Embracing Change: Recruitment Advertising in Action
Learn how to engage candidates effectively and communicate your unique employer brand.
Recruitment advertising is imperative in the ever-changing job market. Organizations must adopt consumer advertising strategies, meet candidates where they are, and communicate a compelling employer brand to attract and retain top talent, says Neil Costa of HireClix.
The recent job market has been unpredictable, confusing whether employers or potential candidates are in the driver’s seat. In addition, industries across the board are facing labor shortages, company layoffs, the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and other workplace-related buzzwords. It’s hard to keep up with the status of the market, let alone stay ahead of it. For this reason, recruitment advertising has become increasingly important in the past couple of years.
What Is Recruitment Advertising?
Recruitment advertising is the process of marketing a company as a place to work with the goal of positively impacting recruitment efforts. This can mean something as simple as posting an open position on LinkedIn or something as intricate as using metrics to target a specific type of job seeker. An effective recruitment advertising approach enables businesses to expand their talent pool by fostering diversity and enhancing their employer brand, increasing their appeal to prospective employees, particularly in a highly competitive job market.
Meeting Candidates Where They Are
When you’re looking to establish a solid recruitment advertising strategy, the best place to start is where a potential candidate will first interact with your company, which is often your website. Organizations must revamp their career sites to meet the rising demands of consumers, freshening up the user experience. Many organizations have chosen to model their career sites after retail consumer sites with light and easy interfaces where interactions are smooth. This creates a pain-free first interaction, helps engage prospective employees, and increases long-term retention. Organizations that move quickly and creatively in hiring will have a competitive advantage in a tight labor market.
While the process gets more complicated than simply updating your career site, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The best part, and what most companies don’t realize, is that recruitment advertising isn’t much different from traditional consumer advertising. Like consumer advertising, employers aim to create awareness and educate people about their ‘product’ attributes and benefits – in this case, a role within their company.
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Taking a Page from the Consumer Advertising Book
While recruitment advertising is similar to traditional consumer advertising, it tends to lag in adopting the channels in which consumer advertising is successful. However, employers who lean into consumer advertising channels and trends when placing job ads will have a leg up on competing organizations for talent thanks to increased visibility into company culture and employer brand, among others.
Employers should be in tune with the job board trends but, more importantly, keep up with what is happening in the consumer digital world, leveraging those trends to their company’s benefit. Expertise across consumer media channels allows organizations to activate in this space and meet prospective employees beyond just the job boards, reaching a larger talent pool. Previously untouched by recruiters, platforms such as Hulu, Spotify, and TikTok all present opportunities to proactively target job seekers outside the typical job boards.
Recruitment advertisers should always be one step ahead of emerging social media platforms. Take Threads by Meta, for example – although the platform doesn’t allow ads at the moment, companies should look for ways to meet prospective employees on these trending platforms.
According to the latest data on social media, US adults spend the most time on TikTok, with an average of 58.8 minutes a day spent on the platform in 2023. YouTube is close behind at 47.5 minutes. While most candidates are used to seeing job ads on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, there is a large opportunity for employers to reach potential new employees through the platforms they are spending most of their time on. Not only will you be able to reach a larger target audience, it will showcase to your potential candidates that you are up-to-date on the latest platforms and trends, which is an attractive attribute to younger generations especially.
Following in the footsteps of advertising trends, we might soon see employers adopt influencer strategies for recruiting. The days of the five-minute video from the CEO on why it’s great to work there are over. Building in-house influencers is a smart strategy at a time when companies are being challenged to tell their stories in authentic ways.
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The Importance of Purpose-driven Companies
According to the National Retail Federation, purpose-driven consumers who choose products and brands based on how well they align with their values represent the largest segment (44%) of consumers. Similarly, employees’ values have evolved, and many workers are no longer willing to stay with organizations if their needs and values are not aligned. Organizations must refresh their traditional employee value propositions (EVP).
A company’s EVP is what the company offers in terms of benefits and other types of incentives to employees if they join the company. Companies must have a clear and structured set of values to position themselves as a great workplace. A well-crafted EVP helps define an organization’s core purpose, serving as a guiding framework for employees and employers. According to the HireClix Annual Recruitment Marketing Survey, 41% of companies don’t have an established EVP even though they recognize its importance.
Organizations can ensure their EVP is communicated to potential candidates through employer branding ads. Defining and building an employer brand is a meaningful way to showcase what your company stands for. While it’s often mistaken for sentiment about company culture and employee engagement, it is far more about what the employer offers to its employees, much like a product value proposition in traditional advertising is to consumers who purchase said products.
Embracing Change in the Evolving Job Market
Recruitment advertising has emerged as a critical hiring process component in today’s rapidly evolving job market. Organizations can gain a competitive advantage in talent acquisition by leveraging consumer advertising channels and staying attuned to digital trends.
Meeting candidates where they are, whether through employer branding ads, untapped platforms, or revamping career sites to provide a seamless user experience, is essential in catering to the expectations of job seekers. By harnessing the power of recruitment advertising and effectively communicating their EVP, organizations can position themselves as a highly attractive employer and successfully navigate the dynamic landscape of talent acquisition.
Have you considered recruitment advertising as a weapon to attract top talent and stand out in a dynamic job market? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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