At Haley Marketing, we define recruitment marketing as four pillars:
- Career Sites
- Job Advertising
- Social Recruiting
- Employment Branding
Why is that important? March 2020 was a prefect example.
A strong recruitment marketing plan features different emphasis on these four areas depending on a variety of factors. All four of these areas bring unique facets to staffing agencies and showcase your company as a great option for active and passive job candidates.
With the way the world changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus in recruitment marketing really shifted toward social recruiting and employment branding.
Before March 2020, unemployment rates were at the lowest numbers we had seen in decades, placing an emphasis on job advertising. Now, with 10 million unemployment claims in a two-week span, job advertising will get de-emphasized but not forgotten. The focus goes to social recruiting and employment branding. (and Career Sites never really go away!)
Here’s how staffing agencies can focus their recruitment marketing on employment branding and social recruiting.
Employment Branding
This question will hold true for your employment brand today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future – “what did you do for your employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic?”
Employment branding in recruitment marketing always goes back to the employee value proposition (EVP) – what does an employee get out of working with your company? Now, more than ever, staffing agencies can showcase how they are there for their employees. There hasn’t been a more important time to be there for your employees.
Let’s look at the main places your audience is coming across your content:
- Website: Can you create a COVID-19 Resource Center to share helpful information? Maybe you need a pop-up to showcase the current hiring needs of your company. Is your interview process changing? How are you protecting your employees’ safety? What happens if someone gets laid off?
- Candidate Email Marketing: What message can you send to your candidate database to show you’re helping them? How can you stay top of mind with them? Some of them may be unemployed and it’s important to have your Talent Network think of you when job opportunities come back.
- Social Media: Showcase your team in videos or other content. How are they helping during the COVID-19 crisis? Which content can you share of your internal team and the impact they are making? If you have remote opportunities, share new office setups and how you’re communicating.
- Job Descriptions: At the top of the posting, think about the information your audience wants to hear. It probably focuses on the new interview process and employee/workplace safety. Don’t forget to mention work-from-home opportunities or remote options. Candidates are seeking out those options more than ever!
- Video: Create videos from leadership. In times of crisis, strong leadership stands out and becomes more important than ever. Share them on your website. Share them internally. Share them on social media.
Get that message across the different platforms to showcase how you are helping your company, your employees and the community. Build the connection with your audience by using the strengths of your employment brand to your advantage.
As we get out of the pandemic and bounce out the recession, employment brand becomes vital to landing the top talent you want for your staffing agency. People want to see how companies were human and reacted in a time of crisis.
Social Recruiting
This pillar gets forgotten in recruitment marketing, but for staffing agencies, it provides huge value – especially now! (Facebook traffic is up 50 percent already.)
Why is social recruiting important? Traditionally, it’s the perfect place to focus on the passive job candidate because that’s where people are spending time. Nurturing the relationship with passive job seekers over time keeps you top of mind for the day they become an active job seeker. Sharing helpful career tips, training tools and videos about your culture are perfect content.
Not only are passive candidates spending time on social media, but more active candidates will be there as well. We’re naturally going to have a larger active candidate audience due to the influx in unemployment.
Now it’s vital for your staffing agency to have a strong recruitment marketing strategy for social media.
- Facebook: the most popular social media platform. Works great for healthcare, warehouse, admin, customer service, retail and gig. Offers a number of options to reach audiences: Facebook Groups, advertising, video, messaging, live video, jobs.
- LinkedIn: where recruiters spend a LOT of time. Works great for the higher-level jobs and professional industries. Share educational content and prove your value.
- Instagram: the ultimate branding platform. Share pictures and videos that catch the eye. Links aren’t available in Instagram posts so you want to showcase your culture and why it’s a great place to work.
- Twitter: join the conversation! People aren’t looking for jobs on twitter but you can jump into a twitter conversation and provide value.
Bring Employment Branding and Social Recruiting Together
These two pillars work perfectly together. Showcasing your employment brand on social media is the exact blend that staffing agencies want to showcase their recruitment marketing.
Stay Agile in Your Recruitment Marketing
Each of the four pillars of recruitment marketing (career sites, job advertising, social recruiting and employment branding) features unique benefits to your staffing agency. Market conditions dictate which pillars your staffing agency should focus on.
Now is the time to really focus on social recruiting and employment branding. The other pillars are important – career sites never truly get de-emphasized and opportunities do exist for efficiencies in job advertising – but now is the time for staffing agencies to ramp up your social recruiting and employment branding.
