Recruitment Branding

the war for talent is never-ending

In spite of the damage done to their portfolios over the past couple of years, some employers took secret pleasure in one result of the great recession: employees suddenly seemed grateful to have a job. Employers no longer had to try to compete for the best and brightest and they put recruitment marketing and branding efforts on ice. But that’s a short-term view. Winning the competition for the best talent is always imperative to success and that competition will intensify again. Smart firms realize that the battle is never-ending. And recruiting is their perpetual strategic priority.

Recruit_Me.Com

At last, everyone seems to recognize that the first place a prospective hire goes to research a prospective firm is its website. Firms are responding by upgrading the recruiting section of their site to reveal the firm's working style and lifestyle. Technologies such as Flash, podcasts, streaming audio and video, give recruiting sites "live action" far beyond the static presentations that characterize the typical professional service firm site. Some ideas:

• Take an individual through the kind of work and interactions he/she can expect during a typical day
• Let individuals experience the spirit of the place, the firm’s mission and its values
• Let individuals hear from others who can speak credibly about their experience
• Match individuals who work at the firm with target schools where you hope to achieve success
• Be creative. Write your own rules.

Getting Found In A New Brand World

A great website will help you make the case for employment with your organization, but how do you get considered in the first place? The fundamentals like booths for recruitment fairs, direct mail drops on campus and novelties can (and should be) improved. So should brochures and traditional advertising, for that matter.

Our research experience reminds us that people are reluctant to admit they've been influenced by marketing materials—brochures or advertising—when, in fact, their actual behavior often suggests otherwise. As one smart marketer put it to us, “You’ll never come across as a first-class operation with second-class material.”

Connecting The Dots In The Digital Constellation

It’s no newsflash that today’s recruits, especially those on campus, are agile consumers of blogs, online social networks, web widgets, search queries, wikis, YouTube, and the like. The trick is in using the new tools and new media in the most genuine and compelling fashion. If you use the new tools in the same way as the next firm, you’ll be communicating the same difference. Or no difference at all.

The goal is to turn these digital dots into relationships with potential hires. Doing so requires a strategy and coordination that integrates recruitment marketing efforts across all channels, old and new. It also requires creativity, as one marketing sage put it: “you can’t bore people into trying (or being part of) your product or service.”