As we try to look beyond the current health crisis to determine the talent needs of businesses this year, it’s definitely a slippery slope. There’s a high level of unpredictability as businesses segue in phases from “essential” and “nonessential” to a new normal state of operations.
What does this mean for hiring in 2020? Well, like the coronavirus itself, I think the theme is uncertainty. From one industry and location to the next, the hiring environment isn’t the same. And, after experiencing this pandemic, neither are the people out searching for jobs.
So, what’s the best recruiting strategy for 2020? Unlike 2019’s talent shortages and skills gaps, there are no defined, universal market conditions to devise a plan around. To attract the talent your business needs, it’s time to get back to the basics.
To be successful, businesses need great employees, and they need enough customers to fund their continuous evolution. Let’s examine the customer piece for a moment. Most companies invest heavily in building a corporate marketing function to drive business and support the sales team. Now, what’s the investment your company makes to attract great employees? Do you have a recruitment marketing function? Who do your recruiters rely on for support?
It’s time to address the gap that exists between your corporate and recruitment marketing efforts. Let’s take a look at three things corporate marketers do to attract customers, and how these same efforts could help you reach your recruiting goals.
Create awareness.
Your business will never survive if no one knows you exist, right? Your corporate marketing team is responsible for creating general brand awareness for your company. This includes everything from making sure prospective customers can find your business online to introducing your company to industry analysts and the media so they can help spread the word.
Just like potential customers need to know who you are, so do potential employees. How can you create awareness from a recruitment perspective? First, promote both your open positions and your culture on social media. You need to tell them that you have open roles, and then follow that up by highlighting your culture to demonstrate why they should apply.
Next, put your careers page to work for you. Once a candidate sees your open position, it’s very likely that they’ll head over to your careers page to learn more about employee life. Reach out to your marketing team to understand how your careers page is performing and to get a sense of where your traffic is coming from and where they’re going next. Take cues from other career pages you admire and inject your personality into your page with things like videos, interactive graphics, photos, quotes and more.
Develop strong messaging.
Corporate marketers are responsible for developing and then continuously refining your company’s messaging. They tell people who you are, what you stand for and why they should work with you. To do this, corporate marketers work closely with top executives to understand and then clearly articulate your company’s vision, mission and core values. Then, that messaging gets woven into every communication channel, from the website to customer emails.
It’s just as important to create strong employer messaging to attract talent. Yet many companies provide their recruiters with outdated job descriptions and a generic list of benefits and perks and call it a day.
Here are a few do’s when it comes to messaging: Take the time to develop an employer value proposition. At the highest level, this can really be defined as the unique value you offer to your employees. What makes your company and culture different from all the others? Why is being a part of your team so special? Next, pull together some key messages that support your employee value proposition. These will serve as important talking points for your recruiters to help sell candidates on why they should take a position with your company instead of another.
Drive interest.
Corporate marketers pave the way for their sales teams to be successful. In the business-to-business (B2B) world, they do this by sponsoring events and trade shows and speaking on webinars to drive leads, while marketers for business-to-consumer (B2C) brands bring in customers by running promotions and paying for advertising, for example.
Now, compare the support your company gives to sales versus recruiters. How are your recruiters supported? Are they flying blind when it comes to finding candidates? One huge gap that often exists between sales and recruiters is technology. Sales teams often use expensive software to track leads and communicate with prospects, while recruiters often use outdated systems, processes and forms during the hiring process.
How big is the gap between your corporate marketing efforts and your investment in recruitment marketing? Applying the same marketing strategies to both clients and employees can mean the difference between attracting average and great candidates — and unlocking your company’s true potential in any talent environment.
