Promoting your Employer Brand, by increasing efficiency in the recruitment process and optimising the candidate experience, is only possible when your recruitment process is set up accordingly from the very beginning. First of all, that candidate you want attract may not apply, and ineffective recruitment will potentially increase your recruitment costs as you have to spend more money to get the same results. Especially these days, in which you more often have to will deal with a tight labour market and latent jobseekers than active job seekers who will find you anyway. This is a topic not to ignore.
In this blog, I will discuss 5 common mistakes we encounter frequently, even though they should (and could!) be avoided when attracting the right talent.
- Don’t 1: using the same communication to clients and candidates
Often, organisations “sell” their vacancies the same way they sell their products. For example, a corporate communication style is used, the same way potential clients are approached, and the vacancy is focused on explaining what the organisation does, what it has achieved and why their product or service should be used. Interesting and perhaps the best way to bring in new customers, but insufficient to persuade a future employee. He or she is more interested in knowing more about the organisation as an employer and finding out what the corporate culture is like: what will they be dealing with on a daily basis, experiences from employees etc.
- Don’t 2: focusing on requirements
Organisations have the tendency to write vacancies in the form of a list of requirements. This is somehow understandable, if you are indeed looking for someone who possess certain knowledge and expertise. This does not always have to be a problem, but in a tight market where most of the potential candidates are latent, and not actively job seeking, this often is not sufficient. More important is to communicate the benefits of the job and your organisation: sell the job! Why should the candidate apply for this specific job? Without exaggerating of course, because in terms of expectation management it is important that the candidate will not have a rude awakening after the first day at your organisation. This could damage the Employer Brand severely, so make sure you sell the job, but be honest. That is how you will find the best match.
- Don’t 3: Post & Pray
In conversations with new clients we are often told they have had open vacancies for quite some time, without any candidates that applied. This usually means that the vacancy is only posted on the website and in some cases on certain job boards or social networks. This “technique” is called Post & Pray: the vacancy is posted and then they are just waiting for applicants. Even though this can be efficient in a vibrant labour market but in the current market most vacancies are not filled that easily. As long as job seekers are not actively looking for a job, they will not find you. That is why it is more important to approach and search for candidates instead of waiting until they come to you. This can be done in different ways, from social media campaigns and job video’s to sourcing. Which method will work and which will not depends on the vacancy and the target group. Therefore, you have to make sure to investigate your plan of action for each individual vacancy.
- Don’t 4: sloppiness in writing, grammar and spelling
It might be needless to say, but often this is not the case: be thorough, consistent and correct. Still too often, we signal sloppiness in writing, grammar and spelling. Especially when a vacancy is translated the text, most of the times, is not 100% correct. It is a shame if a candidate drops out, because the vacancy is written with unnecessary grammar mistakes. Even though it might not be relevant for the position, it does give the potential candidate a (wrong) impression of the organisation. Have one or two colleagues check the vacancy before you post it online if need be, so you can be sure no mistakes are being made.
- Don’t 5: creating a barrier with endless forms
The biggest bottleneck for a lot of job seekers: endless forms to fill in or, an even bigger barrier, they need to create a compulsory account to be able to apply. Often the idea behind this, is that HR will have an advantage because the applicant has to do the work. However, the opposite is true. A big number of candidates will drop out before even sending their application due to the fact applying is so difficult that a (latent) job seeker no longer feels the need to apply. Therefore, you have to ask yourself what information you really need from applicants to be able to determine whether they can be interesting for the position. In most cases name, phone number and a cv is sufficient.
There is light at the end of the tunnel
Even though this blog is filled with ‘don’ts’ that can unnecessary get in the way of your recruitment, they have one big advantage: each of these ‘don’ts’ can be prevented or resolved. By doing so, you can easily boost your recruitment. Of course, optimising the attraction of talent asks for someone who knows how to prevent these don’ts and which other recruiting techniques can be used to find the right candidate in the most efficient way.
Do you have any questions or remarks about this blog or are you curious to find out to what extent the recruitment in your organisation can be optimised? Feel free to contact me, I am happy to help you.
