While most business leaders understand the need for sales and marketing strategies that generate revenue, many fail to consider techniques like these when they're creating candidate attraction strategies for their business.
Feel free to continue using the same old adverts – which are often no more than a list of your requirements – and continue expecting candidates to automatically want to work for your company without giving them a reason. Don't, however, expect to get quality results from these recruitment efforts.
Recruitment is a two way process – you need to sell your company/vacancy to prospective employees in the same way you expect them to sell their skills and achievements to you when applying for positions.
With the constantly increasing availability of information on the internet, individuals are becoming evermore savvy and mobile in the job market.
In short, they now have more choices and improved access to the best jobs available, where previously they did not. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the average time span an employee now spends working for any one employer is less than two years in the UK.
Making Your Business More Attractive to Employees and Potential Employees
Are you struggling to retain your best staff? Firstly, you may need to look at how you can improve employee satisfaction (which is another post in itself, so I won't address it here).
Secondly, you need to ensure you are doing a better job at marketing and selling your company and vacancies than your competitors are.
So how can you improve your own candidate attraction strategy in order to engage with the best talent available in the market?
- Identify your target market. Profile what makes the ideal candidate for your business. What is likely to attract those individuals? Ask your current employees what they enjoy about working for your business and articulate this in any communication.
- Craft your message. In the same way you would tailor your message to prospective customers, you need to identify the USPs (Unique Selling Points) of your business, so you can effectively communicate these to prospective employees.
- Use testimonials. Customer testimonials help to prove that your products or services actually benefit the end user. Similarly, employee testimonials add gravitas to the fact that working for your business could enhance the working lives of prospective employees. Remember to use pictures when promoting these online.
- Look at what your competitors are doing. If you are losing great employees to your competitors, then have a look at what they are doing to engage your people! The likelihood is that their opportunities are no better than yours, but they have simply created a more compelling message to attract the best talent.
- Where does your target market spend time online? Make sure your vacancies are visible on these sites and platforms or, at the very least, have a presence there in order to get your company name in front of the right people. Get involved in discussion groups and communities.
- Use your corporate social networks to engage potential candidates. If you are already using social media to market and sell your products and services, you already have a captive audience of brand ambassadors. Make sure your vacancies are visible so that they can be ‘liked', ‘shared', ‘re-tweeted' and so on. This will help you widen your audience effortlessly.
- Ask for referrals. As part of the sales process, you would naturally ask for referrals when you have delivered a great service. Why should recruiting be any different? When a candidate has had a great experience with your business, they are more likely to refer their nearest and dearest to work for you. Employee referrals are proven to generate better quality and more loyal employees.
- Be proactive! Your sales teams easily identify key decision makers within the companies of prospective customers. Given the information that is now readily available online, there is no reason why your HR and recruitment teams should not be able to identify prospective talent for your business as well. You already have a crafted message, so engagement with these individuals should be easy.
Essentially, your recruitment strategies should mirror your sales and marketing strategies. The outcomes may not be immediately tangible in the form of increased revenue but, ultimately, with great people working for you – your business will thrive and grow on a long-term basis.
If you have enjoyed this post, please like or share it with your own online networks. I'd love to hear what has worked well for you when marketing your own vacancies, so please share your experiences in the comments box below.
