6 Steps to Jumpstart a Successful Recruitment Marketing Strategy
Jobseekers are generally categorised into two types; active and passive candidates. Active candidates are the ones who are actively looking for a job. The passive ones however, are the ones currently employed and would usually have a good industry reputation in addition to a couple of years of work experience. The best recruitment firms know how to position themselves in attracting both active and passive candidates.
There are many core recruitment marketing strategies that can be implemented and each strategy varies by the type of market. For example, a start-up will likely have a different strategy compared to a well-established firm as start-ups need to first establish a footprint in order to compete in a mature market. Nevertheless, the fundamentals always remain the same.
Whether you are an entrepreneur looking for new talent to expand your business or a senior recruiter for one of the top financial institutions in your country, here are the six recruitment marketing steps that can help build the strategy for success:
1. Research
Research is one of the most important steps to take as it allows you to analyse the market in which you want to hire. This is also where you’ll get to measure your competition and study what methods or strategies other recruiters are using. In addition, you can harness your creativity and ideas by collecting inspiration from other successful recruitment marketing campaigns such as the Uber’s Tourism Queensland’s ‘The Best Job in the World’.
2. Invest
A successful recruitment marketing strategy is rarely without a form of investment. That being said, the returns are not guaranteed. Naturally, a large portion of your cost would go to the planner or market strategist who comes up with the marketing strategy, who will oversee or execute it on your behalf. Whether it is investing in a form of time or money, you will also incur costs that include marketing charges from the media or advertising platforms, content creation and managing your campaigns.
3. Recruiters
Your recruiters are your sales representatives. They are the ones meeting your potential customers, in this case, your candidates. These frontrunners need to be properly trained as their approach could either make or break the deal. Successful recruiters these days are hybrid-skilled individuals, who are trained not just in recruiting, but also in marketing and in promoting their company brand effectively. The success in talent acquisition would be higher if recruiters are genuinely passionate about representing the company brand and understand the role whole-heartedly.
4. Branding
You’ll need to develop a brand that represents your company and more importantly, the people working within your organisation. Your employees are the key advertisers of your brand, whether you like it or not.
For example, JobStreet.com has a section called ‘Company Reviews’ which allows current (even past) employees to submit a review on a particular company. In addition, jobseekers these days do not just rely solely on career websites to perform background checks on prospective employers. Social media platforms are becoming increasingly important as they provide user-based reviews as well. These reviews and opinions are crucial for candidates as an effective screening mechanism. Candidates seek complete visibility in the actual work environment and culture that exist in your organisation. Many times, these are the factors that affect their decisions greatly.
5.Segmentation
Create a database management system that collects and stores profiles of active and passive candidates who possess the right talent. Consider segmenting your talent pool for better management. For example, you can segment them into groups, such as fresh graduates, or even go into specific skills, such as qualified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) candidates. The beauty of segmenting your talent pool is that you can easily maintain customised relationship with these groups and target specific topic of interests at them.
6. Nurturing
Effective and consistent communication keep passive candidates informed, interested and up to date on the latest development of your brand. Communicating the right way would encourage and nurture them into great talents for future opportunities. Remember not to overdo it by spamming them as this would undoubtedly lead to them unsubscribing to your communication channels. Practice non-aggressive marketing technique but remain professional enough to respond to personalised queries promptly that can help candidates or build a trusted relationship with your brand.
Finally, always bear in mind that these strategies are to be aligned with the ever-changing economic landscape, business requirements and also take note on the feedback received from the respective stakeholders of the company. To build a strategy for success in the recruitment war, companies must learn to outsmart their competitors in identifying the best talent followed by securing their commitments.