With unemployment declining in many markets, more opportunities available to job seekers, and many employees staying in their positions long term, marketing to potential employees must become more than a newspaper ad or online posting.
A strategic human resources marketing plan, a defined target audience, metrics and data are all required for effective recruiting. Marketing your organization isn’t any different from selling a product or service; you’re still selling a place of work. Since we spend a majority of our lives working, we want to make sure it’s a good fit.
With many jobs starting with similar hourly or annual wages, your talent acquisition department needs to have a solid marketing plan to set your culture apart. What is different about where you work? What is a special benefit other than pay? If you want to attract a long-term employee and not a “job-jumper” you’ll have to get creative. Although, many Human Resource departments may not have a large budget to create an annual marketing plan, it’s still helpful to strategize a plan for a one-time push or quarterly effort.
You want to keep your company’s name top-of-mind, so that if someone is looking, they think of you right away. It’s important to maintain your brand’s image in your recruitment efforts. Sometimes, when people see you are constantly hiring, they may perceive it as an undesirable place to work or that something is wrong with management. Your marketing needs to remind them that you’re a large company or a workplace where people advance, or that you’re growing and need more people.
Social media continues to grow as a platform for recruitment. You’re able to do something simple, like post a job listing, sponsor that job listing, or sponsor a video. What’s more, is that you can also create custom audience segments, retarget people who have visited your website’s career page, or those that are searching for jobs in general. It’s important to know who your key target is, or if there are certain parameters to the jobs you have to ensure the message is delivered to the right job-hunter (or in many cases, people who aren’t job hunting but show an interested in the organization or type of job).
To let people know you’re hiring, use something as simple as a recruitment card to keep on you when you see someone or acquire great service. By not having a social strategy you risk losing a dynamic audience of potential employees. Hiring is a personal experience. A traditional presence is also important so don’t forget that.
Custom videos showing the type of work, or the real face of your organization also go a long way. While it’s important, you don’t want to have to revise your video if there is staff turnover. Also, don’t mislead people with stock imagery. I’ve seen two employment ads with the same stock image simultaneously running. Graphics are often the first impression your company makes, so you want them to be custom.
If you need assistance creating an image for your talent acquisition department, call Midwest Marketing to get started. We’ll walk you through the budgeting process, message development and help you capture the employees that will make your organization rock! When asking yourself if it’s worth the cost to have a marketing campaign for talent acquisition, asking yourself how much it’s costing your company to be understaffed or what you’re paying in overtime to make up for it.
