When looking for candidates to fill your open positions, you must find people with the necessary skills to do the job right. However, you must keep another critical factor in mind: cultural fit. According to one study, poor cultural fit can cost an organization between 50-60% of the employee's annual salary. You want to do everything within your power to attract talent that will share your company's values, mission, and goals.
Personalized recruitment marketing is one way to help you ensure a better cultural fit for your candidates. Let's discuss four steps to help you leverage personalized marketing to fill your open jobs with the right people.
1. Understand Your Ideal Candidate
One of the first steps you should take is to clearly define what your ideal candidate looks like. Go beyond the skill set required by the role and consider which qualities and personality fit best within your organization.
For example, let's say you're hiring someone for a 100% remote position with limited supervision. Your company culture could be summed up as: "Management when necessary; independence when possible." In this situation, you'd likely want to find a candidate who is intrinsically motivated to do the work required of the position — a "self-starter," if you will. With that in mind, you can look for evidence that an applicant can remain self-motivated as you review their resume and go through the interview process.
2. Target Candidates on Multiple Channels
The ability to source the best candidates for cultural fit may come down to how broad your talent search is and how many candidates you're reaching. With that in mind, make sure that your recruitment marketing efforts focus on the channels your ideal candidates are most likely to frequent. These channels could be specific websites, social media platforms, or other forms of media. Deploy your ads accordingly.
Remember that engaging candidates on social media can be especially valuable for your recruitment efforts since you can directly interact with them. Such engagement may allow you to answer candidate questions, discuss their concerns, and provide them with an added incentive to work for your company.
3. Customize Content Based on Candidates
Once you have a fairly clear understanding of your ideal candidate, you can begin catering your recruitment marketing content to their interests and career goals. Think about what the candidate is seeking from an employment opportunity:
- Is it primarily a competitive wage?
- Is it a solid benefits package?
- Is it a flexible schedule for work/life balance?
- Is it a combination of multiple factors?
Once you understand their priorities, you can tweak your content to appeal to their needs.
For example, you can use an employee testimonial video to review a "day in the life" working for your company. Highlight those facets of the job that will resonate most deeply with your audience. Continue to monitor your content's effectiveness, and make adjustments as needed.
4. Personalize Your Candidate Outreach
Apart from the steps mentioned above, there are other things you can do to personalize your outreach to candidates. For instance, use personalization in your communications with candidates: refer to them by name, along with the skills they listed on their resume. Incorporate location-based references into your messages if you're recruiting within a specific geographic region.
You can also provide a more "casual" candidate experience by communicating through text messages or social media. Many candidates prefer a personal touch from a prospective employer rather than a formal, by-the-numbers email.
As you do reach out to candidates, also keep in mind that you want to demonstrate your company's core values in every interaction you have. For instance, if your organization is known for its fun-loving culture, then have fun setting up and conducting interviews. Joke around! Show candidates the culture they've read about and watched in videos is a real trait you’ve instilled in your business.
How McClatchy Can Help
It's crucial to find the right cultural fit for any open position you have — and one of the best ways to do that is to invest in personalized recruitment marketing. When you understand who your ideal candidate is, target them on multiple channels, customize content according to their needs and interests, and personalize your outreach to them, you'll be in a much better position to get the hire you want.
Of course, these steps are "easier said than done." Fortunately, help is readily available. Our team of experts at McClatchy can kick your recruitment efforts into overdrive and help you source the right talent for your open positions in significantly less time than it would take to do it alone. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can help!
