It has already happened. Digital technology has taken over. When it comes to global sourcing, job opportunities, branding, company cultures, it is all transparent. Job-seekers can see straight through you and your company before they walk through the door and shake your hand.
What people say and think about your company, your culture and your job opportunities is out there, at a viral speed, regardless of what you say and advertise.
Welcome to the age of search engines, social media, and mobiles devices. People will find you, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Anyone can access the internet, so everyone can learn the truth. It will dominate the way job-seekers are learning about jobs for the next decade.
Current Technology Trends
Today, one quarter of job seekers will use social media as a primary tool while searching for a job. A report by the Aberdeen Group says that 73% of Millennials landed their last job by finding it on social media. Already a staggering number, as digitally savvy younger generations begin to enter the workforce, searching for jobs on social media will only increase.
Combine this with the fact that just about everyone has a mobile device in hand. We learn, navigate and communicate on the go. According to Invodo, the fourth quarter of last year was the first time that mobile views exceeded desktop views. What does that mean for sourcing? At some point in their job search, according to Glassdoor, 9 out of 10 of job-seekers use a mobile device.
In recruitment, you can’t ignore the facts or today’s technology. Instead, you must ride the wave.
Casting Your Fishing Pole
Recruiters are overwhelmed today with hiring top talent and reducing employee turnover. There is an ocean of both passive and active job-seekers, and the perfect candidate with the right qualifications and personality for the job is located in one small school of fish. You have one fishing pole, so where should you cast it out?
Digital technology is now performing the work at a viral speed and at minimal cost:
- Sourcers can add the right keywords and meta tags to a description in order to make job postings land at the top of search results.
- Sourcers and job-seekers are sharing on social networks. It is easy and free to target the right groups on LinkedIn and use appropriate hashtags for Twitter and Facebook posts. Employee referrals are a breeze with social media. Current employees (a.k.a. brand advocates) can share their companies job opportunities to their networks.
- Sourcers can make their job postings and application process mobile-friendly by limiting the number of words in a job description and making the application process fast and easy to apply.
Company Reputation: Know What is Out There Already
While current technological advances have many positives, consider there maybe some hiccoughs as well. Your company is transparent. With social media, blogs, sites that offer company reviews, etc., people can say whatever they want about company, including the negative.
Consider this: half of employees post about their current job on social media, and 16% of employees admit to posting negative things about their company. If you have negative information in cyberspace about your company, ignoring it will only make it worse. Just like a fire, the flames will grow if you don’t put it out. You need to nip it in the bud with reputation management. It could be as simple as combatting it with a positive messaging.
Adding more good brand messaging that can be found on search engine results and shared on social media will, authentically, take over the bad.
Recruiting is Now Marketing
To stay relevant when catching the eye of the perfect top talent you are searching all over the globe for, you have to know how to reach them. It’s more than just placing a job posting. There are so many factors on how to drive job-seekers to that posting. You have to consider behaviours, age groups, geographic locations, etc. Many companies are focusing on diversity and looking to attract candidates from all walks of life.
Recruiting is marketing. You are determining a “target market,” pointing a bow and arrow and aiming with one eye to hit the mark.
A Method that Works Across the Board: Video
It’s all in the numbers. Video consumption is taking over the internet. According to TechCrunch, 2016, 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook per day. Invodo says that video viewed on a mobile device in 2015 grew six times faster than desktop views. AOL Platforms, 2015 reports that 50% of all advertisers are making the shift, allocating budget dollars from TV to digital video.
According to Aberdeen via Vidyard, marketers who use video increase revenue 49% faster than non-video users. So if recruiting is marketing, this begs the question: what do you think will happen to recruiters who use video versus those that do not?
Much like marketing, yes, sourcers are reaching a “target market.” But, regardless of demographics, there is one single method that is attracting candidates across the board, and that is video technology. Video tells a story about your job openings and culture in a way that text alone cannot. Video shows and tells what a job-seeker can expect with your company.
For the next decade, video will dominate global sourcing for companies, RPOs, staffing firms and job boards. The use of video in sourcing is increasing today, but soon it will be everywhere.
Lowering Your Cost Per Hire
The secret sauce for lowering your cost per hire in recruitment is not by doing necessarily what everyone else is doing, but what works for you. It’s about finding your own recruitment strategy and that is the beauty of digital technology. With digital technology, there is no one size that fits all. A digital recruitment strategy is completely customised.
Digital technology answers the question: “Where are my applicants coming from?”. Today’s digital world allows for tracking and data. Sourcers can now answer the question: "Where am I getting the best traction with my job postings?" Digital technology can tell you how many views you had by source and how many job-seekers applied by source. It allows recruitment professionals to gather the type of information that lets them know where they need to focus their efforts.
Digital technology pinpoints the job-seekers you are trying to reach - and, with the right messaging, allows for candidate “self-selection.” Job-seekers, both today and tomorrow, now armed with more information about the job and the company, can choose to opt in or opt out of the application process, based on fit. When a candidate can self-select and choose not to apply, it saves recruiters time by focusing on more qualified applicants that are truly interested in the position and the company culture - again, saving valuable recruitment dollars on cost per hire.
So, Are You Prepared?
Are you ready for the global sourcing shake down? What do you need to do to be prepared?
- Boost your SEO
- Manage your online reputation
- Be social
- Be mobile-friendly
- Use video in your job postings
- Track your efforts
If you are not jumping on the digital band wagon, your sourcing strategy will become obsolete. Start your planning your digital strategy today.
