Contrary to what you may think, recruitment begins long before the job advertisement goes live. Your recruitment strategy should therefore include a plan or process of recruitment pre-advertising steps to ensure that:
Recruitment pre-advertising is a key part of the recruitment and selection process, and this article is going to explore this topic further, outlining the main steps and the importance of each one.
Did you realise that your company culture is an invaluable asset in the recruitment pre-advertising process? A happy workforce will promote your company through their behaviour and word-of-mouth recommendations. This unsolicited approval will impress prospective candidates, confirming that your company is the place to work in the local area.
It is therefore essential that you build a strong employer brand, developing a reputation and image that shows your company treats employees with respect, rewards hard workers and is understanding and flexible in attitude. The employer brand is about your reputation as an employer, projecting your values both internally and externally and highlighting the positive experience of working for your company, confirming your position in the industry as a local employer of choice.
There are several key elements essential to building a strong employer brand:
Culture – The mission and values as well as the working environment, interaction with employees and their level of engagement.
Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – Key elements of working for the company, such as compensation, career opportunities, personal development, recognition, and work-life balance. Everything your company offers to employees in return for their commitment, experience, skills and knowledge.
Reputation – With your employees, potential job candidates and the broader community, such as your role in the local community and charity support.
Candidate experience – A positive candidate experience with clear communication and a smooth application process can enhance the employer brand.
Employee brand ambassadors – The positive experience of employees and their perception of your organisation as being a good place to work results in them spreading the word locally among their friends and acquaintances. Their loyalty and advocacy whether through social media, word of mouth, or customer-facing corporate activities such as exhibitions, job fairs and local community events, will influence the perception of others.
Authenticity – Consistent messaging via all touchpoints will underline the company’s vision and values. Alignment with the brand identity reinforces the authenticity and credibility of your employer brand.
So, how can you create a strong employer brand? Effectively listen to and engage your employees through surveys, internal branding campaigns, employee awards and by creating a programme that rewards commitment, initiative and long service. Highlight company culture, leverage positive employee testimonials and reviews on corporate social media platforms and websites. These actions will reinforce your company’s authenticity and credibility within your industry and underline your attractiveness as a local employer.
If you would like to read more about employer branding and its benefits to the recruitment and selection process, this is an interesting white paper from LinkedIn.
What is social proof? In essence, social proof is when people use the actions, opinions and behaviours of other people to guide their own decision-making process. In a recruitment context, social proof is influence, exerted by the authenticity and reputation of your organisation and the experiences of present and past employees on their own perceptions and decisions.
It is therefore an important step in recruitment pre-advertising because it builds trust and credibility, helping prospective candidates to form positive perceptions about the company before they engage in the recruitment process. They are more likely to trust a company when they see others sharing positive reviews, opinions and experiences.
We explained above why building a strong employer brand is important. Social proof helps validate and authenticate a company’s reputation both locally and in the wider environment by reinforcing values and messages, demonstrating that the experiences of employees match your promises as an employer.
Social proof plays a major part in attracting candidates to work for a company by underlining it as a local employer of choice. If candidates see evidence of engaged, loyal, committed and happy employees, they are more likely to apply for a position with your company.
Changing jobs brings an element of risk. Social proof provides believable evidence that working for a particular employer will be a positive experience, thus improving the confidence of candidates and helping to reduce the risk factor. Social proof also contributes to employee retention. If prospective candidates see evidence of long-serving employees, it will highlight their engagement and loyalty, again reducing the risk for those seeking new positions.
We all recognise the importance of Google reviews when making purchases, but they are about much more than the quality of the product or service provided. Remember that these reviews may be read by prospective candidates, as well as customers, so they should be handled professionally and honestly, without getting into arguments or exacerbating the situation.
Even more important to the credibility of a local employer brand, are the reviews on job sites such as Indeed and Glassdoor, which were key to highlighting the importance of the employer brand to the recruitment and selection process. Reviews on these sites are from both current and past employees, so the feedback they provide to organisations is crucial to combatting negative feedback and creating a strong employer brand.
As the majority of prospective candidates, today will research what employees say about their employer before even thinking about applying for a position. Brand management of reviews is therefore crucial to attracting the right calibre of candidates for a role. Honesty and integrity should shine through when handling negative feedback, and always remember that prospective employees will read company responses intently.
How your company handles negative reviews will project your brand values outwards to anyone who may read them. It is important, therefore, to ensure the right individual within your team answers negative reviews, promptly and politely. The issue highlighted by the reviewer should be acknowledged while outlining the actions the company has taken or will take to rectify it.
Always be honest and authentic to your brand values when responding. Your response also provides an opportunity to highlight some positive changes or actions in your company. These actions will underline the authenticity of the employer brand, as well as reflect the values of the company itself. You can read more about how to approach negative reviews in this article from Zippia.
Social proof plays a critical role in the recruitment process by influencing potential candidate’s perceptions of the company, so negative reviews can be an impending minefield for employers. But if handled honestly, positively and authentically, responses can help to build a positive company culture internally, locally and within the wider community.
The final step in recruitment pre-advertising is to optimise digital channels to attract and engage prospective candidates. How can you do this?
Make sure the careers page on your company’s website is engaging and compelling. Too often, career pages on websites are staid and old-fashioned. Put yourself in the position of a prospective candidate and create content that will attract them to your company such as; values and goals, positive employee reviews, perks and benefits, local community initiatives, compelling videos and photos that demonstrate what you do. Make sure that information is easy to find, and that the page has a ‘call to action’ for downloading more information, application forms, contact details and location maps.
Prioritise data security and compliance to make sure that candidate data is confidential and protected and provide clear messaging about privacy and data usage to candidates.
As part of this process, check that your website is optimised for mobiles, as most people today will go through the whole application process on their mobile devices. Pages that are cut off, or ‘call to action’ buttons that don’t work are major no-nos. Part of a positive candidate experience is to ensure the application process is streamlined and easy to access. For more tips on how to optimise your company website to attract top candidates, please read this LinkedIn article.
Use your social media channels to engage with prospective candidates by sharing updates, highlighting local community activities and interacting with comments. Showcase employee rewards programmes, experiences and testimonials, through quotes, videos and photos. Use questionnaires, or polls to gauge opinion and engage with respondents. Build a following on your social media channels via shared culture and values, which will attract passive candidates, so that you will have a candidate pool already waiting when you start to advertise roles.
By preparing digital channels as part of your recruitment pre-advertising strategy, you will enhance your attractiveness as a local employer of choice, attract a higher calibre of candidates, streamline the recruitment and selection process and create a positive candidate experience.
In this article, we have outlined the steps for recruitment pre-advertising to ensure that you have everything in place to create a positive candidate experience. A strong employer brand reinforces your reputation as a caring employer, backed up by the social proof of employee loyalty and engagement. The transparent and honest handling of negative reviews will only enhance your company values and professionalism, making your business an attractive prospect to high-calibre candidates.
Optimising digital channels and your online presence to highlight your attractiveness as a local employer of choice, and using these channels to streamline the application process, will strengthen your employer brand and ensure prospective candidates enjoy a positive experience when interacting with your company. If you need help to put a recruitment pre-advertising process in place, or you are not sure where to start, why not book an appointment with the Oliver King Consulting team? We can work through the process with you and offer guidance at every step to make sure that your company is the employer of choice for the highest calibre of applicants before a job advertisement goes live.
In today’s job market, many recruiters are finding it difficult to fill roles, and finding the right candidate sometimes feels like an impossible task. The experience vs skills debate in recruitment and selection is longstanding, but with the ever-evolving nature of today’s fast-paced business environment, companies need to ensure they employ an adaptable and flexible workforce that can respond quickly to changes in the business environment.
With experience vs skills hiring, both approaches have their merits, so along with the benefits we have highlighted below, you may like to read an article written for Job Majestic by Executive Search Consultant Jess Low – ‘Experience vs. skills: Which is more important for hiring?’
Experienced workers can provide an instant return on the recruitment investment. Implementing an experienced-based recruitment strategy can often mean that new employees hit the ground running and can make an immediate impact in the role. This is particularly effective for time-sensitive projects.
Experience in a certain field can also indicate a level of expertise or depth of knowledge that may not be equalled by a skillset. Previous experience can reduce the risk associated with new starters, as those with knowledge of the role are more likely to be familiar with its responsibilities.
This can also mean that hiring an experienced candidate can encourage client confidence, in financial institutions, for example.
Skills demonstrate a candidate’s fitness for the advertised role. A company more concerned with longevity and versatility than an immediate return on recruitment investment may implement a skills-based recruitment strategy.
Skilled candidates may bring a fresh perspective and a problem-solving approach, resulting in a more innovative and dynamic workforce. Companies can tailor their workforce by hiring candidates with the specific skills required for projects and tasks at hand.
A comprehensive skillset highlights a candidate’s ability to learn and adapt to changes. This may be especially beneficial in industries where advancements in technology affect job requirements. Therefore, training employees with the required skills may be more cost-effective than hiring an experienced professional for the same role. This can be efficient when dealing with people shortages for specific roles.
The evolving nature of business today, with advancements in technology and changes in the way companies operate and market products, means that teams have to be flexible and able to adapt quickly.
We explored some of the main challenges of the current recruitment industry in an article titled ‘The evolution of recruitment’ but there are many other factors affecting the job market including:
It can be challenging for in-house recruiters to keep their recruitment process up to date in a rapidly changing environment whilst under pressure from so many external factors. However, with Oliver King Consulting as your recruitment partner, you have the assurance that we are aware of every nuance affecting the recruitment industry. We will work with you (or your HR team if you have one) to ensure you have a streamlined recruitment process in place, providing a good pool of the right candidates while offering them a high-quality candidate experience. Contact us or book an appointment to discuss your recruitment challenges and how the Oliver King Consulting team can help you overcome them.
While possessing previous experience may be beneficial in some ways, hiring new employees based solely on their previous experience could prevent your organisation from meeting its goals.
To avoid these potential drawbacks, the recruitment and selection process should be based on a balanced approach, assessing candidates as a whole – their experience, skills, soft skills, values, adaptability, and potential for personal and professional development. You may like to read this Forbes article from last year, ‘Why skills-based hiring is on the rise’, to learn more about skills-based hiring.
We have mentioned transferrable skills earlier in this article. They are defined as non-role-specific skills that can be applied across different roles and circumstances. As the business environment continues to evolve, organisations have to adapt or pivot quickly. A flexible workforce able to take on board new technologies or changes in trading conditions is essential for remaining competitive. Therefore, more importance is now being placed on transferrable skills during the recruitment and selection process. For companies pursuing a sustainable recruitment strategy, the scope for employee development boosts retention levels thus reducing the cost of hiring.
Sometimes called ‘soft skills’, these qualities are not attached to any particular job role. The following skills benefit employers by contributing to the long-term success of the organisation:
The key points for organisations adopting transferrable skills as the building blocks of their workforce are:
The ability to move seamlessly between roles and adapt quickly to new challenges and concepts.
Soft skills can be relevant in different professional situations as individuals are more versatile in their career paths, using their skills across varying roles.
Careers are no longer linear in form so candidates can use transferrable skills to move between different roles. They can explore different opportunities that align with their personal values.
Particularly in the case of sustainable recruitment, employers recognise the importance of transferrable skills as building blocks for an adaptable and flexible workforce that will evolve with the organisation while ensuring continuity and contributing to its longevity and success.
Transferrable skills highlight an individual’s capacity for lifelong learning and development, allowing them to acquire new knowledge and adapt quickly to changing circumstances as new technologies emerge or as the market evolves.
Adopting a recruitment strategy that recognises the importance of transferrable skills will provide an adaptable and versatile workforce, capable of evolving as the business landscape changes.
As we have outlined in this article, transitioning to skills-based hiring recruitment brings numerous benefits to businesses, but it can also present challenges:
Transitioning to a skills-based hiring model requires planning and a commitment to finding solutions to these challenges:
A successful transition to a skills-based recruitment process can often involve a cultural shift in perspective within organisations, as well as adopting a different mindset to recruitment and an acceptance of the necessity for a resilient workforce that can align with company values and evolve with the business as the environment changes. You can further explore this topic in an article called ‘Stop hiring for experience, start hiring for skills’, featured on Recruitment.com
Businesses seeking reduced employee turnover as part of a sustainable recruitment strategy should emphasise transferable skills in recruitment and selection i.e. skills that can adapt to multiple roles or environments, such as lifelong learning, communication skills, problem-solving, and teamwork etc. possessing these skills demonstrates that individuals are more versatile and open to exploring new opportunities with their current employer. Furthermore, hiring for skills enlarges the candidate pool, promotes a more diverse workforce and improves employee retention.
Companies should weigh up the experience vs. skills approach to find the right balance between skills, qualifications and previous experience to align with their strategic goals and company values, as well as for the role itself. If you need help reassessing your current recruitment strategy to build a more resilient and forward-thinking workforce that can adapt to an ever-changing business environment, book an appointment with the Oliver King consulting team. We can troubleshoot your processes and guide you to create a proactive recruitment and selection process to focus on enthusiastic candidates with the right skills to evolve with your business.
According to an article in People Management, SMEs are facing many recruitment challenges with more than 25% unable to fill workforce gaps left vacant by lost staff. Of the 500 companies surveyed, more than half reported running costs above the rate of inflation and almost all have suffered from an increase in costs as a direct result of the cost of living crisis. Small businesses are particularly hard hit and are facing several recruitment difficulties:
In the face of these challenges, many small businesses are casting their recruitment net nearer to home, applying strategies for local recruitment as a sustainable solution for attracting and retaining candidates, while enhancing their role within the local community.
Small businesses can’t compete with larger companies with big recruitment budgets, so are losing out when it comes to recruiting the best candidates from the talent pool. The longer the recruitment process takes, the more it costs, and small businesses are losing out.
If your company normally handles the recruitment process itself, these factors can seem especially challenging. At Oliver King Consulting, we work with you to remove barriers from the process, so if you feel you are not attracting the right calibre of candidates and would like to implement a local campaign, book an appointment to talk about your options.
During the last few years, we have all noticed the focus of businesses changing from a global to a local approach, as consumers have become more invested in their local communities. The following phrases have become buzzwords, yet they were not part of our psyche 20 years ago:
Consumers are actively supporting local businesses, and in turn, local businesses are discovering the benefits of hiring local talent.
Taking an active part in the local community can enhance a company’s brand reputation. Businesses working together to improve the local economy reap the rewards of reduced, from supplies to sustainable recruitment, while winning customer loyalty from residents. The economy grows stronger as workers spend their wages in other local businesses, fuelling prosperity within the locale.
Word-of-mouth recommendations from employees enhance the company’s reputation, increasing the odds of finding good staff locally.
Hiring locally brings environmental benefits too, most notably through reduced commuting. If the office is nearby, many employees will choose to walk or cycle to work. If a car journey is necessary, because staff come from the local community, short bus routes or car shares become more viable.
Local employees benefit from a better work-life balance because they spend less time commuting. A short walk or cycle ride enhances a feeling of well-being and gives workers time to separate their working life from their home life. An extra benefit of a short commute is that staff may prefer to work in the office, building a work community.
In addition, staff who anxiously spend time sitting in traffic jams, have time to reflect on their situation and may associate the anxiety of the commute with the job itself. The commute can therefore influence overall job dissatisfaction, leading to an increase in staff turnover.
Employees who are not stressed out by the commute, benefit from walking to work with colleagues, and feel like they belong to a work community, will be happier and more productive. Dissatisfied workers may come to resent their employer and won’t have the same attention to detail or the focus, energy or conscientiousness as happy workers, and be less productive as a result.
We have already touched on the benefits to the local economy, but local workers are more invested. They benefit from local shops and services and are less inclined to travel for leisure purposes if everything they need is within the local area. This results in a growing local economy and a higher rate of employee retention.
Advertising nationally/internationally makes the recruitment process longer and of course, more expensive. Hiring local talent offers a sustainable, cost-effective and time-efficient solution.
Employees who feel part of a brand’s culture and valued in the workplace tend to stay longer and may seek career progression within the company, rather than looking elsewhere. You can read more on this subject in our article about the benefits of building a strong employer brand. Hiring local workers results in better connections through attending meetings in person and socialising with colleagues outside work.
The wider you cast your recruitment net the more there is to consider:
However, recruiting locally avoids these costly issues. If you want to know more, this LinkedIn article outlines the advantages and disadvantages of hiring locally.
There are lots of positive steps you can take to build an effective online local recruitment strategy. The aim is to make people excited at the prospect of working for your company.
Give your brand more personality, especially on the careers page. Actively promote why working for your company is great by optimising career prospects, employee benefits, social clubs, sporting activities etc. Think about an FAQ page for careers, where you can address questions and concerns, or better still, your existing employees can! Post vacancies on your homepage with a link to the careers section, or utilise a ‘now hiring’ banner, so candidates don’t have to search for the careers section. Invite visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, advertising the latest vacancies.
Have you thought about using AI chatbots on your careers page to answer questions from prospective employees? You can programme these resources to pop up and ask whether the candidate has questions about your company as an employer.
Invite department heads to write blogs about their department, their teams and interesting projects they are working on.
Sharing the news via many different media on social media platforms gives people a window into your company culture. Posting the latest vacancies on your social media platforms encourages two-way communication with possible candidates. Encourage existing employees to post the vacancies on their profiles too. If you have strong links to your customer base and have already built a following for your brand via social media, your customers will publicise job vacancies for you by sharing them on their profiles.
Add employee profiles to your social media posts, with videos about what they do, employee interviews/testimonials etc. Create or use existing hashtags, so your key phrase becomes related to other posts, boosting its circulation.
Do you have a company YouTube Channel? As well as posting videos showing what you do, you could repurpose recruitment videos and others, for example, internal awards ceremonies and charity events to highlight your employer brand.
There are lots of job boards out there where you can post vacancies for a fraction of the cost of more traditional advertising. Candidates can search and filter through the listings to find positions that fit their salary expectations and other requirements, including geographical areas. There may be job boards for a specific locality, such as local online newspapers or community magazines for example.
Online forums or professional communities can be used to identify professionals for specific company roles especially if you already have employees subscribed or registered with professional groups.
Be active in Facebook communities, taking an interest in what is happening in the local area and posting job vacancies among other interesting content.
Paid online advertising gives you the option to use job titles as keywords, so they come up in Google searches.
Alongside online activities, there are actions you can take face-to-face when building a sustainable local recruitment process.
Whether local job fairs with other companies or your corporate event, this is an effective way of attracting local workers at a low cost. Another way of meeting prospective candidates is to hold open days for local schools and colleges, so students can be informed about the jobs on offer and their career prospects with your company.
Talk to local schools and colleges, sending a department head or someone from HR to give a talk about your company and the jobs available.
Both recruitment events and school talks offer interactive communication and are a good way to get to know about rising stars and the potential of the local talent pool.
Take advantage of your established business network by asking employees to share job vacancies with their social groups. Contact past candidates who may have been unsuccessful in their application for one role but may be suitable for the latest vacancy. Some candidates could have taken your advice about extra training or e-learning and may now be more suitable.
If you regularly attend networking groups, you may have the opportunity to speak to other local businesses about vacancies and obtain recommendations. In addition, there could be online job boards that you could utilise.
Get other local businesses to help you by putting posters in the windows of newsagents, cafés or other retail outlets, or leaving newsletters on the counter. It costs nothing to ask, and if you are all members of a local business group, they may well say yes!
Offer incentives to employees for candidate referrals. Referral programmes can motivate existing employees to become more active in your recruitment process via rewards or bonuses. If all of this looks a bit daunting, why not talk to the experts at Oliver King Consulting to find out how we can help you put together the right local recruitment strategy as a sustainable solution for your business?
