Research Report Summary -The State of Employer Brand and Recruitment Advertising

Exclusive HR.com research

There has never been a better time for the American workforce. Unemployment rates are at an all-time low (3.7%, as per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics), and the US economy is booming.
 
Today, there are more open jobs available than people to fill them. An extremely competitive job market has made a recruiter's job harder than it was.

How crucial a role do employer brands and recruitment advertising play in this scenario?

To find out, HR.com conducted a comprehensive survey of HR professionals during January and February 2019.

The following are some of the key findings from the resulting study.

Finding 1: About 35% of organizations intentionally create a brand that is well known

Many organizations are still struggling to establish an attractive employer brand. However, a majority (two-thirds) of those that participated in the survey have an intentionally created employer brand. Moreover, 35% say that their brand is not only intentionally created but also well known. About 26% of those who do not create a brand intentionally say they are either developing one or considering developing one.

To those firms that have not intentionally created an employer brand yet (31%)--or are not planning to do so in future--we'd like to point out that nearly allorganizations have a brand in the marketplace, whether it has been intentionally created or not. Thus, organizations that fail to shape their employer brand may find they have, without even knowing it, a brand that has negative connotations in the job marketplace.

Finding 2: 'Lack of leadership interest' is the most widely cited barrier to establishing a successful employer brand

Over a third of respondents cite “Lack of leadership interest” as their biggest barrier to successful employer brand creation, followed by lack of financial resources (33%) and lack of internal know-how (32%).

Once leaders become supportive of initiatives, financial resources usually follow, and organizations develop the skills, knowledge and abilities to deliver results.

Finding 3: About 50% of HR professionals say employer brand does not help with employee engagement

While half of HR professionals view their brand as excellent (11%) or good (39%) at helping with employee engagement, an equal number of HR professionals rate their employer brands as average or worse at helping them at engage current employees.

In other words, there are substantial business reasons for these companies to improve their employer brands, and these companies have a lot of room for improvement.

Finding 4: Employee referrals are the most often used method (83%) of attracting prospective employees

Although recruitment advertising channels are dominated by digital efforts (website, job boards, and social media), employers still turn most frequently to employee referrals to attract new employees.

Job ads are the only other method mentioned by more than half of the participants, with 70% citing them. While digital tools are important in the overall recruitment advertising space, personal relationships with current employees remain the primary means of attracting new hires.

Finding 5: 62% of participants use social media for recruitment advertising

A wide variety of media can be used for job advertising, and more seem to emerge every year. For now, though, social media dominates. It is an important part of people’s lives, so it makes sense that 62% of participants say it is social media where they advertise job openings most frequently.

 
And among the various social media platforms, LinkedIn is now the primary place organizations post jobs, with 65% of the participants using the job board features of the site, followed by Indeed (57%), Glassdoor (25%) and CareerBuilder (22%).

Finding 6: Most organizations (53%) do not yet use text messaging to recruit new hires

Text marketing is relatively new, and the survey data confirms it is not yet part of the mainstream for recruitment advertisers. Most HR professionals (53%) say they either do not use or use it to a very low degree. Yet, there is a small percentage of organizations (10%) using it to a high or very high degree. Likely these usage numbers will grow in the coming years.

This study also answers questions such as who - marketing or HR - is responsible for cultivating the employer brand, who manages recruitment advertising, how can organizations evaluate the strength of employer brands, what is the most common vehicle for recruitment advertising, and more. And it details how a partnership between HR and marketing can provide high dividends from recruitment marketing, and how likely organizations are to use speciality job boards or programmatic advertising, etc.