Job seekers have now become "job explorers". They are better skilled at searching, sourcing, researching, networking and less afraid to reach out to people they have never met before. They find your company online and go exploring from there, looking for all the information they can find about you, your employees and your company. Then, they make their decision on whether or not to apply for a job at your company based on what they see.
These job explorers prescribe to the "show, don't tell" approach, and are quickly dismissive of companies that don't reciprocate that. With the demand for talent increasing, these job explorers have choices. They want to read about, listen to and watch what makes your company the place where they should work.
So, what content strategy should you adopt to "show" job explorers why they should work at your company, and how can you use social media to keep them interested enough to apply for your jobs?
Before we get to the content itself, it's important to think about where you will direct your prospective talent. You should have a content hub full of interesting information about your company, and why people should work there (some people refer to this as a "career site").
Today, there is a lot of discussion around the candidate experience, and while the majority of the conversation is focused on the application process, you should also be concerned about the communication and engagement opportunities on your website.
With job explorers primarily using social media, you should also align your online content strategy with relevant social media platforms to maximize engagement. Your hub should have comprehensive inbound and outbound links to active social media sites and profiles, like LinkedIn and Glassdoor.
Remember, providing compelling content is effective for both attracting interesting applicants and discouraging less relevant applicants.
Here are six types of content you should be sharing to encourage more applicants to apply for your jobs:
Jobs are (obviously) the reason many explorers will arrive at your content hub—so make them interesting! Resist the urge to just post a job profile detailing the responsibilities and requirements. Instead, write a shortened version highlighting the opportunities and benefits of the position—you'll likely get a higher quality and higher number of candidates.
Get creative. Have you tried short video adverts with the line managers talking about the roles? Test out photos in addition to the job information. And why not add testimonials from previous applicants?
Show people what it's like to work at your company by posting videos and pictures of the job and your offices. Popular social media tools make it relatively easy, for example:
- Use Hyperlapse (an Instagram app) to give quick and creative tours of your workplace.
- Test out the live-streaming Twitter app, Periscope, at different events at your company.
- Use Google Hangouts to stream live Q&A sessions with hiring managers. Post them on your YouTube channel afterwards.
- Use your Instagram account (cross-promoted on Facebook and Twitter accounts) to empower employees to share their own photos.
- Host weekly Twitter chats involving different employees, managers, etc., using a specific #hashtag and embed them on your site.
Start a blog with employee profile features—these are still very popular and give great insight into your company culture. By sharing the journeys and successes of recent new employees, you'll provide opportunities for potential applicants to relate to your current talent, while demonstrating different career paths and opportunities in your company.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are proving increasingly more important to prospective employees. Highlight how your company gives back, or how you enable individual employees to contribute to causes they're passionate about.
Instead of generically sharing what kind of work employees do, talk about projects in more detail (within reason obviously!). Ask team leads to walk through different aspects of the project, including the challenges and the results.
Last but not least, put your team and company culture front and center. Don't hide behind generic email addresses—make it personal and show personality. Too many companies make it as difficult as possible for people to reach them. Add your social profiles on sites like LinkedIn and Twitter to allow for personal engagement and communication.
As with all content that you create and share on your company hub, make it interesting, relevant and shareable. You're going to be sharing it across many different social media platforms, so the better it is, the wider an audience it will reach and the easier it will be for job explorers to find.
Photo: Creative Commons
