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May 18, 2023

Struggling to fill roles? You need a long-term approach to recruiting

The job market is tough right now. If you're struggling to fill roles, it's time to take action.

Being unable to recruit affects your productivity, expansion plans, and ability to deliver services. Being under-resourced places significant stress on your current employees, leading to an increased resignation rate.

 

You want the truth? These tough conditions won't ease for a few years, so you’re going to need to adopt a long-term approach to your employer branding strategy.

 

The tables have turned

 

Because we believe in honesty and transparency, and we approach every problem with a disruptive, innovative, and creative mindset, we’ll give it to you straight.

 

You’ve got to adapt and take control of your recruitment strategy to attract the right candidates, because an ‘ad hoc’ recruitment approach where you push out an ad only when you have a role to fill is a very risky strategy. The days of being swamped immediately with dozens of eager applicants are gone, and candidates are slower and more cautious about making decisions. Reduced numbers of international students and immigrants, along with more people retiring, are shrinking the labour pool even further.

 

A longer-term approach

 

To successfully recruit this year and beyond, you need a longer-term, more focused marketing approach to build enthusiasm amongst potential candidates into the future. This is where the power of a sustained focus on your ‘employer brand’ comes in.

 

Candidates are placing far greater importance on an organisation’s values, employee benefits, and culture. Therefore, it’s critical that these are front and centre of your advertising strategy. What should be defining your advertising message and strategy is understanding what candidates want.

 

Pop up in all the right places

 

We recommend building a target audience of potential employees based on location, qualifications, job titles, interests, and even where they grew up or went to school. The targeting could include people with a particular worldview, or whose values align with those of your organisation.

 

Once your campaign is live, your ads will start to appear in your target audience’s social media account feed. This ‘low level’ constant campaign is then overlaid with individual campaigns for specific job vacancies on relevant media that are determined based on the role itself and the best place to reach potential candidates.

 

Always look your best

 

More than 60% of candidates will research a company before deciding to apply. So it's crucial to consider a careers page or careers website specifically designed to showcase yourself as an employer. Ensure you have a company page on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn and make sure these are kept up to date.

 

Build a story about your organisation across platforms that are proven to reach potential candidates, including Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Integrate video into your recruitment advertising strategy to share stories of your people, culture, and values.

 

For more tips on building a long-term, sustainable recruitment strategy, download our latest ebook or check out our other blogs. We can help you build a strong and positive reputation that attracts applicants when it counts!