The number ONE error in recruitment marketing

It’s about understanding behaviour and tailoring messages with the aim of creating advocates of your brand.

Steve: What’s the number one error in recruitment marketing?

Sarah: Not thinking enough about the candidate. I don’t think that enough attention’s given to how a candidate feels in a recruitment process. As a candidate myself, searching for jobs – you just feel like you’re in a black hole, you get no communication back… so I think being walked down the process all the way through to hire is really important. I think that’s a really important piece to sort out as a recruiter.

Steve: Is this focus on the candidate a by-product of the current economic state or is it a cultural shift?

Sarah: I think it’s a cultural shift – recruiters are more aware of how a candidate feels, and I think it needs to evolve even further, in terms of being brand aware as a consumer. A job seeker is a consumer. It’s important for them to be accepting of your brand and you need to fully engage them. I don’t think there’s enough engagement after the application stage.

Steve: You’re an expert in tracking user behavior with, for example, Google Analytics. Do you think those technologies could and should be used to track candidate behavior?

Sarah: Definitely.

Steve: And the candidate experience?

Sarah: Yes. These tools help you understand what a candidate is doing, wherever they are, and that should be utilized to optimise the process more. At the moment, so many companies just don’t do anything meaningful with the candidate. A candidate applies, and nothing else happens. It’s a terrible waste.

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But you have the tools to know more, whether they’re applying to multiple jobs etc – it’s about understanding behaviour and tailoring messages with the aim of creating advocates of your brand.

Steve: What’s your view on the effectiveness of social media in recruitment right now?

Sarah: I think it just opens up more doors to candidates, especially the younger generation. LinkedIn has become such an important part in how a candidate researches the jobs and company brands that they are considering applying to.

Steve: So you are saying to recruitment marketeers should see social media as place to build up their brand reputation as opposed to spam posting out adverts via tweets [Steve note: this is a pet-hate of mine even though idibu provides posting services, posting is a great service but it should not be used as a Twitter spam-bot!]?

Sarah: Yes. Candidates use these tools to research and understand the company they’re applying for – to understand the brand values are of the company. This is exactly what I would do before considering to work with anyone.

Steve: Excellent, thank you very much.

Sarah Arnold is Marketing Manager at zyx associates.