Never before have recruiters focused so much of their energy on keeping good candidates engaged in the hiring process. In a time when top talent is only on the market for 10 days, and ghosting happens with frequency, recruiters have no choice but to pour on the engagement efforts in order to get results.
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The best recruiters are using recruitment marketing at every stage of hiring to drive and sustain higher candidate engagement. Consider this:
The Single Goal of a Modern Recruitment Marketing Strategy
In the late 1980s, innovative talent acquisition (TA) professionals began looking over the cube walls of their company’s marketing department. Their goal was to apply marketing strategies to the recruiting process to attract more and better-fit candidates for their pipeline.
While that’s still the core concept for recruitment marketing today, a lot has changed. Here’s the main recalibration: Modern recruitment marketing has expanded into a programmatic approach for every stage in hiring, from engage to interview to hire.
With the digital age, the goals have shifted, too. The primary goal of any modern recruitment marketing strategy is to create and deliver a candidate experience that:
- Truly differentiates your organization;
- Feels highly personalized for every candidate; and
- Is made fast, simple, and convenient through a digital connection.
Let’s look at some recruitment marketing tactics that can help you achieve this goal throughout your hiring process.
Engage
Recruitment marketing at this stage is about creating content and experiences that will catch candidates’ attention and move them to apply. Your careers website can play a huge role here, especially if it is mobile-responsive.
Make sure your site serves up the information jobseekers are looking for, like a “day-in-the-life” at your organization, your company culture, and what to expect in your recruiting process. That’s in addition to job postings aimed at helping candidates see themselves in that role. Consider video job descriptions to capture candidate interest.
Leverage video whenever you can to tell your talent brand story. You can also share content that has personal value for candidates, such as digital-age interviewing best practices. Personalize their experience by allowing candidates to opt-in for job notifications and by making live chat available to immediately answer their questions.
Interview
The interview isn’t just a step in your hiring process—it’s the experience most likely to make or break your engagement with top talent. Here are five ideas to make it personalized, digitally engaging, and a differentiator for your organization:
- Invite candidates to explore your employment opportunities with an on-demand text, voice, or video interview with their smartphone, at their convenience.
- Help candidates feel prepared for live interviews by messaging them in advance with an agenda and interviewer names and titles.
- Prepare your hiring managers so they’re able to carry your talent brand forward in interviews with consistency.
- Follow up with feedback after interviews; the same day whenever possible.
- Encourage candidates to provide feedback to you about their experience via e-mail, text, or online survey.
Hire
The time between job offer acceptance and a new hire’s first day is a high risk in today’s candidate-driven market. Recruitment marketing can help you sustain new hire engagement and build a solid foundation for their retention.
Consider an onboarding platform that streamlines the administrative tasks for new hires. Use your video interviewing platform to share welcome videos and help them understand what to expect their first day or first week. Loop them in on company social events. Touch base with a phone call or e-mail and ask hiring managers to reach out as well. Strive to be clear and transparent about their future employment experience with you.
It’s All About the Experience
As you put together your recruitment marketing plan, continually think about your hiring experience from your candidate’s perspective. You’d like them to feel respected, valued, and well-informed. And, of course, ready and eager to accept your job offer.
| Terri Herrmann, Vice President of Marketing at Montage, believes that behind every great brand is an even better story. As VP of Marketing, Terri is responsible for evangelizing the Montage brand story and continuing to build its reputation as the industry leader in interviewing technology. She also defines and drives demand generation for the company. Terri spent her entire career advancing B2B brands. Prior to joining Montage, she served as VP of Marketing for a WI-based technology company. Terri also spent over 12 years at ManpowerGroup in a variety of sales and marketing roles, finishing her tenure as director of integrated marketing for North America. Terri attended the University of Wisconsin Whitewater where she earned her BBA in International Business and Marketing. |