If you’re looking for a way to connect the dots between your employee shortage struggles and your digital marketing efforts, you’re not alone, but you are on the right track.
Traditionally, HR and marketing departments have operated independently with inbound tactics for an online presence, but we all know that a lot of things have shifted drastically over the last few years. Between the pandemic and the industry’s digital transformation, the way companies do business in all facets of an organization looks very different.
Additionally, the Great Resignation has shifted the power balance of the job hunt — companies now need to focus on selling themselves to potential employees rather than it solely being the other way around. HR and marketing need to work together on attracting these new workers.
Here are five ways that joining forces within your organization will lead to long-term success in solving your employee shortage problems.
1. A digital marketing strategy makes HR efforts more effective
There are two key things I always keep in mind whenever I start to develop content for any campaign:
- My intended end goal for this piece of content
- The specific audience to whom I’m writing
Without these two facts in mind, the digital marketing tactics you work on are in danger of being disconnected, floating through digital space without rhyme or reason or a way to measure if you’re successful.
The same can be applied to recruiting efforts.
Forming a digital marketing strategy for your HR department to follow will help you find exactly the right applicants your business is looking for — and give these applicants the information they need to be guided through their journey from job-seeker to employee. (An example of helpful content for this journey is this blog, “Brandpoint’s Hiring Process: What To Expect.”)
Chart out a persona for the positions you’re hiring for and think about what their challenges are, where they look for jobs online and what would help tell your company’s story in a compelling way. Then start forming your strategy, including content creation, paid ads and website development.
TIP: Treat these HR campaigns the same way you would treat any other marketing venture: audit yourself along the way to measure if you’re on the right track and seeing the results you’re hoping to gain.
2. Employer Branding = A Marketing Exercise
When you think about an employer branding campaign, what comes to mind? Website language, social media posts, examples of company culture shared in video or other media forms … these are all marketing tactics, right? Showcasing the values of your company and the perks of being on the team is made all the easier with HR and marketing working hand in hand.
This also includes a focus on your company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), another area where marketing, comms and HR should work directly together. Thought leadership articles, social media mentions and updates from your businesses’ CSR efforts should all be merchandised online — when job-seekers are on the hunt in this market, they’ll gravitate toward companies that are doing right by their community and staff.
Here are a few examples from our blog of articles we wrote to not only help our audience, but to share our company culture online:
- The State of Diversity & Inclusion at Brandpoint
- Brandpoint WFH: Highlights from the Last Two Years
- How Support from the Top Got Us Through the Pandemic
- 6 Lessons I Learned from Getting Hired in 2020: Tales from a Gen Z Marketer
3. Audience targeting techniques make a recruiter’s job a lot easier
Recruiting and sourcing can be like finding a needle in a haystack. You want a potential employee who fits not only the job’s requirements, but also your company culture and value set — however, it goes both ways. An applicant wants to know that they’re applying for something they think is a good fit, as well as finding a company that is in line with their professional goals.
Using a few different audience targeting tools, you’ll be able to reach the exact right applicants in the places where they’re conducing their own job hunt.
- Social media ads let you target by current job title, location and other relevant demographics. Deciding which platform to advertise on is another aspect to this tactic. Consider the demographic of who you’re looking to hire and put budget there.
- SEO research and keyword targeting will boost your company’s placements in search engines. Just like you create an SEO plan for your products and services by using words and phrases that your potential clients use to find solutions, you can do the same with your recruiting efforts. “Digital marketing agency jobs in Minneapolis,” for example, is more useful than “copywriter wanted.”
[Read More: Quality Content Series]
4. Marketing plans can help you scale high-volume search
A lot of companies facing employee shortages are ones that hire a large volume of staff on a regular basis, like manufacturing companies and similar industries. Maximizing your budget to include activities like events and job fairs, instructional videos, organic efforts and paid campaigns can help you do a lot with a little. You want to reach as many eyes as possible, and growing your audience online is one key to doing just that.
Marketing teams also have a lot of experience with partnerships and sponsorships, as well as repurposing content to get the most bang for their buck. For example, if you publish a blog post about “five reasons our company is great for college students,” think about who you can work with to get this employer branding content out there. Maybe partner with a local community college or workforce center and submit the post to their newsletter. Another idea would be to turn it into an online webinar and present it alongside a student-led organization.
5. Experimenting with new marketing trends can help you appeal to younger generations
And lastly, what’s the fun of being a digital marketer without shaking it up a little? Instagram Stories, video content, TikTok … are you trying to hire for a demographic that regularly consumes this type of content? Allow yourself some room for experimentation and dive into the deep end on platforms like these.
No, TikTok might not be a good place to share content specifically about your services, but it might be a perfect place to show your team’s personality and your company culture. Instagram Stories are also a great way to be more interactive with your audience, especially when using the in-app tools like polls and questions.
HR and marketing teams should work together to determine whether you’re trying to reach a younger generation, where those specific job-hunters look and what values are important to them. Free pop in the breakroom? Hybrid work environment? PTO flexibility? This is a great way to get your information out.
[Read More: Understanding Generation Z on Social Media]
Align your marketing and HR teams to combat your employee shortages
These are just a few ways that your entire organization should work together to promote your company and boost your recruiting efforts. One campaign will not solve the problem, but continuing to work cross-departmentally on a regular basis is how you can continue to be more creative and effective in hiring and increase your brand awareness in the market.
