18th March 2019
Most businesses have a
marketing / sales / operational / financial strategy in place to ensure
sustainability and growth. But many employers fail to recognise the importance
of implementing and maintaining an effective talent attraction strategy which
ensures the business attracts and hires the best people, often resulting in time
resource and financial wastage.
Given people are the biggest asset to any company, here are our 7 tips on how to create an effective talent attraction strategy that will ensure you’re ahead of the rest when it comes to attracting the best…
1)
Identify your company culture and values
According to Glassdoor, 93% of job seekers feel it’s important to
be informed about an organisation’s values and company culture prior to
accepting a job offer - so the first step is to assess your company’s
identity.
If you haven’t done so
already, it can be a great exercise to sit down with your current employees and
discuss what the core values are, what’s the company culture, and what sets you
apart from other businesses – a superb employee engagement exercise too. Make
sure to document everything, and this will enable you to start outlining the
values and culture. The important thing here is to be authentic and try not to
use clichés, and by collaborating with your team in the process the
authenticity will shine through.
2)
Communicate your employer brand
LinkedIn found that 75% of job seekers will research a company’s reputation and employer brand before even applying for a role, so once you have outlined your company culture and values, the next step is to make sure people know about it.
Does your website have any
insights into what it’s like to work at your business? What impression will job
seekers get when they visit your website and social media pages, or perhaps if
they Google your company?
Having a careers section on
your website can work wonders for your employer brand, allowing job seekers to
read all about your core values and company culture, first hand accounts of
what it’s like to work there with employee testimonials, and what training and
development opportunities are available. You can even include images and videos
on the page which will give people a visual insight into the working
environment.
Don’t forget: The
recruitment marketing experts here at JVP can work with you to implement or
further develop your careers page – which includes a job search function where
job seekers can apply directly to you with all applications
centralised and accessible via our time saving ATS / Recruitment Software.
Click
here to read more about JVP’s website careers page development service
3)
Utilise social media
79% of job seekers use social media in their job search (Glassdoor). Have you thought about what potential
employees see when they research your social media pages? In this day and age,
most businesses are utilising social media to promote their products or
services, but it can also be a powerful tool to help promote your employer
brand.
A perfect example of this is Sodastream’s ‘Join the Revolution’ recruitment video campaign – with 6.4 Million views on
Facebook this demonstrates the potential power of social media in promoting
your employer brand.
If you have any events such as
a team night out, a birthday celebration in the office, or even a charity fundraiser
– make sure to shout about them on social media! Many businesses forget that
they already have an engaged audience on social media – and if you’re not
shouting about what a great place to work your company is – you could be
missing out on amazing people who are passionate about your company. Don’t
limit this activity to the occasions you are recruiting – post updates
throughout the year.
4)
Treat your job adverts as a piece of marketing
In most instances the job advert is the first interaction the potential applicant has with your company, so you need to treat it as a piece of marketing which informs on the role and the perks whilst promoting your company, employer brand and reputation.
The key thing to keep in mind
is that you’re selling the opportunity to the job seeker, this is not a job
description or detailed person specification – the focus should be about the
opportunity you’re offering.
The most important considerations
for job seekers when they are reading job adverts other than the duties, are
the salary, the location, the company culture, along with any other additional
benefits such as flexible working, annual leave, enhanced pension etc.- so make
sure not to leave this information out where applicable.
The search functions of most
online job sites work on a keyword basis, therefore it’s vital that the job
title is simple and has relevant keywords to ensure it’s found by job seekers.
For instance, if it’s a customer service role – make sure that “customer
service” is in the job title and within the body of the advert – otherwise you
risk your job advert not being found by the right people. The final thing to
consider is to keep the job advert as concise as possible, with many job
seekers searching on their mobiles the last thing they want to be doing is
reading a long job advert – remember this is a recruitment job advert not a job
description.
For a full rundown of how to write effective online
recruitment adverts, click here to read our job advert
writing guide.
Don’t forget: To save you time, our recruitment specialists at JVP can craft your employer branded advert copy for you, to find out more click here
5)
Talent can be anywhere, so advertise everywhere
43% of job seekers only use one job board to search for
work, and yet there are over 1100 job sites in the UK. The ideal
applicant could be searching for vacancies anywhere, and whilst it’s not
realistic to post on all 1100+ job sites (and we wouldn’t recommend doing so!),
it is important to ensure your adverts achieve sufficient audience reach, so we
advise to promote on a range of relevant job boards, perhaps including leading
job boards such as CV-Library, Jobsite, and TotalJobs, along with regional, and
industry/discipline focused job sites.
Don’t forget: Here
at JVP when we publish your job
adverts, we ensure they're seen by a relevant, targeted audience via extensive
exposure through our network of over 200 online job boards which include
leading, specialist and regional sites. Click here to learn more.
6)
Communication is Key
Research conducted by
CV-Library has found that 56.9% of
applicants feel that a lack of response from recruiters is what they hate the
most. The recruitment process is a two-way street, applicants like to know
where they stand, and lack of communication can actually damage your employer
brand.
The other thing to consider is
that it’s a fast-moving candidate market, you may have an amazing applicant but
if you don’t communicate with that person in good time, they may accept an
offer from another company. It’s not always realistic to be able to set up an
interview straight away, but you can at least let them know that they have been
shortlisted and give them an approximate time scale of when you’ll be in touch
next – it will keep them engaged with your business and make them think twice when
considering other vacancies.
Don’t
forget: With the JVP Applicant Tracking System / Recruitment Software we’ll
ensure all your applicants receive an auto-response to acknowledge the
application, and you can send tailored email responses to hundreds of
applicants in a matter of seconds with our user-friendly software.
7)
Ensuring a professional interview process
You can read our full recommendations
on how to ensure a professional interview process, by
clicking here and reading our guide to getting the most out of interviewees.
In a nutshell - it’s up
to the interviewee to impress at interview, but good applicants can be
selective about where they work, so it’s important to demonstrate that it’s a
professional working environment. Not everyone is a natural at conducting interviews,
so don’t assume that managers / team leaders within your business have the
ability to interview effectively – it might be worth considering providing training
to improve their interviewing skills and to ensure interviews are carried with
employment law in mind too.
By following our 7 tips to improve your talent attraction
strategy, you’re sure to see a return on investment because when it comes down
to it – what truly drives every business forward is the people within the
company.
JVP Group - Tailored support for in-house recruitment
strategies
Here at JVP we know how much work
goes in to forging and delivering an effective talent attraction strategy,
that’s why we take the time fully understand each employer’s needs, so that we
can provide a tailored recruitment marketing and support solution.
We offer a wide range of
in-house recruitment support services all of which are focused on supporting
you to to attract the best people, reduce the time you spend on recruitment
administration, and minimising your recruitment spend.
If you’re interested in finding out more, call us on 01745
774 955 or email Services@JVPGroup.co.uk.
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