If recruiting experts will assure you of one thing, it is that progress is marching on with unrelenting speed. Anyone who is not at least trying to keep up with the evolutionary marketing landscape will certainly be left behind the curve. Those who are clever are examining current strategies and stepping out ahead by exploring the latest HR software. Recruitment marketing heavily relies on social media and your technology needs to keep pace. In the meantime, here are the seven Do's and Don'ts of HR and recruitment to help you re-evaluate your current strategy:
Let’s Start with the Do’s:
1. Mobile is Big
It is currently estimated that 43 percent of applicants have performed their job hunts on a mobile device. The trajectory is for this percentage to continue to increase with all the smartphones and tablets that are now an active part of people’s lives. If you plan to move out ahead of the pack, your mobile recruiting functionality needs to be on par with what is actually happening. Meet people right where they are, and take a look at some of the standalone mobile apps explicitly designed for recruiters.
2. Reach Out using Social Media to Feature Your Posts
Today’s social media is a keen means of connecting. Following the example of niche marketing, satisfy your candidate’s desire for authenticity by reaching out with a personal touch. Rather than blasting to an endless morass of unqualified applicants, start small with a few job posts per day. Make use of influential content to target your advertising resources to promote your employer brand, and adjust accordingly. A meaningful connection goes far in successfully recruiting top talent.
3. Customize Your Content
We take a page from the ubiquitous SEO marketing guidelines to help recruiters recognize the value of custom content. To build a good relationship with the top talent out there, your organization could cover a lot of ground with an effective content strategy. High quality content that answers to the Google algorithms is all you need to pitch your campaign and set the tone for your particular audience. This is how you separate the wheat from the chaff.
4. Keep Things Fresh
The focus on keyword optimization is not as significant now as it once was. You are more apt to find users inputting longer, more complex keyword strings when searching the Web. The beauty of this move has produced higher quality content. At the same time, content needs to be fresh, which means introducing new posts on a regular basis. A site’s blog is now more likely to be found as an included tab rather than redirecting to a separate site. The use of videos, pictures and infographics also help keep the interest of visitors, which counts positively toward your site's “dwell” time. Think quality and relevance to your viewers.
5. Bring Your Website up to Speed
The main goal of Google’s search engine optimization is to encourage websites to stay competitive. This is particularly targeted at leaving outdated sites behind. Website design continues to advance with the discriminating tastes of those looking for ease of use while seeking credible material.
There is now a mobile-friendly ranking signal making it a priority for sites to achieve positive mobile-responsiveness. What does this look like? It means investing in technical advances that make your site both easy to use and visually appealing. What does it return? By enhancing your site, you remain relevant in the eyes of SEO while improving the user experience making your brand stand apart from the others.
Now for the Don’ts:
6. Don’t Waste Time
This is not the time to delay or contemplate changes while your competition is thriving. The marketing strategies are going to evolve on a constant basis. Recruiting is not exempt from the requirement to develop groundbreaking marketing strategies. Staying up with what is happening now helps you incorporate changes as they occur, if you are not out there blazing the trail yourself.
7. Don’t Assume Top Talent is Engaged
Talent is aware of its value, and as such, is prepared to look out for number one. Don’t take this personally, but be aware of the reality. For all your advertising, offer letters and employment agreements, talented recruits are actively looking to move on. Their under-performing may go hand in hand with their lack of “buy-in.” Employee engagement has certainly declined in recent years along with the economic downturn. Seek to provide a challenge for your top talent that does not set the bar too high and burn them out. Link individual accomplishments with corporate goals or achievements. When engagement is fostered by explicitly tying the value of the individual to the corporation, you increase “buy-in.”
Digital recruitment marketing continues to yield measurable results much faster than ever before. The more data are collected; the more large-scale transformations will occur. The competition is fierce, and the HR industry is on the front line. Keeping up with the HR software available to marketers means the ability to acquire sourcing and interviewing modules as well as end-to-end talent management tools. Keep your head in the game and you can take a leading role in the changing recruiting landscape.