1-9-2015
We have all read about it, feared it, and now it is really happening. The race to find and hire quality employees has become extremely competitive. It is now a ?job seekers? market.?
What can you do to get in and stay strong in the game? One of the first steps is to review your marketing tools as they apply to hiring. I know that all media companies have marketing strategies in place to engage and keep the audiences they have and to bring in new audience, but what about marketing plans to bring in new employees? If you don?t have one in place, it is time!
Candidates and potential hires will do their homework today. They need to have both compelling reasons to consider working for you, a strong understanding of expectations of the job, and what potential is there for them. When I started in broadcast, we had a mantra of explaining to potential advertisers ?WIFM? (what?s in it for me) and today that is what hiring is all about, but from the candidate perspective.
A crucial part of recruiting today is to have the message out about why someone should work with you and the best way to do so is using your websites and social media platforms. Your website should include a career page, notice I didn?t say Job page? People today that are worth hiring are concerned about their careers and what type of experience they will gain to grow their career, those that are just interested in a job may not be the caliber of what you seek and probably won?t last, so let?s focus on careers and not jobs.
Your career page should be easy to find and contain pertinent information that will start building that relationship of potential employee and employer. Go beyond just listing the open positions, think about getting your foot in the door with a potential new client, share reasons why you are a good employer and how you have been involved in hiring successful people who have been promoted or who are happy at the company. Include what properties the company owns and how that may benefit a new hire, is there potential to grow to different parts of the company and/or country? Do you have a mission statement or strive to create a positive culture? If so, how do you do so and how does it benefit the employee. Think about including testimonials from happy staff on why they joined the company.
Don?t forget to talk about support, training, and benefits. These new workers are all about getting ahead and having a balanced life. What can you offer to help new hires get to their potential sooner? Describe what training and support systems are in place and how quickly you except a new hire to flourish in their new position. Talk about extracurricular activities such as networking events, sports-team participation, team-building exercises to build comradery towards a fun and beneficial environment. If you have unique perks, brag about them and create some excitement about the company.
Another good idea is to include video clips which can be done by the key management team, discussing why they built the company, what makes them different, and how they plan to grow or how they invest in the products and people.
Include detailed job profiles for each position. Saying that they are expected to ?call on people to sell advertising? is not enough information. Share all that is included and expected in the position in a way that welcomes someone and doesn?t scare them off. Be up front so there are fewer surprises down the road.
Make it easy for someone to apply for a position via your website by either having an email address link which goes to whoever is responsible for hiring or to an applicant tracking system if you have one. Most importantly, make sure someone is regularly screening those emails so you don?t miss out on some quality people. Response time is key, so make sure someone is accountable for checking at least daily if not more often.
If you don?t have updated social media pages, get them and use them. Get the word out about open positions and drive traffic to your career page by promoting it on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Brag about what unique things you are doing for your staff on your company pages, ask your staff to like and share with their connections. Be known as a great employer where people are passionate about landing a job (think Google for one) and it will help your recruiting immensely.
Be creative and think about offering a referral bonus to your followers as a call to action encouraging them to think of a friend or peer who may be a good fit for your position.
Market to those in your database about upcoming opportunities; remember, they may not be interested in a new career today, but tomorrow is another day!
Laurie Kahn is founder and president of Media Staffing Network. She can be reached at 312-944-9194.
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