We’re in the midst of a skilled labor shortage right now, PBS reports. Companies have taken to training candidates from scratch because of the dearth of workers. When you’re a recruiter or a small business owner, you have your work cut out for you – you likely have to go above and beyond to find top talent. Did we mention you’ll be competing with the likes of Google and Amazon? the best recruitment marketing process.
The Business Goals offers authentic, valuable advice and guidance to help you achieve your business goals in this competitive, oversaturated market.
Enter Recruitment Marketing
Recruitment marketing could be your biggest asset in the quest for quality candidates, allowing you to compete for them effectively. It’s a relatively new discipline that’s slowly and steadily gaining traction, says Rally Recruitment. Because good-quality candidates don’t grow on trees and are so spoiled for choice, they need to be won over – just like you attempt to win over customers or clients in a saturated market. In this case, the open position takes the place of the product or service you typically sell, with the candidates becoming the customer.
Recruitment Marketing Bolsters Hiring Efficiency
Finding a new employee is expensive. It takes 42 days and $4,129 for a company to fill in an open position. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the employee will be up-to-par. It’s not uncommon for companies to have to replace newly-hired candidates, for one reason or another. With well-executed recruitment marketing, you can kill two birds with one stone. Not only can you find candidates faster, but they are also likely to fit in better.
Recruitment marketing best practices
Just like run-of-the-mill marketing, recruitment marketing is a process. It involves having a goal, setting up a strategy, implementation, and measuring success. Below, we offer some tips to help you get started:
1. Put Yourself in your Candidate’s Shoes
If you were a skilled candidate (with the profile you’re looking for), what kind of job would you look for? What would satisfy you? Talented candidates tend to be picky. They not only want to be paid well, but they also want other benefits – like career growth, a good work-life balance, and a positive company culture. When you’re creating your recruitment marketing strategy, keep these fundamentals in mind.
2. Leverage your Existing Employees
Employees are more trusting of other employees than employers – the statistics say three times as trusted. That means if your current employees sing your praises, instead of you tooting your own horn, candidates are more likely to listen and be swayed. As such, consider getting your existing employees on board with your recruitment drive. Start a referral program, ask them to share glowing reviews and testimonials, and look within your employees’ network.
3. Utilize Social Media
Social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and even YouTube can be a wonderful avenue for your recruitment marketing efforts. Start by setting up a full-featured profile on these platforms, and then join niche groups with the kind of talent you’re after. Also, release quality content for your followers to find and share. It’s important to look your best on these sites to make a powerful impression. Consider getting a special banner for extra credibility and to catch the candidate’s eye.
A graphic designer can help you create a banner for a fee or you can use a free online banner maker instead. With the latter option, you’ll be able to freely customize your banner and then personalize it by adding text and changing the color and font. You’ll also be able to include animations or videos to make it extra eye-catching and bring your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other feed to life.
4. Be Smart With The Job Description
With recruitment marketing, the job description doubles as ad copy. Zenbusiness recommends being creative and hitting all the right notes with the job description to draw the best candidates’ attention. As things stand, too many companies are too lax with job descriptions. They tend to be long-winded, boring, not relevant to the job at hand, and don’t include enough specifics – all major turn-offs for discerning candidates.
It’s critical you sum up job responsibilities adequately and mind your grammar Ps and Qs. Also, mention other positives of the job such as available promotions, building new skills, and the opportunity to enhance their resume.
5. Touch up Your Online Presence
Top candidates want to work for interesting as well as reputable places. By paying attention to your virtual presence, you can be both. Some ways to do so are having a full-featured website and social media presence, being transparent about the work environment, highlighting the perks of working with you, uploading high-quality photos and videos of the workplace, and being accessible. Also, if there are any negative reviews from disgruntled ex-employees, do your best to address them.
6. Be Mindful of Candidates’ Time
Because good candidates are in high demand, most get snapped up within 10 days of getting on the market. It’s critical to account for this with marketing efforts – and, by extension, your hiring process. Candidates don’t like having their time wasted. Any company who is keen to pick them up quickly (and frequently advertises this fact) will be seen as both well-managed and also appreciative of their talents.
7. Use marketing tools
Last, but not least, make tried-and-tested lead-generation strategies like search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click campaigns (PPC), and video marketing a part of your efforts. Make sure you have quality content to back up your lead-generation efforts. Essentially, candidates will land on one of your pages, and you need to be able to engage them when they arrive. Finally, be present on top job boards such as Indeed and Glassdoor. Only 17 percent of the best candidates are picked up from there, but that’s still a significant number.
Conclusion
You won’t be able to build a successful recruitment marketing process overnight. It will involve constant refinement and learning from your mistakes. But it’s more than worth your time and effort – your reward will be a steady stream of top candidates to meet your business goals and propel you to success.
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