3 SEO tips to boost candidate applications to your job advertisement

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Do you think about SEO strategies to boost candidate applications? You should be, here’s why.

With so many organisations competing for the best talent, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an easy way to gain a competitive edge. The ultimate goal for many organisation’s marketing strategy is to rank on the Google’s Page One for their keywords. Imagine how many more applications you’d receive if your job advertisement hits the top of a job board or careers page ranked on Google’s first page as candidates search for a role.

Imagine…

You’re hiring for a Marketing Manager for your business based in North Brisbane. A candidate is searching for this exact role and location on Seek. Your job advertisement appears on Seek’s first page and immediately grabs their attention. They click the link through to your advertisement and search for your website to read more about the company. They submit an application and they’re an ideal fit for your organisation.

What a great result.

The truth is, they may not have had the patience and continue searching to find you if you hadn’t hit the top page in their search query.

In today’s candidate-driven market, the easier it is for candidates to find you, the better edge you’ll gain over your talent competitors.

How does SEO help you to successfully reach the best talent?

Job seekers will be able to see your vacancies by simply searching for a role or a keyword on Google or job boards. If you want to master SEO for this purpose, you’ll need to utilise Google and job boards yourself. The Goliaths of the recruitment world will probably be paying for their ads to be seen first, but if you rank organically, this can look more authentic to your audience.

Job board algorithms are very similar to Google and you should approach the job advertisement copy for SEO in the same way you would for Google optimisation. Google ranks pages that it considers to be valuable based on particular key points. See a few tips below to help you optimise your job advertisement and to improve organic ranking on both Google and job boards.

3 SEO tips to get the most out of your job advertisement

1.     Keywords, keywords, keywords

Similar to writing a blog post or website copy, when writing your job advertisement for SEO, think about the keywords you’re using. The main keywords to consider in this case are the job title, location and popular work benefits (such as ‘flexible working’).

Keep these keywords as accurate and relevant as possible. So, for the example above, your keywords would be: ‘Marketing Manager’ and ‘North Brisbane’.

Try researching similar roles too to check out the top results – that way, you can determine what terms your competitors are using to make their advertisements rank. In assessing high-ranking, similar advertisements, pay close attention to the webpage title, meta-description, URL slug and the first few lines of text.

Bonus Tip: Once you’ve identified what keywords you’ll need to include in your copy, use a tool such as Google’s Keyword Planner to help with optimisation.

2.     Be accurate and clear

Being accurate and clear is particularly important. Keywords will help you rank, but search engines and job board algorithms are clever and read your content to ensure it is relevant to the keywords you’re using. Don’t over-kill it on the keyword front; a selection of keywords is adequate.

Incorporate those keywords and write an accurate job description with your ideal candidate in mind. The algorithms will like your copy if it is clear, explanatory and precise. If it’s too vague, all your keyword research will go down the drain as the search engines won’t understand your copy.

3.     Increase traffic, reduce bounce rate

SEO algorithms are clever; they rank based on usefulness and relevance. Traffic heading to your page with a low bounce rate is a big tick, as it shows your page to be useful, and should therefore cause it to rank better.

How do you achieve this?

  • Ensure your advertisement is as accessible to those who are viewing it on their smartphones and tablets as it is for desktop. Giving candidates the ability to read your advertisement on a mobile device will reduce your bounce rates and prove it’s worth.
  • Optimise your advertisement for sharing. By ensuring your link is optimised for people in your organisation (and potential candidates) to share on LinkedIn and other social media platforms, you’ll be able to drive more traffic to the page.
  • Consider placing links within your advertisement. For example; a link to your organisations ‘About Us’ page on your website and social media pages. If candidates are able to interact with your webpage, Google and the job boards see it as useful.

Need some help optimising your job advertisement for search engines?

Find out more information about Employment Office’s Recruitment Advertising services. Our team are experts in writing the copy for and strategically implementing your job advertisement. For more information on how our experts can help you reach the best talent available, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Use gender-neutral language in your job advertisement to attract more women in construction, engineering and STEM

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When it comes to STEM professions, it is clear that in Australia, women are largely underrepresented. According to a study by Australia’s Chief Scientist released in 2016, only 14% of Australian engineers are women and only 16% of Australia’s STEM qualified people are female. So, when there’s a national shortage of women in STEM, how can you attract more females to your workforce?

While there are lots of possible answers to this, one of the solutions is to use gender-neutral language. This seems straightforward but can come with numerous, confronting issues to tackle; including battling with our unconscious bias. Using gender-neutral language in your job advert can help you attract more women to your STEM vacancy without deterring the men who would also be equally as qualified for the role.

What is gender-neutral language?

Gender-neutral language (also referred to as gender-inclusive language), is dialect that avoids bias towards a particular social gender. A basic example of this is the move from using the term ‘two-man job’ which immediately infers a male bias, to the term ‘two-person job’ which does not associate a specific gender.

While the example above uses an obviously gendered term, this article will mainly refer to words and phrases that are gender-coded.

What is gender-coded language?

Gender-coded language is when a word has undertones that are biased towards a specific gender. You could be unconsciously using these terms within your job advert, as they are not overtly obvious in their gender association.

A research paper, Evidence That Gendered Wording in Job Advertisements Exists and Sustains Gender Inequality (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, July 2011, Vol 101(1), p109-28), written by Danielle Gaucher, Justin Friesen, and Aaron C. Kay; discussed how using gender-biased language (whether unconsciously or not) can consequently affect who will apply to your job vacancy. Their paper identified the words used and how they could attract or detract candidates.

Identifying words that are gender-coded can be difficult; especially since the most natural or appropriate word choices may be coded, such as; lead, connect, independent and cooperative.

Totaljobs, the UK’s largest hiring platform, did some research into the most commonly used gender-coded words in UK job descriptions and here’s what they found;

Most commonly used male-gendered words in job descriptions:

  • Lead (70,539 mentions)
  • Analyse (35,339)
  • Competitive (23,079)
  • Active (20,041)
  • Confident (13,841)

Most commonly used female-gendered words in job descriptions:

  • Support (83,095)
  • Responsible (64,909)
  • Understanding (29,638)
  • Dependable (16,979)
  • Committed (13,129)

Through a total of 77,000 job ads, there averaged a gender-bias of 6 words per ad.

Source: https://blog.totaljobs.com/gender-bias

Does this mean to say women are not leaders or analytical (etc)?

It categorically does not!! Women can absolutely be leaders, analytical, confident (etc); this research indicates that women are more hesitant when applying for roles that include these words in the description. When a job ad has a bias towards masculine coded language, women may feel (even on an unconscious level) that they are not eligible for the role and so do not apply.

Why is it imperative that this changes?

Totaljob’s research indicates ‘a distinct male-bias in adverts for senior positions, while supporting roles were worded with feminine coded words.’ By becoming more aware of this unconscious biased, we can encourage more women to apply for these more senior roles and encourage more women into male-dominated careers (without deterring the men who are also capable and qualified); moving towards a better gender balance and equality in the work place as a whole.

Not only this, but research on issue this in the USA indicates that the job ads that were gender neutral received 42% more responses than those that were biased. Wouldn’t it be amazing, if nearly double the talent were applying to every job ad you posted?

How do you tackle unconscious gender-bias in job ads?

The way we solve this as HR professionals is by ensuring we use gender-neutral terms as much as possible; where not possible, we ensure there is an equal balance of these words to avoid our ad being heavily directed towards one gender.

As Gaucher, Friesen and Kay state ‘The results were clear: Women were more interested in male-dominated careers when the advertisements were unbiased, making reference to both men and women as candidates, than when the advertisements made reference only to men’; so, to attract more women to the male-dominated STEM roles, we must ensure our ads are as unbiased as possible. It’s as simple as that.

Need some further help and clarification?

Our recruitment advertising team are experts in candidate attraction and copywriting job advertisements. Discuss your recruitment advertising needs today by calling us on 1300 366 573 or email us at info@employmentoffice.com.au.

If you’ve already written your job advert and you aren’t sure whether you have unconsciously used gender-coded terms, Totaljobs have a Gender Bias Decoder, where you can paste your copy and identify the gendered words you may have missed.

We also have a small cheat sheet below to help you find a more appropriate word or phrase.

Gender-coded phrase Alternative phrase
Someone who can connect well with customers (Fem) Someone who can provide great customer service
Strong communication skills (Masc) Exceptional communication skills
Happy working in a competitive atmosphere (Masc) Motivated by high targets
A responsible and sympathetic individual (Fem) A reliable and attentive person
Our dominant ambition is… (Masc) We have a principal goal to…
Join our community of… (Fem) Join our team of…
Able to act autonomously and on impulse where necessary (Masc) Able to think on their feet where necessary
Ready to challenge the norm (Masc) Can think outside the box
We are looking for someone dependable (Fem) We are looking for a dedicated individual

 

The 4 most important screening questions to include in your recruitment advertisements

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Using screening questions in recruitment advertisements is the fastest way to efficiently create a great shortlist of candidates. These four screening questions and additional tips are an invaluable way to find your ideal candidate, sooner. 

Many recruiters understand the importance of providing a great candidate experience and how, a part of this, is making it easy for candidates to apply online. Sometimes, recruiters are reluctant to add an extra layer to your recruitment process, thinking it will reduce applications. Interestingly however, many high-quality candidates like answering screening questions, as it gives them a way to highlight their key skills and stand out from other applicants.

We recently shared the 6 reasons to include screening questions in your recruitment advertisements, from distinguishing serious applicants from tire kickers and reducing the time required to create a great shortlist, to having a consistent format to analyse. But did you know screening questions can effectively act as a cover letter and give you the opportunity to ask candidates more relevant questions?

While you, of course, want to have a structured list of screening questions for your phone, video and in-person interviews, the following list includes the best questions to use specifically in your recruitment advertisements.

1. “Do you have the unrestricted legal right to live and work in Australia?” (Yes/no)

Overseas applicants will always apply for roles. However, this simple yes/no question allows you to eliminate candidates applying from overseas (from the “no” responses). If your organisation is not accepting overseas applicants, include a statement to this effect in your advertisement and target the advertisement in your specified location.

That being said, your organisation might be willing to offer relocation assistance fees, whether that be within Australia or from overseas. But even so, include this question in your advertisement as it’s useful to be informed about a candidate’s current location and residential status.

If your organisation is open to accepting candidates from overseas, you can include optional additional questions. For example, a recruiter advertising for temporary roles such as fruit pickers might not require candidates to be Australian citizens. If a candidate selects the “yes” response, the recruiter can also include a question asking candidates to specify the terms of their visa (if applicable).

2. “If you hold any relevant qualifications, please detail them here.”

If the role you are advertising for requires specific qualifications, this is a great question to ask in your recruitment advertisement instead of sifting through resumes or waiting for the interview stage.

Even if you do not require specific qualifications, this is still a useful optional question to include as “highly regarded” with the note “if applicable”, so you can quickly rank top candidates.

Qualifications should include all certifications and licenses, not just education. For example, first aid certificates.

Ask candidates to list their qualifications with institution names and dates obtained.

3. “Please outline your relevant experience in [skill/s relevant to the role].”

Depending on your role, you may prefer to merge the above questions 2 and 3. If your roles typically receive hundreds of applications, including these questions will drastically reduce your time to shortlist. Those candidates with relevant qualifications, experience and skills can be ranked higher on your shortlist.

As stated above, even if you do not require previous experience, it’s still a useful optional question to include as “highly regarded” with the note “if applicable”, so you can rank top candidates faster.

4. “If you were to be successful, what date could you commence?”

Many organisations require their employees to provide a four week notice period. If you have two equally great candidates that you are struggling to distinguish between, one may be able to start next week, and the other in a month or two. Which one will you choose? This is a really helpful question to give you a better idea about your candidates’ commitments and requirements.

Additional questions 

What kind of culture and employer brand does your organisation have? It can be useful to include a fun or behavioural question that reflects your culture. While it may not be appropriate for a construction role, it can work for a role that is more creative, or if you have a social office where cultural and behavioural fit is important. For example, an organisation hiring for a creative marketing role asked candidates, “if you could be any animal, which would you be, and why?”. These type of questions allow candidates to showcase their personality and creativity. It’s a great way to find those hidden gems!

Another screening question that is not as common is asking candidates to outline their salary expectations. Sometimes organisations advertise for roles, receive few responses and are unsure if this is to do with the salary range they have specified. Other times, they’re just not sure what they should be paying! While a good recruitment specialist will conduct market research and provide a sound recommendation, asking this screening question in your recruitment advertisement is an extra way to gauge candidate expectations.

Important final tips

Research reveals if you have more than five screening questions, the number of applications submitted drops by 50%, with significant drop-off rates every additional question asked.

Specialists typically advise against including any more than six or seven screening questions in your recruitment advertisement, as it increases the difficulty of the application process for candidates. Three to four questions is the sweet spot!

Identify the key behaviours and skills required for your role, and use your best judgement to determine if there are any additional questions to the ones listed above that will help make your shortlisting process easier.

For example, for a finance manager role that requires leadership skills and management of a monthly accounting cycle, you may like to include questions such as: “what is your approach to leadership in an organisation that….”, and/or “have you managed a monthly accounting cycle? List your experience.” This gives you a great way to assess candidates beyond two-dimensional resumes.

Screening questions in recruitment advertisements are designed to make your shortlisting process easier. Without them, you are more likely to receive an excessive amount of low-quality applications.

Use your best judgement or seek the advice of a recruitment advertisement specialist. If you include sound screening questions, you should not need to ask for cover letters! Combined with resumes, they should supply you with all the information you require.

Trends reveal more organisations are now starting to use this smart recruitment marketing strategy. So, if you’re receiving a large quantity of candidates but not the quality you are looking for, or are struggling to create a great shortlist in a timely manner, screening questions might just be the key you need.

Don’t make the mistake of choosing quantity over quality: here’s why

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The best way to hire, if you have the luxury, is by running a Group Information and Interview Day. The quality of the candidates you invite into any group situation is telling for candidates, including your top potential talent, about what you think of your own organisation and what you think of them.

If you are going to run a Group Information and Interview Day (GIID) quality absolutely overrides quantity. The reason is, if you go for quantity simply to have a big room full of people, you’ll end up with a room full of 70% great candidates and 30% filler candidates. Those great candidates will sit in a room among filler candidates wondering, “is this my potential peer?”, “Is this how this organisation sees me?” and, “Are they categorising me the same way they are categorising that person?”

The quality of the candidates you invite into any group situation is telling for candidates, including your top potential talent, about what you think of your own organisation and what you think of them. So you never want filler candidates, and you never want quantity over quality. It’s far better to have a group of really high-calibre candidates, which demonstrates your talent pool, the level of interest in the position, and your ability to recruit the top talent in the best possible light. Ideally, you will have interviewed these candidates prior to meeting them face to face.

Another added bonus about opting for quality over quantity means that instead of buying a tray of average-quality sandwiches, you can buy a gourmet cheese platter instead!

Recruitment is all about sales and marketing. In sales and marketing, we know it’s important to widen the funnel. While it’s important that you’re starting with a broad reach of exposure for your opportunities, it’s equally important to have a funnel. You absolutely need to use your funnel to effectively screen and shortlist your talent pool.

At the top of your funnel, quantity is important, as you need a wide range and reach. From there, as your candidates move through your recruitment funnel, the more it will cost you to screen and shortlist. Therefore, you need to be efficient when screening and shortlisting.

Be 100% authentic in your attraction strategy. When marketing your organisation and the job opportunity to the best candidates out there, be ruthlessly authentic about the role, its responsibilities, and requirements for candidates because your goal is to educate and inform candidates so the right ones progress through to application and the wrong ones opt themselves out early.

Include the right information in your recruitment advertisement. If you can, it’s great to have an enticing advertisement on a job board that links to an attractive landing page for each opportunity. This way, you can market to the best candidates out there, fully educate them about your organisation and the role, and if you can include screening questions, better still!

Don’t fall into the trap of throwing advertisements on job boards and having to plough through piles of resumes, many of which are from unqualified, disinterested, or unsuitable applicants. Fully educate and inform your candidates before they even apply.

Use a shortlisting and selection process that’s rigorous and disciplined. Use selection criteria that you’ve established beforehand across the board.

The more you can avoid a huge volume of applications from unsuitable candidates, the better.  (Check out our great articles on how to write a great recruitment advertisement and the best screening questions you can use.)

Use video interviews wherever possible to conduct high-quality behavioural-based interviews. Hiring managers can then view (even an edited 10 minutes of a behavioural-based video interview) before they meet the candidate face to face). So instead of a huge volume of face to face interviews, you can opt for quality and being judicious about who you spend your time with.

Be mindful how you present the opportunity to candidates in naming your event. A “Group Assessment Day” is a less attractive term that can put candidates off. At the same time, inviting your candidates to a “Group Information Day” doesn’t communicate to candidates they have the opportunity to progress, which may result in a low attendance rate. Naming your event a “Group Information and Interview Day” solves this problem.

At the end of the day, time is money and we’ve got to keep our recruitment processes optimised and commercially viable without missing out on the best talent that’s out there. Your talent is your biggest asset. When a great candidate comes into your organisation either for an individual interview or a Group Information and Interview Day, or to start work on their first day, don’t ever let them feel like they’re being lined up against a candidate who’s far from their level who was brought in to fill numbers.

 

by Susanne Mather

Editor of Recruitment Marketing Magazine

Why you should embrace boomerang candidates

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The trend of rehiring boomerang candidates is on the rise with statistics revealing the majority of HR professionals have received applications from past employees. Here are the pros and cons for you to decide whether this talent attraction and engagement strategy is right for you.

Kate Neilson reporting for HRM Online offers a case study about CEO Aron Ain’s organisation welcoming back a past employee, who had left after a 25-year tenure.

“Ain had a decision to make. He could have smugly sent this employee (or Kronite, as they like to call themselves) packing. The employee had stepped away from an opportunity to work for an organisation consistently gracing prestigious lists such as ‘Great Places to Work’ and Fortune Magazine’s ‘100 Best Companies To Work For’. But Ain didn’t do that. Instead, this employee was welcomed back with open arms, and he’s not the only one.”

According to Ain, approximately 250 of his employees are boomerang candidates. Not only this, but they were actively recruiting them through their website.

The stats: rising trend of boomerang candidates

“The boomerang employee has been a rising phenomenon in the recruitment space for some time now. A Kronos study from 2015  surveyed 1,800 HR professionals, people managers, and employees in the US. The findings showed that half of the HR managers surveyed said their organisations used to have policies against re-hiring former employees, but 76 per cent are now more accepting of this.

“Eighty-five per cent of the HR professionals said they received job applications from previous employees from 2010-2015, and 40 per cent proceeded to re-hire these candidates. It also seems the old saying ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ might ring true, with managers (51 per cent) and HR professionals (56 per cent) saying they’d give “high or very high priority” to a former employee who left the organisation on good terms.

“Taking a look at the employee perspective, only 15 per cent reported being a boomerang themselves, but 40 per cent admitted they’d consider trying to go back to a previous employer. This statistic differs for various ages. For Millennials, 46 per cent would consider returning to an old employer, whereas only 33 per cent of Gen Xers and 29 per cent of Baby Boomers would do the same.”

Why rehire a boomerang candidate?

As an employer, an employee’s career journey is not something that belongs to you. Encouraging employees choices and opportunities to leave, gain new skills and return, is a mutually beneficial arrangement.

According to Ain, boomerang candidates are “unbelievably loyal” and he’s seen many examples of this.

Brendan Browne, vice president of global talent acquisition at LinkedIn relayed the benefits of re-hiring former staff in his article for the Business Insider, stating that they’re valuable to an organiation’s growth because they’re familiar with its culture.

Established relationships only work to create another layer to employee loyalty, which results in increased retention. They also bring new experience, skills, knowledge and ideas. Even potential customers!

Organisations such as Microsoft, Deloitte and JP Morgan are all working to retain relationships with their past employees in the hope they might one day return.

Risks and challenges

Every talent attraction strategy comes with certain challenges. One of the major challenges is reducing the diversity in your organisation.

“If an employee has been with an organisation for 25+ years, maybe it’s time for them to move on and pave the way for someone new who can bring fresh ideas to the company.

There is such a thing as healthy turnover.”

According to Patty McCord, Netflix HR chief, organisations who want to foster a high-performance culture need to get rid of the notion of retention and let people go with dignity.

On another note, some organisation leaders are averse to rehiring boomerang candidates because promoting this strategy might make it too easy for people to leave and return with the belief that returning to their previous position is a sure thing. The best way to work around this is by communicating to your talent that it is an invitation and opportunity, not a guarantee.

What process should you use to rehire boomerang candidates?

Should you make candidates apply for the role in the same way other candidates do through applications and interviews?

Ultimately, the decision really depends on your recruitment process and hiring needs, as well as the person themselves; make these decisions on a case-by-case basis.

For some CEOs like Ain, the benefits far outweigh the risks. Change is healthy and good for organisations, employers and employees. Ensure your current talent feels engaged and appreciated at work, and communicate that opportunities to return are an invitation.

 

 

Source

Should you embrace boomerang employees?

Kate Neilson

HRM Online

4 things candidates are looking for in your employer brand

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Many employers understand the value of promoting a strong employer brand. But what are the key things candidates are looking for? By understanding the key elements of employer brand candidates are looking for, you’ll learn how to tailor your messaging and content strategy, and the best areas to focus your efforts and attention.

Whether or not your organisation has done anything to actively manage your employer brand, you already have one! And potential candidates are examining it before deciding if your organisation is right for them. According to LinkedIn, 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a role.

There are a number of components that go into an employer brand, and all of these things work together to shape your overall employer brand. The things that comprise your employer brand include:

Things you can control:

  • Careers site
  • Recruitment advertisements
  • Website and blog
  • Culture and organisational values
  • Candidate communication

Things you can influence:

  • Employee stories and advocacy
  • Social media channels
  • Organisation reviews

Things you can indirectly influence:

  • Public perception
  • Accolades and awards.

So, what are candidates looking for? And how can you attract the right people to help your organisation?

1. Your mission

Candidates are looking for more than a paycheck. They’re looking for an opportunity to contribute towards a valuable mission. For millennials, this is particularly important, as according to the latest statistics, 78% saying they want their employer’s values to match their own.

To captivate potential hires, craft an authentic narrative about why you’re here and what’s important to you as an organisation. Your commitment to this mission should be the thread that connects all of your print and online materials, from your careers page to corporate activism to social media to employee testimonials. Give prospective candidates and idea of what drives the work you do.

2. Real information about employee experience

When investigating an organisation’s employer brand, candidates aren’t interested in corporate jargon about your products and services. They want to know what it’s like to work for you, from those who know you best and are doing the work themselves.

The best way to do this is by filling your careers site and social channels with real employee profile stories, whether they are video or written stories, or both. This makes your brand more relatable and personal. People respond well and are most engaged with compelling visual imagery, a “day in the life” photos and videos. Attractive visuals and imagery create a lasting impact.

3. An active, engaging social media presence

We live in a digital world, so social media is crucial in your employer brand strategy. Up to 57% of job seekers use social media in their hiring search. How much time can you invest in this channel, and what is your strategy?

Tailor your content to the unique style of each social media account. For example, Twitter is great for concise summaries of key industry news (such as industry blog posts and recent awards or milestones for your organisation), compelling visuals trump all else on Instagram, and Facebook gives you space to post longer content that connects with a varied demographic. Ensure that your social media manager keeps all of your social media content on-brand to give viewers a sense of your organisation’s unique identity.

4. Positive candidate experience  

The experience you create for candidates is another important component for your long-term employer branding strategy, because it’s deeply personal and candidates are paying such close attention.

78% of candidates say the overall candidate experience at a company is an indicator of how well the organisation values its employees. That means job seekers look at your candidate experience as “proof” that you do, in fact, live up to your company values.

Create a positive candidate experience by making sure your processes are short, efficient, fair, and involve good communication.

Make sure your application process is brief, intuitive, and relatively easy. Many candidates will simply give up if your ask for page after page of information. Also, remember to communicate with prospective talent throughout your recruitment process and respect their time and effort. An automated email or text message confirming submission of the application should be a given, but adding a personalised touch from a recruiter within a few days (even a simple “we are still processing your application and will be in touch soon”) is even better.

Also remember that the candidate experience doesn’t stop after you’ve made your hiring decision. Notifying those who were unsuccessful is particularly important, as 80% of people say they wouldn’t apply for another job at a company if they fail to hear back about a position. Leaving candidates with a positive impression of your company ensures that you have prospective talent waiting in the pipeline the next time you’re ready to hire.

By understanding what candidates are looking for in your employer brand, you can review and fortify your strategies to strengthen and promote your employer brand.

Find out more about our Employer Branding services here. If you’d like some advice about how to build a great employer brand for your organisation, schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Specialists by calling us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Do you know who your talent competitors are?

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As part of your overall employer branding strategy, you should absolutely conduct a talent competitor analysis to understand: what their employee value proposition (EVP) is and what they’re doing in the marketplace in order to differentiate yourself and clearly articulate your message. Surprisingly, they might not be who you think they are!

Your talent competitors are not necessarily your market competitors. In fact, your talent competitors might not even be who you think they are.

In The Talent Cast podcast, James Ellis explains how to identify your talent competitors.

“How many people think they’re competing with Google or Facebook for talent? You’re nuts, but you’re not alone. So many companies consider Google, Facebook and Amazon as competition for talent, but miss their real competition. Let’s think through the question of who your real competition is so you can evaluate your own employer brand better.”

From a consumer standpoint, there are no market competitors for Amazon and Google. They are simply too large. So, to think you’re trying to attract developers to your small startup who are also considering Amazon and Google is simply incorrect.

“If I ask you where you want to go on vacation, you tell me you only know that you want to go to a beach. But do you want to go to Mexico, Puerto Rico, the South of France, or Greece? What about Iceland? They have beaches too, but they’re chillier. Your experience will be different. Technically Antarctica has a beach too (a place where land meets water), so why aren’t you including there too? You end up talking about many different places, none of which will give you the same experience.”

Ellis uses this metaphor to explain that not all your potential talent is the same! A startup competing for developers against Google is the same way Iceland and Port of Aratu compete for beach-goers. They’re radically different.

“Only when you embrace and understand this can you start to have a better idea about who your talent competitors truly are.”

If your organisation is a startup, your talent market includes people who are interested in working for a startup, as startups are different and special.

Big organisations are radically different from smaller organisations because of their size. People choose to work there because they offer what big organisations can: stability, structure, scale, and the potential for impact, including the need to navigate things such as politics.

People who want to work for a small organisation choose to do so for different reasons.

“Small organisations are radically different. Everybody knows everybody, everyone wears different hats and tries different things. Small organisations leverage the most from each individual. If you can increase the value of one person by 1% you can really see that. It’s not something you necessarily notice at a big company.”

The more you consider who your competitors are, the more you can truly understand and create a strong employer brand. You need to think about it with maturity to truly understand why people want to work for you.

“You are so different and what you offer is so different. There is a litany of organisations who are in a similar position as you, with similar reasons for existing and brand promises. Those organisations are your competition.”

For example, there’s no reason that the Red Cross couldn’t hire people from Amazon. But they’re not talent competitors. These organisations don’t compete for the same people in any way, shape, or form. Understand who your competition is by understanding where your best people might work.

So how do you find out who your talent competitors actually are?

“Find a company whose motivations and brand promises are similar to yours, and how you compete in that industry, not [necessarily] because you’re the same size or you’re in the same geographic location, but because you’re motivated by the same things. Because those people are motivated by the same things. Your job in building a strong employer brand is to ask: “how do I overperform in this space compared to others?”

For example, if there is a similar company to you based in a similar location, and you’re both motivated by empowerment and innovation, you’re both essentially targeting talent who are inspired by the same things.

Understanding who your talent competitors are means, “knowing who you are, who is attracted to you, and where those people are. It’s understanding what other companies have similar motivations to you. Understanding your motivation and comparing that to other organisation is how you should be comparing yourself when you look at your employer brand and understanding how you stack up.”

“Understanding who your competitive set is beyond industry, scale or size, geography. It’s about your organisation’s motivation more than anything else.”

Assess your competition by understanding their employee value proposition (EVP), what they’re doing in the marketplace in terms of their careers site, social channels, and recruitment advertisements. Then find a way to differentiate yourself and amplify your message.

By understanding who your talent competitors are, you’ll be able to create a more compelling pitch!

 

Sources

Who is your competition?

James Ellis

The Talent Cast

4 best strategies to recruit top healthcare professionals

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With our aging population, the need for more specialist nurses, skills gaps from retiring experienced nurses, and the increase in chronic health conditions, our healthcare industry faces a number of tough recruitment challenges. Here’s how to overcome them and recruit top healthcare talent.

According to the latest statistics from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 50% of Australians have a chronic health condition, our average life expectancy is 80.4 years of age and we spent $170 billion on healthcare between 2015-16.

With our increasing and aging population, these statistics have a real impact on Australia’s healthcare industry. Healthcare recruitment comes with a unique set of challenges.

The healthcare and medical industry accounts for more than 11% of Australia’s total employment and faces unique challenges (Seek). The Federal Government’s 2015 Intergenerational Report shows that health expenditure per person is projected to more than double over the next 40 years and demand for nurses, for example, is expected to far exceed supply. A recent Government report on the health workforce shows a projected shortfall of approximately 85,000 nurses by 2025, and 123,000 by 2030 under current settings.

So, if you’re trying to find top healthcare professionals, here are some strategies to overcome some common challenges unique to your industry.

Talent scarcity

Our aging population is a key issue that is increasing demand for skilled health professionals. Specialist roles in nursing, such as mental health, paediatrics and theatre are in high demand, and without major changes in education and training systems, the industry is destined to continue on a path of talent scarcity.

Despite the pressure facing Australia’s healthcare and medical sector, its performance is among the best in the world. In 2014, for example, Australia ranked sixth in the world in terms of healthcare efficiency and was rated seventh in life expectancy. However, recruitment for in-demand roles remains a challenge.

The retirement of experienced nurses is also a challenge creating a knowledge gap where recruited graduates aren’t up to specialist level by the time the older workforce retires.

While there’s no way to prevent boomers from retiring, healthcare organisations should begin developing proactive recruitment strategies that prepare for their departures. This will ease the burden associated with having to continually hire new individuals to fill vacant positions that are left behind by senior-level employees.

Hospitals, clinics, aged care and other healthcare providers must revamp their approach to hiring to create an enticing benefits package and perks to make individual positions more attractive. The best way to promote this is by promoting a strong employer brand.

Highlight the benefits you offer other than salary, for example, career progression, flexibility, workplace wellness programs and employee social events. Articulate and promote your unique difference from your talent competitors, and amplify your unique message on your careers website, in your recruitment advertisements and through your social channels.

Being proactive will ensure your success in healthcare recruitment. In addition to promoting your employer brand, you should also be building and engaging a talent pipeline. Develop relationships with local educational institutions, and stay in touch with high-potential candidates who applied for previous roles and great people who have left your organisation for other opportunities. Nurture your pipeline and keep them engaged through emailing marketing and your social media channels. This way, you’ll have a warm and qualified group of potential candidates to market new roles to and fill your positions more quickly.

Education or experience?

There will always be a dilemma between education and experience in the medical field. Do you take the candidate who just recently graduated and only has one year of experience, but has a master’s degree from the number one ranked program in the country? Or do you take the candidate who has a degree from a low ranking institution, but has 12 years of experience?

Issues like these can weigh down your recruitment process. The key is to create a balance in your organisation. You want a healthy mixture of young, academically inclined employees, as well as those with on-the-job experience.

Attracting new graduates

Hiring graduates is a cost-effective strategy that can invigorate and add diversity to your workforce. However, graduates are in high demand and this talent pool can be snapped up quickly.

Keep in mind that many choose to work with institutions and healthcare providers where they have done their internships – so consider adding internships as part of your overall recruitment strategy. (Internships can be a game-changer for your talent pipeline but they come with risks and time commitments, as you will need to structure their program thoughtfully and get buy-in from your people who will be guiding them through their learning goals. Not all your interns may prove to be a great fit and those you offer opportunities to may not return.)

Establish partnerships with local universities and programs to reach students before they graduate and stay competitive.

Recruiting for remote locations

Attracting healthcare professionals in remote locations is an added challenge. If you’re in this situation, you’ll need to use every strategy at your disposal! This is where, again, employer branding comes to the rescue.

Healthcare providers can promote their organisation through the benefits of their location. Recruitment campaigns that include video and social media posts are a great way to show off your unique lcoation and strengthen your employer brand. Consider sharing employee profile stories about your current team members who relocated, and how the move has benefited their lifestyle.

Engage with potential candidats online, allow people to sign up to job alerts, and track online engagement.

Lastly, don’t overlook the importance of candidate care. Have a well-planned and thoughtful communication process is vital in promoting your employer brand (candidates who have endured poor experiences are more likely to share their opinion online and with others in their network, damaging your reputation and talent sourcing capabilities long term). Maintain good, ongoing relationships with candidates in your talent pool will ensure you’re able to find great talent quickly when you’re looking to fill important positions in the future.

Recruiting for healthcare positions can be challenging, but with a strong employer brand that articulates your unique offering, building and engaging a qualified talent pool, diversifying the experience levels of your employees, and upholding high levels of candidate care will ensure your recruiting success. Being proactive and long-term thinking is key to lower turnover, great job satisfaction and improved ROI for your recruiting efforts.

Do you need a recruitment campaign to attract the best candidates to your vacancy? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Advertising Specialists, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Alex Fraser’s competitive talent advantage

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Alex Fraser employs more than 300 staff (Hanson Southern Region employs around 600); as such they use a variety of innovative strategies in their recruitment marketing to secure the best talent.  

Founded in 1879, Alex Fraser is one of Australia’s oldest companies. With a history of strategic innovation, they are currently Australia’s largest recycler of construction materials with a strong focus on environmental sustainability and producing high-quality products in road-making and civil construction.

Alex Fraser has built a culture around values of respect, high performance, collaboration, and a sense of accountability. These values made it particularly attractive to Hanson Australia, which acquired Alex Fraser Group earlier this year.

“We’re proud of the culture we’ve built,” says Jeff Burns. “We’re a highly-engaged group of people who are prepared to go the extra mile. Without people, you only have a plant, equipment, and buildings. You can only build something special with a set of values that your company embodies and is shared by its people.”

Jeff Burns, HR Manager Hanson Southern Region and Alex Fraser Group

Alex Fraser is a hands-on, practical and friendly culture, where people are down to earth and helpful. People have a strong sense of looking out for one another, particularly from a safety perspective.

Their values increase efficiency and guide staff to behave ethically. When respect and integrity are part of decision-making, people are empowered to act without bureaucracy. Competitors are hard-pressed to steal business when customers share Alex Fraser’s values.

“Our values are a powerful strategic aspect of what we do. This means we have to attract and retain the right kind of people who can put them into action.”

In attracting the best talent, new owner Hanson has provided a foundation-stone aspect to Alex Fraser’s employer brand. Having a larger parent company has given staff and potential candidates the comfort of a more stable, secure, long-term view for employment. This has positively impacted Alex Fraser’s ability to attract talent in a competitive market, particularly with a boom phase in the construction industry in Sydney and Melbourne.

“In an era of close to full employment, we need to be as disciplined and creative as possible about how we go to market. We’ve found it’s taking us longer to attract quality candidates and we’re spending more on recruitment and attraction than usual, but we’ve implemented some strategies to get our fair share of talent.”

Employees are rewarded with a good base salary, engaging work, and other non-financial rewards and benefits. There is a tangible sense of doing something good for the environment through seeing trucks being loaded and structures being built. People can leave at the end of the day with a feeling of achievement.

To attract the best people, Burns ensures they are making sensible HR decisions, using effective job advertising, shortlisting practices, reference-checking, and making diligent use of probation periods. They are also utilising innovative recruitment marketing strategies.

Group assessment days

Group assessments days allow Alex Fraser to assess a large number of high-potential candidates in a short amount of time, including candidates’ soft skills.

“We can see a more complete picture of our candidates in a few hours. It’s important to understand not only if a candidate has the skills for the role, but if they can interact well with customers and fellow workers, particularly truck drivers who drive on public roads with branded trucks.”

Drivers, Sam and Cameron, for Alex Fraser.
Sam previously drove for Hanson and has now been an Alex Fraser driver for seven years. Cameron is a Hanson driver who kicked off his career with Alex Fraser a few years earlier.
Weighbridge Operator Nicole was a hairdresser before joining Alex Fraser.

Social networking

In addition to traditional recruitment marketing methods such as job boards, they are also boosting campaigns through social media advertising. Burns encourages senior leaders in the organisation to promote current roles on LinkedIn to their extensive networks.

Employee referral scheme

Alex Fraser is also seeing promising results from their employee referral scheme, where current staff members who refer family or friends receive gift cards for successful hires.

Graduate referrals

Alex Fraser is building relationships with driving organisations to receive graduate referrals from license training courses. Burns is enthusiastic to begin working with Wodonga TAFE’s Transport Division DECA, Transport Women Australia, to sponsor training for female drivers to gain their Heavy Vehicle License. Alex Fraser also has the opportunity to get involved with Hanson’s graduate program.

Graduate Trainee Kate was the project manager for a large-scale glass crushing plant at Laverton North turning bottle glass in to sand for construction materials.

Management program

In addition to their graduate program, Hanson has a long-running management program, which lasts for two years and provides staff with immersive experiences in different aspects of the business. The program has proven to be a great pipeline for emerging leaders, as many staff members from the program are now in senior roles in Hanson. The two groups are currently sketching out plans for Alex Fraser to join and benefit from the program.

Recruitment specialists

Traditional recruitment agencies often deliver unsatisfactory results, which is why Alex Fraser makes use of fee-for-service specialists to attract and recruit the best people.

“If you’ve got a clear idea of your employer brand and what you’re looking for in a role, you can make use of specialists. I’ve cultivated relationships with a small number of trusted partners on a fee-for-service basis instead of a commission basis. I don’t just want someone shooting for any result, I want the best result.”

Specialists are particularly helpful in running group assessment days.

Group assessment days, harnessing the power of networks, graduate and management programs, and recruitment specialists give Alex Fraser a competitive edge in their efforts to attract the best talent.

Struggling to recruit for retail? Here’s how to gain a competitive edge

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Retail managers know how to hire during high unemployment rates but suffer in today’s highly competitive talent market. Powerful recruitment marketing strategies, such as referrals will widen your talent pool.

Dr. John Sullivan reporting for ERE explains how great recruiting in retail is both affordable and requires minimal effort. The first strategy Sullivan recommends is using referrals to your advantage: “Your best employees already know and hang around with many others who also work in retail. Those interconnections make referrals the No. 1 most effective recruiting tool.”

Ask your top retail performers to identify and promote hiring opportunities to recommend one quality potential candidate each month. You may even like to offer incentives to current staff who recommend successful hires.

Use reference checks as a referral source too. After conducting a reference check, ask referees if they can recommend anyone with similar skills.

Draw from your existing talent pipeline by reaching out to and rehiring former top employees. These are easy wins, as you know they are already familiar with your organisational values, culture, and work. Because retail has a high turnover rate, you never know if a past high performer’s situation has changed. (You can also ask if they can become a referral source!)

Similarly, revisit high-potential candidates who previously missed out on a role.

Use other nearby retailers as a source. “Top talent working at other top firms are superior, because they are fully trained, and they have already proven themselves. And this means that if your own firm provides a superior work environment, it’s relatively simple to convince the best retail employee at your competitors to join your team.”

“The key to recruiting success is the tools that you use.”

Why not recruit customers? Customers who frequently visit your facilities make excellent potential candidates, as they know and love your brand. Analyse data from your customer loyalty programs, include attractive signage in your stores, or have employees wear t-shirts that read, “Ask me what it’s like to work here!”

Make sound, quick assessments. In a tight market, it’s beneficial to lock down great talent quickly. Accommodate people looking for flexibility by offering part-time work that fits with people’s existing schedules if it gets candidates over the line.

Promoting your employer brand on social media will also increase your attractiveness to potential hires. PageUp reports how Aussie retail chain City Beach leveraged social media to appeal to their target demographic:

“City Beach created YouTube videos showcasing its culture and demonstrating what would be expected of its temporary holiday workers, and launched a robust social media campaign on Instagram and Facebook to further drive traffic to its new career site…

“City Beach achieved enormous success with its Christmas casual recruitment campaign, with 15 000 new candidates registered, representing 15 suitable candidates for every vacancy within the first four hours of posting the roles on their careers site, with no other advertising.”

[Watch the City Beach careers video here.]

When implementing these strategies, collect data to assess your ROI and boost the tools that work best for your organisation.

 

Source

Poor recruiting is killing retail – the top 12 tips for stopping the pain

Dr. John Sullivan

ERE

Getting retail recruitment right in 2018

PageUp