Strategic multi-channel recruiting.
Good employees are the most important resource of any successful company. Due to the nationwide shortage of skilled workers, it is becoming increasingly challenging for companies to compete for the best employees.
Anyone who wants to strengthen their company in terms of personnel therefore needs a clever HR concept to inform potential employees about the opportunities and prospects offered by the employer. The careers section on the company’s own website now plays the central role here.
Career site design
Until now, many companies were satisfied with a short subpage on the topic of “job advertisements” that contained a simple list of current jobs – often even simply as a PDF link list. That is no longer enough today. The fact alone that the display of a PDF in the mobile area is not optimal and the texts may appear significantly too small are reasons enough to invest in a career section on your own website.
What modules does a career site need? In order to answer this question, one must first consider the paths taken by a prospect who is looking for a job:
- Google Search
- Job boards
- Websites of well-known companies
For most job seekers, the so-called “customer journey” often starts with a Google search. Therefore, it is even more important that the SEO area is taken into account from the outset. It therefore makes sense to create a separate detail page with a corresponding description text for each job offer and to present the offers attractively in an overview. Depending on the scope of the jobs offered, filter options make sense – for example, you can filter by full-time/part-time, locations or type of job.
Integration with “Google for Jobs”
In order for search engines such as Google to optimally capture the job ads and output them in tabular form within the search engine results based on the region of the searcher(s), “Structured Data” should be added to the job detail page. These are defined in the schema.org standard and require either the use of JSON-LD as a technical basis or the enrichment of the website content with so-called “microdata”, which does not necessarily have to be visible to the visitor. Kaeding Anderson offers appropriate solutions for WordPress systems.
The following is an HTML example for machine-readable data:
Mechatroniker (m/w/d)
Standort:
Lemgo
DE
...
This is how Google displays regional job offers in search:
Advantage communication and benefits for employees
Highlight the advantages of your business. What special features do you offer your employees? Typical benefits include:
- above-tariff earning opportunities
- Assumption of Kita fees
- non-cash benefits
- Special leave
- Company car
- Flexible working hours / flexitime
- Home Office
- Further training opportunities
- Fresh fruit, drinks, etc.
These advantages must immediately catch the eye of prospective customers. These are things that distinguish one’s own company from the competition. Here, work must also be done on the graphic level to visualize the advantages, e.g. with suitable icons.
Online application tools
Offer multiple application opportunities to potential candidates. Instead of the classic application folder by mail, you can rely here on online applications by e-mail or as a form on your own website. This offers several advantages over the paper application:
- Online applications immediately reach the responsible person in the company without any detours. Paper applications, on the other hand, usually take 2-3 business days to arrive by mail and, in the worst case scenario, can even get lost.
- Online applications do not need to be returned. Costs are therefore saved compared to paper applications.
- Applying via an online form is particularly practical: Thanks to mandatory fields, applications are always complete, whereas paper and e-mail applications can sometimes be missing important information.
But there are also advantages for the applicants:
- When applying online, applicants save money on paper, printing, folders and postage.
- The effort for the application process is reduced enormously: documents can be uploaded directly on the company’s website or attached to the e-mail and all further details can be entered directly into the form or e-mail.
In the case of an online form, each company can decide for itself which information from the applicants is mandatory and which additional information the applicants can optionally provide.
Testimonials
Who would be better suited as brand ambassadors than your own employees? No one else can present your company’s work environment and culture to the outside world as well as they can! The only important thing is that the testimonials are honest and authentic. So: Let your employees speak for yourselve!
Video content
Video content also works well in conjunction with job ads. This is a great way for employees to put in a good word for your company or clear up prejudices in your industry. Here, for example, we designed and implemented a clip for the Kreissenioreneinrichtungen Lippe:
Advertising measures in personnel marketing
An attractive career section on your own website is the basis, but is often not enough to actually be found by potential applicants. Advertising formats have therefore become indispensable in recruiting.
Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising
Search engine advertising with Google Ads (formerly: Google Adwords) or Microsoft Advertising (formerly: Bing Ads) is a very useful tool for specifically addressing applicants in the search engine.
The ads are displayed to users when they enter certain search terms (keywords), previously defined in Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising, into the search engine. In addition, both tools offer the possibility to restrict the ads regionally, so that they are displayed only in certain region. Thus, targeting on the right target group is possible without any problems. You also pay for the ad only when it is clicked. So unlike most other advertising formats, you have full cost control.
Job boards
Well-known job boards such as StepStone, Monster, Jobware, indeed, JobScout24 or the job board of the German Federal Employment Agency are, in addition to the Google search, well-known contact points for job seekers and thus have an enormous reach. Many of the platforms also work with structured data, so the job ads posted there are also often discoverable on “Google for Jobs.” So here you kill two birds with one stone!
Employer rating portals
Employer rating portals such as kununu or Glassdoor are platforms that employers should never lose sight of, because the ratings and reviews given there by existing or former employees play a major role in the job search and have been proven to influence the decisions of potential candidates. Use this to your advantage: encourage satisfied employees to leave positive reviews.
Many of the portals also offer employers access to design their own profile with photos and company descriptions and respond to reviews from (former) employees – you should make use of this!
Comment on both negative and positive reviews. This not only shows your employees that their feedback is valued, but also signals to potential new candidates that your company cares deeply about employee satisfaction.
Social Media Recruiting
Most companies use their social media profiles mainly for marketing activities such as company news. But social media is also a great platform for recruiting! Social media allows you to reach potential candidates in their free time. Some companies even create special career profiles for this purpose, on which only personnel marketing is carried out.
Compared to other advertising measures, social media recruiting is characterized by direct contact with applicants. They have the opportunity to respond to job postings with comments or ask questions. This offers advantages for applicants and companies: Potential candidates can gather impressions of the company before applying and vice versa.
Due to their nature as so-called “business networks,” Xing and LinkedIn are particularly recommended with their integrated job boards, where companies can post job ads. But Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok & Co. can also be useful channels for social media recruiting. The target group is crucial for the right choice of channels.
In addition to organic posts about job openings, ads can also be posted on all social media platforms. This allows you to reach users beyond the followers of your own profile.