How do you nurture candidates throughout their unique career journey? And how can you encourage the right people to apply to your jobs? We tackled these questions and more in a recent webinar co-hosted by Glassdoor and SmashFly, The Candidate Journey Isn't Linear: How to Craft Content Accordingly.
We had so much to say about recruiting with content that we didn’t have enough time for Q&A. As promised, here’s a roundup of everyone’s questions and our answers:
Q: Do you suggest sharing project highlights for different departments?
Yes! If you’re recruiting for roles in a particular department, then sharing department-specific project highlights (e.g. how that project impacted the industry or your customers) can help you create more interest at the Consideration phase for candidates researching your company. Plus, you can repurpose these highlights for later stages.
For example, for the Interest phase, you can use the project highlights to show candidates the kind of projects they might work on at your company. And for the Onboarding phase, you can create a project case study that shows your new employee(s) how the team came together to make the project happen.
Q: What media channels do you suggest we use to distribute our content for both the Consideration and Interest stage?
Depends on where your ideal job seekers are doing their research, which really depends on your industry. The right channels will include your website and third-party sites. Employee reviews are also important to job seekers – 83% of employees/job seekers will likely research company reviews and ratings when deciding to apply for a job (1) – so engaging with current employees and inviting them to leave reviews is key.
That being said, an example list of the right channels for the Consideration and Interest stages includes: your company’s career website, social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, review sites like Glassdoor, and even company newsletter emails.
Q: I understand that content needs to be relevant and valuable to a prospect at each stage of the journey. That said, organizations have mastered using non-job and non-brand content to nurture relationships?
Yes, absolutely. Non-job and non-brand content is – and is absolutely necessary to any recruitment marketing strategy. After all, you can’t create everything yourself! Curating content means finding other places you can repurpose or reuse content from, like industry publications, career advice, your marketing team, employee surveys, and more.
Examples of content that you can curate: industry trends or stats that shows thought leadership, company-specific news stories or press releases, awards or lists (like Glassdoor’s Best Employers), best practices/tips to improve candidate’s skills, or social campaigns with hashtags or images.
Q: How do we inform our recruiting process publically without giving out too much to our competitors?
Candidates want to know what your hiring process is like. Such transparency boosts your ability to attract informed candidates who have the right expectations of what it’s like to interview at, and work for, your company. In fact, much of the information job seekers are looking for about your interview process can already be found on Glassdoor, thanks to interview reviews and questions left by past interviewees.
So what are people looking for? In the application process, candidates want to know things like who they should address their cover letter to, what happens to their application after it’s submitted, how long till they can expect an answer. Then there’s the interview process: do you conduct a phone screen first? How many weeks does the whole process take? How hard are your interviews?
Being forthcoming, like Lever or ATB Financial, can really help you accurately communicate what it’s like to interview at (and work for) your company.
Q: How do we stand out amongst competitors in our industry when it comes to content that attracts candidates?
The short answer: by having a strong employer brand and communicating your brand in every piece of content you publish.
The long answer: Your employer brand is what differentiates your company from all others. Having a good value proposition can help you distinguish your company and stand out from the competition. No two companies are alike and being clear about what makes yours an awesome place to work is what will help you attract the right kind of employees.
On the content side, creating and curating content that’s interesting is a must. If you don’t want to click on something, read it, or share it, then chances are the people you’re trying to reach won’t be interested in it, either. You can’t build a relationship and find a fit if you’re only marketing job titles and description.
Want more top tips for nurturing candidates at each stage of their unique career journey? Check out Recruiting with Content: A Lookbook for the Candidate Journey.
