Employment Marketing Tactics for Recruiting New Employees

In our earlier blog, we mentioned that employment marketing is answering the question: “Why should I work here?” In this blog post, we will outline various employment marketing tactics used to help a contract manufacturer better recruit new employees and grow from 70 to over 105 employees in 12 months.

Employment marketing is reliant on many of the same well-crafted digital marketing strategies and tactics used for marketing new products or services. These tactics, referred to as outbound and inbound marketing, are centered on knowing your target audience, increasing the visibility of your employer brand, and creating interest that leads to action (in this case, the action would be attracting new hires).

Outbound employment marketing involves reaching out to candidates directly via job postings, job fairs, paid advertising, and recruiters. Inbound marketing (content employment marketing) involves generating valuable and impressive content that brings candidates to you via blogs, public relations efforts, social media, and website content. A constant stream of information that tells the story of your employer brand, culture, and community involvement will draw in more high-quality applicants.

Company Website

Since most applicants will visit your website before they apply, it is important to keep your website updated with the latest company news, as well as updated on a technical level. Having a mobile-friendly website is essential because most Millennials will use a smart phone or mobile device to access your website and complete an application.

There are 4 major pages you should consider building or adding content to showcase your employer brand online:

1. About Us Page: The About Us page should be easily found on your website, search engines and social channels. Although company history is important, today’s applicants want to work for a company that is forward thinking.  The focus should be on identifying your company’s value proposition or what truly differentiates your company from the competition. Showcase your business as an appealing place to work by highlighting information on company stability, growth in revenue and/or employees, investment in new equipment and/or technology that will keep you competitive in the years to come. Feature company anniversaries as well as awards or recognition (Top Work Places, Fastest Growing Firms, Healthiest Work Places, Etc.)

2. Careers/Employment Page: This is the main destination page for job candidates where they should learn more about your company from an employment perspective. This page should reflect your company’s mission, vision, and culture. Prospective hires should be able to view the information on this page and understand what makes your company special. It will be beneficial to include open positions, list of benefits, onboarding and training details, employee testimonials, employee guest blogs, and relevant video content, such as a company culture video.  In our earlier blog, we spoke about some of the negative comments made by former employees on various job boards including Glassdoor and Indeed.  Employee testimonials on your career page will counteract any negative comments and present a positive narrative about your company.

3. Community Service Page: Many Millennials want to know that they can make a positive difference in the community. Your community service page should discuss the ways that your company contributes to society.  Involvement in charitable causes (United Way, Children’s Hospital, local food pantry, etc.) can be communicated through action shots or even videos of your participating employees.

4. News/Blog Page: This page will provide noteworthy updates and news about your company. An effective public relations campaign will create great additional content for this page. If you offer a blog, you can publish an ongoing stream of relevant, meaningful and interesting content that relates to your industry or company. We had a client that wanted to attract more women and Millennials as applicants, so we wrote and posted a related blog and then linked it to their career/employment page.  View the blog here. The client received a ton of free press because of this blog. Other content ideas could include targeting mid-career changers or minority groups.

Implementing Other Strategies

Your website is only one piece of the puzzle in terms of getting your message across to potential job candidates. Your employer brand must be visible and consistent in all aspects of your marketing strategy. From social media to blogs, videos, targeted display ads, PR and more, your unique brand must be apparent to prospective employees.

Employment Marketing via Social networks

Since 79% of job seekers depend on social media to find a job, these channels are great tools for promoting and strengthening your employer brand, and boosting visibility for your latest vacancies. Social sites track relevant data such as employment history, geography, and job titles, making it easier to target and attract the talent you want. Digital employment marketing campaigns on Facebook and LinkedIn can be very effective in generating exposure to your employer brand. Such campaigns may also attract passive candidates (those not actively seeking a new job) and former alumni for rehiring purposes. Don’t forget to link social media job listings to your online application form. Lastly, your best employees may promote your company brand by talking about their wonderful experiences as employees within their own social networks.

Public Relations to Boost Your Image as an Employer

A great employer brand cannot be built overnight. When it comes to PR, our experience has been that it takes 3-4 news releases before you get any traction with potential media outlets. To boost your employer brand, you need to consistently promote it via a consistent public relations effort.  For one client, a series of news releases on investing in capital equipment, led to an interview which led to an article in a well-known industry magazine.  The title of the article; “Employees set the pace for success.”  With some effort and some luck, you can get your story told and seen on a local, regional or national level.

Career sites and the application process

In addition to listing open positions on your website, you should also make sure that your job postings are properly displayed on top employment sites, such as Indeed.  You should also accept job applications on your website. Ninja Gig is a recruiting software that we’ve used to help with both tactics.  It also enables you to customize the application questions for each job opening and better organize the candidates that apply.  This software really makes the recruiting and hiring process a little easier for both the applicant and Human Resources.  Additionally, put the right information in job advertisements such as necessary job requirements, responsibilities, necessary experience and education, skills, etc.

Employment Marketing Metrics

Developing your brand as an employer is about much more than a concept. You need defined deliverables that will identify your company as a leading employer in your industry. Employment marketing metrics should include: growing traffic to HR related website pages, boosting the number of applicants and new hires, reducing the cost and time needed to fill open positions and ultimately, increasing the total number of employees.

About Marketing Metrics Corp.

We specialize in employment marketing for the manufacturing sector. We use unique and effective employment marketing strategies and tactics to boost your employer brand, meet your hiring challenges, and improve the overall experience for your existing employees. To learn more about employment marketing and tactics used to help a client grow from 70 to over 105 employees and become one of The Fastest Growing Companies in SE Wisconsin, click here.