In similar fashion as the New Year, the spring season typically brings about thoughts of renewal and re-evaluation. As such, employers have wisely cultivated the habit of taking this time to spruce up their recruitment practices.
If a hiring professional wants to ensure they remain attractive to top talent, they should focus on refreshing their recruitment marketing strategies to remain agile in this new market. After all, candidates are looking for different things when seeking new career opportunities.
Read on to learn some of the ways employers can revitalize their recruitment marketing strategy for spring, with an eye toward attracting top talent and enhancing retention.
Re-Evaluate Employer Brand
As talent acquisition professionals know, the employer brand relates to the external reputation and image of their company, specifically as an employer. One of the main components of the employer brand is the story companies tell to create a meaningful connection between their people and their business.
A successful brand allows companies to speak to who they are, the core tenets and principles the company aims to embody, and the pledge to live up to those self-instilled values. Employer brand provides a guiding point for a company through growth and evolution, and gives the opportunity to share those values and principles in an external-facing message. With the changing of preferences and priorities from candidates in today’s market, many job seekers are looking more deeply into a company’s brand before applying. Thus, it’s important to showcase who the company really is and why it is a great place to work – which can help companies stand out from their competition.
Additionally, when building an employer brand that lives mostly online, companies need to consider the candidate's perspective, the employee's experience, and how they intersect. With the move to predominantly remote workspaces and cultures, those connections look unlike anything working professionals have ever seen – so employer brand content needs to evolve to fit the need in the 'new normal.'
Employer brand is important not only as it relates to overall public perception, but allows companies the ability to positively change the dialogue about the company and is a critical factor in talent acquisition. Research has shown that a robust employer brand affects recruitment of job seekers, retention and engagement of current employees, as well as perception of the company within the market. This makes it important to take the time to audit the current brand, get feedback from employees, and work on cultivating a company culture that reflects who the team truly is.
Know the Audience
Understanding the audience companies are seeking is an important step when reevaluating recruitment strategies. Knowing the audience helps hiring professionals figure out what content and messages people care about – which is important for hiring success.
The culture within the talent pool has changed dramatically in recent years. This has had an effect on what candidates are looking for in a job and an employer. Candidates are now seeking companies who share their same values, have extensive benefits, offer remote work, who focus on diversity and inclusion, job stability, professional development opportunities, etc.
To learn more about a company’s audience, work with the team to conduct surveys, look at current data in the industry, monitor audience feedback or engagement on content, or check out the competition. These methods can provide great insights as to what’s important to candidates in the talent pool. Knowing the specific motivations or drivers in candidate behaviors, and having the ability to identify and amplify what matters most to job seekers allows companies to stand out.
Update Social Media And Profiles
Social helps support brand recognition, thought leadership, credibility, audience engagement, and lead generation – so it’s important to review and update any social media or employer profiles that are out-of-date.
Are the company’s social media profiles as complete as they could be, and do they reflect who the company is today? This is a great time of year to have a look at these and see what might be improved. Are they too light or too heavy in content? Do they address some of the socially-relevant aspects listed above? Is there information on the social media profiles that has become obsolete? Outdated social profiles are a common branding issue, but one which companies can easily remedy.
Companies should update their social media profiles by making sure they have updated content, imagery, and correct webpage URLs. For social media in general, it’s an opportune time to freshen up posts, take advantage of new sections – such as LinkedIn groups – offered on platforms, evaluate what’s working and what’s not and experiment with new ideas. It’s also a good time to highlight any corporate citizenship or social advocacy initiatives in which a company shines.
Tip: Social media and employer profiles are a great place to feature new projects, awards, publications, and other relevant achievements. This content can be changed monthly or quarterly, depending on the timeliness and relevance.
Dedication To Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, And Belonging
With candidates seeking companies who share their values, it’s important to highlight diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging practices that are implemented at a company. Taking action to expand a company’s DEIB efforts can help create a more welcoming company culture where individual differences are both respected and celebrated, expand the diversity of the workforce, and ensure all employees have equal opportunities for growth and advancement.
Additionally, it’s essential for companies to make sure that their recruiting and hiring policies are up-to-date and reflect the company’s current culture and practices in a way that showcases their inclusivity. This shows candidates that a company is working towards eliminating barriers and ensuring everyone has equal opportunities.
This allows companies to create a positive work environment for both the employees and employer, all while showcasing their forward thinking to job seekers – which is becoming an essential deciding factor for candidates in today’s market.
Refresh Job Descriptions
After taking the time to re-evaluate all of the above, it’s important to review and update job descriptions so they more accurately reflect the opportunity, the requirements, the expectations of the candidate, and the values of the company. As hiring professionals know, job descriptions can play an important role in the ability to attract top talent, with many job postings being the first avenue a candidate has when learning about a company. In addition, if an organization is taking the time to update their recruitment practices, it’s important to show off the efforts in all outward facing communication.
Giving a clear and consistent overview of the company and the requirements of the position allows potential employees to understand expectations of the role. Position descriptions must be current, accurate, complete, and easily understood. Companies should review job descriptions on a regular basis to ensure that the position description accurately reflects the duties and the business need that the position is fulfilling.
Job descriptions are not only essential to productivity, they are also beneficial in efficiency and employee satisfaction. Clear communication on all levels gives explicit messages as to what is expected out of candidates. This also enhances the integrity as an employer, since job descriptions also can showcase employer brand and company values. If job descriptions are outdated or share wrong information, job seekers can be turned off at the opportunity and look for employment elsewhere.
Tip: Use this time to also re-evaluate materials on career pages, recruiting sites, employer profiles, job boards, and other external recruitment sources so they correlate with information in the job description as well.
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Given widespread changes in the workplace and the world of recruiting, recruitment marketing strategies need to be refreshed frequently, and are a more than appropriate bullet item for every company’s spring cleaning.
Interested in enhancing your company’s recruitment strategy this spring? Feel free to reach out to us!
