Companies spend thousands of dollars each year on recruitment marketing, all with one goal in mind: hire the right people. Budgets are allocated for recruitment marketing software platforms, search and social, pay per performance campaigns and hiring events. Companies and agencies are laser-focused on ROI data and dissecting advertising campaign metrics — like the number of applications, number of hires, cost per application (CPA) and cost per hire (CPH). Far too often, the strategy stops there.
But why should hiring be the end of the road? There is a gap here — an opportunity to help our marketing strategies extend “beyond the hire.” The value of existing employees is something all companies need to understand and prioritize; to make an integral part of their marketing ecosystems. Simply put, a company’s most important asset for recruitment is its employees.
Here are five ways to realize the value of your employees for your recruitment marketing strategy that extends “beyond the hire”:
Employee Advocacy
Employees can act as company ambassadors and advocates by sharing jobs and promoting company culture/employer brand pillars in an authentic, honest way.
Here are some statistics to showcase the true value of employee advocates:
- 70% of adults online reported trusting recommendations from friends and family, but only 15% trusted companies’ social media posts
- Content shared by employees (vs. brand channels) receives 8 times more engagement
- Employee posts get reshared up to 24x more than a branded post
- 44% of people say they are more likely to apply for a job if it is shared by someone in their network vs. another channel
- Content sees a 561% increase in audience when shared by employees vs. corporate channels alone
How do companies add this to their marketing strategy? Employees need guidance on what and why to post. Social Media Today states that, on average, less than 2% of employees are actually sharing content, and 33% are not sure what to post or why it’s worth it.
Employee-generated Content
How do companies get employees to generate content? Think videos, images, social posts, blog posts and webinars: the value of this content is unmatched for authenticity and can be used across marketing channels like career sites, social media, company review pages (like on Glassdoor and Indeed), email marketing and beyond. This is a generally inexpensive, raw and real way to create rich content, rather than going the pricier route of a photo/video shoot that can sometimes feel inauthentic.
Potential candidates are searching for ‘WIIFM’ (What’s in it for me?) content and want to imagine themselves working for a given company. Employee-generated content provides a glimpse of what it’s like to actually work there. In fact, 86% of Millennials believe that user-generated content accurately depicts a brand’s quality.
Employee-generated content represents employee engagement, and happy employees are the best form of marketing!
Here are some additional stats on user-generated content that showcase its value.
Employee Referrals
Employee referrals are the channel with the highest retention rates and ROI, making Employee Referral Programs (ERPs) an integral part of recruitment marketing strategies. ERP platforms/tools are effective, but only if there is a strategy in place. Here are some important initial questions to ask:
- Are employees aware of the tools?
- Have they been trained to use them correctly?
- Is there a program in place to motivate employees to actually refer? (WIIFM)?
- Has there been internal communication to promote the program?
Effectively communicating with employees and ensuring they have the proper tools for success can go a long way!
Internal Talent Communities
Managing internal Talent Communities is essential for internal mobility and employee growth/career development. If employees are happy, retention rates grow and they are more likely to be company advocates and make network referrals. In turn, this will boost overall organic hires in the long term.
In the market right now, the hot acronym is CRM (Candidate Relationship Management). Many companies believe investing in a CRM tool to manage communication with potential candidates is a no-brainer, so why wouldn’t they nurture employees beyond the hire? The same goes for career sites: Companies are so focused on the external candidate conversion funnel that the need for an internal career site is often overlooked. Once someone is hired, does that eliminate their need/desire for a great candidate experience? Hardly!
Measuring Employer Brand Perception
Interviewing or surveying employees to understand employer brand perception is key for success. There are many ways of doing this: a formal employer brand research project, software tools like TalentBrew Survey, or a homegrown solution (Formal employer brand research projects are fantastic, but not realistic for every company due to the resources required). However you proceed, leveraging this data to manage and shape the employer brand can help lower cost per hire, boost retention rates and increase employee referrals.
Understanding how current and past employees feel about your employer brand is critical for messaging and storytelling across recruitment marketing channels. Listening to employees’ opinions about culture, values, benefits/perks, management style, career development, etc., — and evolving based on that feedback — is vital to getting the most out of your recruitment marketing strategy.
