Recruitment + Marketing = The Modern-day Recruiting Professional
"In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author
As the job market evolves to the candidate’s benefit, recruiters are finding the landscape more competitive. Skills that were once enough, no longer fit the bill. Recruiters now have to learn to develop new skills along with discovering how to leverage effective processes from other aspects of the business. Specifically, talent acquisition has a lot to learn from the marketing department, but recruitment marketing is more than just aligning recruiters and marketers behind your employment brand.
“The war on talent is won today not with a continual churn of warm bodies. This war is won by acquiring souls.” – Craig Fisher, CEO of TalentNet
I love that quote from one of Craig’s recent blogs. I think he gets to the heart of the matter. Firms and talent acquisition professionals are finding that times have changed. Many candidates interviewing today don’t expect to work a job for 35 years and retire with a gold watch. Now, candidates are mercenaries for hire. The best candidates are continually acquiring skills, expanding their network by making connections, and always on the lookout for the next challenge. Craig asserts, “We must make work so compelling, vital and urgent that our workforce feels constantly challenged, appreciated and that they are continually growing. We must give them the tools to be more efficient. And we must make it easy for them to work when and where they want.” Recruiters have to be ready to be learners again and not rely on what used to work to get the job done.
Realistically though, you don’t have to have the largest budget to solve these issues. Engagement drives the bus and recruitment marketing can be a useful lever to pull when connecting and building relationships with your candidates and talent community at large. So, as a recruiter, how and where do you get started? How should you engage both the internal and external key players? How do you identify your target audience and market? How tailored do your messages need to be? How should recruitment marketing be leveraging and complementing the employment brand?
You aren’t expected to have all the answers yet; it’s a process and you have to be ready to learn. So, if you are ready to start exploring how to leverage recruitment marketing, connect with me on Wednesday, March 18 at 12 p.m. EDT for the HCI webcast, Recruitment Marketing: Engaging Your Internal and External Influencers to Attract Top Talent. I’ll be joined by Kim Pope, Vice President of Recruitment Solutions at WilsonHCG, a top global recruitment process outsourcing provider, and Craig Fisher, CEO at TalentNet, a social business strategy firm, as we share recruitment marketing best practices and shine the light on some pitfalls to avoid.
Register for the “Recruitment Marketing: Engaging Your Internal and External Influencers to Attract Top Talent,” webinar here: http://bit.ly/181DQoX