Now Hiring Inspiration for 2023: Blogs, Events, Postcards - Oh My!
One of the biggest challenges facing employers looking to recruit in 2023 is the gap between the current unemployment rate (3.6%) and the job openings rate (6.9%) (via US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Now Hiring ads are everywhere, the Great Resignation is all over the news, and That s right, you ve got competition! What s an overworked HR pro to do?
With 55% of hourly workers currently seeking alternative employment opportunities, the time is right for a creative (or reinvented) recruitment strategy. Online and offline recruitment methods can be woven together to create one cohesive employee marketing plan. Write a blog, produce a video, and go viral, all while planning an IRL recruitment event and sending out custom Now Hiring postcards to a hyper-targeted audience. No idea what I just said? Read on, we've got some serious inspo (and inFO) below!
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Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance - a Note About Authentically Putting Your Best Foot Forward
Before beginning any employee recruitment campaign in a jobs-heavy market, the onus is on the employer to present candidates with an attractive opportunity. That means making sure that you are not only highlighting all the reasons a prospective employee would want to work for you, but that they are actually TRUE. Company culture, values, benefits packages, and more contribute in a big way to the appeal of the position you re looking to fill.
One company that sets the standard for putting their best foot forward is WPEngine. Not only does their customer-facing home page pull out all the stops, but their Careers page is equally focused on showcasing what they have to offer.
Images via WPEngine
Do you need to have a special webpage just for people to see the job openings you have? The answer is no, of course you don t, but it sure would help to set you apart! You don t have to be as fancy as WPEngine, either. Just be yourself and create a Careers (or Job Postings, Join Our Team, Now Hiring, etc.) page that reflects your brand and your company s culture. You wouldn t expect to sell your house without a thorough cleaning and completion of basic repairs, so you shouldn t expect applicants to pick you over all their other opportunities if you haven t bothered to put your best foot forward for them!
Now that we've gotten your feet taken care of, let's walk through some other ways you can add some oomph to your Careers page.
Ideas for a Candidate-Focused Careers Page
- Employee Testimonials: On your Careers page, share a few compelling stories from current employees about why they love their job and what they love about working for your company.
- Share Candidate FAQs: Put yourself in a prospective applicant s shoes and walk through the interview and hiring process. What would you want to know? Think about everything from the hiring timeline to your company culture, benefits, and workplace features.
- Add a Chatbot: Consider adding a chatbot to your website that would be able to direct candidates to your application form, promotional videos, FAQs, and more.
- Start Blogging: Add a blog to your Careers page and write about your company culture, current projects, job openings, and featured employee spotlight
- Host a Podcast: Launch a podcast that gives candidates insight into your company, its core values, and the style of your team.
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Online Recruitment Inspo
The most often used method of communicating with prospective job applicants in the 21st century is the internet. Unintrusive and able to reach large numbers of people in a single bound, it's almost a given that online communication and advertisements will play a significant role in your marketing campaign. Social media makes it possible for your message to spread quickly, but it can also turn a poorly thought-out strategy back on you just as quickly (like wildfire!).
Image via Freepik
Teachable Moment: Take, for example, the story of a Chick-Fil-A franchise in Hendersonville, NC. This locally-owned and operated chicken joint came up with a creative method of combatting their staffing shortage - they took to Facebook to recruit "volunteers" to work their new "Drive Thru Express" in exchange for earning up to 5 free entrees per shift. As you may have guessed, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn't exactly allow you to pay your employees with food. It's really hard to determine how many pickles or waffle fries or cups of sweet tea to withhold for FICA, and it makes filing your 1040EZ a real nightmare.
While sharing your open positions on your own Careers page is a no-brainer, there are also other job posting boards that produce results. Indeed, ZipRecruiter, CareerBuilder, Monster, and LinkedIn, among many others, provide a trusted platform on which you can share your postings and review candidates. These sites work hard to offer this service, so you do have to pay for your listings. You can also pay extra to give your most important listings a boost, but you should always list your open positions on your own site first!
Here are some of our favorite online-focused recruitment strategies...
On Social Media
- Show Off Your Employees: Create posts on Instagram that spotlight a specific employee and a quote about their experience with your company. Bonus points for the use of relevant hashtags!
- Show Off Your Teamwork: Snap a photo of your team working hard or simply enjoying life together and connect it with one of your core values. Share the image you create on Insta, Facebook, or wherever you hang out. As always, hashtags welcome!
- Drive Traffic with Targeted Social Media Posts: Create your own recruiting social media accounts to post only about your company culture, values, recruiting events, and job postings.
Content Creation Recruitment Videos 101
- Basic: Gather some of the creatives on your team and put together a fun, targeted video that showcases what your company does and how it does it, all while demonstrating why someone would want to join your team. Post the video on your careers page and share it on all of your social media platforms. Check out this video from Broadcom Infrastructure Software for inspiration.
- Quirky: Is your company culture a bit out-there? Create a recruitment video that shows that you don t take yourselves too seriously, like this one from SodaStream. This strategy will help you to find candidates who also don t take themselves too seriously. A company s willingness to laugh is always a winning social media strategy, so share generously!
- Unexpectedly Honest: If you re over all the production (or just don t have the budget), consider putting together a simple, yet honest video that features your existing employees. A company called Social Talent did just that in this video when it asked its employees why they hate their job. Their results were honest and authentic and actually did more to praise the company culture than you might expect.
Expand Your Talent Pool
- Allow People to Jump IN the Pool: Create an option on your Careers page for interested candidates to share their name, email, and the role they d like to play in your organization. Then, send out emails with job postings that are tailored to their area of interest and location. You can also send out weekly or monthly e-newsletters featuring job openings that may appeal to them.
- Catch the Boomerang: When an employee leaves your company, don t remove them from the talent pool. Instead, encourage them to boomerang, or return to the company in the future. You may even want to create a section on your Careers page that focuses on opportunities that might appeal to past employees. These people know your culture, your values, and what makes your business tick.
- Create an Employee Referral Program: Who better to send talented people your way than the talented people who already work for you? Give your team an incentive to use their own personal networks to help you fill open positions by offering referral bonuses for each referred candidate hired. Create a fillable form or a referral-specific email account to make the process simple (and to ensure that the referring employee gets credit!).
Search Engine Optimization
- Optimize Your Job Postings for Google: Use Google s Job Search tool to make sure that Google recognizes the listings on your website as job openings. That way, your job postings will show up in candidate s searches for their area of interest.
Image via Google
- Target Your Competitor s Keywords: When purchasing digital ads, a smart strategy can be to go after those who search for job listings of your closest competitor. For example, when McDonald s jobs is searched, the first result returned is an ad for jobs at Wendy s. Smart move by the red-haired social media maven!
Image via Google
- Target Job Title Keywords: Instead of going after your competition s search results, purchase ads that target the title of the position you re looking to fill. When Software Engineering Jobs is searched, two very different companies listings are returned first - KLA and Mayo Clinic. Both companies paid for targeted ads so that they could get to the head of the pack in the race for top software engineering talent.
Let's step offline for a bit and look at some creative strategies for IRL employee recruiting, along with a ridiculously simple method of connecting with prospective candidates.
Creative Ideas for In-Person Recruitment Events...
Connecting with candidates in real life doesn't have to be a stuffy, formal process. These options are low-key and unintimidating and put the candidate in the driver's seat.
- Connect with Higher Education: Secondary education institutions of all types are one of the most natural sources of fresh talent. Cultivating a relationship with schools in your area just makes sense. You can even establish an entire team dedicated to providing resources that enable students to prepare for a role in your company.
- Meetup Events: Find the best talent by getting involved in community groups that are focused on your industry s trends and challenges. Meetup is a resource that allows you to find these gatherings and get involved or start up your own group. Every meeting is an opportunity to represent your company well - you never know where you might find the next rising star!
- Host a Community Block Party in Your Office: Reduce the recruitment event stress of trying to impress by going ultra-casual. Invite interested candidates to show up to a low-key gathering with company leaders. Add a few beers and some simple appetizers, and encourage participants to mingle with the teams that interest them. You can even offer door prizes - everyone loves an on-brand pen or travel mug!
The Direct Mail Option
Image by F. Muhammad from Pixabay
The reality is that most people feel at least a little special when they receive a communication sent specifically to them, no matter how mundane the topic might be. After all, 70% of consumers say direct mail is more personal than online interactions.
As an employer looking to attract the right employees, this means that you can increase your hiring success and strengthen your applicant pool just by targeting your message to those potential employees. Make them feel wanted by presenting them with a job opening that fits their interests - 54% of consumers say they want direct mail from brands that interest them.
No idea how to do that? Let's dive in together!
How to design & mail now hiring postcards?
The first thing you need to know about designing and mailing postcards is that it can be complicated depending on the product/service you choose to work with. For the sake of simplicity and convenience, we're going to walk you through the process using our all-in-one direct mail solution. Yes, everything you need to design, print, and mail your postcards can be done with MyCreativeShop and we make it incredibly easy!
Step 1: Design Your Postcard
Now Hiring Postcard Design via MyCreativeShop
The first step in your now hiring marketing campaign is to create your own custom postcard. If you are already a gifted designer, then you can upload your own postcard in SnailBlast (A product owned and operated by MyCreativeShop).
However, if graphic design is not in your CV, browse our MyCreativeShop catalog of completely customizable now hiring postcard templates to find a postcard design that fits with your branding strategy. Using the tools in our online editor, you can easily upload an eye-catching image or two, update the CTA and content, and highlight your contact details. You can also consider including a QR code that takes recipients directly to a landing page on your site where they can apply (and you can, coincidentally, track the success of your campaign). When you're satisfied with your finished design, you can even create a shared page so that others on your team can provide input. Once your postcard design is ready, it's time to move to step 2!
Step 2: Choose Your Audience
Our map-based list-builder makes selecting your audience ridiculously convenient.
If you already have a mailing list, it's time to upload it. If not, you can choose to either mail to an area (EDDM) or build your own list using our premium list-builder (screenshot above). Start by setting your location to narrow down your recipient list, then choose from the 5 available list types: Businesses, Consumers, New Businesses, New Homeowners, and New Movers. You can narrow down even further by omitting PO boxes or limiting results to unique addresses only. Then, choose any number of additional filters from the options provided to streamline your recipient list even more. As you make each of these selections, you can see your audience size and total price change in real-time.
3. Complete Your Mailing and Start Interviewing!
Image by Tumisu via Pixabay
Now the fun begins - it's time to schedule your launch date! One of our all-in-one direct mail solution's most convenient features is that you can design, print, and send your postcards without ever having to lift a finger (other than to type or click your mouse). We handle every piece of the process and ensure that your postcards are properly addressed and laid out and that they are delivered to the correct post office for delivery at the right time. When you use our direct mail solution to connect with prospective employees, the end result is less time marketing and more time interviewing - which you'll be grateful for when all those candidates start rolling in!
Final Thoughts
Finding just the right person to fill any one open position can be a challenge. Putting your best foot forward and launching a coordinated employee recruitment plan takes some creativity and inspiration in this jobs-heavy market. You'll have to pull out all the stops to snag top talent. Making everything work together can be a challenge.
With MyCreativeShop's all-in-one direct mail solution that challenge becomes just a speed bump, because you can connect directly with candidates that share your interests and values. What are you waiting for? Start choreographing your now hiring direct mail campaign today!