Let us share our recruitment insights and industry trends with you

The recruitment landscape is changing faster than ever before. Managing Director Sharon Davies shares her insights on how to future proof your recruitment strategy.

If you've read our latest report you'll know that the recruitment landscape is changing faster than ever. Job boards are no longer the primary source of candidates. Job seeker behaviour and priorities are changing. My prediction: Today’s big job boards are going to go the way of the dodo, in the same way that newspapers classifieds have - within the next 3 years. In the face of these constant changes, how can you future proof your recruitment strategy? 

Get yourself a great careers website that helps you engage with talent 24/7.

“Siri, show me receptionist jobs in Mornington”  

From the emergence of smart scraping sites that can copy content, through to the prediction that 50% of searches will be voice activated by 2020, (“Hello Siri? Show me receptionist jobs in Mornington”), assuming a $300 Seek or TradeMe advert is the best way to help you reach the right candidate is a risky strategy.

Employers have plenty of opportunity to get savvy with how they spend their recruitment dollars, but all the great advertising in the world isn’t necessarily enough to get the quality applications and candidates through your door. Making sure you have a great careers site is Recruitment Advertising Success Strategy 101.

53% of candidates will research your company website before applying to your job advert.  What will they find when they google you? 

There are few managers today who would argue the value of a website to promote your company’s products and services to potential clients.  But when it comes to an online presence for HR, I can’t believe how many firms are still stuck in 2010!    

If you don’t have a careers website – or at the very least a single page that is focussed specifically on talking to potential employees, you are missing an important element of a successful recruitment strategy.   

A good careers page is one of the most simple and effective ways to give job hunters what they want, when they want it.  As with all communication, talking to your target audience in their language and giving them compelling reasons why they should be interested in YOU, is paramount.  

The stats don’t lie.

Back to my opening statement, I believe that as the media get more and more focused on solving their own business problems (such as how to control the flow of data and how they can monitise candidate information), they are forgetting to innovate to solve customer problems.    

Knowing that potential candidates are looking for jobs, researching companies and deciding where to apply 24/7, it’s a no brainer that if you don’t have an up to date, relevant and engaging careers site, you’re missing out.

Yes, some of the larger sites have introduced the option of a career profile to support your advert and that’s great. However it’s limited to – and linked to – advertising on their site.  Think about it: today you’re reaching out to prospective employees on social media, advertising on multiple platforms and if you’re lucky, talent is trying to find out how to work for you. It only does half the job to have a careers page on a job board.  I recommend you own it instead.

The stats don’t lie – a good careers website drives applications.

Here at Talent Propeller, we help hundreds of clients to run great recruitment campaigns and yes, full disclosure, we do create careers pages and careers sites.  And they work!  Here’s proof.   Of more than 750,000 visits by applicants to our clients’ online application forms to end of June this year, 23% of them have come from a ‘Why work for us’ or ‘Join our Team’ page.   

This shows that not only are potential candidates checking you out and deciding whether they want to join your team before they apply, but your website is a powerful tool and having an agnostic careers portal that you own can drive applications.   

We’re seeing Councils and great brand name employers getting applications and expressions of interest without even needing to advertise. In some cases, the careers site is delivering MORE applications than the Seek advert that cost $375. How’s that for great ROI?  In Summary: A good careers page helps convince good talent they need to apply to work for you.

What’s your Employer Brand Value Proposition (EBVP)?    

Sure, having a well known brand and a reputation in your industry goes a long way to enticing candidates to apply to your job ads. But if you’re a small business, when it comes time to hire, you are competing for good candidates.  You need to tell them specifically why they want to WORK for you, not just to BUY from you. 

HR and Marketing can work together on this one. It’s about finding the WHY: why your current staff enjoy working for you, why your business does what it does (your culture and vision) and why someone would want to join your team.  

Let’s be honest, you want to entice skilled candidates to work for you and not your competitors. So stop thinking about it and start making it happen.  

Getting started is easy

• I firmly believe that every business who is ever going to hire staff should at least have a ‘ ‘Why work for us’ page on their current website.   Even if it’s a static page with some good copy; take the time to outline the key benefits of working with you and highlight some of the great achievements your current staff have made.   Don’t assume that just because you have an Indeed or LinkedIn company page that this job is done. Own it!

• When you’re ready to go beyond the single page, if you don’t have a web developer you’re working with, then we can help you with a really cost effective microsite. We’ll reflect your branding and make it a seamless link from your main site.  For less than $999 in most cases, we can include employee videos, stories and links to your current vacancies to make it easy for candidates to apply.

For a complete 360˚ approach, consider working with a Recruitment Partner who will assist with Shortlisting candidates and providing expert, transparent advice throughout the entire journey. For more free recruitment and onboarding advice, check out our other blogs at https://talentpropeller.com.au/blog.