In the increasingly cut-throat world of employee recruiting, businesses that fail to devise effective digital recruitment strategies face the threat of getting left behind in the dust. That’s because, as the vast majority of prospective job candidates are soon to come from the millennial generation, digital technology is the best way to “speak their language” and draw the interest of this highly sought-after talent pool.
Here are five tips for crafting a digital hiring strategy that yields better results than more traditional recruitment efforts:
1. Focus on creating a memorable first impression.
Before undertaking any other efforts, it’s critically important that your business website—and particularly, your “Careers” page—impress job seekers from the instant they land on your site. The look and feel should be engaging, upbeat and informative (and of course, easy to navigate). A cluttered or amateurish site instantly conveys the notion that a business doesn’t have its act together—and can discourage candidates from looking any further.
Think of your site as a “company storefront” where visitors are treated to a display of your culture and products. Such a storefront must “deliver a cohesive brand image that reflects the company mission, vision and values,” notes HR expert Amber Hyatt. The brand experience, combined with in-depth job descriptions and online applications, “engages job seekers and helps them determine proactively if they are a cultural fit to the organization, and whether to apply.”
2. Showcase your brand on multiple platforms.
Remember, prospective candidates come to your business from a wide array of online sources. Putting together a noteworthy company profile on LinkedIn is a necessary first step—with special attention paid to highlighting your company culture—but no business can afford to stop there. Your brand must have a significant presence, and following, on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram as well.
Maintaining a consistent message across various platforms is key. Since it’s your brand that “gives you the ultimate credibility,” be sure to “use the same banners, icons and style across the platforms and continue this theme into your website.” This way, your brand and messaging are familiar wherever job seekers encounter them.
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Both on your business and career sites, and in your social media outreach efforts, pay close attention to the kind of content you offer to followers. Tweets, posts, articles, etc., should reflect your company’s upbeat, employee-friendly culture. In order to reach the widest possible audience, mix things up with a blend of images, short videos, surveys, and so on that engage job candidates and keep them coming back for more.
4. Make the online job application process quick and easy to complete.
If you successfully grab the interest of a prospective candidate, don’t make the mistake of putting obstacles in the way of completing your online job applications. A variety of technology options should be considered, from dedicated candidate job portals to employee referral networks—anything that leverages integrated platforms to ease the application process. (Additionally, this will impress job seekers looking for companies proficient in digital technology.)
5. Incorporate big data in your recruiting efforts.
The same “big data” technology used to attract new customers can be applied to your recruiting efforts. Look into high-quality recruitment analytics programs that gather key data such as:
“In the near future, most HR departments (many large companies already do) will have access to considerable pools of data that can tell a recruiter more about candidates than they know about themselves,” writes marketing specialist Aleah Radovich.
Adding a “digital dimension” to your recruiting strategies will broaden the range and scope of potential candidates, including the right type of talented individuals you want in your business.