Recruitment Marketing Tips and Best Practices for 2021
2021 has brought a new challenge to business owners and hiring managers – hiring. There are a variety of reasons behind this, but that’s for another post. We’re here to acknowledge that it’s a problem and provide some helpful ideas and recruitment marketing tips for anyone looking to find the right candidates to fill their open positions.
First off, let’s address some of 2021’s biggest recruiting challenges. Many businesses are looking to expand their workforce, but in the current economy are finding it hard to find and retain quality candidates. The top three recruiting challenges that kept coming up during our research are listed below. They all really boil down to a lack of resources whether that be financial or man-power/time. We know you can’t just pull money or time out of thin air, so we’ve included some tips on how to combat these struggles.
Top 3 Recruiting Challenges in 2021
1. Identifying quality candidates quickly through screening and pre-interview processes.
Take the time to list out the specifics of the role to be filled and have a thorough understanding of who your ideal candidate is. This will help you be able to flip through resumés and application materials more quickly and with better focus.
Be intentional and creative with what you are requiring candidates to submit with their application. Video applications and some brief questions to answer are ways you can weed out some of the less serious or less qualified candidates.
Once you’ve narrowed down the pool, start off with a phone screen. At this stage, you’ll want to focus on high level questions to make sure they meet the requirements of the role. Next, administer a skills test if possible. Using behavioral questions allows you to find the best fit for each role and hire people who can drive innovation and productivity. After this, you can decide which candidates should move forward with the rest of the interview process.
2. Managing virtual or hybrid recruiting and on-boarding practices.
One of the first things to make sure you have when recruiting virtually is good technology. You don’t want to have tech issues during this process as not only is it frustrating for you, but it will deter the future candidate or employee from wanting to take the position.
It is also important to let candidates experience the job and the company culture. This can be done by virtual or in-person office tours and meeting other members of the team. This is a great time to make sure you have examples and stories ready to share that paint a picture of your company culture.
Lastly, keep candidates informed every step of the way. Virtual recruitment can be an uninvolved experience which can make a candidate feel like they are unsure of where they stand. Keep candidates in the loop on what the process will look like start to finish at the very beginning and be sure to let them know where they are in the process throughout the whole experience.
3. Competing against multiple offers.
This can be a hard challenge to overcome. A couple of ways to win out on multiple offers is to differentiate the candidate experience and speed up or be flexible in the hiring process. In order to differentiate the experience, take the time to have the candidate meet team members, discuss company culture and encourage the candidate to ask questions throughout the interview to ensure they get all their questions answered.
You also set yourself apart by putting your best foot forward and showcasing a well-designed brand. Not sure about the importance of investing in good design? Check out our blog post inspired by Paul Rand’s quote, “design is the silent ambassador of your brand”, here.
Speeding up or being flexible over the hiring process is a way to attract candidates as well. Whether its slow hiring decisions or too many rounds of interviews, a slow hiring process gives candidates the chance to connect with other employers. Stick to a proven hiring process within your company that is intentional, timely and doesn’t involve too many people to delay decisions being made.
Even with the most intentional and efficient recruiting strategies, hiring can be a challenge. This is why it’s also essential to understand what job seekers are valuing and be able to sell your company to candidates in terms that will excite them.
What Job Seekers Value Most in 2021
1. Company transparency, mission and values.
Company transparency with regard to mission and values works in two critical ways. First, it helps bring in candidates who share similar values and appreciate your mission and values. Second, it keeps everyone in your company focused and on the same page.
The other aspect of company transparency that potential candidates want is clear information on salaries and benefits. These are major influencing factors in most job searches and candidates appreciate having the information up front.
2. Career growth and professional development.
Candidates also want to know that if they start out in a certain position in the company that they have room to grow. They aren’t looking for a job where they will stay in the same position for years to come. They want to know that there are bigger and better options waiting for them within your company.
It’s also important that you have professional development practices in place that you can use as another incentive for a candidate to sign with you. Whether it’s in-house seminars and trainings, hackathons, conference travel, or other growth and reflection practices, all are important to identify up front and use to sell your company.
3. Team and work culture; feeling appreciated and valued.
When you spend such a large portion of your life working, it’s no surprise that work culture and the team/people you work with become of increasing importance. Candidates want to know that they will enjoy going to work every day and a lot of that has to do with the culture and the people they are working with. If they can see themselves fitting in, they can see themselves staying at your company for a long time.
People also want to be valued. Employees get burnt out at a job where they are not shown that they are a valued employee. Keeping employees happy, keeps the company culture a productive one! It is important to be intentional with your praise and have systems in place that highlight great employees and show appreciation. By being intentional with this aspect of management, you can share specific practices with candidates to reassure them that yours is a company ready to celebrate their contributions.
Recruitment Marketing Stages and Tips
It’s become abundantly clear that hiring isn’t only about candidates convincing you that they’re the right ones for the job. It’s also you selling your company to them and getting your job openings in front of the right people. Strategic recruitment marketing can help set your company apart.
There are four stages of recruitment marketing: awareness, interest, decision and action, and each will utilize different materials and methods to accomplish. For more detail on this, check out this article from Built In, but in short, here are some key points about each stage:
- Awareness. You need to be putting out a reputable and memorable brand presence. Think social media, event sponsorship, and other out-of-the-box ways to get your brand out there to customers and prospective employees alike.
- Interest. Get people thinking about what if might be like to work with such a great company. Highlight things you’re doing as a company that will generate interest and show people what a terrific work culture you have.
- Decision. This is the point of the process where you need to promote your open positions and job specifics.
- Action. The final stage is getting through the application and decision process. By having professional, efficient and on-brand materials and processes in place, you are able to show the candidate, one last time, why your company is an ideal fit.
Creative ways of marketing your positions can include:
- Vehicle magnets
- Job fairs
- Creative social media
- Content marketing
- Employee referral programs
- Billboards & other signage
- Professional Materials & Handouts
- Promotional Items
Each year seems to pose it’s own set of challenges for business owners and hiring managers and 2021 is no different. With the unemployment rate still nearly double what it was before the pandemic, one might think that hiring would be a bit more of a breeze. A variety of factors cause this not to be the case though so it is still as important as ever to market your business and job openings well.
If you’re overwhelmed by it all or feel like you don’t have the time to do it right, you’re not alone. It’s a daunting task and one that is often best left to the experts. Riffland Solutions is here to assist. We act like an in-house marketing team, providing personalized consulting and recommendations while maintaining a national network of print providers ready to tackle any project imaginable. Our team of branding and marketing experts can be as involved as you’d like throughout the entire process. Some of our common projects that are prime for recruitment marketing include signage and displays for hiring, marketing materials and professional documents for job fairs, vehicle wraps, graphics and magnets, and promotional products.
Let us help you find the right candidate.
