What is Recruitment Advertising - And what can HR Managers learn from real estate?
Ensuring the campaign pitch is right, the pricing is at market value and you get the right buyers through the property is key to securing a top price.
A successful recruitment campaign has similar underlying values. You need to find buyers (candidates), promote your vacancy well and attract the best talent (or in real estate terms; get those premium offers).
So why do so many businesses get it wrong?
We believe when it comes to real estate, most people understand they aren’t experts and don’t risk it with their biggest asset. When it comes to recruitment, however, it’s a different story!
Slapping a DIY job advert online and expecting amazing candidates to flow in is akin to using iPhone photos to sell your backyard. If your employees are your biggest asset, shouldn’t you treat your recruitment campaign with the same degree of seriousness you do a house sale?
A successful recruitment campaign starts with understanding your ideal target audience. What are they doing now, what are they looking for and how will they find you? Why would they leave their current job to work for you? What’s so great about your offer?
This insight helps you to craft the copy of your recruitment advert. The number one mistake we see regularly is a cut/paste of the position description, masquerading as a job advert. A PD tells and an advert sells - and you need to sell your vacancy to attract the best candidates. For example, “Stylish, modern office close to cafes” is the recruitment equivalent of ‘location, location, location’ in real estate terms.
Too often employers focus on what they want, not what they offer. Imagine if real estate adverts led with: “You must have $500,000, be able to settle in 30 days and this house isn’t suitable for pets”. Not very engaging is it! Yet in recruitment advertising, we see lists of ‘you must have’ bullet points every day. Your requirements are important but the number one focus of the advert must be what’s in it for the job seeker if you want to attract the best talent.
Where you advertise is important too. There are big job boards and there is social media, there are also local and industry-specific publications. Understanding who you are trying to reach is key in choosing where to spend your money. Just going with the biggest/cheapest doesn’t always get you the best result. Now that online job boards decide who they will show what job adverts to based on their previous searches (and your budget), it’s more important than ever to do your research to make sure you are getting the best value. Or ask an expert.
Finally, the objective of recruitment advertising is to produce a shortlist of excellent candidates to choose from. Just as you present your home in its best light during open for inspections, you need to make sure candidates have a great experience at all touchpoints in their application journey. You want to avoid having your ideal candidate pull out because they got a better offer or decided it wasn’t a good fit. Reducing that risk is in your hands: from how quickly you respond, to how engaging you are at an interview, to how respectfully you manage their application. Would you dream of stating ‘’only successful offers will be responded to” on your real estate advert? Probably not, because it is quite disrespectful when someone’s taken the time to put together an application for your consideration. The same applies to candidates in the job market.
If you are busy and don’t have time, a candidate management system can help automate some of this to ensure you put your best foot forward.
For more advice, check out blogs at Big Splash and Talent Propeller or give us a call. We’d love to chat