How Strategic is your Digital Communication Strategy?
With research and careful analysis.
Universum’s research breaks the candidate experience down into four stages:
- Familiarity- “Oh, I recognize that company.”
- Consideration- “Hmmm, I wonder what it would be like to work there.”
- Desire- “Man, I wish I was a part of that culture.”
- Application- “Fingers crossed!”
By looking at the attitudes of candidates and their online behaviors as they cycle through them (hint: not every candidate goes through all stages), employers can gain valuable insight as to which channel might work best for each stage of candidate experience. Online channels are not equally effective for each of these stages – and employers who try to achieve everything will fail to leverage the channels that work best.
What channels work most effectively, and when?
Universum’s research indicates that digital channels are most effective in the consideration and desire stagesof the process, when job seekers are beginning to consider or are becoming strongly interested in an employer. The objective of online communication should not be to push a message or maintain a brand – employers should be using it to interact with the candidates who have already expressed at least some interest in working for them.
Intuitively, this makes sense: A student would not know to visit a company’s website or social media pages if he or she had never even heard of the company to begin with. However, too many employers are using digital channels to push the same type of one-way brand messaging that the younger generation doesn’t want to hear.
A recent study by Research Now and KA BrandResearch indicates that online ads are twice as likely to get on young peoples’ nerves than offline ads. Clearly, the one-way messaging that many companies are using online to promote their employer brand is not the best approach. So, your strategic plan for these categories of seeker could include some career site tracking or retargeting of those who clicked on your jobs tab.
To generate awareness and maintain brand, employers should stick to more traditional channels – targeted messages, on-campus presentations, and career magazines are all much more effective ways of increasing awareness amongst potential candidates. In fact, when it comes to the top channels to generate familiarity, digital channels hardly make an appearance in Universum’s research.
The research is clear, the very beginning of the jobseeker cycle, or the familiarity stage, is the precise moment to use traditional tactics. These tactics can direct interested candidates, or those in the consideration stage to online channels for more information. This serves two purposes: first, it can gauge the effectiveness of your offline activities and second, it gets these candidates to a place where you can track their interest more accurately.
The best strategies use online channels for engagement and interaction, not branding. Potential candidates who are already familiar with a company don’t need to be advertised to – they want to be able to imagine themselves working at the company. At this stage, authenticity is key:
- Communicate a genuine, personalized message to candidates.
- Feature interns or recent hires in videos or employee blogs, allowing them to “speak” directly to candidates.
- Provide information that brings the employment experience to life
- Answer the jobseeker’s burning questions: what is a typical day like, what are some of the perks and true challenges of working at the company?
The benefits of personalizing messaging and marketing your company specifically to these jobseekers gains a higher ROI because of the stage the candidate is in. They are actively considering your company as a place of employment and need to envision what that looks like.
Next, try a more interactive exchange. Use videos and employee blogs to steer interested candidates towards more interactive spaces like Facebook or Wetfeet where more specific questions can be answered. Again, this communication should be authentic and should have a personalized feel – candidates should feel as though they are speaking to a real person or group of people, not a corporate brand. This genuine interaction will also help candidates who aren’t the right fit for a company self-select out of the recruitment process.
Once candidates are ready to apply, employers should use their social media sites to steer candidates directly to the company careers page, which continues to be the number one channel for application. Keep the candidate experience going by ensuring they know what to expect, how long they might wait for a response and use additional interactive platforms like assessments and video interviewing platforms to keep the branding momentum going. (Often, jobseekers can experience a honeymoon period that ends abruptly when they enter the dark, stagnant halls of an ATS. Don’t let this happen to you, go through your own application process and whip it into shape.)
Digital communication is the future. When creating your digital communication strategy, make sure it is strategic and the objective of each channel is paired with the optimal phase of the candidate experience. Otherwise, you could miss out on attracting, engaging and converting your top talent.