9 Critical Components of Recruitment Marketing

9 Critical Components of Recruitment Marketing Fast-forward through all the scary campfire stories that foretell the demise of talent acquisition. Yes, there are challenges to be sure, but let’s spend our time exploring solutions instead of re-hashing the same statistics that we already know. Here’s the big picture concept: The solutions to many of talent acquisition’s problems can be solved through two strategic components: Modern recruitment marketing A faster, more effective candidate evaluation process In essence, it’s managing the front-end of the store and the back-end. The yin and yang of recruitment. If executed properly, these strategic focal points will generate increased interest, more qualified applicants, better quality hires and an improved candidate experience. So, how do you do it? Let’s do a deep dive of the first concept, recruitment marketing. What is modern recruitment marketing? First, a quick definition so we’re on the same page. Recruitment marketing is the strategic and tactical implementations that allow a company to find, attract and engage job seekers to encourage a more qualified application. Many consider it top of the funnel activity, but in truth, it’s actually pre-funnel; and therein exposes the evolution in thinking. Instead of focusing only on candidates who have applied, we now need to think in broader terms of anyone who may be interested in our brand or career opportunities. It is our job to bring them into the funnel through recruitment marketing activities. In the chart above, recruitment marketing largely happens through the first three segments: Awareness: Garnering name recognition for your brand so potential job seekers know who you are and what you do. Interest: You’ve captured their attention. Great job! In this stage, the job seeker wants to learn more about you and will explore many avenues to do so. Active search: The job seeker is ready to take action. How do you help facilitate that? Pro tip: Best-in-class recruitment marketing organizations create strong internal partnerships with HR, Marketing, Legal and the C-Suite. If you don’t have those relationships today, start with your marketing or sales team and sit down and learn what they do. Grab a cup of coffee and ask them a ton of questions. Listen, don’t talk. And take notes. A blueprint for success So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Many organizations have unique challenges to solve, but in general, the strategic components of a strong recruitment marketing effort include these nine elements: 1. Employer branding This is a foundational piece. Before you work on anything else, ensure your employer brand is clearly established and properly reflective of your company. There are many great articles detailing what an employer brand is, how to optimize it and signs you might be hurting your brand, so I won’t go into that level of detail here. There are two additional elements to call out, however: Make sure your branding truly reflects your culture, purpose, value and mission. It’s OK if that doesn’t jive with everyone; it’s not supposed to. You’ll want to infuse your employer brand into all of the components listed below (hence, the foundational comment earlier). Pro tip: Don’t neglect your current employees in your branding efforts. Get their buy-in of the EVP itself and communicate the final product back out to them in simple, “elevator pitch” language. This helps encourage employee satisfaction and a subsequent boost in employee referrals. 2. Create target audience profiles The next component to undertake is segmenting your target candidates.  You have many roles to fill and your ideal candidate for an SVP of Marketing position is night-and-day different from an hourly employee in your distribution center. Learn about each of these target groups â€" what their motivations are and what they are looking for. Then, build unique profiles for them. 3. Content marketing With your core EVP and your target audience profiles, you now have a foundation to build on. You want to take that knowledge and infuse it into your content, which, among other things, could include print collaterals, job descriptions, social content, website pages, employee interviews and creative ads (need some inspiration?). Regardless of the medium, the foundational pieces should remain consistent themes throughout. 4. Careers website Your careers website is still the hub of your recruitment marketing activity. According to a recent Talent Board survey, job seekers spend 1-4 hours researching a company and 65% of them found the career site to be the most helpful resource. Make sure yours provides the information job seekers are looking for, and a quick, easy way to search for open jobs from every device. Pro tip: Want to redesign your site? Evaluate your current web analytics to determine what’s really important to your job seekers. For example, are only 1% of your visitors going to your FAQ page? Consider cutting it (or re-evaluating your questions). 5. Digital advertising Taking its cue from retailers’ online activities, smart Talent Acquisition groups are using programmatic ad buying and retargeting strategies to stay in front of their job seekers. Remember, this is talent attraction and utilizing your beautiful creative, captivating content and strong brand to capture your job seekers’ attention is the name of the game, folks. 6. Social recruiting The best way to connect with your job seekers remains social media. It is the premier way to share an honest picture of your value and culture. But, don’t just talk. Listen. Engage. Entertain. Connect. Pro tip:   A social strategy should consist of more than just sharing jobs, so brush up on your content strategy and story-telling ability. 7. Candidate lead capture There are many names for this:   talent community, lead capture, talent pipeline, etc. Generally, only 10% of any career site traffic actually completes an application so you’re losing 90% of your audience. A lead capture form changes that and allows you to re-engage with your interested job seekers. Pro tip: Some lead capture forms include automatic job alerts, but to truly be an effective component of your recruitment marketing strategy you need to include #8 below. 8. Candidate communications and nurturing So, a job seeker joined your talent community. Great! But…now what? Engage with them. Chat with them. Have your recruiters evaluate their experience and see if there’s a fit. There are some new tools out there that help with this, but if you don’t have the budget for that at least have your recruiters manually source your talent community. These are job seekers who have taken an action and expressed an interest in your careers. That was most likely one of your top goals, so embrace this audience as the fruits of your labor! 9. Data collection Every single component outlined here can and should be measured. Collect it. Evaluate it. And then evolve your tactics based on what it tells you. That last note â€" evolving â€" is important. Everything discussed above should be considered part of an evolution, not a one-time project to implement.   Experiment, learn from your data and improve your recruitment marketing efforts as you progress. Lastly, there are a host of HR technology companies jumping on the recruitment marketing train and have some nice product offerings to complement your strategies. But remember, they should fit your strategic needs; not the other way around. Well, I’m impressed you’ve made it this far. I know it was a long read, but hopefully you learned a few nuggets that will help your own recruitment marketing efforts and talent attraction strategies. Happy marketing!

How to Get the Best CVs From Your Job Ads

How to Get the Best CVs From Your Job Ads In a candidate led market, it’s essential to stand out from your competitors if you want to attract top talent and your job advert is your first opportunity to grab their attention. But with so much choice at a click of a button, you need an engaging, informative and well-structured advert to entice the best applicants to apply.   Below are six tips to help you create a compelling job advert, that lands you the best CVs. Engage the reader With so many roles being advertised, there are more choices than ever available to candidates. An engaging advert should both sell the benefits and features of a role, whilst intriguing a candidate to find out more. Reflect on the job title you are using for your advert. Whilst an employer might use certain job titles in-house, it might be worth changing things up for the external market. Think of a relevant title that a candidate would actually be searching for this job online. Get on the job boards to gain an insight into which titles are appearing at the top of your search. Look to incorporate questions at the beginning of an advert, enticing candidates to match themselves to the role. For example, you could use an opening such as: “Are you passionate about customer service?” for customer service vacancies.   Sell the benefits When writing a job advert, consider what matters most to your intended audience. Applicants are looking for more than just competitive salaries, so it’s imperative to focus on the additional benefits.   Include a benefits section within your advert, highlighting any training provided, chances to progress within the company, as well as benefits such as bonuses, holidays, private medical or any additional perks.   But do remember that benefits are more than just the package you offer. Factoring in flexible working hours or remote working days is also a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.   Have a strong structure When you’re reviewing CVs, a strong, well-organized structure makes it much easier for you to identify the best possible candidates. So, in a similar way, you need to focus on the structure used within your job advert. Make your ad easy for candidates to digest, by using headers and bullet points to break up large blocks of text.   Start with the most important information, captivating candidates to delve deeper into the advert. Highlight key details such as the location, salary and job title before going into a full description.   Follow an easy-to-read format, commencing with an overview of the role, before providing details of the employer’s history and culture. Next, look to describe the company benefits, before listing the main duties. An advert should end with a candidate specification, showcasing the type of candidate you’re recruiting for. Stand out from the competition If you’re looking to compete, you need to be different. It’s important not to blend into the crowd by using buzzwords or cliché phrases such as “all we ask from you is” or “this is an opportunity of a lifetime”. Instead, be specific, telling candidates exactly why this is such a great vacancy to apply for, reflecting on the company culture and the exact job duties.   It’s not just other employers you need to differentiate yourself from. When writing a job advert, don’t simply copy and paste from a template make each advert unique. Check, check and check Again Nothing puts off candidates like a poorly written job advert â€" it oozes unprofessionalism. Before you submit your job ad, make sure to triple check it. Review your advert for small errors such as grammar or spelling mistakes and ensure it actually reads well â€" reading it aloud can help. It can be hard to spot your own mistakes, so consider getting a colleague to read through an advert on your behalf. It might just be a simple mistake, but high-quality candidates may see it as a lazy employer who lacks attention to detail. And it’s not just errors that you should review your advert for. Getting a current employee who is already in that position to review your job advert could give you a new perspective. Compiling their feedback could give you additional insight into whether a likeminded person would be attracted by the ad.   Lastly, think over the length of your job advertisement. A long advert can become tedious to read, but an advert should be long enough to provide a clear overview of the role. Be sure to have a good balance.   Close the deal Even the most engaging advert needs a call to action. Once you have grabbed their attention, it’s time to seal the deal and secure their application.   Whether you ask candidates to send their CVs with covering letters, complete an online application or even just give you a quick call, make it clear what action applicants need to take next.   It needs to be straightforward for candidates to express their interest in a role. A complex application process could put off potential applications â€" so don’t put unnecessary hurdles in the way.

Are Internships and Work Experience Necessary

Are Internships and Work Experience Necessary In the past, it wasnt quite as common for someone to have a degree as it is today and therefore  you were almost guaranteed a job as a college grad. However, the number of people who go on to study at University has risen a lot over the years and studies have shown that starting in 1980, employers began to pay more attention to work experience and internships when they make hiring decisions. In 2013, research conducted by High Fliers Research found that it is unlikely that  college grads will secure themselves a job based on their degree alone and internships and work experience will be what sets them out from their fellow graduates when applying for jobs.   So is experience more important than education? Work experience is as important as your degree. Some college students think that working in  low-level jobs while they are at  University isnt really worth it, as they  take away from time  that could  be  used to study and they don’t think they can learn anything from these jobs, so why bother? A survey done by the Iowa State University’s Engineering Career Services found that around 90% of engineering grads were hired upon graduation, after they participated in education programs that enable them to alternate school and work terms. The survey also found that only 50% of the engineering grads who didn’t participate in one of the  education programs got jobs after graduation, suggesting that the industry in experience is valued more highly than  degree results.   How  can work experience and internships help? You can gain lots of valuable lessons through working, even if the work is boring or seemingly unrelated to the career you wish to follow. Work experience gives you the opportunity to learn useful “real-world” skills that you wont  necessarily learn in school and are extremely transferrable between different industries, such as communication, initiative  and time-management. Completing an internship or work experience will also give you an insight into what working life is like and creates  the opportunity to work with people from all  sorts of different backgrounds, who you can learn new things from that may be valuable in the future.   Furthermore, interning in a field related to your major allows you to learn more about the industry and can play a vital role in helping you figure out your career plan. If you find the industry boring or not as  you expected, you may wish to alter  your career plan. On the other hand, if you perform well as an intern, the company may offer your a permanent role when you  graduate, or at least offer you a good  reference to help your job hunt. Employers value industry  experience. Whether the work experience is paid or unpaid, the involvement in your chosen field will show employers that you are show initiative and are motivated and dedicated to building yourself a career in the sector. By looking at your experience, they know that you have the skills and knowledge to perform your job  and it is likely that  an employer will choose a candidate with work experience over someone who has none; therefore, work experience is often the only thing that stands between college grads and their dream jobs.

Why Presenteeism Happens in the Workplace

Why Presenteeism Happens in the Workplace Would you rather have your staff show up at all costs rather than not have them in at all? Regardless of whether they are sick or dealing with a personal crisis. We all know some employees are so committed to their jobs that they will still attend work when theyre not physically or mentally well enough to do so. But is this a help or a hindrance to your company? According to a recent CIPD survey, people coming into work when they are ill also known as ‘Presenteeism’ has more than tripled since 2010, with 86% of employees admitting they had observed Presenteeism in the workplace. Research by the Centre of Mental shows Presenteeism from Mental Health alone is estimated to cost the UK economy £15.1 billion per annum, compared to £8.4 billion per annum for absenteeism. Following the findings, Lucinda Pullinger, Global Head of HR at  Instant Offices  explore the reasons why below: Job security and labor policies are factors   The phenomenon itself is not new. Nonetheless, it has recently become the subject of interest in studies. According to Dr. Cary Cooper of Manchester University, who first used the term, it results from job insecurity brought on by the downsizing and restructuring in the 1990s.When employees believe they are at risk of losing their jobs, they feel an urgency to put in more hours, or at least appear to be working longer. Variance in global sick days   Based on PWC research, UK workers average 9.1 days off from their jobs due to sickness in a year.   Although that is a decrease from previous years, they still take the most number of sick days in the world. In comparison, Western Europe averages 7.3 days, the US takes 4.9 days, and their counterparts in Asia-Pacific take 2.2 days. Around 90% of UK firms’ absence bill is due to sickness, costing around £29bn a year. The research also confirmed the Centre of Mental health’s claim that mental health conditions are the single most widespread cause of long term absence from the workplace. The cost of presenteeism The  Centre for Mental Health  has stated that presenteeism from mental ill health alone costs the UK economy £15.1 billion per annum. They argue that the consensus reached in research is that the cost of presenteeism is larger than that of sickness absence.   In the early stages of mental illness, health problems often manifest themselves predominantly in the form of increased presenteeism. This then acts as a strong predictor of future sickness absence. The more presenteeism today will result in more absenteeism tomorrow. This form of loss in productivity is more likely to occur among white-collar workers, particularly professional and executive staff, rather than blue-collar workers. Naturally, with more interest in the phenomenon by researchers, there are a range of solutions that have been suggested to overcome presenteeism.  The Hero  concludes that the best way to address presenteeism is to implement an effective health management strategy that engages employees and supports them in improving their well-being. Management should go the extra mile   Management policy affects work culture, so it should be used to affect presenteeism. Policies that are put in place to address the abuse of sick days can unknowingly encourage presenteeism. So, organizations need to make it clear where they stand on the matter. This can be accomplished by insisting on sending people home to fully recuperate, or encouraging flexible work solutions in times of illness or personal trauma. With the piqued interests of researchers, there’s a possibility that we will find more effective solutions to the loss in productivity due to presenteeism and absenteeism. About the author:  Established in 1999,  The Instant Group  is a global flexible workspace specialist. Underpinned by unrivaled expertise, Instant tailors unique solutions to help businesses of all sizes to grow, drive savings or gain invaluable insight.   With offices in London, Berlin, Dallas, New York, Hong Kong,  and  Sydney, The Instant Group employs more than 100 experts and has clients in 113 countries.

5 Deadly LinkedIn Mistakes - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

5 Deadly Mistakes

Are You Focused in Your Job Search - Hire Imaging

Are You Focused in Your Job Search - Hire Imaging People often ask me what I think to be the most important piece of the job search. They are quite surprised when “your resume” is not what comes out of my mouth. My advice to anyone wanting to land faster and smarter in a job they love is: The more you focus on what you want, the faster you’ll be hired. You may share the sentiments I hear from many clients when we begin our work together: I am open to all options. I want to leave the doors open. You might be open to all possibilities, but you need to be able to tell people what you want in precise language they understand. Pete and Greg: A Story of Focus Let’s look at Pete and Greg. Both are in sales, and both have recently lost their jobs in the food and beverage industry. They attend the same, large networking event, hosted by their alumni association. When Pete meets people, he says: “Hello. My name is Pete. I’m currently unemployed, and looking for sales work. I’ll work anywhere in the Metro area. Can you help me?” When Greg meets people, he says: “Hi. My name is Greg Jones. Why are you here today?” [Then he lets that person talk, and he really listens. Then he goes on]: I’m looking for a District Manager position in the food and beverage industry. As District Manager for Whole Foods   Market, I led district teams to generate consistent high-dollar sales, despite a sluggish economy. I was also contracted to help a large liquor distributor turn around one of its low-performing divisions. We slashed turnover 52% and recaptured nearly a million dollars in expenses. I’m looking for networking contacts like food and beverage distributors who sell to retailers. Oh, and I am licensed to perform marriage ceremonies, and also love event planning. So, if you know anyone planning a wedding with a tight budget, I can help! How can I help you today?” Both Pete and Greg want the same type of jobs. Who do you think people will be more likely to help? Yes, Greg. He’s confident and clear about his goals. He is specific in mentioning the type of work he’s done and looking for; the type of network contacts he hopes to connect with. And remember that I mentioned Greg listened first to the other person talk. His “how can I help you today” is followed by, “I do know Sean at ABC Software. I’d be happy to introduce the two of you.” Honestly, he is open to any sales job. But that’s not his priority. What he’s stated is. And he’s been laid off too, but he doesn’t mention being unemployed. That’s too much information at this point. The mention of performing marriage ceremonies and planning events is just, well, interesting. People are apt to remember him because of it. And then, his last words are “How can I help you today?” This is always the best way to end the conversation. Offering to help someone else leaves a remarkably positive impression! What we can learn from Greg about focus. I acknowledged earlier that you may be open to possibilities. The truth is that Greg will work anywhere right now, because he has a child with special needs, a mortgage, and a pregnant wife not earning income at the moment. He needs to pay his bills. Yet, he gives folks a limited view (clear and concise) of what he wants, because it will help him network and he also knows he would enjoy working in the FB industry as a District Manager. Why is articulating a clear picture to people worth it? You will move closer to your end goal, because you tell people concisely what it is. People who want to help you will be able to do so. Your dream role will not get lost in a job search that has a “whatever” theme dictating it. If you’re open to possibilities, good for you! But the most effective job search is one where you narrow and talk about your top priorities. Think of it related to other aspects of your life. Would you enroll at a university and say, “I’ll take whatever major you have for me. I’m open.” Would you go to your realtor and say, “I’m open to any house in my budgetâ€"any layout, neighborhood, any size.” Would you go to your travel agent and say, “Here’s my credit card. Send me off on an adventure. I don’t care where.” You deserve this focus. People may admire your openness and enthusiasm, but they will not know how to help you!! And here’s the best part. If you actually name what it is that you want, as specifically as possible, you will find it opens up possibilities! But it opens from a place of knowing, into “here’s more”; rather than from, “Oh, anything … but not sure what that is.” For many, focus doesn’t come magically. You may have to take some time to brainstorm and explore. But it will be one of the best time investments you’ve ever made. Knowing what you do and don’t want creates your wish list. Then you can go find it and get it! Photo: Mark Hunter

Real security - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Real security - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog As usual, Bruce Schneier is a voice of sanity and reason in matters of security. Read his take on random bag searches on the NY subway and racial profiling in security checks. He basically believes that neither will increase security noticeably. This quote had me nodding agreement: If we are going to increase security against terrorism, the young Arab males living in our country are precisely the people we want on our side. Discriminating against them in the name of security is not going to make them more likely to help. Ive been thinking, that security is not about making terrorist attacks impossible its about creating a world where people are less likely to want to commit them. Imagine a society where security is so tight that it is impossible to detonate a bomb on public transportation, no matter how clever or determined you are. How good would security have to be? How Orwellian? How much freedom could be allowed in this society? Theres a trade-off between security and freedom and Bruce Schneiers is the clearest and most reasonable voice pointing this out. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related