Why HR Needs To Learn From Marketing To Succeed
Here are all the reasons why HR needs to learn from marketing to succeed in every organization.
1. Influencer Marketing And Social Media
There is huge competition for attracting top talent. When a high-potential employee checks out a company, where do they go? Social Media of course!
- 81% of companies use social media for recruitment.
- 79% of job seekers use social media in their job search. Rising to 86% for younger job seekers in the first 10 years of their careers.
- 1 in 5 has applied for a job they learned about through social media.
Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and more recently Glassdoor are allowing high-potential talent to research not only the company, but the ratings and reviews of those who work there, and most importantly, those who have left. Potential talent is looking for clear signals on which companies to invest trust in. They are turning to peers and recognised online voices to inform job hunting decisions.
2. Set The Stage With Magnetic User Interface
After attracting potential talent, the last thing you want to do is direct them through a dated, clunky, and boring process designed to feed their information into an HR system. Is that the first impression you want to give?
- Make the process visually appealing.
- Provide opportunity to talk to a real person.
- Make the process simple, accessible and effective.
This is a common practice in customer service, so why wouldn’t you provide the same kind of attention to people who want to work for your company, be brand ambassadors, and lead you into the future?
3. Targeted Advertising And Touch Points
Let's be real...
When attracting talent, you are selling your vision, strategy, and values and hoping for their buy-in. A buyer’s decision is a tangled mess. What are the touch-points a person considers before buying a product? Wouldn't it make sense to approach talent acquisition in the same way?
- There are people talking online about their job hunting experiences. Why not show people targeted ads that can help them with their questions and problems?
- Why not consider populating those touch points with helpful information and inspiring content to drive action... like in marketing?
4. Promote Personal Brand Building
Turn your existing employees into Net Promoters.
- Give them the tools and the freedom to comment about the pride they have in the organization or post photos from a company picnic.
- Offer rewards for engagement and for recommending their talented friends to the company.
- Get them to blog about their role and showcase their achievements publicly. This type of content shows the prospective talent that their own success story is within reach.
5. Be Human
In this digital age, the most human of companies will always win. Technology is tearing down barriers such as constant communication and feedback, but at the same time erecting more with poor placement and implementation.
Guaranteed that if you have applied for a job recently, you will have undoubtedly been greeted with happy, stock images depicting employment satisfaction or images... or a perfectly diverse workforce presenting a bombardment of company information that would make War and Peace look like light reading.
- Use real stories.
- Use video and other rich media.
- Promote open communication such as text, live chat, or telephone calls to answer questions.