Revolutionary attraction strategies in the charitable sector

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Panelists at the Recruitment Masterclass event during the latest UK Fundraising Week explored a variety of innovative talent attraction strategies for organisations in the charitable sector.

Engaging new talent attraction strategies can mean the difference between selecting from an average or top talent pool. Jennifer Jackson reporting for Third Sector explores the key takeaways from the Recruitment Masterclass event as part of Fundraising Week.

Panelists expressed the current challenges in talent attraction facing the charitable sector:

The sector doesn’t struggle with attracting people, it just struggles to attract the right people.

If you’re recruiting for a fundraising manager, it could be someone’s first job in fundraising, so you have to be creative about how you write the job advert, to focus on transferable skills rather than prior fundraising experience, so as not to put people off who might well be suitable even though they have not worked in fundraising before.

The group cited that online recruitment and employer branding were two of their most important engagement methods.

Online recruitment and advertising are constantly changing due to niche job market platforms cropping up frequently. Niche job boards work hard to engage their audience, build their trust, and maintain industry expertise. Therefore using a niche job board has the advantage of getting your roles in front of a targeted audience.

Employer branding can also be used to personalise this online experience. Working with job boards is a simple place to start. Communicating the great benefits of the roles in your organisation through content such as video, website copy, and creative job listings can be highly effective in attracting top professionals.

Some organisations use technology to drip feed information about their employer brand at different stages of the application process, rather than bombarding candidates with everything all at once at the start.

This way even those who don’t get the job are likely to still feel inspired and engaged with that employer’s brand and may apply again in future. Consider what you really need to know from a candidate in order to invite them to interview, and keep the initial application process as short and simple as possible.

Lastly, in a Q&A session, speakers explored non-traditional recruitment approaches, such as removing resumes from the process and replacing them with video interviews or video resumes. They expressed the importance of increasing diversity by assigning someone in the organisation for this responsibility, utilising technology, and benchmarking recruitment success through sharing resources and information with peers.

Talent leaders often express that employer branding is a key area where they wished to invest more. So why not start small and build to determine the most effective avenues for your organisation?

 

Sources

Recruitment masterclass: How to create a game-changing hiring process

Jennifer Jackson

Third Sector

Comprehensive candidate attraction strategies have gone from being a ‘nice to have’ to a necessity – here’s why.

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In a candidate driven market, finding and securing the best talent for your business is an ongoing challenge and frustration for many Australian organisations.

Gone are the days when placing one ad on a job board was enough to get results. Savvy businesses are now diving into a variety of attraction channels to secure their next superstars.

Why use multiple channels to attract candidates when you can simply place a single job ad? The answer lies in the makeup of today’s talent market. What used to be black and white (i.e. you were either looking for a job or not) has now become an ever-increasing grey area – something we refer to as a scale of continuous candidates.

These days, most candidates can be considered continuous; that is, they’re either actively applying for new jobs, or are at the very least open to the idea of a career change. To ensure you find your ideal next hire, you need to consider who you’re targeting and where they sit in the continuous candidate continuum (say that 5 times fast!). Further to this, it’s crucial to understand which attraction channels are going to get you the recruitment results you need.

Below is a high-level breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of using job boards vs. proactive attraction strategies – keep these in mind when designing your next recruitment strategy.

The advantages of using job boards:

  • Your vacancy is visible to an audience who are both engaged and open to discussion about new opportunities.
  • Candidates searching for work regularly online are generally either immediately available or ready to commence within a reasonably short timeframe.
  • You don’t have to work as hard to get in front of a high volume of job seekers – post a few well-placed job ads, some great copy and candidates will come!

The disadvantages of job board advertising:

  • You’re competing for the attention of candidates actively looking for a new role. It’s rare the buck will stop with your vacancy. As such, if they have applied for your position, chances are they’ve applied for multiple others as well (meaning you need to move quickly with your recruitment process if you have a chance of securing them).
  • Candidates actively searching for work have generally already left their previous job, or are looking to leave their current role with some sense of urgency. This can potentially create a situation in which candidates are accepting new positions that are not necessarily the best fit (for them OR your organisation), but rather a means to get them out of their current role. This is not good for either party and can lead to problems with performance and retention.

The advantages of proactive attraction methods: 

  • Making an effort to proactively seek potential candidates through means other than job board advertising ensures you have less competition from other organisations or recruitment agencies trying to secure them.
  • You’re likely going to find a higher calibre of candidates by getting in touch with people who are currently employed. They have no trouble landing and keeping a role, so it’s all about presenting them with an enticing new career opportunity to consider.
  • Singling out someone you’re reaching out to as THE PERSON you need for your role means they are more likely to feel a stronger sense of being truly needed and wanted by your organisation. This often leads to increased employee loyalty, a strong work ethic and stronger retention.
  • Motivations for joining your organisation from these types of candidates are more honest. You found them, not the other way around – they have no reason to lie on their resume and if they do move it is more likely to be for genuine career reasons rather than a need to leave a current situation.

The disadvantages of using proactive attraction methods:

  • As mentioned above, most of these people already hold positions (and are likely great at them since you’ve sought them out!), which means you will need to work harder to get them to make the move to your organisation.
  • It can be tricky to find who you’re after. You know who you want, but where do you look for them?
  • Searching for passive candidates is time consuming. For many Hiring Managers and HR professionals, recruitment is only a small component of their larger role. Finding the time to scroll through databases and online channels to find people can be quite overwhelming.

So – with all this in mind, what type of attraction channels should you focus on for your next job opening? The answer is BOTH.

Covering your bases and having an advertising strategy that is targeted to reach candidates from different talent pools within the continuous market will give you the best possible chance of success for your next vacancy.

The Recruitment Advertising team at Employment Office are experts in candidate attraction. Our specialists will partner with you to put together a comprehensive strategy to give your next vacancy the best chance of being seen by the right people, across multiple candidate pools.

Want to know more? Give us a call today on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au to see how we can help.

How to attract passive candidates

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The last thing I want to hire is a passive person! I can’t stand passive people! But of course, what we mean by passive candidates is those that are not job-seeking right now. 80% of the candidate market consists of passive candidates, so tap into this talent group using these strategies.

Instead of spending the majority of time screening applications from active job seekers, you now need to spend time and money hunting for first-rate talent. Did you know 84% of people would consider leaving their current organisation if an organisation with an excellent reputation offered them a job? Where does your ideal candidate sit in the current market? It’s likely quality applicants don’t have trouble landing a job and are already employed (i.e. they lie within the passive candidate pool).

Passive candidates are currently in a role and are not actively searching job boards. Some of these people could make a great addition to your existing teams… if only you could get your fantastic job opportunity under their nose!

They’re bound to be flattered right? Everyone likes to be approached—who knows, it might even be the highlight of their decade—and they’ll tell all their friends they’ve been headhunted. If everyone was able to do this effectively, Seek might go out of business!

It’s important to be aware that your conversion rate for passive candidates isn’t going to be as high, because with active job seekers, those who are visiting job boards and actively looking for a new position, half the battle is already won in that they are already looking to move. It’s still crucial getting your opportunity in front of passive candidates, particularly in today’s candidate-driven market. Here are some ways to do it.

1. Optimise your employer brand

You need to ensure every piece of exposure that passive candidates have to you and your organisation is optimised to present your employer brand in the best possible light.

Really put some thought into their recruitment journey from that first point of contact, whether it be a personal message or phone call. Perfect your elevator pitch perfect. Ensure every piece of copy they read, every method by which they apply or submit an application, and then every part of their face-to-face interaction throughout their journey is well-planned, on brand and impressive! 

In recruitment, you are marketing to candidates as much as they’re marketing themselves to you, but marketing your organisation is even more of a necessity if they’re a passive candidate and you’re approaching them.

2. Use a landing page

In attracting passive candidates, you still need a position description, as you need to be able to direct your candidates somewhere. This could be a copy of your recruitment advertisement on a job board that you’re using to attract active job seekers, or it could be a landing page with a position description. You should also create a good elevator pitch about your opportunity, that is, a really succinct paragraph that outlines the aim of the role and the value proposition to the candidate.

3. Use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is great because it allows you to search for people who are already a similar role. Identify your talent competitors, search for people in the role you want to fill, and consider a direct approach by sending them a LinkedIn message.

You can also pick up the phone and give them a ring. There’s nothing like a personal phone call. Very few people will be offended by such an approach, and provided you do it with charm and respect, they can only be flattered. Use your elevator pitch in your conversation.

Be aware, if you phone them during business hours, they might not be able to talk then and there. Simply introduce yourself and be clear in your communication. For example, you might like to say something like:

“Hi [name], my name is [name, position title], I’m phoning from [organisation name] about a current role we have available. From your LinkedIn profile, I believe that it suits your skills and interests. I know you might not be a position to talk right now. Is there an alternative time and number I can reach you on, or is now a good time to talk?”  

4. Create a strong internal referral system

When you’re recruiting for a role, tell everyone in your organisation to promote it to their contacts, friends and family if they think they are a great fit. Imagine how many people you can reach if every person in your organisation taps into their personal networks.

Make it easy for them to do this. Provide them with a few lines of language and a link to your application or landing page. Ask them to post it on LinkedIn or email it. Invite people to phone you or reach you on LinkedIn if they want to learn more about the role.

5. Promote to your customers

Some industries, for example, retail and hospitality, can promote roles to customers. What’s great about promoting to customers is that they’re already familiar with and enjoy your brand. Advertise in your store and through EDM if you have an email marketing list.

6. Social media marketing

These days, everyone is on their phones; in fact, more than 60% of people apply for roles on their phones. So it’s great to meet candidates where they’re at and be on the social platforms people are using regularly.

There are multiple types of advertising you can do through social media, particularly on Facebook and Instagram’s advertisement network. Use off-page advertising on Facebook to target a wider audience and use detailed targeting to find people based on demographics and activity.

Use messaging and imagery that is appealing to your target audience. This is another strategy where a recruitment specialist with expertise in this area can assist you.

7. Digital HeadHunting

Digital HeadHunting, when done with expertise, is highly effective. Engaging a recruitment specialist will give you access to a range of recruitment databases that are otherwise both expensive to purchase yourself and time-consuming to search. Also, you also need to be skilled in the parameters you are searching, as you can miss a lot of great talent, which is another great reason to outsource this process. Start by establishing your top criteria and “must-haves” and then your “nice-to-haves”.

Talk to your specialist about your opportunity and ideal candidate, and from this information, they will be able to establish search parameters based on your requirements (for example, by qualifications, industry-type, skills, etc.) and dive into passive candidate pools through targeted database searches to attract top candidates to your organisation and vacancy.

When they locate suitable profiles, the messaging in their first contact is important, as it has a huge impact on your response rate. Messaging must be highly personalised, detailing what it is you saw in their profile that makes them a great match for a position. Show that someone has actually taken the time to read their profile. Keep your communication personal, not just a blanket copy/paste job description. Make it short and sweet and end with a call to action.

8. Keep candidate care front of mind

Remember, if you’re reaching out to personally contact passive candidates, it can be rude to reach out and have them respond, only for you not to contact them again or give them any feedback. If you’ve reached out to candidates personally, always give them the courtesy of an interview, and provide them with feedback afterwards, even if they haven’t been successful in the role.

Often, if you have communicated with candidates well and they are unsuccessful, they will thank you for the opportunity in connecting with them and conducting an interview. Provided you do your due diligence in candidate care, you will maintain good relationships and bolster your employer brand.

Be mindful about psychological contracts, the mutual understanding between two people at the commencement of an engagement. Establish expectations and responsibilities from the outset, so everyone knows who is responsible for what. The more accurately you can establish mutual understandings, the better your relationships will be.

Passive candidates who have been headhunted may require tailored treatment from active job seekers, as it’s all about who initiated the approach. If a candidate was on a career path and not actively looking for a new role, then you have approached them and taken them off that trajectory, you are engaging in a different psychological contract than if they were actively job-seeking and reached out to you. They might have higher expectations!

Recruiting passive candidates requires excellent planning and execution, but you absolutely must do it. Passive candidates are a crucial part of today’s talent pipeline; use these methods it in combination with your comprehensive recruitment strategy to attract both active and passive candidates.

Do you need help designing a recruitment strategy that targets passive attraction channels? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Advertising Specialists here, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

All I want for Christmas…is candidates for my roles!

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Generally, when we think about Christmas recruiting we think about the manic Christmas casual hiring period that occurs between October and January each year. But what about all the organisations who happen to be looking for full-time, permanent employees during this time?

Two of the biggest questions the Recruitment Advertising Team here at Employment Office get asked at this time of year are; ‘Are candidates looking for jobs over the Christmas period?’ and ‘Should we be recruiting during this time?’.

And the answer to both is a resounding ‘yes’! Why you ask?

  1. Less competition = better chance for success.

Have you noticed how much competition there is on job boards these days? Job advertisements that used to sit on page one of a search for anywhere up to 2 weeks are now dropping off page one into oblivion in a much shorter time frame. In particularly busy categories and locations, this can happen in one day!!

The plus side of advertising over the Christmas period is that there are more often than not, less companies recruiting at this time, meaning your ad will stay at the top of search results longer. More visibility, better ROI and less competition? – tick!

  1. Tis the season…to find a new job!

Did you know that more people change jobs in January than any other time of year? However –  9 times out of 10 they have already started thinking about the move BEFORE the festive season starts

If you are holding off on starting your advertising until the end of January, you run the risk of losing visibility with this active and engaged talent pool. Instead – why not schedule your advertising to run for you while you are on leave? That way while you’re relaxing pool side with a cocktail in hand, candidates can still be applying for your positions and their applications will be there ready and waiting for you on your return to the office.

Feeling overwhelmed about how you can achieve all of your recruitment goals in the next couple of weeks? Our team of advertising and shortlisting specialists at Employment Office can help!

 Give us a call today to see how we can help you hit your hiring targets for December/January and take advantage of our great Christmas special giving you fantastic savings on our shortlisting services.