Amid the tumultuous last few years of post-pandemic hiring, organizations have continued to compete heavily for quality applicants. The unemployment rate remains low, and prospective candidates continue to have many options for where they can apply. Therefore, to remain competitive, talent acquisition teams require fresh strategies for attracting and engaging talent. With the adoption of effective recruitment marketing solutions and the help of a trusted recruitment partner, organizations will be better positioned to promote their employer brand and increase applicant conversions effectively.
Whether organizations have been in recovery following the “Great Resignation” or in industries facing a talent shortage, finding enough quality applicants remains a challenge, and the majority of organizations have difficulty finding the talent they need. As organizations pursue their 2024 hiring goals, to address company growth, a need for new skills, and to replace retiring Baby Boomers, they are likely to continue grappling with challenges in the following areas:
For most organizations, 2024 is likely to bring a steady need for new talent. According to a recent Robert Half survey, 57% of managers said they planned to increase company hiring in the first half of 2024. However, an increase in hiring goals doesn’t always equate to an increase in the recruitment budget. Whether organizations plan to spend more than the previous year or need to “do more with less,” talent acquisition activities should use available resources efficiently and make every recruitment dollar count. To accomplish this, organizations will need to optimize recruitment resources, test and adopt new strategies, and showcase the employer brand across the best-performing media channels.
Organizations already using some form of recruitment marketing see how it can transform their ability to engage with and attract quality candidates for open positions. With a combination of advertising campaigns, creative branding messages, and innovative technology, talent acquisition teams can improve recruitment ROI and boost applicant conversion for even the hardest-to-fill roles.
Here are four key ways organizations can revamp their recruitment marketing strategies to achieve better hiring results:
In an evolving labor market, recruitment teams must constantly be on the lookout for new channels to engage applicants and build brand awareness. In addition to the larger job boards and social media platforms, specialized industry associations and niche platforms also offer unique opportunities for organizations to connect with passive candidates who may not be visiting larger job boards with any regularity. Some examples include:
Programmatic job advertising is an excellent tool for achieving greater diversity in talent sources. By enabling recruitment marketing teams to automatically start and stop advertising campaigns across a broad mix of job boards, social media, and other platforms, programmatic solutions offer more opportunities to reach candidates on the platforms they already visit. Instead of manually managing a large number of advertising campaigns across multiple open positions and geographies, a programmatic approach allows recruitment teams to buy and place job ads more efficiently on platforms that deliver an acceptable return on investment. Campaigns that don’t perform can easily be pulled and replaced with higher-performing ads. As a result, organizations are able to cast a wider net when seeking new pools of prospective applicants.
Tip: Objective-based campaigns offer talent acquisition teams an additional opportunity to refine their programmatic job ads. By customizing ads to address specific recruitment goals, recruitment marketing teams can overcome hiring obstacles and realize even more value from job ad campaigns.
Whether it’s greater work flexibility, pay transparency, or a more diverse mix of health and wellness benefits, today’s job seekers have specific preferences in what they’re looking for in their next employer. Therefore, to attract candidates who will be a great match with open positions and the company culture, organizations must effectively highlight their employee value proposition, in essence, the unique benefits and opportunities they offer.
For organizations with an EVP and those just getting started in creating one, it’s critical to provide job seekers with an authentic view of the organization, what it can offer, and what the employee experience really looks like. Ideally, the EVP should be articulated across multiple channels, including:
Crafting an EVP and employer branding strategy requires a serious approach and should incorporate employee and leader input gathered from interviews, surveys, and feedback mechanisms. Working with a recruitment marketing partner is valuable, as it can help talent acquisition teams take a fresh look at the organization’s culture, people, competition, and special characteristics that make it stand out among other employers. With a revitalized EVP and branding strategy, it’s possible to present the organization in a more compelling way that resonates with today’s job seekers.
Tip: Research has found that candidates trust employees three times more than the company to provide information about the employee experience. Organizations can show candidates what it’s really like with videos that capture the essence of company culture and the day-to-day lives of employees.
A great way to boost recruitment efficiency and leverage the existing talent pipeline is to re-engage past applicants and others who have interacted with the organization’s hiring process. This pool of talent can include former employees, interns, and anyone who has previously shared their contact information on a landing page, job application, or at a recruiting event.
Candidate re-engagement is a critical element of a comprehensive recruitment marketing strategy, and allows organizations to leverage existing talent pools more efficiently. Past applicants and former employees have already had some interaction with the company and have previously expressed interest, so talent acquisition teams don’t have to invest as much in ads and other messaging to build awareness. Additionally, many individuals are already in the applicant tracking system (ATS), making it easier to determine their fit for current open positions.
Re-engagement activities can take many forms, and can include any the following:
As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it is likely to play an increasingly critical role in employee recruitment. A recent Google study found that more than half of hiring leaders and job seekers agree AI can be effective in improving the recruitment process. For example, AI tools can recommend job opportunities to candidates based on their qualifications and experience. AI can also make it easier for recruitment teams to screen, rank, and match applicants according to preset parameters.
By automating core recruitment workflows, AI-powered solutions can speed up the recruitment process and, therefore, improve the candidate experience. For instance, seamless integrations between an organization’s ATS, human capital management (HCM) system, and recruitment marketing platform enable more opportunities for recruitment teams to access analytics about their talent pipeline and the overall effectiveness of the hiring process.
Tip: Today’s AI technology can also help organizations get closer to reaching their diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) goals. By using AI tools to parse resumes and extract specific features from resumes, recruitment teams can limit bias in the recruitment process and focus more on candidate skills and qualifications.
While the complexities of recruitment and a competitive job market can make it challenging for organizations to hire, there are several recruitment marketing strategies that can do some of the heavy lifting and make it easier for talent acquisition teams to overcome those challenges. By adopting creative strategies for employer branding, talent diversification, and candidate re-engagement, organizations can engage prospective and existing applicants, and use powerful analytical tools to measure and improve their recruitment effectiveness.
For higher recruitment efficiency and ROI, the team at Recruitics is here to help! Recruitics’ AI-powered recruitment marketing and talent engagement services enable organizations to do more with less and make improvements that will distinguish them as a preferred employer of choice.
