The concept of Recruitment Marketing is one of the least talked about and least utilized concepts in the talent acquisition space right now. Teams (both companies and agencies) that take advantage of this have the ability to dramatically increase their candidate pipelines, decrease their average speed to hire, and create a more engaging candidate experience among other things.
Recruitment Marketing is basically every part of the talent acquisition process that indirectly interacts with a candidate. It’s pretty heavily weighted on the front end of the process, but still has its part in the entire process. Getting this right helps create a “feeling” (hopefully a good one) for the candidate applying or interviewing for your position, helping both attract more candidates and engage them with your company, leading to hiring more top talent in your market.
Here’s basically what’s involved in the Recruitment Marketing process:
- Awareness – making sure people know what your company does, and that you are hiring.
- Consideration – making a candidate (active or passive) want to learn more about your company.
- Interest – Creating the “I want to work at this company” feeling.
- Application – Making your process for job inquiry easy and accessible for someone to submit a resume.
The goal here is candidate engagement and candidate experience. It sets the tone for the rest of the entire process. As a hiring manager or recruiter, you’re campaigning these job seekers just as much as they are campaigning you.
There are a few different best practices to Recruitment Marketing, but they are lead to more candidates in your pipeline and a better experience for all of those candidates. Here are a few of them:
- Take a Multi-Channel Approach: Advertise your jobs on multiple platforms. LinkedIn is huge now, Indeed and ZipRecruiter are staples, and having a job board on your website is never a bad idea.
- Prioritize the Applicant Experience: Don’t cut corners. Take the time to write detailed job descriptions. Make it easy to submit a resume on your job board (don’t make them fill out text fields, lol). Actually RESPOND to each applicant, even if it’s a polite decline.
- Proactively Showcase your Culture: Don’t wait for someone to ask. Be loud and proud about your environment. It’s never going to be perfect for everyone, but authenticity is so key. Define your organizations goals, showcase your leadership, list your accomplishments and growth. Having a ‘Culture’ or ‘Our People’ page on your site, optimizing your LinkedIn landing page, and being active on social media are all great starts.
Make your job as a recruiter easier and create a better experience for you candidates. It’s good for your company’s brand, promotes a better internal culture, and makes more people want to work for you.
