Recruitment Marketing: Goals, Measures, Challenges

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Recruitment Marketing

Recruitment Marketing and recruiting are closely linked. They require a target group-specific strategy and the use of several marketing measures. In the following article, we explain exactly what recruitment marketing means and what challenges it entails.

Recruitment Marketing is the application of marketing measures in the field of recruitment. Because modern employees want to identify not only with their work, but also with their company, HR managers have to present the company as an attractive employer. In order to bind their own employees to the company and to get the right additional specialists, they use classic marketing measures, which are often combined with one another.

 Internal and External Recruitment Marketing and Their Various Goals

The internal measures have the recruitment marketing goal of motivating the workforce even more and thereby increasing their work performance and productivity. The indirect intention is to get employees to express themselves positively about the company. And to make them ambassadors for the employer brand. Because this has a particularly strong effect on people outside the company, the awaited high potentials are easier to recruit. 

In addition, the internal recruitment marketing measures increase employee loyalty to the company. Satisfied employees are not interested in leaving the company and are then also available as junior managers. The external measures are carried out with the intention of increasing the company’s profile as an employer and thus being able to hire new, qualified employees more quickly.

In order to retain their own employees permanently, the HR manager apply the following measures.

 

  • Promotion of the career of particularly successful qualified employees, for example in the form of further training and the filling of freelance management positions.
  • Job rotation, which creates more variety in everyday work.
  • Expansion of the employee's workspace so that they have more responsibility.
  • A pleasant working atmosphere. For instance, employees can design their own workplace.
  • Removal of disruptive factors.
  • Rewarding very productive and particularly creative employees with bonuses and bonus payments.
  • Family-friendly working hours for employees with young children.
  • Open corporate culture.
  • Colleagues meet for joint activities after work.

Successful internal recruitment marketing begins on the first day of work. If the onboarding is successful, the foundation for a permanent bond with the company has been laid. It is therefore advisable to take time for a personal welcome:

 

  • Leave a positive first impression with a nicely decorated workplace and a tour of the company.
  • Promote the introductory program for new hires. It will facilitate the acquaintance with their new colleagues.

In order to attract external employees in the long term, the HR manager has the following options:

 

  • Strengthen the employer brand through special image campaigns. You can find out how employer branding is used to generate new talent in the article "7 steps to the perfect employer branding campaign."
  • Active sourcing, for example through social media of the target group you are looking for. Or the placement of job advertisements in print media or online. Contacting potential applicants at the trade fair stand is also part of active sourcing. It can also include university recruiting, provided that prospective academics are the target group. In-house application days are another tool of active sourcing. It allows interested job seekers to take a look at their potential job and their colleagues in advance.
  • Employee recommendations. There are now even special employee recruitment programs in this area. Take a look at Firstbird Employee Referral Program.
  • Positive candidate experience. By processing incoming cover letters quickly and giving feedback in between, the HR manager shows himself to be a sympathetic employer for whom the human factor is important.
  • Creation of a talent pool from the candidates rejected in previous recruiting campaigns. If the acquisition of new talent is to be successful within a short period of time, internal and external recruitment measures must be combined.
Creative Recruiting_Finding Employees

Recruitment Marketing in Videos and Social Media

Videos on the Internet are an important medium for attracting young talent. Especially digital natives can hardly be reached by recruiters in a conventional way. If you are looking for a job, first watch the company videos on YouTube. Recruiting videos have to be authentic and interesting. The job seeker must gain insight into the company culture and be able to get an idea of the employees and their future job.

Videos in which selected employees talk about their company are particularly credible. Recruiting videos have different approaches. For some of them, the focus is on people with their individuality and life planning. They show what opportunities the company looking for employees has to offer. If a job description requires a lot of explanation, everything in the recruiting video revolves around this activity. The company takes centre stage when it has special features. They are described using the example of employees who have made successful careers in the company.

Because digital natives prefer social media, social recruiting is also part of successful recruitment marketing. HR executives post advertisements on LinkedIn when they are looking for executives and talent with special skills. Facebook is also a good choice for recruiting. It is important that the profile pages on social media are linked to the company career page and job advertisements in order to offer potential applicants as much information as possible.

Hiring Process

Modern Recruitment Marketing is currently faced with many challenges. Probably the biggest of these is the change in the labour market from an employer to an applicant market. In the past, it was companies who were able to choose the right candidate from hundreds of applicants, today job seekers choose their company.

 

They are often highly qualified, highly motivated and have precise ideas about what their future employer should offer them. The job should not only give them a decent salary and security, as was usual for earlier generations of employees, but must also suit their personal lifestyle and enable a good work-life balance. In order to attract these high potentials, it takes more than the usual standard offers. But that's not all. These talents, who mostly belong to Generation Y, have, in addition to their high demands, a generally lower level of loyalty to the employer.

 

Another problem for recruiters is the current shortage of skilled workers. In order to be able to fill their positions faster, companies often have to go use unusual methods, such as financing the move of the new employee to the company headquarters. Or pay them a significantly higher fee. Another option is to hire a suitably qualified middle-aged employee. In addition to a high level of professional qualification, this employee has many decades of professional experience.

 

Generation Y is also responsible for other unfavourable developments in the labour market. Because many young people prefer studying to training, an excessive number of training positions remain unfilled. Therefore, many companies are forced to choose applicants with little education (trainees) and lower professional qualifications. University graduates sometimes do not have the necessary practical experience for the management position to be filled and must first be subjected to special online assessments.

 

Recently, companies have been worried about a very different problem. In view of the rapidly increasing number of competitors, more and more companies are finding it difficult to create and implement a distinctive company identity.

Website-Preview-TM-Infographic

You can find out more about what tomorrow’s talent can expect and how you can find, retain and promote them in the long term in our latest infographic.

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