introduction: cut from the same cloth...leveraging new social tools and channels while still...

Symbiotic Recruiting Structures 2

INTRODUCTION: CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH

As technologies continue to shift in the Recruiting industry, one thing has become clear: The role of the recruiter is changing dramatically.

Once referred to as “smiling and dialing,” recruiters now have the complex task of leveraging new social tools and channels while still maintaining a personalized touch with clients and candidates, wearing many hats in order to effectively reach out to the right audience.

Of these important shifts, the enhanced need for Human to Human interaction and balance is paramount.

Within many business structures, the Business to Business/Business to Customer relationship is taking a turn, with an increased need for a human experience amidst all of the technological advances.

This is where Sales & Marketing come in to the mix. Recruiting, Sales and Marketing are realizing the benefits of becoming an interwoven system, all working together to accomplish the same goal: Perfect the employer brand in order to have effective outreach to client and candidate.

It’s important to take a look at the different aspects of the Sales, Marketing & Recruiting relationship and why it’s essential these fields work together in order to achieve the best relationship development outcomes.


SHARING STRATEGIES

More than ever before, Sales, Recruiting & Marketing are comprehending that they have the same overall targeted goal: to attract, retain and cultivate professional relationships through a number of channels. As social channels become more saturated, competition has grown to find the best possible performers, and sifting through job boards isn’t enough.

Recruiters are turning to employer branding strategies - which are already being utilized by Sales and Marketing for client lead generation - to find this talent. What becomes tricky about employer branding is it’s a significant shift in the way businesses operate.

It strongly encourages Marketing, Sales & Recruiting to work in unison to have impactful results and build an effective strategy. In this way, recruiters can benefit by having a “Marketing mindset” – creating messages that will stand out to individuals and promoting important details about the company’s culture, environment, and work life balance to attract talent in a new way.

With a large amount of new tools and techniques to work with, recruiters can easily feel overwhelmed and end up with a disjointed strategy.


But by pairing with Sales & Marketing, the organization can improve its industry presence and become more aggressive with its overall reach. Marketing & Sales can allow Recruiting to understand how to best relay their message and purpose to clients and candidates alike.

Many discussions have arisen in recent years about whether to combine Recruiting with Sales and Marketing, going so far as to put them in the same department. Proponents of this idea cite the notion that the departments share a common overall vision for the business.


Some of the top similarities recently discussed on ERE include:

BRANDING

Building a strong image of the company in order to attract potential

employees as well as market products and services

COMMUNICATIONS

Tailoring messages to different group segments in order to have the best

outcomes and reach the right audience

INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE

Understanding competitors, what’s happening in the marketplace, supply and

demand in the industry

SEGMENTATION

Understanding individual markets in order to make buying decisions as well as

talent placement decisions


Proponents of this merging say that it would allow all departments to become “truly strategic,” creating a synergy to relay a strong employment brand to client and candidate.

The three pieces, in turn, gain the opportunity to leverage each other’s strengths and strategies.

By attaining a cohesive message and brand, Recruiting, Sales & Marketing can ideally better attract an engaged audience, enticing prospective talent in the same fashion as prospective clients and customers.

“Recruiters need to have their fingers on the pulse across all social and communication platforms… they need to be prepared to research and carry out strategic Marketing tasks.”

- Amanda Ashworth, Undercover Recruiter


COORDINATING COMPONENTS

Consider the following crucial components to Sales & Marketing that can be utilized by Recruiting in order to build a well-rounded strategy.


EMPLOYER BRANDING

In today’s candidate and customer-driven markets, building a positive reputation matters more than ever. According to a recent study by Glassdoor, 83% of job seekers are wary of working for a company with a negative reputation.

Recruiters are utilizing employer branding to build the company’s reputation and become a trusted resource.

These Sales and Marketing techniques establish their brand and allow the recruiter to become a brand ambassador, working to attract and retain talent by building engagement, sharing, connections, dialogue and thought leadership socially and digitally.


SOCIAL MEDIA

New-age recruitment Marketing strategies call for a much further reach.

Pairing with Marketing to fully comprehend the intricacies of social media utilization for thought leadership can be key to establishing yourself as a trusted recruiter.

These tools call for a delicate balance – utilization without any one social channel becoming a crutch. Paired properly with Marketing, recruiters are able to spread the word about best practices and open job opportunities on the proper social channels without becoming overbearing to the listener.


QUALITY CONTENT & JOB DESCRIPTIONS

Gone are the days of posting simple job descriptions. Recruiters are pairing with Sales & Marketing to develop truly quality content – clean, eye catching job descriptions that stand out from the crowd as well as insightful, educational content to share socially and become known as an expert in the field, building trust and engagement with the audience.

EVENT COORDINATION

Proactive recruiters can take a page out of the Sales and Marketing department’s book in order to make use of in-person and digital networking events, including webinars, seminars, and tradeshows. Building up a professional network can be advantageous in attracting clients and candidates for current or future needs.


MEASURING IMPACT & VALUE

Fortunately, pairing Recruiting with Sales and Marketing easily allows recruiters to track the success of their brand development through various channels and techniques.

Marketing & Sales tools such as automation software, tracking systems, and social media allow recruiters to track the effect of their creative content and outreach. In this way, the role of the recruiter has become much more than listing a job opportunity – becoming a Thought Leader with the organization’s content and engaging in a dialogue with candidates and clients creates a truly humanized strategy.

“Recruiting is part Marketing/part Sales/part sourcing now, so it makes sense that those in the Recruiting departments need to think more like marketers and Sales pros.”

- Chris Russel, Career Cloud


POTENTIAL PITFALLS

The mesh of Sales, Marketing & Recruiting isn’t guaranteed to be perfect. What many organizations often run into are issues of reluctance to change, including:

“Your strategies just won’t work for me – my strategy for finding and engaging talent is fine the way it is.”

- Recruiters

“You don’t know a thing about Sales/Marketing – let’s just do our own thing and stay out of each other’s way.”

- Sales/Marketing

These type of misconceptions can be easily alleviated by honest and open communication among the departments. Being open to change can also be key for establishing a strong working relationship between Sales, Marketing & Recruiting.


WHERE TO BEGIN

Differentiating your Recruiting structure by opening up strategies to encompass those of Sales and Marketing can be extremely beneficial to your organization, but any new strategy takes time, effort and patience.

Begin melding your strategy by establishing a team of thinkers from Sales, Marketing and Recruiting to begin building and polishing your professional brand. Tapping into Sales and Marketing communication structures, such as creating and sharing material through the company website, social media, and within email communication, can be a good start to enhancing Recruiting efforts.

This branding process will help the team better understand what attracts potential employees and clients and what engagement structures work.

Track your recruitment marketing progress by carefully noting both candidate and client leads and their source, whether it was through employer branding and outreach, effective messaging, etc.

With such similar goals and targets, it’s time these fields work together to form a truly cohesive Recruiting strategy.


About Qualigence

Qualigence International is the largest Recruitment Research and professional search firm in the United States, and proudly serves as a unique alternative to traditional retained or contingent recruiting models. www.qualigence.com

introduction: cut from the same cloth...leveraging new social tools and channels while still...

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