%20Automation%20Makes%20Life%20Easier%20in%20a%20Candidates%20Market-01.png) ](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/how-automation-makes-life-easier-in-a-candidates-market) - [**Candidate Journey**](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/tag/candidate-journey) ### [How Automation Makes Life Easier in a Candidate's Market](https://www.smartdreamers.com/blog/how-automation-makes-life-easier-in-a-candidates-market) - By SmartDreamers Team - • - 3 mins read ### Stay up to date with the latest news and articles in recruitment marketing