Hiring Insights Blog

Three Ways to Collaborate with Marketing for Employer Brand Initiatives
Recruiting Tips
Friday, Feb 01, 2019

From the onset, marketers know that they’re up against a variety of challenges to attract customers, ranging across market demand, consumer reviews, public perception, budgetary restrictions and of course, direct competition. In today’s tight labor market, consisting of low unemployment rates and widening skills gaps, recruiters can identify with a lot of the same challenges while trying to attract quality hires.

Perhaps talent acquisition doesn’t draw as clear of a line to revenue generation for the business as a function like marketing, and subsequently, it may not receive as many resources to get the job done. Still, unfilled jobs cost the U.S. economy as much as $13 billion per month, or $160 billion per year. It’s imperative that employers build up their talent pipelines as well as their sales pipelines to avoid a costly talent shortage and protect their business’ growth potential.

Filling your hiring funnel starts with an engaging employer brand, which creates the job seeker’s first perception of your company’s work culture. If the processes of employer branding and recruitment marketing are still new to your organization, or could simply be improved upon, collaboration with marketing professionals can be incredibly helpful.

1. Empathize with the Buyer’s Journey

Today’s candidates, empowered by countless informational online resources at their disposal, have a consumer-like mindset when searching for and applying to open jobs. They approach job seeking like any other major purchase, from research to comparison, to making the final decision to “buy.”

By understanding this behavior, recruiters can begin to visualize the steps in the hiring process that are most crucial to the candidate experience. For instance, 94 percent of working Americans would visit a company’s social media page when researching a potential employer. And one in three workers have declined a job offer primarily because the company had negative online employer reviews.

If you’re marketing team has a social media planner on-staff, they can advise you on company-approved methods for responding to negative reviews. And better yet, you can work together to create social media content calendars that highlight the best aspects of your workplace.

2. Leverage Cultural Strengths to Create an Attractive Employee Value Proposition

Social media is a fantastic vehicle for showing off your organization’s unique culture. But before building out any content, you must set a tone with an agreed upon employee value proposition (EVP), or simply put, why someone would want to work for your organization. What do potential employees stand to gain?

Enterprise Holdings is a great example of a company culture that puts their people first. Their EVP simultaneously highlights the organization’s internal growth opportunities while layering in some of their most sough-after employee competencies, like integrity and teamwork.

“For values-driven individuals who want to be proud of their career decision, Enterprise Holdings is the employer that provides the things you need to feel secure and successful in a reputable, team-oriented culture.”

Enterprise’s career site content reiterates this idea throughout, from their job descriptions to training program details, internship program yearbooks to employee spotlight videos, and even a “How to Apply” section that helps guide candidates through the hiring process.

Job seekers crave this kind of content, and luckily, there’s a good chance your organization’s marketing department already has the resources in place to produce copy, images and video elements you need. You may even be able to repurpose a lot of your company history or “about us” content.  

3. Communicate with Modern Tools

Developing amazing content won’t get you far if no one is seeing it. Google for Jobs helps job seekers find your postings more efficiently. But if you want to truly nurture and engage a quality pool of candidates, a candidate relationship management (CRM) tool is essential.

Your friends in marketing are likely very familiar with Salesforce, an extremely popular customer relationship management tool. Through Salesforce, they are able to keep ongoing records of prospect and/or customer interactions, send communications, and pass them through the sales process to the “buy.”

In talent acquisition, a CRM tool works very similarly, allowing recruiters to collect contact information, organize candidates into talent pools by department, skillset, etc., and send emails relevant to their specific interests, including new job openings or thought-provoking content that applies to their field.

iCIMS research shows that 70 percent of workers have searched for a new job while at work. To reach these more passive candidates who may not be able to switch to a new role just yet, or haven’t found the right job to apply to, being able to connect with your employer brand via a CRM tool allows you to get a chance to know each other before the interview.

And as any marketer will tell you, getting to know your customer, their wants and their interests, is the best tool you can have in your employer brand arsenal.