When it comes to your recruiting strategy, you might be inclined to stick to a tried-and-true method. Shaking things up may not be at the forefront of every recruiter’s to-do list, but a new recruitment campaign could lead to sourcing top notch candidates.
You probably shouldn’t hang posters around town. Instead of motivating the masses, you want to find the best candidates who meet your clients’ qualifications. To catch the attention of top notch applicants, you need an innovative recruitment campaign.
What is a recruitment campaign?
A recruitment campaign is a strategy that encourages a person to join a cause. There can be recruitment campaigns for businesses, schools, the military, or any organization. In job recruiting, a recruitment campaign is meant to attract qualified candidates and get them to apply for an open position at a company.
As a recruiter, it’s your responsibility to come up with creative and effective methods to source candidates.
Create a recruitment campaign that will attract both active and passive candidates. Active candidates are those actively searching for jobs. Passive candidates are people who are not searching for jobs. It’s your job to reach all talent with successful recruitment campaigns.
Recruitment campaign strategy
Use the following tips to help you develop creative recruitment campaigns that urge qualified candidates to apply.
1. Narrow down your target audience
When creating your recruitment campaign, you should understand every aspect of the job order. Once you understand the open position, you will know the kind of candidate your client needs.
Talk with your client about the qualifications the candidate must have. Then, find out what other qualifications your client would like the candidate to have. Draft a recruitment campaign message that highlights these qualifications.
The message should speak to the candidates your client needs. Make them want the job by differentiating your client’s open position from other companies that are hiring.
Put yourself in a potential job applicant’s shoes. What would you want to hear? What would get you to apply?
It probably isn’t just a high salary and competitive benefits. It might be things like job development and opportunities for growth, something that 87% of millennials want. When you know your target audience, you can craft a message that speaks to them.
2. Pick your platforms
Choose how you will send out your recruitment campaign. You should use platforms, like your recruiting website or email marketing, that have the most likelihood of reaching your target audience.
There are a few ways your recruitment campaign can reach active and passive candidates:
Social media: Recruiting on social media is a great way to let candidates know about open jobs. Your recruitment campaign might change based on your social media platform. For example, Twitter has a word limit. And, LinkedIn is a more professional channel.
Email marketing: With email marketing, you can send recruitment campaigns directly to candidates in your contact list. These might include candidates in your recruiting database or referrals.
Job boards: Job boards attract candidates actively looking for jobs. Typically, the job posting service lets you upload the full job description onto the job board. First, you need to get people to click on the job description. Create a snippet that will encourage candidates to learn more.
Depending on how you are reaching out to candidates, you might want to choose the most important parts of the job description to grab attention. For example, you might write a shorter message for social media than your email marketing campaign.
3. Get creative
Your recruitment campaign doesn’t have to be just words.Combine visuals and even audio to catch a potential candidate’s attention. Come up with fun recruitment campaign ideas that show off your client company’s culture.
There are endless possibilities when it comes to creating a recruitment campaign. For example, Amazon Web Services placed a recruitment campaign on a dating app called Tinder. Tinder users, who usually swipe right if they want to go on a date with someone, could swipe right if they were interested in applying for the job with Amazon.
Or, you can create puzzles as a fun way to recruit. Google made the news when they created billboards with math problems as a recruitment campaign strategy. This creative idea led those who could solve the problems to submit their resumes.
Though you might not be creating a recruitment campaign for a big, nationwide company, you can still come up with innovative and personal ideas that will attract top talent.
Some recruiters use videos for their recruitment campaigns. A recruiting video can be personal and show off your client’s company in new ways. Watching a video can be easier to absorb content and more engaging. Plus, you can include testimonials from employees who work at your client’s company.
4. Stay in contact
Your recruitment campaign is not complete if you don’t follow up with candidates. Make it easy for interested candidates to contact you with questions.
An effective recruitment campaign ends with qualified people submitting applications for the job. Your recruitment campaign is only the first step of the recruiting and hiring process, so provide your contact information (e.g., phone number and email address), and keep in touch with candidates with the help of recruitment software for agencies.
