Recruiters have stated that if given the opportunity, they would not rehire 39% of the candidates they selected. For talent acquisition professionals, that's a tough statistic to take.
As Abby Euler, Global Marketing Evangelist for Talent Acquisition at IBM discussed in a podcast recording, forward-thinking brands now treat candidate recruiting as marketing. And, as in modern marketing, social technology is transforming the process.
Here are some of the ways that transformation is taking place.
Helping Qualified Candidates Identify Themselves
One of the first successful experiments in candidate self-identification occurred in 2004 when Google posted a mathematical puzzle on a billboard in Silicon Valley. Here's a photo of that billboard.
The answer led to a web page with another equation to solve. There was still no hint of who was responsible for these quizzes or why they were doing it. Only the innately curious and gifted would continue down the rabbit hole, and those were exactly the people Google sought.
To those who stuck with it, and continued to get the right answers, it was finally revealed that Google was their host and questioner. And that's when they were asked if they would be interested in a job with Google.
While this is a great story of out-of-the-box engagement, flash forward 11 years and major brands now have the benefit of social technologies that Google did not have in 2004, making new ways to engage more possible than ever.
Getting Social with Candidates
In social media, relationships can be developed and enriched, and interactions can be measured to help identify the best candidates.
In 2014, after receiving an unmanageable 31,000 (mostly unqualified) applications via job boards, Zappos dropped their use of job boards altogether and, instead, started driving interested individuals from their website and social media to their career site.
There, candidates learn about Zappos teams and Zappos culture and are invited to become Zappos Insiders. By becoming a Zappos Insider, candidates start to build a relationship with the brand, and, over time, can get top consideration for openings as they become available. Meanwhile, recruiters learn more about Insiders than they would ever learn from a resume alone.
The experience is far more rewarding for everyone involved.
Candidates Study Employers
Social sites like Glassdoor give candidates an opportunity to learn about prospective employers. Do they treat employees well? Do they treat customers well? Are there really opportunities to advance?
Between checking with people they've met, their connections on LinkedIn, and sites like Glassdoor, today's candidates (on average) check with 18 or more sources before accepting a job offer.
This is one of the reasons why brands must think of their employees as brand ambassadors, and treat them that way. Testimonials from employees are essential. So are clear and genuine portrayals of the company's culture. The big canned food drive that employees run looks great on local TV and on your website, and it also looks great to candidates who increasingly believe that a job is more than a paycheck.
Candidate Relationship Management
At IBM Talent Acquisition, CRM stands for Candidate Relationship Management, and the software is the same as CRM for consumers marketing.
By using the personalization capabilities of CRM and consumer grade email marketing automation, recruiters can now deliver messages and site content based on candidate choices - you selected A, so we are sending you B -- just as marketers use the very same tools to deliver messages and content to consumers. In the end, each candidate's experience is unique, and recruiters are speaking to an audience of one.
Time will tell if recruiting as marketing brings down that 39% number substantially. If it does, it will be a major victory in the talent acquisition field, and social technology will deserve a lot of the credit.
On This Social Business Engine Podcast Episode You'll Discover
- The impact an employee has on their employer's brand and why each employee is potentially a brand ambassador.
- The role of a company's culture in recruiting and how not all of your employees' referrals may fit your culture.
- How an eye-catching career site and CRM (Candidate Relationship Management) plays a pivotal role in a "recruitment is marketing" strategy.
- Why you should apply A/B Testing in recruitment engagement to collect data and choose the right message.
Featured On This Episode of the Social Business Engine Podcast
- Abby Euler on LinkedIn
- IBM's Talent Acquisition Suite Recruitment is Marketing
- Download Social Business Journal Vol. 6: Inclusive Design in a Cognitive Era
- Subscribe to the Social Business Engine show
- Write a review of this podcast in iTunes
- Bernie Borges on Twitter: @bernieborges
- Social Business Engine on Twitter: @sbengine