In trying to find the right fit of candidates for a job, companies often choose to focus their full online gaze on the most obvious campaign possible. You pick your known media channels, like LinkedIn, Frankwatching or Indeed, and spread the word: You’re looking for a new Automation Engineer! Distributing your vacancies like this seems straightforward and the cheapest option. Does your campaign work? Partly. You’re attracting some seemingly active candidates, although you’ve seen some of them before. The skilled and bold person you are searching for hasn’t made contact yet. What to do now?
Track down the problem
Often, companies don’t realise the problem within their recruitment marketing approach is happening on a larger scale. It’s important to track down this problem and pinpoint what’s going on. Jurgen de Groot, Retail HR Manager at BMW Group Netherlands, says: “You might not expect it, but even at BMW talent doesn’t come running. BMW stands for quality and we work with the latest and most beautiful technology. For some, this is an enormous attraction and a nice challenge, while for others it’s quite overwhelming. Especially for recent graduates, the difference between what they have learned in school and working at a BMW dealer is huge.”
Which type of campaign are you going for?
It’s important to firstly pinpoint your goals. When you know who you’re looking for and whether that candidate is hard to find, there’s a campaign path to choose. Sometimes easier fixes work, when, say, you’re looking for one junior digital marketeer. Then there’s more complex situations, in which you might be trying to track down several tech savvy employers, all through Europe. Or like in the case of BMW, when juniors are a bit overwhelmed by your brand. What sort of route do you take? And what will be your main focus per campaign?
Let us elaborate.
You’re looking for the ‘easier’ target
When opting for a campaign focused on a relatively ‘easy’ candidate, you distribute your vacancies through a diverse set of media channels to reach the candidates who are actively looking for said job. This is a straightforward option, but poses some difficulties. You run the risk of getting stuck in a specific pool of candidates who keep reaching you through different channels. Of only reaching those who are already familiar with your brand and organisation and would have responded to the vacancy anyway. The benefits of this type of campaign? It’s quick and easy. We recommend using this when you’ve already created awareness & interest with your target group – as the last factor in the funnel.
You have a complex role or more than one role to fill
There’s a group of looking candidates who might have not found you yet. Then, there’s those that aren’t actively looking – but might want to jump to conclusions after they’ve seen the new opportunity is right in front of them. This means your campaign needs to specify a select target audience to help increasing your visibility online. Wanting to reach a bigger pool of active and passive candidates, you have to think bigger and act more widespread. This is, in this way, effective on the long term. A continuous and specific recruitment strategy using a campaign targeted to a narrowed down audience will help you focus especially on the person (or people) you want to attract.
Then there’s an addition to the problem – yuck. There’s a group of skilled candidates out there that might not know who you are (fully) yet. Or who don’t know why they might want to apply working for your company. What do you bring to the table as an organisation? Campaigns focusing on who you are as a company strengthen the story of your brand. Promoting a nice selection of videos, stories, images or infographics about your office culture on social media and niche channels helps set the tone. Find out why your company does what it does so well, and use this story to make a connection to your audience. We recommend using interesting content to spread awareness and increase your online visibility to attract even the laziest of candidates!
What did BMW do in the end?
To attract even nervous juniors, BMW focused on their goal: strengthening their brand ‘vibe’, spreading non-scary content and offering support and traineeships. Jurgen: “Our attractive career website makes it easy to apply and we promote working at a BMW dealer on social media through job ads and videos that show what it means to work there. We are aware these candidates might be feeling overwhelmed, and are therefore involved in the training of talent. This way, we try to bridge the gap between school and working at BMW.”
Are you ready to steer the success of your recruitment? Craft a strategy and set up your campaign responsibly – please contact us at VONQ for a good conversation and some helpful (free) info.
