Economic Downturn Expands Your Talent Pool

With the economy struggling and massive layoffs continuing, most companies are thinking this is the time to be conservative, cut budgets and put a freeze on recruitment and hiring.  But, in the chaos looms a strategic recruitment opportunity for the progressive company; a company that will not be a victim of the economic conditions and think out of the box to see new possibilities for positioning itself in the future.  As Naomi Gross concludes in The Recession is Coming! Quick Start Hiring:

“The economy is heading down a rocky road but if smaller businesses know how to take advantage of the situation, focus on their goals, and put a solid team in place, it could ultimately lead to long-term growth and success.”

Talent at a Premium

In this global market of talent scarcity, the attracting and hiring of quality talent is at a premium. Talent is considered the key factor for competitive advantage in the next decade. Often companies and institutions are understaffed to meet their growth projections.   Companies look nationally for the “A” qualified talent; often they settle for “B” or “C” players, or what is available in the local market place.  This limited talent pool has a direct effect on their competitiveness and growth.

Time for Change

Enter the economic downturn/upheaval. No one is sure of the future. This is a time for rethinking priorities and change. This state of flux creates many opportunities.

• Expanded Talent Pool - Now there are many highly qualified “A” players that have been laid off.  There is much talent; many question their jobs and security and are just looking at possibilities.

• Regional Growth- There are selected 2^nd and 3^rd tier cities that can boast a high quality life with significantly lower cost of living than major urban areas. Many job seekers will be looking to relocate in areas that will extend their budgets and increase quality of life.

• Employer Branding - Many companies with little regional or national brand recognition can seize the opportunity to gain exposure and open up conversations with potential active and passive job seekers.

Seize the Opportunity

This is the time for bold, visionary companies to design a recruitment marketing strategy to attract this expanded talent pool.  Dr. John Sullivan talks about The Economic Downturn saying

“Any review of history will reveal that the majority of wealth in modern civilizations is more often than not created during times of significant economic crisis. Opportunities abound for those organizations that are truly strategic…”

He concludes;

Now is the time for talent management to step up and proactively re-engineer antiquated practices and programs, and to embed talent management activities throughout core business processes…”

These targeted job seekers (active and passive) need to be made aware of the opportunities.  Companies need to step up their marketing efforts to attract job seekers and develop conversations with newly available talent.

Courting Potential Talent… Career Showcase

Talented job seekers are looking for quality companies with challenging positions.  They are not looking for a quick fix; a traditional career site or job board that posts sterile job descriptions and directs the visitor to an application.  They are looking to gather information and survey opportunities. They are looking for a quick snapshot of the company and career opportunities.

The “recruitment courting process” needs to begin by showcasing the company, its work environment, challenging career positions, employees’ feedback, company benefits and local quality of life. This online career showcase is an interactive career environment, designed to engage the prospective employee with rich media (video, photo slide show) and online tools for the visitor to talk to employees via live chat, message board or email. If engaged, job seekers will take the step to request information, alerts for future job openings, or the company newsletter. They want to begin to develop a relationship.

If the job seeker is actively looking, the career showcase could include an opportunity to complete an interactive online application designed to determine job fit.

Building your Integrated Recruitment Marketing Strategy

This career showcase is the centerpiece of an - Integrated Recruitment Marketing Strategy. This strategy incorporates diverse media - advertising, online marketing, social media and networking. It integrates, bringing together the best marketing tools to gain access to the target active and passive job seekers. Integrated Recruitment Marketing is not about inserting a sterile job classified ad online. It is about creating engaging conversations about your company-placing an engaging blog post about your company work environment; posting a challenging, media rich job description on your company’s Facebook page; tweeting about the career opportunities on Twitter; employees posting comments about your company on social networking sites ; and listing positions on LinkedIn and related LinkedIn groups.   The goal is to have your company “come up” in conversations in a variety of places, so this talented job seeker will take notice, get engaged and contact your company.

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Tags: company showcase, integrated recruitment marketing, Recruitment Marketing, recruitment strategy

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Dan Schawbel wrote an interesting post on The Future of Online Recruitment.  He says

“The days of applying to jobs through corporate websites and job listing repositories will end. As the competition to get jobs increases year over year, the amount of resumes and cover letters HRM’s (Human Resource Management Systems) will hold will overflow and even crawlers won’t be able to save them. When you have a million resumes, and a crawler finds certain keywords, there will still be too many leftover, meaning they will have to interview a larger batch.  This costs HR more money and the applicant more time.”

Dan also suggests that Online Recruitment has 2 faces, 1:Many and 1:1.  1:many is when you respond to a posting through a corporate site, along with thousands of other hopeful candidates, and 1:1 is when hiring companies want to hire someone they know, trust and respect. Dan contends that 1:many fails because there is no human element involved.  He adds 

“the future of online recruitment is in 1:1 relationships, where you find people online, through social networks or blogs and form a relationship through mutual interest and a job opportunity is created.”

I agree that the days of job boards and resumes are numbered, but let’s look at the current online recruitment process. It has multiple stages; Attraction, Engagement and Submission. In the past each stage of this process was sterile and not responsive to the needs of the job seeker and not reflective of the targeted needs of the employer. There has been lots of wasted effort and money spent on poor matches.

This model began with the Company wanting to fill a job. The process was to post a job opening  and wait to get a resume and application.  There was little filtering and frustration on both sides of the process. 

Old Job Model

Enter the age of social media and the process changes significantly.  The company begins with a need for attracting a passive or active job seeker to the company’s work environment and challenging positions. They use an Integrated Recruitment Marketing strategy which includes creating an employer brandadvertising as well as search engines, networking, blogs and social networks.  They direct the jobseeker to their career showcase which is an interactive online environment that encourages a conversation and builds a relationship.

Social Recruitment Model

I believe a morphed company career showcase that is not just a sterile career site is an important venue for engaging potential job seekers. Every transaction in the relationship building cannot be done 1:1 or offline. The online venue has to become a step in the relationship building and filtering process. Passive job seekers are looking for snapshots not sterile job boards to get a taste of a company’s values and their work environments.

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Tags: career site, company showcase, Employer Brand, Interactive Recruitment, job boards, Recruitment Marketing, recruitment strategy, Social Network

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The Employer Brand is a company’s image viewed through the eyes of the general public, its employees and potential job seekers. Beyond the image, it is a reflection of an organization’s culture, reputation, products and services, as well as the way it deals with and values its workers. It generates meaningful conversations with talent.  It is a promise that creates expectations about the work experience.  

A powerful Employer Brand attracts qualified talent and projects the company as an Employer of Choice.   Google is considered  the #1 Employer Brand attracting more than 1300 resumes per day with a long list of attractive employee benefits.

Employer Brand … HR or Marketing ?

Most HR departments are focused on recruitment and employee benefits. Marketing departments channel their resources into product branding, promotion and advertising.  Employer branding falls in the void between these two departments. It is unknown territory. The goal for progressive companies is to build an Employer Brand, as a bridge between marketing and HR to address the “talent war”.

What is the foundation of the Employer Brand? 

The Employment Experience lies at the heart of the Brand and is the basis for attracting and retaining employees. It includes salary and benefits, as well as company culture and values, career opportunities, job challenges and creativity and management style. Does your Brand address what Employees really want?

• Involvement - provide challenging work that inspires and realizes results 
• Respect - acknowledge the talent and contribution of each employee
• Support - establish a plan and provide the resources to achieve desired outcomes
• Responsiveness - listen and respond to employees’ issues in quick time-frame

Key Factors in Building a Powerful Employer Brand

 #1  Set the Standard, the Promise  - assessment of a company’s current work environment in terms of values, culture and employee satisfaction. This can be based on a focus group or a more detailed employee interviews, etc. The result is to establish the Employer Brand Promise of the work environment that the prospective employee can expect and determine if there is a discrepancy in actual performance.   

#2   Build the Brand -Brand is built on the following:

Employer Brand Promise
Employer Brand Voice - consistent communication both internal and external to the company

#3   Showcase the Brand -Implement an Integrated Social Media Strategy that leverages a mix of media to gain traction for the Brand and the jobs posted. 

#4   Measure the Impact - Evaluate the effect of the Employer Brand on job seekers and employees.

Critical Importance of the Employer Brand

An organization’s Employer Brand or Talent Brand is critical to both talent acquisition and retention. Human Capital Institute provided a report on Talent Branding which shows 71% of their surveyed respondents viewed the talent brand as either “somewhat important” or “very important” in their decision to join their organization. Once they have a job, their decision to stay is also heavily influenced by their organization’s talent brand—with a full 75% of respondents stating that their organization’s talent brand is somewhat or very important in their decision to stay. In addition, respondents see the importance of talent branding beyond their own personal decisions to join or stay with an organization. They recognize it as an important factor in the organization’s effort to attract and retain other top talent.
 
The most important finding of this research is that creating an organizational vision or designing formal talent management processes will not create a positive image or talent brand in the minds of workers. That will only be accomplished if the vision and formal processes are translated into actual results that lead to a better work environment.

Helping new workers integrate into an organization and keeping promises made during recruitment are the most important factors linking an employer brand and talent retention.  For more information on Employer Branding you may want to read an article I wrote on Showcasing your Company.

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Tags: Employer Brand, HR, integrated recruitment marketing, Recruitment Marketing, talent branding

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We know Facebook is a mystery and a bit of a stretch for most of those over 45.  Some interesting statistics gathered directly from Facebook include:

These statistics have caused businesses to realize the undiscovered power of this targeted marketing opportunity and they are trying to figure out how to use it.  

Instead of spending hours searching for the many published articles/blogs, we want to collect them and encourage others, who haven’t published their results, to share them with the recruitment community.  We can leverage each others experiences to create new venues and most important integrate them with other recruitment marketing strategies.

We welcome your comments and results. Let’s break them down into 2 categories, suggestions and case studies.

Here is my beginning list for SUGGESTIONS, many of which I found at Jobs in Pods Blog Facebook Recruiting Tips …

1. Join the Facebook Group Facebook for Business for a rich source of information. There are more than 25,000 members.   
2. Join the Facebook group The Facebook Corporate Recruiters Network
3. Create a groupfor your company on Facebook.  Post your apply info, list your latest jobs, build the group into a marketing tool.
4. Create a “profile page”inside of Facebook and attract fans of your page.   You can also use facebook  advertising to get fans. 
5. If your company has a Facebook Workplace Network (a closed network for individual companies) it can be used as a hybrid recruiting/retention tool. Think of it as a ‘company intranet’. If your company does not have one you can request Facebook to add your company to the list.  Only employees with a company sponsored email address can join and participate.  Encourage your employeees to use it to communicte with each other.
6. Target ‘boomerangs‘ or ex-employeesby courting them with a Facebook group. By promoting the group among your current employees, the group will slowly grow and begin to populate itself.
7. Facebook has a great sourcing tool - use the two search features that are relevant to employers, Coworkers and Profile search.
8. Tap the regional networks - Facebook is made up of 4 types of networks: Regional, Workplaces, Colleges and High Schools. As an employer you can take advantage of all but the High Schools. Target these areas by posting jobs and listing job fairs.
9. Stimulate conversations using ”Discussion Boards” and “The Wall “. The discussion boards are a great way to attract members of the targeted community by showcasing the company culture, attractive features, challenging positions and company news.  The Wall is a venue to say hello to the community and begin your connecting . You can offer job advice about your target region. 
10. My Company’s Hiring is Facebook application where you can enter current jobs in you business/organization.  They will be displayed on your company page.
11. iHipo, an online global recruitment agency, built their own Facebook application - which gives users a feed of the most recent jobs, mainly entry- level executive jobs and internships with local and international firms.

Here is a beginning list of Facebook Recruiting SUCCESS STORIES.

1. Ernst & Young became first employer to use Facebook for recruiting in January 2007. They currently have over 18,000 fans and their career page is very active.
2. KPMB is a global company very active in the Facebook community.  There are over 500 KPMB groups on Facebook from career sites to Alumni pages. 
3. Deloitte’s group has 4,451 members is extremely active.
4. ON the international front in Asia Businesses are using Facebook to look for job seekers 
   • Royal Plaza , five star hotel set up a new Facebook page with an events section called “We are hiring!”. “Facebook is an “out of the box” way to appeal to younger recruits, who may be attracted to a hip and refreshing image of the hotel.”
   • The Straits Times Razor TV, an interactive web TV service, has been using Facebook to advertise various job openings - for multimedia journalists, videographers and presenters. They get 12+ responses/wk. “We use Facebook because its users are our ideal target group. We are looking for people who are in tune with Internet culture and are totally comfortable with the online realm.”

This is the beginning of our results.  We ask that you share your tips and strategies on using Facebook for recruiting along with any success stories that you know.  We will use your comments and compile the results of your conversations.  We’re looking forward to hearing from recruiters and HR professionals.

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Tags: facebook, recruiting tips, Recruitment Marketing, Recruitment Strategies, Social Media

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I recently dispelled the 4^rd myth in my Recruitment Marketing series 5 myths of recruitment marketing.  Today, I want to discuss the final, Myth #5: Social media is only read by youth and it’s not an effective tool for recruitment marketing.

During a recent seminar on Recession Proof Social Marketing, I presented challenges business people face and the fear related to this new marketing medium Social Media and how it will impact their business.  I dispelled 8 of the common concerns related to social media.

1. It’s only for college students - A recent INC magazine study of the fastest growing companies concluded that 70% stated that social media was “important part of their marketing strategy.”  Social media is much more than Facebook and MySpace (social networking sites).  It includes LinkedIn, streaming video, social bookmarking, Twitter, and RSS. More than 40% of regular Facebook users are over 30 years old. Facebook’s 18-24 year old segment was around 22% in June 2008. LinkedIn has an older demographic with 25-35 and 36-44 being their sweet spots, attracting more than 20% in each sector. 



2. Social media is difficult and technically complex - Everyone can participate in social media with some effort and training. It has a remarkably low barrier of entry. Also it can be outsourced at very competitive rates.
3. It’s expensive - Marketing is expensive if you use media to market to the mass market when your product is more targeted. It does not deliver results!  Why use print to market a job (e.g., CNN nurse position) when there are often many unfilled positions already listed in the newspaper?  Social media is a low-cost promotional method that can pinpoint your exposure, get you links to your website, high search engine placements, high traffic and return visitors to your site. You are appealing to the community of users that have interest in your job opportunity.
4. It’s time consuming - “I don’t have time for blogging or Facebook conversations!” Yes, networking and failed recruitment calls take time as well. Social media is a new and more effective use of your time to reach a targeted community. Learning social media will take time and but will produce results. Participating in social media can take many forms. You can be a creator or communicator of articles, blog postings or videos; just view the media, make comments and bookmark the sites that you like. Social media is interactive- all conversations take time to participate in.  You need to speak in the language of your users. If your potential employees are from the younger demographic (25-44 yrs), the time you spend learning and engaging with social media will be a worthwhile investment!
5. It doesn’t work - Social media has proven that it can reach your target market with a trusted message. Users trust the opinions of fellow business people, professional colleagues and friends.  It provides quality connections with businesses and consumers for recruitment, event planning, branding, and networking. HCA used Twitter to recruit nurses, Wal-Mart uses a national blog campaign, Radiohead, a rock band released a new album and asked users to name their price. They sold 1.2 million albums the first day at average price of $8.00. LinkedIn has been a huge success for recruiting professional candidates. Logitech successfully filled 22 positions in three months. United Health Group considers it  a “huge success and win for our recruiters.”
6. It doesn’t include my contact network - Social Media leverages years of networking and your personal and business contact network to communicate with your network and their networks of contacts. LinkedIn has experienced huge growth. It is an excellent way to find former associates, friends, students. Your colleagues introduce you to their colleagues and friends; who tell their colleagues and friends. So the networking becomes viral in real time- You get results. For example if you want to reach Physical Therapists, there are 500+ groups of on Facebook.
7. Social media can destroy your company - Social media is open to all users and has a degree on vulnerability for your company. This openness and honesty gives it value and credibility for the user. Companies need to learn to manage the feedback positively and strengthen the company’s services and image.
8. Social media replaces traditional advertising - While social media is a growing factor in current recruitment marketing efforts, we suggest that it complement traditional advertising and online marketing to drive traffic to your website and Talent Hub. An Integrated Recruitment Strategy  leverages other media to make them more effective as a total package.Finally, how well you and your company are reaching your targeted audiences through the Internet is critical. Evaluate your Digital Footprint - your reach and effectiveness via the Internet.

• Google your name and company name to see what the world sees
• View the links to and from blogs, social networking services and other sites as they influence search results… the sum of your online interactions is your digital footprint
• Prospective employers, professional organizations, and others use your digital footprint like a resume
• If you are not happy with the results of your Google search, re-evaluate your online conversations, regular participation and make adjustments

This post has focused on unlocking some of the fears and mysteries associated with social media. Future posts will discuss powerful and cost effective applications of using social media for recruitment marketing.

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Tags: Interactive Recruitment, job boards, recruitment advertising, Recruitment Marketing, recruitment strategy, Social Media

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I recently dispelled the 3^rd myth of in my Recruitment Marketing series 5 myths of recruitment marketing.  Today, I want to discuss Myth #4: Posting jobs on national job sites is a cost effective recruitment strategy. I will share some insights and surveys from recruitment professionals that clearly dispel this myth. They contend that the use of national job sites (e.g., Monster, Career Builder) are still widely used but are not a cost effective recruitment strategy.

Origins of the Job Board

For many years job announcements were informal and based on word of mouth. Then the bulletin board job postings gained popularity in local villages, colleges and markets. The next evolutionary step was print classified job ads. This dominated the recruitment advertising until Monster.com merger in1999.  Monster and then Career Builder and many other online job boards surfaced having a major impact on recruitment campaigns for the next decade.  During that period, the world was immersed in the dot.com revolution and the exponential growth of the Internet.

But, in the last three years (2006-2008), there has been a significant decline in the reach and effectiveness of national job boards. (including: Monster, Career Builder, Dice and Indeed)

The Adler Group, Inc, Sourcing in a Slowing Economy (Webinar)

 What is changing… what is not?

The media preferences and the preferred venues for interaction of the younger demographic (Gen Y and Gen X) have changed dramatically.  It is widely acknowledged that the younger demographic read the newspaper less frequently than their older counterparts, while preferring to interact via social networks (e.g., Facebook, MySpace), cell phones, and engage in video and rich digital media. The marketing media landscape has changed 180 degrees, but the recruitment marketing strategies have been slightly adjusted by most companies.  

During this same period there is a growing shortage of talent in different regions of the USA for selected occupations. (e.g., nurses, therapists, engineers, IT professionals). The Talent Crisis is growing and will be greatly affecting corporate performance in the next 3+ years.  The Adler Group 2008 Recruiting and Hiring Challenges survey revealed 76% of the 775 respondents said it was becoming increasingly difficult to find enough top candidates.

The traditional role of the company is the “buyer of talent”. Companies have a degree of arrogance in that they think they have the choice of the best qualified job seekers on the market at the price they want to pay. Now the scene has changed in many markets and occupations; the company is now the “seller of jobs/careers” and the job seeker is the “buyer of the choice job”. Again with this dynamic change in roles, the company has often been laggard in responding with a Recruitment Marketing Strategy that reflects these changes. Instead they are resting on its old laurels. They have spent considerable budgets with a poor return.

Professionals speak …

On cost-effectiveness:

“Start reducing your job-board spend - I know of several F500 firms that have dropped at least one of the big three job boards in the past quarter. Reasons given: increasing subscription prices, rising cost-per-hire, wide applicant: offer rate (e.g. too many candidates to weed through…), and the internal need to source passive or semi-passive candidates vs only active candidates.”  Peter Brasket is a co-founder of HotGigs

On quality of candidates:

Lou Adler, Author and President of The Adler Group wrote in his article on sourcing strategies,

“Eighty percent of 200 surveyed recruiters were seeing a significant decline in the quality of the candidates coming from the major job boards.”   

In this market the best people will not come from the major job boards.

From a study in editorandpublisher.com:

“While recruiters grumble that using national online job boards is like fishing in an ocean, they have no plans to cut spending there. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said they intend to budget the same amount on national job sites as they did in 2006. Only 13% indicated they planned to cut spending.”

“Niche sites were one of only three types of advertising that ranked higher year-over-year,” editors of the report wrote. Fifty percent of those polled ranked niche sites as effective or very effective”.

“61% of respondents said they planned to increase their spending with social networking sites.”

What is working?

Narrowcasting or targeted recruitment:

Borell Online Recruitment Advertising 2008 Report states,

“The general job boards such as Monster and HotJobs, while loaded with listings and users, frustrate many recruiters due to the sheer number of unqualified resumes that they generate. While the general boards are working to improve their filters, tighter, more focused niche boards will generate most of the growth in the recruitment arena.” 

Video: 

The Borell Report suggests that video is the hottest tool for recruiters.

“Hundreds of major companies have added short-form videos to job sites expounding the virtues of working at their companies.”

Networking:

As Lou Adler describes Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting, he states,

“In a recent Execunet survey, 70% of over 6,000 executives and executive recruiters indicated that networking would be the key to either finding a job or finding candidates, compared to 16% through online advertising.”

This is being bolstered by the use of LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networking sites.” 

Integrated Recruitment Marketing:  

The current recruitment market is not homogeneous. The younger demographic and baby boomers will respond to different massages from different sources. A recruitment strategy that combines traditional advertising( TV, cable, radio, billboards ) with online marketing ( including Search engine optimization), social media and networking will be successful.  An Integrated Recruitment Marketing will not only combine the above venues but strategically leverage the power of each venue to achieve significantly more results.

Conclusion

Thus, national job boards are no longer the online panacea for recruiters.  Online advertising will be joined by social media/networking as powerful tools in discovering hidden/passive talent.  Coming soon I will dispel the fifth and final myth-: Social media is only read by youth and it’s not an effective tool for recruitment marketing.

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Tags: Interactive Recruitment, job boards, recruitment advertising, Recruitment Marketing, recruitment strategy

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I recently dispelled 2 of the 5 myths of recruitment marketing.  Today, I want to discuss Myth #3 and share some important studies and surveys from recruitment professionals that clearly dispel this myth. They contend that newspaper recruitment advertising is widely used but is not a cost effective strategy.

Myth #3: Posting jobs in the newspaper is a cost-effective recruitment strategy.

“A survey of human resource executives revealed that print ranked the lowest when it comes time to finding good candidates. Seventy percent of respondents said print was either “very ineffective” or “ineffective” up 60% from 2006.”  from Classified Intelligence Report.

Mary Maxwell wrote in Nursing Economics, “I have seen many hospitals spend several thousands of dollars on an oversized classified advertisement for the local Sunday paper that nets few, if any, qualified candidates. Newspaper advertisements are one of the least cost-effective methods for attracting candidates.”

Most of us are creatures of habit and take the path of least resistance. Recruiters have used print successfully for many years and have strong relationships with newspaper staff. They have built their budgets around print as the center piece of their campaign and in the past it has served them well.

In today’s job market, the competition for talent is fierce.  Today’s job seeker (Gen X, Gen Y) has changed. They are more mobile, live on cell phones and Facebook, don’t read the newspaper often, selectively watch TV, change jobs every 2 years , and searching for a company that fits their values. In many industries the job seeker is the “buyer” of a position and the company is selling the job. This demonstrates a role reversal.

The Bernard Hodes Group conducted a retention study and surveyed information from 751 employed, active, and passive job seekers.  They surveyed the sources they are using or would use to look for work and how they actually found their current position.  Results of the survey were shared by Leslie Stevens in her post Where people are looking for jobs. 49% of the respondents, “would use or are using newspaper resources to find a new position”, but only 12% say they “found their present job through an newspaper source”. 

“Posting vacancies externally through the various arms of the media ( e.g., Newspaper, TY) or via employment agencies reaches a wider audience and may turn up a greater number of potential candidates from which the organization can choose. At the same time, this method is relatively expensive and time-consuming …limit(ing) the frequency and duration of the job posting, as well as the amount of information made available, thus making it difficult for a job seeker to accurately judge the worth of the position being offered. “  Margaret A. Richardson, RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES:MANAGING/EFFECTING THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS  

Progressive companies face the challenge of making their recruitment strategy relevant to the new job seeker demographic. The old print recruitment strategy is one dimensional (sterile), not cost effective, rich in information, interactive and doesn’t provide a full picture of the employer.  Companies need to re-invent their recruitment strategy focusing on integrated media (including social media, video, and search engine optimization) to attract scare talent and passive job seekers. They need to let go of the “print habit” and go with a more responsive, results-oriented approach that reflects their target market!  Why waste valuable budget dollars on “eyeballs” that are not interested in your postings. 

I will talk about Myth #4: Posting jobs on national job sites is a cost effective recruitment strategy in my next post.

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Tags: human resource, recruitment advertising, Recruitment Marketing, recruitment strategy

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In my recent post about the 5 myths of recruitment marketing, I dispelled Myth #1.  I would like to continue on this subject of revolutionizing recruitment marketing by dispelling Myth #2 by providing 5 keys to showcasing your company.

Myth #2: There is not enough qualified talent to fill my job openings.

This is a myth promoted by many HR managers and businesspeople in small and mid-size regional markets. Most often this is not the case. The challenge lies in developing a creative, engaging Recruitment Marketing Strategy.

If you are not attracting quality or diverse selection of jobs seekers to your positions, your team needs to reflect on its Recruitment Marketing Strategy-how you market your company, its vision, your local region, the job’s challenges and its career benefits to the job seeker.

“A growing number of organizations are starting to realize that employment opportunities truly are products. As such, they must be designed, packaged, marketed, sold, supported, and serviced.”  Talent Management Analytics

The Revolution in Recruitment Marketing is showcasing your company with supportable claims.  It is understanding and managing every interaction that creates an impression of your company. Your press releases, job descriptions, website, letters, advertisements are branding your company to future personnel. It is building your Employer Brand and long term Recruitment Marketing Strategies that are integrated into your Business Plan and create competitive advantage.

Attracting quality talent in this competitive market is not just happening via national job boards.  In a survey by The Adler Group, “91% of recruiters report that both the quality and quantity of the candidates from the major job boards (Monster, Hot Jobs and Career Builder) is declining.”   You need to go where the conversations with passive job seekers are taking place. You need to research where the passive job seekers spend time. Understand your audience; focus on the media they use - “fish with what the fish like” says Lance Hodges with Sound Advice Advertising.

In today’s world of Social Media (Facebook, My Space, Linked In), your profile projects an image of who you are to the world. Many job seekers expect more than cursory, standard outline of the company and job details. Go the extra mile!  Prepare an engaging, interactive company showcase that humanizes your company and distinguishes it from others. It reveals who ‘you are as a company’, your values and what you offer a future employee.  Take the next step and authenticate your Employer Brand promise to candidates with:

• Employee testimonials, videos and photography
• Recognition from industry experts or associations
• Regional or national best-place-to-work awards

Here are five essential points to communicate your Employer Brand and showcase your company to your potential future employee.

1. About our Company
   1. TALENT RULES –Talent is a defined as a priority and key component of your company mission and business strategy. Job seekers want to know that they are a priority and the company is “people centered.”
   2. MANAGEMENT STYLE-Management encourages innovation and expression with an open and flat structure.
   3. YOUR FUTURE WITH US- Company provides career opportunities and hires internally
2. Job Details
   1. WHAT AM I REALLY GOING TO DO?-  Job proposition clearly demonstrates the unique functions and challenges of work processes
   2. SALARY - Compensation is competitive and considers cost of living comparison 
   3. THE EXTRAS - Benefits package details bonus, tuition reimbursement, day care, etc.  
3. Working with Us
   1. WHAT IS IT LIKE TO WORK FOR US? -Focus resources to showcase your company in the best light. Prepare engaging videos on company culture and work environment.
   2. THE TEAM APPROACH- Share details of the team approach from the team members. Include how the team functions to challenge and engage the job seeker.
   3. OUR EXPERIENCE IS— Provide “real and believable” employee testimonials in video or audio with photographs.  Live chat with employees is an open forum that is attractive to job seekers.  
4. Human Element
   1. WHERE YOU LIVE - Location! Location! Location! Make it exciting.  Some 50% or more of the career decisions are based on location– regional amenities, dining, entertainment, schools, climate, and safety.
   2. MAKING US HUMAN - Demonstrate how the company cares about employees, their family, and their needs. Include visuals about social events, community activities and company’s family orientation.
      
5. Talent Hub
   1.  Showcase the above points in a Company branded web location that speaks to potential employees. Companies invest significant resources to market their products. Make comparable investments in employer branding, recruitment marketing and employer retention to ensure attracting and retaining quality, inspired talent.

I will continue to dispel the 5 Myths of Recruitment Marketing in my next post as we delve into Myth #3.

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Tags: Employer Brand, Human Resources, Interactive Recruitment, Recruitment Marketing, Social Media

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I have worked in large metropolitan areas and small cities. I am tired of hearing the myths about  employment opportunities and effective recruitment marketing in these areas. The grass is not always greener in the larger cities.  Here are five myths I would like to address.

Myth #1:  Young talented individuals need to go to larger Metropolitan areas (e.g., Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Charlotte) to find  inspiring, challenging  jobs or exciting companies to work for.

Myth #2 : There is not enough qualified talent to fill my job openings.

Myth #3: Posting jobs in the newspaper is a cost-effective recruitment strategy.

Myth #4: Posting jobs on online job sites is a cost effective recruitment strategy

Myth #5: Social media is only read by youth and its not an effective tool for recruitment marketing.

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We are going to address one myth at a time !

Myth #1:  Young talented individuals need to go to larger Metropolitan areas (e.g., Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Charlotte) to find  inspiring, challenging  jobs or exciting companies to work for.

 This is not true, but it is happening!!

Why?? There is a wide communications gap between job seekers and employers.  Yes, there has been a mass exodus of young professionals from smaller cities (e,g,. Roanoke VA, Greensboro NC, Charleston WV) for greener pastures.  And, yes we have found many expanding, progressive companies in these region offering challenging careers  and benefits. In the Roanoke area here are a few..  MailTrust, HSMM, CCS and the City of Roanoke. 

But why the gap?  It’s all about showcasing the regions, company employment branding and marketing career opportunites. Making the job , the company and its location attractive to the job seeker.

Dr John Sullivan, called the “Michael Jordan of Hiring“  by Fast Company clearly defines the problem and the solution.  

“Almost every action and process in recruiting is designed for short-term gain… Employment branding stands alone as the only approach corporate recruiting managers can leverage to guarantee an end to their talent shortage problem… If you’re tired of constantly fighting fires and of being continually bashed year in and year out by your managers for failing to produce a high volume of high-quality candidates, it’s time to shift your focus to the only solution that can reduce your job stress and make you a hero.” 

Lance Hodges, dear friend and principal at Sound Ad-Vice Advertising and Media, often says “you need to fish with what the fish like”.  If you want to engage talented young professionals, companies need to speak to them in the languages and media of their generation- texting, video, Facebook, other social media.  Few of our local companies market their company’s work environments and culture, share their challenging opportunities and post their best jobs. They brand themselves as sterile companies with traditional ads in the newspaper or online . No excitement, nothing inspiring.  The same old, same old.

Let me ask you - What do you perceive the Brand Image of  Roanoke VA or Charleston WV ? - Are they considered choice locations to find  inspiring careers?   

 Clearly,  the image is not very engaging when compared to those of larger cities !!!

So our talent goes to larger metropolitan areas to find challenging positions.  We complain but continue to fulfill our own prophecies. We are our own worst enemies!!

It’s for this reason, with the inspiration of Stuart Mease, young professional evangelist, we have launched jobzcafe.com and this blog to dispel these myths and open up new venues fro interactive recuitment marketing . We integrate advertising, online and social media to:

• enhance communication between employers and job seekers
• connect you to the regions’ most extensive talent pool
• showcase your company and the region as a career destination
• target passive job seekers

Our goal is to stimulate regional economic growth.

We cannot do this alone, we need your support and cooperation.

Look for my next post covering Myth #2.

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Tags: employment, Interactive Recruitment, Recruitment Marketing, Roanoke, Social Media

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The first Talking Tuezdays was a huge success.  22 job seekers and professionals attended the event at WDBJ7 Community Room.  The job seekers learned the importance of showcasing themselves and left feeling they had a better handle on their job search and eager for the next Talking Tuezdays.

“I found Kathy Tisinger from the Roanoke Higher Education Center very informative.  I am very encouraged with the steps I need to take to boost my career as a result of this meeting.”  Shannon Christian

Kathy Tisinger, Career Center Manager for Roanoke Higher Education Center, shared information about RHEC and how job seekers can use their facility and tools to improve their skill sets.  Kathy shared 12 very good tips that can improve your job search and help showcase yourself. 

Here are her 12 Job Search tips…

1. Organization- Update your resume.  Know your KSA’s.  Keep a record of job applications.  Dedicate an email address to your job search.  Make an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of everything you are doing.
2. Resume - Write it until it’s right!  Think, write, edit, rewrite, proofread, etc.  Don’t think you can create a resume in an hour.  Read it out loud to hear mistakes and have other people look at it.
3. Research - Companies, interview questions, job fairs, contacts/networking, websites, yellow pages, newspapers, Chamber of Commerce, professional associations, etc.
4. Volunteer - If you do not have experience in your chosen field, volunteer.  Look for internships, shadowing opportunities or special events.  This will also help you network with others in your desired occupation.
5. Education - Get that degree or certificate that you need to advance or change positions.
6. Computer Skills - If you don’t have them - get them!  The public library is a good source of basic classes, as is Virginia Western College.
7. Recommendations - Keep in contact with those on your reference list.  Get letters if possible and if needed.  You want at least three solid professional references who can speak to your education, your work ethic, your accomplishments and/or your management style.
8. Strengths- Identify several professional strengths about yourself and develop a 30 or 45 second “commercial” about what you have to offer.  Focus on your skills, experience and education that qualify you for the job.  End interviews with this commercial.  Practice it, but don’t make it sound robotic or over-rehearsed.
9. Interviewing - Be on time - which means 5-10 minutes early.  Treat EVERYONE with respect.  Practice your drive the day before.  Have questions to ask.  Dress appropriately.  Practice with mock interviews if you are not comfortable interviewing.
10. Patience- Finding a new job is not an overnight process.  It is not uncommon for months to go by before you hear back from a company about the resume you submitted.  For every $10,000 in salary, plan on spending 1 month looking.
11. Network- Let everyone know you are looking for a job.  Over 75 percent of job openings are not advertised.
12. Don’t Give Up! - Job searching is not easy - it is time consuming and filled with disappointment.  It may take more time than you expected, but eventually the right job will come along.

Kathy would be glad to speak with you more about Roanoke Higher Education Center and resources it offers.   Email or call 540-767-6015 for more information.  Find additional resources at the Jobzcafe Job Seeker Resource Center.

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Tags: job search tips, Jobs, jobzcafe, RHEC, Roanoke, Roanoke Higher Education Center, Talking TueZdays

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