Include Recruitment Marketing In Your Hiring Strategy [infographic] – Friday Distraction

Sharlyn Lauby

8 Apr 2016

Before I made the decision to become a consultant, I interviewed consultants. I asked their advice and they were very gracious to share best practices and lessons learned. One person told me – “Never stop marketing.” They told me a story about landing a huge client which was very lucrative and thinking they could stop marketing (because they had this great client.) Then the great client cancelled the contract. And they were stuck.

The same philosophy applies to recruiting. Just because you don’t have a job opening doesn’t mean you should stop recruiting. Organizations need to use recruitment marketing tools to proactively attract and engage passive candidates and build “pools” of talent for future hiring needs.

Our friends at iCIMS recently released a research study, “Recruitment Marketing: Fad or Future?” which shares insights on the relevance of recruitment marketing, and why employers should consider it as part of their hiring strategy.

iCIMS analyzed data from more than 760 human resources professionals and candidates. The research was conducted to shed light on the rise and impact of the consumer candidate and the emerging trends within recruitment marketing.

I must admit some information in the report was not a surprise. For example, 90 percent of HR professionals agree that having a strong employment brand is more important today than it was five years ago. But what did surprise me were the steps that HR pros are taking to strengthen their brand using recruitment marketing:

86 percent said recruitment marketing automation is an effective strategy to identify, attract, engage and nurture candidates.
76 percent have seen a strong return-on-investment from the use of recruitment marketing automation tools.
48 percent currently have or plan to hire someone in 2016 who is responsible for recruitment marketing.

Human resources departments need to utilize recruitment marketing strategies to keep their talent pipelines filled with the best talent. Technology can help. Just like in every business, marketing gets you the best customers…it will get you the best candidates too.