WHY DO YOU NEED A MARKETING AND CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE STRATEGY?
Ireland is a hive of talent and is working on some of the most cutting edge advancements in product and technology design. Ireland is one of most attractive countries to attract talent to work in the EU however we are in an era where you have to engage your prospective talent and give them an experience of your organisation that is both meaningful and consistent. This is where a marketing recruitment and candidate experience strategy comes in.
There is no limit to the talent that you can attract to your organisation. What is key is that you have a strong marketing strategy in place around your talent acquisition and once that prospective talent touches your brand that they get an excellent experience of your organisation.
Key to your talent marketing strategy is making sure you are telling stories of your company, of your current talent, of your strategy and the purpose of the company. I appreciate that this can seem very overwhelming to begin with as there are so many channels in digital alone that one can use. Key to this is that you understand the audience you are trying to attract then engage them in their circle of interest.
KEY ELEMENTS FOR A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING RECRUITMENT STRATEGY
Visual storytelling and is key for 2017 with the focus on ensuring the human element is in the story. The most popular method for learning is now visual with an average attention span of 15 – 20 seconds. Bring your organisation to life and get your current talent to describe their story in the company, what they have achieved, how they feel about working in the company and how it has helped them grow and develop. Your recruitment strategy needs to elicit an emotional response to your brand and make your brand memorable to the viewer.
The key to a good marketing strategy is to focus on a few key concepts or ideas and roll them out really well. Don’t get overwhelmed you can’t boil the ocean so focus on the key or difficult to attract talent to start with.
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Start with the low hanging fruit
Create a great careers page as this will be the main touch point that any candidate will land on when really considering working in your organisation. This may sound simple however is often very overlooked by companies.
Use your staff to market the company by both including them in the candidate marketing strategy and empowering them to be brand ambassadors for the business.
Create Video content that is experience rich for the viewer and leaves them with an emotional reaction
Market your videos where potential candidates can experience your brand in their personal time – consider your audience and where they hang out online and make sure you are visible there.
Put small budget behind your campaign and measure its success before putting significant financial resource behind it.
Once a prospective candidate has experienced your brand and it has elicited them to take action and apply make sure that the process from application to job offer is seamless.
Make sure that the application process is simple and easy for the user; there is a very high disengagement rate at this stage of the process.
THE INTERVIEW PROCESS
Remember we are in a human to human business so make sure that your interview process isn’t over automated, it is very important that your prospective talent has human contact from your company. This is a great opportunity to excite and delight them before they begin an interview process giving your organisation an edge over others. It will also add to the experience the prospective employee has.
Key to your interview process is that all touchpoints that a prospective candidate has with your company need to be synergistic so make sure that everybody involved in the hiring process has a deep understanding of your culture, your values and what is required of the person to be successful. People buy into people and people follow leaders as well as brands, so make sure that all members are trained to deliver into the recruitment process.
Keep your prospective talent aware of the process and stay consistent and in constant contact with them. Nothing frustrates a prospective candidate more than not knowing where they are in process or what the timeline are or who they are meeting etc.
Remember whether you hire or not, every candidate who has an interview in your company is either a brand ambassador or a brand detractor depending on their experience with your organisation.
Keep it simple, easy and full of communication.
If you would like a confidential discussion with regards to your talent attraction and retention strategies, feel free to call me on + 353 1 6629 120.
