Recruitment Marketing
In a past blog we spoke about the connection between HR and marketing. (Click here to read that blog.) Today we’d like to speak specifically about the connection between marketing and recruiting. To think of marketing as only a way to draw in potential customers or clients is short-sighted. At no time has information been more accessible to the masses than today. The internet and specifically social media allows not only potential customers to learn about your company, but also potential employees. Candidates can now browse through popular job listing websites and not only see your job posting, but with just a few clicks, they can discover all they need to know about a company’s culture, benefits, and more. Recruitment strategy begins to look like marketing strategy as the same skills are used in order to make your business look desirable to potential candidates.
Due to the current low unemployment rate, many candidates are passive, meaning they aren’t necessarily looking for jobs. So to attract potential candidates it is helpful to approach the candidate journey in the same way marketers approach the customer journey. Your company website and social media channels are two ways that you can build a consistent brand image of your company as an attractive place to work. It is important to provide compelling, relevant, and unique content that reinforces your mission, vision, and values.
It is also important to view your job posting as a piece of marketing collateral. While job descriptions are important and they help candidates know the qualifications and responsibilities of a particular role, potential hires also want to know other information that many job descriptions leave out. Candidates want to know what the workplace culture is like, and if they are not receiving that information from the employer, they will go to review sites such as Glassdoor and Indeed. Use the job posting as a way to market your company rather than letting others do it for you.
Once you have the interest of a candidate, it is important to look at the candidate experience. Is it easy for them to apply to the job? Once they have applied, does your communication with them again reflect the values you have put forth? When you look at candidates as customers, you want to approach the application process similar to the way you would approach a transaction. If the process is too long or unwieldy, or the communication is poor, a good candidate will look somewhere else. Worst case scenario, they may post a negative review about your company, possibly discouraging other potential candidates from applying.
Gone are the days when marketing was only meant to draw in customers. Recruitment marketing takes the key factors of modern marketing, such as analytics, multi-channel communication, and engagement and then applies them to the recruitment process. This is done to reinforce the company brand and make a business more attractive in the eyes of those seeking employment. This process begins before you even have an available job to offer.
