Nurturing Relationships for Future Job Openings
Worth repeating: In the same way that every Industrial/Organizational Psychologist is challenged with increasing brand awareness of our field, recruiters also face the challenge of bringing awareness to their job opportunities. While we may not have initially signed up to be marketers, we must rise to the challenge and embrace the excitement that comes with marketing, whether it's promoting our personal brand, our field, our employer brand, or specific job openings.
Positioning and segmentation are essential aspects of an organization's brand, enabling differentiation from competitors. High-quality content plays a significant role in positioning efforts, and audience segmentation is necessary to deliver the right message to prospective candidates effectively. We'll explore the four categories of characteristics that marketers must study when targeting desired talents: demographic, psychographic, geographical, and behavioral. Moreover, we'll outline the five key steps to develop an effective content marketing strategy, including segmenting the target audience, creating personas for each segment, crafting compelling stories, and fostering relationships between candidates and organizational ambassadors.
Characteristics of Desired Talents
Positioning and segmentation are crucial in the context of an organization's brand (Yesbeck, 2019). It involves differentiating the brand from competitors by thoroughly analyzing the competitive landscape and identifying key factors to measure against competitors.
It is important to note that high-quality content plays a significant role in positioning efforts. Proper audience segmentation is necessary to create a target audience and effectively deliver the right message to prospective candidates.
To achieve this, marketers must study the characteristics of the desired talents, which are similar to those considered in a consumer market. These characteristics can be categorized as follows (Yesbeck, 2019):
Demographic: Candidates' years of experience, seniority, skills, and educational background.
Psychographic: Candidates' values, attitudes, desire for work-life balance, preference for inspirational leaders, and attraction to challenging work environments. Additionally, factors such as benefits, competitive salaries, and bonuses are considered.
Geographical: Candidates' locations, cultural backgrounds, undergraduate and graduate schools, willingness to relocate, and current employment status.
Behavioral: How candidates interact, such as visiting organizations' websites, engaging on LinkedIn and social media, attending career fairs, utilizing job search engines, or connecting with current employees.
To develop an effective content marketing strategy, organizations should follow five key steps (Harvard Business School Blog, 2014). These steps include:
Segmenting the target audience
Creating personas for each segment
Crafting compelling stories that resonate with each segment
Sharing these stories where the audience is most likely to engage with them
Fostering relationships between prospective candidates and organizational ambassadors.
Marketers utilize the concept of personas, which are fictional characters representing different types of candidates who would be a good fit for the job. By employing content marketing, organizations can specifically target talents who can relate to these personas. This approach allows organizations to communicate relevant, valuable, tailored, personalized, customized, clear, honest, and effective content.
According to Alashmawy and Yazdanifard (2019), talent acquisition, as a distinct profession, differs from general recruitment. It requires expertise not only in sourcing, candidate assessment, and compliance with hiring standards but also in employment branding and corporate hiring initiatives. This aligns its function with marketing, public relations, and human resources.
By implementing effective recruitment marketing strategies, organizations can experience various benefits.
These include generating increased interest in the talent brand, building a more qualified talent pool, expediting the hiring process, and enhancing the candidate experience. The authors suggest that organizations need to shift their mindset about recruitment and invest in new methods to communicate and establish relationships with potential candidates. According to the authors, marketing plays a crucial role in talent acquisition by facilitating the creation of a talent community. It also provides avenues to promote and raise awareness of the talent brand and the employer value proposition. As a result, this can lead to reduced retention, cost per hire, and turnover rates.
Action Items:
Implement Recruitment Marketing Strategies: Utilize inbound marketing tactics to attract potential candidates. Create engaging content on industry blogs, YouTube channels, and social media platforms to showcase your organization's expertise and work culture.
Develop an Employer Value Proposition (EVP): Craft a compelling EVP that showcases the unique benefits and opportunities your organization offers to Industrial/Organizational Psychology professionals. Highlight aspects such as career growth, work-life balance, and the impact they can make in the organization.
Tailor Job Listings: Customize job postings for different roles in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Clearly communicate responsibilities, company culture, and benefits specific to each position to attract candidates who resonate with the job requirements.
Utilize Social Media: Leverage platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to promote your talent brand and engage with potential candidates. Share employee testimonials, success stories, and industry insights to create a sense of community.
Tips and Tricks:
Build Relationships with Industry Influencers: Collaborate with well-known professionals and thought leaders in Industrial/Organizational Psychology to increase your brand's visibility and credibility.
Showcase Employee Success: Highlight the achievements of your current Industrial/Organizational Psychology team members to demonstrate the impact of their work and attract like-minded candidates.
Optimize Candidate Experience: Streamline your application process and respond promptly to candidate inquiries. A positive candidate experience will encourage top talent to consider your organization.
Leverage Employee Referrals: Encourage your current employees to refer potential candidates. Employee referrals often result in higher-quality hires and a stronger team fit.
Takeaways:
1) Talent acquisition is a specialized profession that requires expertise in various areas, including marketing and employment branding. Adopting effective recruitment marketing strategies can yield significant benefits for attracting top talent.
2) Marketing plays a crucial role in talent acquisition by creating a talent community and promoting the employer value proposition. It enables organizations to build lasting relationships with potential candidates.
3) To stand out in the competitive market for Industrial/Organizational Psychology talent, organizations should focus on crafting a compelling EVP, utilizing recruitment marketing tactics, and engaging with candidates through social media and industry events.
4) Investing in recruitment marketing and talent acquisition strategies can lead to reduced retention, cost per hire, and turnover rates, ultimately contributing to the success and growth of the organization.
In the present day, as marketing becomes more ingrained in organizations and encompasses a diverse range of products and markets, some experts have explored ways to enhance its effectiveness by introducing a fifth element, which may include factors like packaging, people, and processes (Goi, 2009). Despite these attempts, the traditional marketing mix continues to predominantly rely on the well-established 4 P's.
If you'd like SEBOC to do the heavy lifting of marketing your job opportunity targeted at Industrial/Organizational Psychology talent in an engaging and revolutionary way, click here to get your free recruiter account and learn more.
References
Alashmawy, A., & Yazdanifard, R. (2019). A review of the role of marketing in recruitment and talent acquisition. International Journal of Management, Accounting & Economics, 6(7).
Goi, C. L. (2009). A review of marketing mix: 4Ps or more. International journal of marketing studies, 1(1), 2-15.
Twin, A. (2023). The 4 Ps of Marketing and How To Use Them in Your StrategyRetrieved 7 August 2023, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/four-ps.asp