If you’re in HR, you’re well aware that employee recruitment has become an increasingly difficult task for companies. Because of the “Great Resignation,” telecommuting, and companies struggling to compete for qualified candidates. Recruitment advertising and getting creative have never been more needed for HR departments.
Current Job Market
Many markets are cyclical, real estate cycles between buyer’s and seller’s markets, stock trading cycles between being a bear or bull market. You can agree that the same thing can be said for the job market and right now it’s an employee’s market. An article from Forbes.com said, “Across the world, we’re seeing talent shortages at their highest and rising including here in the US. These record-high hiring intentions as we emerge from the pandemic mean it really is a workers’ market right now.”
New Perks and Benefits to Employees
Employers are looking at the salary and benefits they’re offering and comparing it to what everyone else is offering. Grabbing top-level employees that are skilled and experienced means your company needs to be competitive and creative with benefits. Some of the new perks companies are coming up with are; sign-on bonuses, quick sign-on, pre-PTO, and shorter workweeks. CNN Business Article, “To help recruit and retain employees, the company switched to a four-day workweek, and did not reduce employees’ salaries… So far, the incentive seems to be working. Likewise, Richards said an employee recently declined a job offer from a competitor after the shorter workweek was introduced.”
Great Perks Aren’t Enough, Need Creative Employee Recruitment
Long ago you could post a “Help Wanted” ad within the local newspaper and multiple candidates would be lined up wanting an interview. Now, Virtual Tours, Social media, and having a budget devoted to Recruitment Advertising is what it takes to capture candidates’ attention.
Social Media
In case you didn’t know, social media isn’t just for posting pictures of family and food. Many social media outlets are effective tools for recruiting quality candidates. Facebook and LinkedIn rank as the top two, but there is also Twitter, Reddit, and even Spotify. However, it’s important to understand the individual platform’s rules and regulations for advertising and posting jobs for employee recruitment. If done correctly, can save a lot of time and money.
There are also platforms that allow users to post portfolios for potential employers to look at. For example, Github is a great place to view developers’ and designers’ work.
Creative and Effective Recruitment Advertising. When placing digital recruiting ads online, there are many important things to remember.
- Eye-catching or Innovative – The image and copy need to grab the candidate’s attention immediately and be intriguing enough to click on for more information.
- Immediately Know the Available Position – How many times have you looked at an ad and it’s missing critical information (Who, What, Where, How)? Making sure your ad is effectively written is key.
- Link to your Website or Job Board is Correct – A little Quality Control goes a long way to making sure that the link works and goes to the appropriate landing page, job board, or website posting.
- Right Time and Right Place. Different online platforms attract various candidates. Couple this with knowing what time garners the most visibility, successful recruitment advertising is about being at the right place at the right time.
Virtual Tours or Open Houses.
What better way for potential employees to gauge a new work environment than to see it firsthand? Your company may not have the expertise and funds to create a virtual tour to provide candidates. Next best option is to schedule an Open House and promote it online and through social media. An Open House is your company’s personal hiring fair and can be very beneficial for filling multiple open positions at once.
Online Interviews.
You can look on the bright side and say that the pandemic allowed us to fine-tune our online presence. Companies, and individuals, invested in technology to support being able to telecommute. Everyone perfected dressing professionally from the waist up, being aware of background settings, and being more comfortable on camera. With that, companies have been able to take advantage of and benefit from everyone’s new online comfort level. There’s a lot less time and resources devoted to scheduling online interviews, in comparison to asking a slew of candidates to come into an office for in-person interviews.
You as an HR professional have many challenges these days, and recruitment is one of them. Hire a marketing agency that is well versed and experienced in recruitment advertising can help reduce one challenge.