Struggling to source talent? A stronger marketing strategy could be the answer

The recruitment market is dauntingly competitive right now, across a range of UK sectors. Around 80% of organisations are struggling to find candidates with the right skills, and confidence in finding the right candidate has dropped by 4% since 2020.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to source the right talent, which has led in some sectors to boosted starting salaries. But what happens when even a hefty pay package doesn’t work, or the right candidates just don’t seem to exist?

This is where a watertight recruitment marketing strategy comes in. If you can’t find the right candidates, you need to encourage them to come to you.

Marketing is a critical part of the talent acquisition process, but it’s so often an under-resourced afterthought for employers. It’s just not enough to post a standard job ad and hope for the best.

Get it right, and a proactive marketing strategy can help you to:

• Build your employer reputation and brand. This ensures that you stand out from the competition as an attractive place to work, offering a great work/life balance and countless opportunities for personal and professional development.

• Nurture candidates. They may not be ready to work for you yet, or right for the specific role you’re advertising – but they might be one day. Crucially, they can spread the word about positive experiences with your company to others in their professional networks.

• Improve the speed and quality of hiring campaigns. Through best practice recruitment marketing and strong communication, you can fill posts faster and improve the quality of the candidate experience.

What makes a killer recruitment marketing strategy? 

If your firm is looking to finetune its recruitment marketing strategy, or perhaps recruiting for the first time, here’s what you need to be thinking about.

Target your ideal candidates

When marketing your company and its ethos, think of it like a tourist destination which would appeal to a particular type of traveller. You’d highlight what makes the destination special in a unique campaign, with the interests of the target audience in mind.

You should do the same with recruitment marketing. You need to find what makes your culture unique and special, and communicate this in a way that directly appeals to your ideal candidate. On this subject, you also need to take the time to really understand who your ideal candidate is, and what motivates them.

Empower your team as brand ambassadors

If your staff love working for you, encourage them to shout it from the rooftops. This is all part of building a reputation for having an exceptional workplace culture, which should see those applications come flooding in. Speak to your current team about what they love about working for the company, and use this feedback to shape your campaigns.

You can even look into implementing referral schemes so that your employees can earn rewards for bringing in new hires from their networks.

Other tips to try:

• Refresh your social media approach
• Actively manage your talent pool through applicant tracking systems
• Develop nurturing pipelines for passive candidates
• Measure and analyse everything you’re doing – otherwise, how will you know if your marketing campaigns are delivering results?

And of course, you don’t have to go it alone. If you need expert help with recruitment marketing, work with the best. Get in touch with our specialist network here at RGH to find out more.