Using content marketing to drive Graduate recruitment

Why is recruitment marketing one of the most creative applications of content marketing?

As we claw out of recession, a now-searing job market has been flipped in the pan. Those with experience and marketable skills are finding they now constitute choosers as opposed to the beggars of years previous. Although there is still plenty of competition, skilled graduates now have scope to play hard-to-get with recruiters. This is why I think, that one the most competitive applications of creative content marketing right now is in recruitment.

So, what’s the return on investment (ROI) for a recruitment areerontent strategy? You could say that staff retention and productivity are obviously measurable vectors, and on a macro-economic scale, ones that go hand-in-hand with our needs as a nation.

Skill shortages and Graduate needs

Findings by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published last month suggest that while the UK has bounced back pretty well from the credit crunch, we badly need to up our productivity game compared with other G7 economies, to grab more than a fingernail-hold on economic recovery, and raise living standards.

Clearly, getting the right people into the right roles and keeping them there is a long-term solution. That, however, is easier said than done. The recruitment landscape is a very different terrain now to the one circa-2008/9.

Earlier this year, for example, the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) revealed from its survey of top recruiters that the rise in graduate vacancies will be double that of the previous two years, and will continue to rise year-on-year after that. Hence, skilled graduates are in the HR driving seat, not HR.

Moreover, skills shortages loom as talented professionals, previously pressured to accept the first job that came their way, can now choose to jump ship for shinier shores. As such, employee engagement and staff retention is waning.

The recent prevalence of websites promoting TripAdvisor-style employee reviews of company culture and management styles only deepens the cut.

Creative recruitment

It stands to reason then that Marketing Managers and HR professionals alike are working more and more with creative content producers.

Put simply, promoting the things that really matter the most, to the people that matter the most – whether that’s a progressive pay package, unrivalled career prospects, a nurturing company culture, excellent travel benefits or artisanal vending machine coffee – is how you get the talent to come, and ultimately, to stay.

The big challenge is finding creative and innovative ways to stand out in that crowd.

As such, the ROI of recruitment content marketing isn’t just a measure of what drives great companies; it’s arguably a measure of the competitiveness and potential productivity of our resurgent economy. Dramatic, I know.

All things considered, applying the old ‘ROI equation’ – ROI = (Amount of return – Cost of investment) / Cost of investment – to recruitment should actually yield some quite pronounced results.

The fields are arguably very well defined when we consider one’s investment is essentially the cost of your content agency – including time for writers and designers to generate, promote and distribute the content, and use of content marketing software – plus the salary of whomever you choose to hire (and how well they eventually do their job, obviously, though if your recruitment marketing works as it should, this shouldn’t actually be an issue).

In terms of return, assuming you had a measurable gauge on your productivity before the new hire, you should be able to derive some relative increase in productivity afterwards.

It's just good content marketing

But let’s not forget that this is a creative content marketing campaign at its heart. It will involve crafting persona profiles of your perfect candidates, aligning their specific needs and ambitions with your marketing goals. This is going to inform and direct highly targeted blogs, case studies, social media engagement, paid and owned media outlets, email newsletters and perhaps even an online video series.

These are all elements with highly trackable metrics. They reveal the returns at every stage of your campaign, telling you exactly what resonates most with potential candidates and how engaged they are not just with you as a brand, but as an employer.

For example, bounce rates and click-throughs – i.e. measures which tell you in no uncertain terms how long people are looking at, and engaging with, your content – are clear indicators of how your recruitment content is performing and what needs re-targeting.

The Employee Value Proposition

We know well that in this business, content is king (it’s also been opined that distribution is a cold-hearted and ruthless queen, and that being said you should never attempt to be a jack of all trades with it; however, this is leading me into a nightmare melee of mixed metaphors so I’m going to leave it).

Content in the case of recruitment all revolves around the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – essentially the unique selling point of working here.

What's Shell EVP?

EVP is something we look to frequently here at Southerly in the recruitment marketing work we do with Shell. As you might imagine, Shell wants to attract and recruit the very cream of the crop, so the EVP must be consistent and very strong. What’s more, its workforce spans practically every professional pursuit in existence. From engineers, to IT experts, to geoscientists, to the top lawyers, to traders, the type of targeted content differs across a wide array of personas for potential new recruits. And, least we forget, these people are also extraordinarily discerning about their employment options.

Engage your employees

For a more indirect measure of success in recruitment marketing, look to your own workforce. They all use social media; they talk, they share, they trust in each other’s opinions, and crucially they tend to operate in the circles that you’d ideally want to target. And while it’s fair to assume their Facebook account and ‘those photos’ are about as far removed as possible from anything remotely work-related, chances are their LinkedIn accounts aren’t.

By implementing an internal communications campaign aimed at encouraging your employees to promote the wonderful culture they enjoy here on daily basis, you engage your own workforce while also getting them to engage their friends with your company – they’re perfect brand ambassadors.

It’s a win-win, and if you have a genuinely lovely company culture, the return on this tactic will be plain to see, especially on social media. Then again, if you don’t get the response you’d hoped for, there could be something more fundamental to address with the people you have.

Britain is in a decent economic state right now, but it still needs considerable work. The clear way we do this is by supplying our innovative industries with their lifeblood – the people that truly make them tick. In terms of getting a return on your recruitment marketing, you couldn’t say fairer than that.

For more, head to Southerly Resources to download our free new whitepapers:

• Measuring ROI on content marketing
• The 7 secrets to recruitment marketing success