What is Recruiting Marketing? Explain the steps for practice!

The hiring market is changing rapidly, and I think there are many people in charge of human resources who say, "I'm suffering from a shortage of human resources because I can't understand the conventional method."

Due to the diversification of hiring methods and the speeding up of job hunting, it is difficult to meet excellent human resources only with the conventional flow of "acquisition of applications-selection-recruitment-unofficial decision-joining a company". In order to meet and turn to the ideal human resources, it is possible to incorporate marketing ideas into recruitment and create as many fans as possible.

In this article, for those who are trying to adopt "recruitment marketing", we will explain the basic idea of ​​recruitment marketing and the steps that can be practiced in-house.

"Although applications are gathered, we cannot hire human resources that match our company ..." "I want to improve the high turnover rate after hiring ..." For those who have these problems ◆ To realize efficient recruitment activities Target design 5 steps ◆

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table of contents

What is Recruiting Marketing?

Recruiting marketing is the idea of ​​incorporating a marketing framework into recruiting activities. It can be rephrased as "creating a mechanism for job seekers to become fans of the company."

In recruitment marketing, we regard the period from before joining the company to after joining the company as a consistent funnel. A funnel is a framework that schematizes the flow from the customer's recognition of a product or service to the purchase in marketing.

Even if a customer recognizes a certain product, not everyone who recognizes it is interested and wants to use it. Also, even if you know and are interested in a product, some people stop buying it because they think that it is not necessary to compare it with other companies' products or purchase it. In this way, in general purchasing behavior, the number of people decreases in the process from recognition to the goal of purchasing.

If this idea is applied to the recruitment area, it will be as shown in the figure below.

Most of the people know the company, and a few percent who are interested in it and proceed to application / selection will join the company.

In recruitment marketing, we divide the target into these funnels and set a strategy until the ideal human resources join the company. We provide information that meets the needs of the target group that we want you to join, and encourage you to change your behavior from recognition to interest, application, selection, and so on.

In this way, recruitment marketing is characterized by broadly targeting the success of job seekers after joining the company, rather than ending the process from the time the job seeker recognizes the company to joining the company. By conducting long-term and wide-ranging activities, not only will it be easier for companies and candidates to match, but it can also be expected to have the effect of preventing job offers and early turnover. More on this in Recruiting Marketing Targets below.

Differences from recruitment branding

"Recruiting branding" is a term often spoken in conjunction with recruiting marketing.

Recruitment branding is a method of externally and continuously disseminating the company's ideals and culture in order to hire the ideal human resources. We aim to establish the brand image of our company and remind job seekers that "Speaking of XX, that company". Not only the information about "what kind of products and services the company handles", but also the thoughts and stories of "what the company wants to achieve and what is important through the products and services" are greatly expressed. We are focusing on how to build your own image.

Why Recruiting Marketing Is Attention

So why is the idea of ​​recruitment marketing attracting attention? This is because it is becoming more difficult for candidates to gather just by placing advertisements on the navigation site or using the temporary staffing service as in the past. There are three major factors: "decrease in the working population," "diversification of hiring methods," and "early and long-term hiring of new graduates."

Decrease in working population

According to the "Future Estimate of Labor Market 2030" of Persol Research Institute, it is estimated that there will be a shortage of 6.44 million human resources in 2030.

According to the Recruit Works Institute's job-offers-to-applicants ratio survey (graduated in 2022), the total number of job offers for private companies in 2022 was 676,000, while the number of students seeking employment in private companies was 450,000. In other words, we can see that the total number of job offers was 226,000, which was an excess demand for the number of people who wanted to work for a private company. Even with Korona-ka, the situation in the seller market was still high. Since the number of job offers is larger than the number of job seekers, there is a structure in which each company competes with a limited number of excellent human resources, and it is expected that this will continue in the future. As competition between companies intensifies, the current issue is how to get job seekers to find and match.

Diversification of recruitment methods

Until now, recruitment methods such as paper media, temporary staffing, job hunting sites, and job change sites have been common. However, according to the HR Research Institute's "Survey on Career Recruitment," direct sourcing and referral recruitment through employees and business partners have received a great deal of attention as "means and services for career recruitment that are expected to increase in the future."

Means and services for career recruitment that are expected to be used more in the future

Each hiring method has different labor, cost, target that can be approached, appeal method, etc., so it is not a matter of starting randomly. You need to strategically choose which method to use and how to use it. By reviewing the hiring method, it may be possible to appeal to targets that could not be approached before.

Early and long-term recruitment of new graduates

Even when hiring new graduates, it is necessary to review the strategy.

According to DISCO's "Caritas Job Hunting 2022 Student Monitor Survey Results," one in five students (21.1%) planning to graduate in 2022 received a job offer in their third year of college.

In addition, Mercari, Fast Retailing, Softbank, etc. are hiring all year round. Shinsei Bank, Resona Holdings, and Mizuho Financial Group are also moving to increase the number of hires and start hiring in the spring and fall.

It may be difficult to hire human resources only with the method of "advertising for hiring at once when the hiring time comes". Even when hiring new graduates, it is becoming more important to connect with students over a long period of time, continue to improve engagement, and deliver information in time with students.

Recruiting marketing target

So what should companies start to look at in order to resolve recruitment issues? One is the "recruitment target".

Those who wish to change jobs (explicit / latent)

In the conventional recruiting method, only the "employees who have changed jobs" were targeted, but in recruiting marketing, not only those who have changed jobs, but also potential job changers, company employees, alumni (retired employees), and candidates who have been rejected in the past. By paying attention to those who declined the offer and those who declined the offer, we will broaden the target audience for hiring.

Company employees

Your employees are also a target in recruitment marketing. This is because, in terms of marketing, it can be regarded as "employee = existing customer", which is a strategically important position. We aim to be a fan with high motivation and attachment to the company. From employees who have become fans, we can expect to send favorable information via SNS, the Web, and word-of-mouth, activate referral recruitment, and create fans outside the company. In order to increase employee engagement, in addition to internal public relations (internal communication), measures such as placement in positions where you can work with high performance, career support, human resource development, and improvement of the working environment are also effective.

Almunai (retired)

Alumni is a term that means graduates, alumni, and alumni, and refers to those who have left or retired for reasons other than retirement age. The Alumni Network is especially used by foreign-affiliated consulting firms and leading domestic companies. Almunai has three aspects that cannot be overlooked in recruiting marketing. The first is the aspect of being a candidate for recruitment. Maintaining a connection with a former employee who has retired and building a good relationship may lead to reemployment as a so-called “returning employee”. This is because there are a certain number of people in Almunai who want to return to their original company.

From the perspective of the company, Almunai is not only ready to work because it already knows its own culture and business, but it also has the appeal of having knowledge and know-how from other companies. The second is the aspect of being a good information sender. In terms of marketing, Almunai is a "experiencer of products and services." Arumnai's work experience is, in other words, real and reliable word-of-mouth, which will have a great impact on future recruitment activities. The third is the aspect of the company as a customer. If Almunai has changed jobs to a business format with attributes similar to those of the company, it may become a future customer / fan of the company.

The effects of such high-quality alumni are great and cannot be overlooked from the perspective of recruitment marketing.

Applicants who have been rejected in the past, those who declined the offer (selection participants)

Recruitment marketing also applies to selection participants such as applicants who have been rejected in the past and those who have declined the offer.

If you neglect the selection participants just because they are not hired, there is a risk that they will be sent negatively on SNS and word of mouth. In addition to preventing negative spread, selection participants will be able to match skills and foster intentions at different times, and may become candidates again. There is a possibility that the degree of matching will be higher for those who declined the offer or those who remained until the final selection.

Three Benefits of Incorporating Recruiting Marketing

So far, I have described the difference between the background of the attention of recruitment marketing and the target of conventional recruitment. So what are the benefits of incorporating recruitment marketing?

1. 1.Applications from target human resources will increase

Recruiting marketing targets more broadly than traditional recruitment. We will also send information to potential people who are not thinking about changing jobs immediately, or to retired employees and selection participants who were previously excluded from the target. If we can change the cognitive transformation of the latent layer, we can expect a larger number of applications than ever before, and we can expect that the accuracy of recruitment will improve.

2.It will be easier to find human resources that match your company

In recruiting marketing, setting the ideal persona you want to hire optimizes your roadmap and makes it easier to find the right people for your company. Information dissemination to potential people is not limited to recruitment information, but conveys the attractiveness of the company's message, employees, culture, and welfare programs from various angles. Therefore, in addition to the fact that job seekers already have a certain understanding of the company's working style and culture at the time of application, it is expected that the rate of declining job offers and early turnover after joining the company will decrease.

3. 3.Leads to lower hiring costs

Recruiting marketing sets up recruitment funnels and channels for the targets you want to appeal to. Effective appeal and advertising design optimize advertising costs, etc., and can be expected to reduce long-term recruitment costs and training costs. Recruitment marketing accumulates content and knowledge, and can be used repeatedly while improving, so it can be expected to be a stable measure with high cost performance.

6 Steps for Recruiting Marketing Practice

What should you start with when you want to incorporate recruitment marketing into your strategy? We will explain how to practice recruitment marketing in 6 steps.

STEP1.Analyze and understand your company

First, we will analyze our company. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses from your management philosophy, management strategy, and business plan. At this time, you can also use the following thinking framework.

▼ 3C analysis How to organize the facts from the three perspectives of Customer, Competitor, and Company, and grasp the marketing environment without exception ▼ SWOT analysis Vertical axis is internal / external environment, horizontal axis is How to classify your company's situation into Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat by taking plus / minus and creating 4 quadrants

STEP2.Set targets and personas

Based on your company's information obtained in STEP 1, let's clarify "what kind of human resources your company needs" and "what kind of human resources you want to come to". The image of human resources defined here is the "target". At this time, be careful to define it in concrete terms, not in ambiguous words such as "communication ability". Once you have a clear target, dig deeper and create a persona. A persona is a "person setting that symbolizes the target" and is an "ideal person image that the company seeks in recruiting activities." In order to understand the relevance of job seekers' behavior and the underlying values, we create and understand the lifestyle attitudes such as likes and dislikes, purpose of life, dreams, and what kind of efforts are being made to make them come true. Let's do it.

▼ Persona settings

・ Biography (age / gender / current occupation / industry / current annual income / place of residence / qualification) ・ Personality ・ Behavior ・ Behavior ・ Channels you usually use ・ Reasons for changing jobs, etc.

If there are several human resources you are looking for, the persona will also set multiple patterns. By creating a pattern, it is possible to create segments according to job type, important factors, job hierarchy, etc.

However, keep in mind that you will create a persona that represents your target audience. If you set a persona with a high ideal such as "graduated from an overseas university by skipping grades, spending holidays studying economics, and having experience in entrepreneurship ...", there is a possibility that matching human resources cannot be found. If you extract the common terms of the target layer and create a persona, it will be much harder to come off. In order to objectively understand the needs, it is also recommended to analyze from an external perspective, such as requesting a research company for questionnaire surveys and interview surveys.

STEP3.Design a Candy Date Journey (Customer Journey)

Once you've set up your persona, set up your Candy Date Journey. The Candy Date Journey is an arrangement of a customer journey for job seekers. We will "visualize" the behavior and preferences of job seekers along the time axis of emotions, assemble a story from information gathering to application / hiring decision-making, and clarify the process that leads to hiring. It will help you think about which channels to contact with job seekers and how to appeal your message. The overall design is done in the following stages.

1. Setting goals
2. Formulation of targets and needs
3. Formulation of the entire process
4. Formulation of transition indicators

STEP4.Set the channel according to the funnel

Let's set the channel according to the story (funnel) set in the Candy Date Journey. By thinking about how to provide information to the needs of job seekers in each phase, you can effectively convey the appeal.

STEP5.Planning content

Prepare content for advertisements, events, and media. Since it takes a lot of man-hours to prepare when using articles and videos, you should also have the option of outsourcing without being particular about in-house production. However, recently, there are many tools that support CMS (content management tool) that can be done without code and video creation, so it is one way to start with an easy-to-use one that can be operated in-house.

STEP6.Measure behavioral status and lead to improvement

Traditional hiring may have had to rely on the memory, experience, and intuition of the person in charge. However, recruitment marketing gives you new weapons of record, trend and objectivity. Let's manage and analyze data such as entry rate to your company, number of page views of website, opening rate of email, participation rate to briefing session, interview implementation rate, application rate of introduced persons, etc., and lead to improvement. .. For example, by looking back on data such as whether the delivered content was able to appeal to the target group, what points of the company were attracted to, and what kind of human resources were active, it was possible to gain new awareness. increase. It is also necessary to answer whether the persona or Candy Date Journey correctly reflected the reality from the movement of the actual job seeker. It is recommended to use ATS (Recruitment Management System) because it takes a lot of man-hours to manage and analyze data with multiple systems. HITO-Link Recruiting is a cloud-based recruitment support system that specializes in recruiting new graduates and mid-career areas. It centrally manages application information from all routes and overwhelms the work man-hours of recruiters from interviews to consents. Reduce. Since it is equipped with various functions such as linking with various systems such as groupware and labor software, my page publishing function, WEB resume function, job offer management function, analysis function, etc., it has been diverse so far. It is possible to manage complicated operations collectively.

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Summary | To the company selected by recruitment marketing

The recruitment market is expected to continue to intensify and become more complex due to the decrease in the working population and the diversification of recruitment methods. There is a limit to conventional hiring alone, and there is an urgent need to change hiring methods. By re-examining the definition of "excellent human resources for your company" and learning and practicing the concept of recruitment marketing optimized for the target group, you will be able to steer to the company required for the ideal human resources. ..

"Although applications are gathered, we cannot hire human resources that match our company ..." "I want to improve the high turnover rate after hiring ..." For those who have these problems ◆ To realize efficient recruitment activities Target design 5 steps ◆

Click here for free download