How’s Your Recruitment Marketing Coming Along?

So, you up to speed with your recruitment marketing ?

If you are not keeping up, that buzz phrase of 3-4 years ago has become a central element in adapting to the rapidly changing talent acquisition market.

A recent survey by the Brandon Hall Group (10,000 global clients) indicates 40% of organizations regard a fully integrated recruitment marketing strategy as a strategic priority linked to organizational performance. Another 40% are in the throes of developing one.

There are varying descriptions of recruitment marketing but the simplest one is this:  it is a strategy to identify and nurture candidates who will fit key positions in your organization before either of you know you need each other. Simple enough but becoming hugely complex.

It’s not Marketing

First, it does not belong in Marketing. This is a brand challenge, an enterprise-wide pre-occupation.  If you set out to impress every intelligent person whom you might want to hire some day it simply means that everything you do, everything you stand for, waking or sleeping, has to contribute to that effort.

You’re on deck 24/7/365

Where that effort does align with Marketing is by treating candidates like customers.  You build target profiles for them. This can be exhausting, whether for customers or candidates.  Each key position in the organization is different and requires a unique profile but when you are done, you will have figured out exactly what you want in your candidates, where to find them and how to approach them.

Automation contributes. Sophisticated data programs help you to know where to focus the effort, where and when to find the people you want. But, unlike the old hiring process that is slipping away, this is not a transactional undertaking.  You don’t powder the pig, turn on the charm until the candidate is hired and then resume your daily life.  It’s your daily life the candidate is looking at.

You turn to passives

Recruitment marketing also changes the candidate search focus.  Looking for people with specific skills and attitudes when you don’t know where they are, pushes you towards passive candidates.  It is easier to locate a person already performing in the manner you want at some other organization.  He or she may not be ready to make a move, but recruitment marketing sets out to ensure that when he or she does, they are already thinking of you.

When a good recruitment program is working, your organization is top of mind when candidates are seeking a new job, and also motivates them to recommend your outfit to peers as a great place to work. To get there involves social media, online communities, search, CRM, SMS (texting), lead nurturing and mobile.  45% of recruiters now have mobile career sites.

Not only is the search process changing but with it the metrics of success.  Time to hire and cost to hire are old standards of little value   Recruiters care more about what happens after the hire, specifically performance of the hire and retention rate.

Which is as it should be.