Building Workforce Through Marketing (no, not job listing websites)

Let’s face it, human resource teams and recruiters are BUSY. Frankly, they’ve always been busy, but today’s workforce crisis is shining a new light on how critical their mission is to a companies overall success. And, when short-staffed, we expect our team to wear more than one hat. Unfortunately the HR team often gets tasked with doing “marketing” work for their recruiting efforts. It’s not fair to them to be held accountable for results of a marketing campaign when they were trained up to do a totally different job.

Over the past few years, we have realized the gap presented in this all-to-common scenario. HR teams need marketing partners. So, we started taking workforce projects and hiring ad campaigns on. We have learned some key takeaways these past few years, like:

How can marketing help a hiring campaign? 

Volume

One of the key components in a hiring campaign is simply getting those applications in the door. Through a multi-channel digital ad campaign approach, we’ve found some sweet spots. We start with job descriptions, then we craft campaigns across various digital platforms we’ve seen success with for hiring. We build out test content and copy and start getting to work narrowing down what sends the most resumes.

Okay, okay, so you can get us applications. But are they worth anything?

Quality

Well, yes – but we get out what we put in (as they say). So, if we have well-written job descriptions, competitive pay, benefits, culture statements, etc. we can more tightly target the type of team member you desperately need.

This approach to workforce marketing can be a tool in your kit that let’s your HR team focus on interviews, onboarding, and all the important things they need more time for.

The world doesn’t know we’re hiring!

Employer Branding

Employer branding is the term to describe this type of campaign. In the new workforce marketing reality, one thing rules: CULTURE. You can have the same benefits, pay, and bonus compensation as a competitor and easily lose out because the candidate didn’t really “get you.” Never fear, that can be remedied.

• First, ensure you have a definition of your culture, and your HR team knows what that is. Then, ensure your marketing partner knows what that is.
• Next, make sure your “culture” is actually a culture and not just “free snacks in the breakroom.” Really take a deep dive and determine what makes you different. If you don’t know, ask your team.
• Then – test, test, test. You and your marketing partner may need to throw a few things at the wall before something sticks. But, once it does, lean into that and reap the rewards.

Is it more expensive than the more common approach of paying job listing websites?

Cost

I hate this answer too, but it depends. First, do you have a solid cost per acquisition you’re targeting? That helps us define what tools we use and how we approach the campaign. But, ultimately, it truly depends on the type of position you are hiring. For instance, if you’re hiring a surgeon who knows how to use a very specific piece of equipment, that may cost more than it would cost to recruit 25 team members for a manufacturing facility. We like to get in and dig deep into the goals a client has, what is their budget, what other tools they are using, then design something that ignores preconceptions and focuses on getting the results.

So, if you’re HR department is struggling to keep up, please consider giving them the resources they need. Because the last thing a company wants during a workforce crisis is for their HR team to throw their hands up and say “we quit too.”