With more than 70% of employed people currently looking for a new job – which does not include the 10.7 million people currently unemployed who are also searching for new opportunities – it’s especially necessary to ensure your company’s recruitment strategy is prepared to filter out unusable resumes and highlight potential candidates. This also includes having the ability to stay in touch with those that aren’t a fit for current open positions, but whom you’d like to reach out to in the future. This blog series will touch upon each piece of the bigger puzzle of what is important for garnering the attention of candidates who will positively impact your company.

Where should you begin the recruitment process?

A strong recruitment strategy is an educated process that includes determining personas and their journeys, content mapping, and a lot of properly-planned marketing campaigns. As the face of your company in the digital sphere (where most job searches and recruitment efforts begin these days) your website is a good place to start, and it needs more than just a flashy Careers page.

Many companies believe they can add a Careers or an About Us page on their website and that will be enough to engage with users and attract great talent. But without the foundation of understanding who you want to recruit, you cannot expect candidates to precisely fit the position you are looking to fill. Your website acts as a gateway for users to not only see what you do and how you do it, but also to provide them insight into what it will be like to work for your organization. Look at the website as your first interview – except you are on the other side of the interview table. You want to make sure you are providing candidates with enough information that will help them determine whether they are even interested in uploading their resume. 

But the website is only one piece of a bigger puzzle. For an effective employee recruitment strategy, you need to incorporate a marketing plan, a content map to support your candidate’s journey and a complete design and UX strategy to incorporate all of these components.

What are some examples of tactics for digital recruitment strategies?

There is no perfect strategy or a one-size-fits-all plan that can be applied to every company. Your strategy needs to be specific to your company’s needs and hiring expectations, and the tactics you use need to serve those needs and expectations. Once you determine what type of recruit you’re looking for, you can begin to expand upon your strategy and implement some of the following tactics:

  • Blogs
  • Images, videos and other graphics
  • SEO, PPC and social media campaigns
  • Updating your site with proper meta descriptions and title tags
  • Updating your website content
  • Applicant tracking system with email marketing

Each tactic listed above encompasses the flow of your recruitment process. As a company, you need to ensure that not only your Careers Page – but your entire marketing strategy – is providing a personalized experience for the potential candidates. This means including the necessary CTA’s throughout your website, updating your blog to highlight certain positions, integrating with your social media strategy and even tracking applied candidates for future positions. 

There also needs to be a sense of brand continuity throughout your website. If your homepage is updated and modernized but the careers section is outdated, this can imply to users that people and culture aren’t as important to you as your external audiences. Keeping your site updated also means keeping it relevant. For example, COVID has forced many companies to work remotely and switch to a “new normal” – so having that highlighted could be helpful in demonstrating how you’ve been able to adapt.

What are the latest trends in recruitment?

Employee recruitment needs to evolve to match the values and expectations of potential candidates. This starts with understanding who you want to recruit and what matters to them. We’re now beyond the point where listing standard benefits and pizza parties are considered high-level selling points for candidates. 

For example, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce within the next ten years – and their wants and needs are different from that of a baby boomer or Gen Z. They care about understanding your mission, who you help and what you do for the community. If your company’s purpose isn’t well articulated, then you probably won’t be successful in getting candidates to apply in the first place.

Employee recruitment strategies are always changing and will need to be constantly reviewed and modified to cater to the type of recruit you are trying to attract. This means having more than just one page on your website or posting about an open position on your social media occasionally.

As with all marketing and communications, recruiting potential employees requires intentionally attracting and influencing a specific audience.