To attract top job candidates, it’s essential that your organization put as much emphasis on talent brand as consumer brand. That means recruiters, HR and hiring managers need to think more like marketers.
"Leading firms are realizing that there’s incredible power in building a marketing machine specifically aimed at attracting new employees," writes Robyn Hannah for Dynamic Signal. "If you break it down, attracting and engaging a job candidate is really not much different than attracting and engaging a potential client. It requires the same primary strategic components: a deep understanding of the audience (through buyer personas and journey maps), creation of the right content and a game plan that leverages the modern marketing (and mostly digital) playbook."
Candidates are in control, says Michael Hennessy, the CEO of Smashfly Technologies, writing for ERE. To win top talent, you must first win their attention.
"To tell the right story and deliver on their employer brand promise," Hennessy notes, "chief human resources officers and talent acquisition leaders must evolve their recruitment marketing strategy with a tighter focus on building longer-term relationships with the right candidates. To do this, talent acquisition leaders will need strong marketing competencies within the talent acquisition function, a measurable process, and purpose-built technology."
Each job opening is an opportunity to market the organization, share the organization’s goals and objectives, and create content that is compelling and encourages people to share the job posting with others in their social networks. Most job descriptions don’t do that.
"When people are thinking about leaving their current role," says Tara Dresen, SPHR, Chief HR Officer of TwentyEight, a company specializing in leadership and sales performance, "they are looking for allure. They want to be attracted by something — in their minds it could be brand or reputation, a great leader who works there, company size, industry, the perfect job. All of these are just notions. The beauty of a job description is the ability to succinctly turn perception to reality in the blink of a statement. So, make every statement count. If, as an HR professional, you aren't proud of a job description, don't do your company a disservice by posting it."
It’s essential for HR to apply marketing principles to recruiting initiatives as well as to the larger employer brand. In fact, marketing and HR teams, in fact, should work together to make sure that employer of choice and company of choice value propositions are in harmony.
Get started today by rethinking job postings. In Fishing for Talent? Lure Them With the Perfect Job Posting, HRCI Insights takes a closer look at crafting enticing job descriptions.