In many organizations, the marketing and HR functions operate independently—HR focused primarily on internal communications with employees and marketing focused primarily on external communications with consumer and business audiences that include both prospects and customers.
In some organizations, though, these two groups have teamed up to combine their expertise to boost overall communication effectiveness, internally and externally. One key area where the two are helping their organizations achieve success is in employee recruitment.
Following the Lead of Marketing
Last year, Mark Miller wrote a piece for TLNT (Talent Management and HR), “It’s Time for HR to Follow Marketing’s Lead and Develop Employee Personas.” Personas are a commonly used tactic in marketing circles that help marketers “get into the heads” of their target audiences. Miller writes: “If this is the best practice for companies connecting with customers, why shouldn’t HR professionals use this same concept to truly understand their employees?” Why indeed?
In fact, that question can be broadened to ask: “Why shouldn’t HR take a marketing approach to attracting top talent to their organizations?” The answer, of course, is that they should. The same marketing principles that can be applied to attracting customers to a company can be applied to attracting employees. The process is the same.
Steps to Developing an Employee Recruitment Process Based on Marketing Principles
Following are some specific steps that HR leaders can take to boost their recruitment efforts through a marketing process:
- Make sure you’re effectively managing your “employer brand.” What does that mean? It means understanding how you would like your organization to be perceived compared to how it is actually perceived—and taking steps to close those gaps. How can you determine how you’re currently perceived? You can ask employees—even job candidates. You can glean information from online review channels like Glassdoor.com. Or you can conduct your own research with the employee populations you are recruiting from. A key point here—your messaging must reflect reality. As marketers say: “You need to live the brand promise.”
- Build an employee persona. What does your “ideal” candidate for a given position look like? As Miller stresses in his article, taking this step can help ensure that you clearly understand your potential employee audience, their interests and concerns. One way to develop a persona is by “profiling” top candidates that currently hold the position, or who have held the position. What are the traits that make them valuable to the organization? These are the traits, or attributes, you would seek in prospective employees.
- Understand what is important to the candidates you hope to attract. This can be done by reviewing secondary data online (e.g. research from trade organizations, comments and profiles of similar types of individuals on LinkedIn or polls/interviews/focus groups with existing employees.
- Analyze the competition. Just as companies have competitors for their products and services they also have competitors for staff. What companies do you compete against locally, regionally or nationally (depending on the scope of your search)? What attributes do these companies have that position them favorably against you? What attributes do you have that position your company more favorably based on what you know about what’s important to your target audience of potential applicants? These considerations will help to direct your messaging.
- Identify communication channels. How will you connect with potential candidates? LinkedIn is clearly a top site for recruiting today, but it may not be your only—or even you primary—source of candidates. Much will depend on the type of position you are recruiting for. For instance, if you’re looking for business professionals (e.g. accounting, HR, marketing, etc.), LinkedIn is likely to be a good communication channel. If you’re looking for tradespeople, however, (e.g. roofers, electricians, plumbers) it may not be such a good channel. On LinkedIn, its relatively easy to see what the field of candidates looks like by doing a people search within the geographic range you’re recruiting from. Other channels, depending on your target audience, might include trade publications, online directories—and even traditional classified listings.
- Create messaging. Your communication efforts related to recruitment should leverage the unique position you hold compared to competitors as well as emphasize the benefits of working for your company based on what you know about the target audience.
- Measure, monitor and modify your approach based on which communication channels and messaging yield the highest quality of applicants, the most hires, the most valued employees, etc.
Throughout the process, don’t hesitate to call on your marketing communication colleagues for assistance. They have a wealth of knowledge that can be applied to your recruitment efforts to ensure that you are using proven strategies to position your company as a great place to work.