In Friday’s Advisor, we introduced the idea of omnichannel recruiting in which an organization utilizes many of the available recruiting channels instead of a more targeted effort. We discussed some of the many benefits of this method. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the many channels recruiters can simultaneously utilize in an omnichannel recruiting strategy.
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Ways to Incorporate Omnichannel Recruiting into Your Talent Search
Here are some of the many avenues you can add to your existing recruiting efforts to broaden your reach and stay top-of-mind for candidates.
- Social media networks. Be present across not just one or two but many social media networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Even if you don’t directly post all of your job openings on each of these sites, they can still be used to market the organization and build the employer brand so that potential candidates can learn more about the organization from each of them. You should also be sure that your organization has means in place to respond in a timely manner whenever someone reaches out to it via any social media channel it’s using.
- Content marketing. Many firms are using blogs and other continually-updated media to keep driving traffic to their website and/or keep their organization top-of-mind. If recruiters want to join this game, they can do so by using this avenue to either promote the organization (such as highlighting company programs or benefits), or to provide a picture of what it’s like to work there. This might be accomplished through highlighting employee activities or important projects the organization is involved in.
- E-mail marketing. This tactic is yet another that has been employed by marketers for years. But recruiters can utilize e-mail lists to send information to anyone who signs up for job updates or for newsletters aimed at giving information about the workplace culture. This can even be tied with the content marketing above.
- Live chat assistance. Consider adding live chat options to your careers page if you want the opportunity to talk with candidates live in a nonintimidating way. This can allow candidates to ask questions and get clarifications on anything that may be keeping them from applying.
- Employee advocacy. Your existing employees can be your biggest advocates, but that usually requires either incentives or cultural shifts that prompt them to do so. Consider encouraging employees to refer job applicants or to promote the organization online or during networking opportunities.
- Job fairs and industry conferences. This is a great example of ways you can be present in-person as well as online. While in-person job fairs may not be as common as they were in years past, they can still be a good place to foster name and brand recognition and get to know the candidate pool in a given area. (They’re also more and more often conducted online, adding to your digital presence.) Industry conferences can be great for marketing, networking, and recruiting.
- Mobile integration. Does your organization have a mobile app? If not, do you at least have a website that has been tested and confirmed to be mobile-friendly? With the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, it’s critical that your communications and all aspects of your application process are easily accessible and perfectly functional across multiple device types. It could easily scare off a potential applicant if your website or job post information is not easily retrieved and read on a mobile device or if the application process is inconvenient when accessed on a small screen.
Overall, the key is to create an experience for the candidate in which you’re reaching him or her in multiple ways while providing ample information to allow that individual to determine whether your organization and the job you’ve posted may be a good fit. By utilizing multiple channels simultaneously, not only do you reach more people but you also can tailor the messages so they provide a complete and consistent picture.
