Recruiters are faced with a challenging and evolving recruitment landscape within SA, where Talent Teams are required to demonstrate value-add into the business.

Lack of suitably qualified recruiters with sales and/or marketing capability and a customer excellence mentality, fueled by inefficient inter-communication skills to engage into operations can restrict your  talent attraction, engagement and retention intentions.

With many companies shifting to in-sourcing their recruitment function, recruitment teams should become knowledgeable in employer branding and recruitment marketing global practice. In this way they will be better positioned to engage more effectively with their Hiring Managers.

WHAT SHOULD YOU BE LOOKING OUT FOR?!

Employer Branding: The Candidate Experience Journey
Pretend you are a candidate looking to join your company for the first time as an Employer of Choice.

  1. Is it easy to source information on your company as a good place to work?
  2. If you are recruiting to fill a job/s, what kind of experience did you encounter as “the candidate”?
  3. Write down this “candidate experience journey” and reflect on it, highlighting the good and challenging areas for improvement.
    (Identify: how visible and well-presented your employer brand is and listed job/s across social media channels and job boards, how exciting and unique is the content versus other comparable listed job/s, how favorable is the employee reviews, reflect on the job application process)

Employer Branding/Employee Engagement: Appointment
You’ve set up your appointment and confirmed your core objective for meeting with the Hiring Manager.

  1. What necessary preparations have you done before your meeting i.e. have you (or together with your fellow team members) thought of any constructive added value offering or input over and above your reason for meeting?
  2. If you are taking down a job brief, have you conducted the necessary market research of the position in question, compiled a list of questions pertaining to that specific department and job value proposition, culture fit, former marketing efforts executed by the Hiring Manager, reason for vacancy etc.
  3. Irrespective of whether this is a new or existing Hiring Manager, put a fresh lens over your eyes upon commuting to and entering into this specific department/environment. What kind of reaction do you receive from the receptionist/PA, do the employees look happy and/or greet you, perceive what kind of culture prevails there and how different it might be to the rest of the organisation).
    (Identify: does the job description align with the environment you’ve entered into, what’s your initial first-hand impression of that particular department’s culture, what’s unique about the people)

Employer Branding: Employer Value Proposition, Culture and Recruitment Marketing
Nowadays, unpacking a job brief extends far beyond just the knowledge, experience and skill set, especially when it comes to scarce skills where MCI HR Recruitment Trend Survey confirms that 46% of organisations find a shortage of skills to be their biggest obstacle to attracting the best talent.

  1. Can the Hiring Manager confirm what your company’s EVP is, together with unique job characteristics and associated value proposition you can “market/sell” i.e. projects and success factors, working environment, culture, remuneration (and benefits) and career opportunities and future growth.
  2. From your side, are you able to elaborate and emphasize the necessity of how gaining this additional information is critical to you assisting the Hiring Manger in sourcing and recruiting his/her perfect fit candidate?
  3. Since Hiring Managers often initiate their own sourcing mechanisms, always establish what marketing efforts have been exhausted with a view to implementing other untapped channels and activities.
    (Identify: did you find the Hiring Manager was unable to provide you with the necessary info over and above the standard job spec requirements, did you feel ill-equipped or uncomfortable with sourcing this additional info, had the Hiring Manager ever heard of the concept of recruitment marketing and why nowadays it is essential to sourcing and competing for talent)?

Recruitment is now all about BRANDING and MARKETING!
Progressive leaders make it their business to understand the power of Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing!

Should you or your Hiring Managers be faced with some of these challenges, contact Celeste on celeste@employerbrandingsa.co.za to:

  • Partner with you on your next visit with your Hiring Manager to demonstrate how you go about unpacking added value services, or
  • Run a training workshop to unveil how you and/or your team navigate your way to demonstrating value added services into your company.