SourceCon Atlanta delivered great insights into the changing nature of our industry. If you missed it, you should know that one of the underlying themes was “recruitment marketing is coming.” We are living in a time of unprecedented job advertising. In the US alone there are currently over seven million jobs advertised.
For the first time in a generation, in many places, there are more people than jobs. With that kind of money being spent on advertising jobs it should come as no surprise that the traditional methods of attracting talent are not as effective as they once were.
Tim Sackett shared some great tips on how to improve the performance of your job advertisements. The very first thing you need to do is learn about Google Jobs, if you haven’t already. Google formally entering the job advertising space is a serious change in the market and as sourcers we need to learn how to adapt to those changes.
Sackett shared a few specific tips that will help your jobs show up higher on job searches. The first tip was to include the salary range. Google will reward you by moving your job higher if you have the salary listed.
Another way to move up the search results is to put the specific address of the job’s location. The last way that Google determines results that is different from the past is that they look at how much “friction” there is to apply. Friction is their term for the hoops we make candidates jump through before we respond to them. In the Google, algorithm priority is given to companies that offer the least effort to express interest.
His final bit of advice about job posting was “don’t hide the jobs.” You need to post all of your jobs because candidates aren’t going to find their way to search your careers page for jobs they might be a fit for unless you drive them there. Instead, 47% of online job seekers now start their job search by typing in x job near me into Google. That means this is something everyone who posts jobs needs to learn.
In his next talking point, Sackett spoke about how to improve outreach and response rates. We need to learn how to talk to Gen Z now because the millennials are now the aging part of the workforce. Gen Z has grown up with hyper-personalization. Tools like Bomb Bomb make it quick and easy for a recruiter to send a customized video to a potential candidate.
Another topic Sackett spoke about was creating landing pages. If you are going to spend the time and energy to advertise, then you want to get the most from your investment. Landing pages can be easily customized and provide a way for a candidate to express interest in a role without having to complete an application up front. Sackett mentioned that Smashfly could do this, and tools too.
I think another important point Sackett raised was that good recruitment marketing isn’t just about driving more traffic to your job ads; it is about having people also self-select out. The lesson for me in this was that as we face more competition for candidates than ever before. The companies that succeed will be the ones that understand how to get their jobs in front of the right people at the right time while making it as simple as possible for those prospects to indicate their interest.