In an ever-increasingly competitive job market, employers should be thinking about adopting alternative recruitment strategies to hire the very best talent. With control tipping from employer to candidate, creative and unconventional recruitment strategies are needed to source, attract and secure top talent.
Snapchat
The popularity of Snapchat has peaked considerably over the past few years, meaning employers cannot afford to ignore it as a channel to find talent. Why not use Snapchat to reach out to your audience? Employers can take advantage of this innovative channel by using features such as Snapchat stories for candidates to interact with, or even have a live Q&A in which candidates can ask questions and employers can respond in the form of 10-second live snaps.
Another feature of Snapchat that could be utilised to hire talent is geofilters. Digital advertising agency space150 did just this to find their summer interns, by creating six geofilters that catered to the youth they were targeting, such as one that was Tinder themed. They then made the geofilters available at 29 campuses and public places around the US and reached the audience they needed to as a result.
Candidates were instructed to create a snap story to advertise for one of space150’s clients. 115 snap stories were submitted in the two weeks the geofilters were on Snapchat, and 10 open internships were filled. The filters were also used more than 6,000 times and received 230,000 views.
Virtual office tours/360-degree videos
Draw candidates in with innovation – 360 videos give candidates the opportunity to become part of the experience you’re trying to sell. You could utilise this growing trend by creating your own 360-degree video that shows off your office and its surroundings (if it’s a selling point) and hosting it on YouTube, so potential candidates can get a feel for your working environment.
Virtual office tours/360-degree videos are also particularly effective at recruitment fairs or when you have actual interaction with candidates, as you can supply Google Cardboard for candidates to view the videos in front of you. As a result, you may well be attracting candidates who would not have shown interest otherwise.
Tinder
Mobile agency Fetch successfully utilised this hugely popular dating app to recruit one of their interns. They did so by creating male and female profiles, showing the agency name with black outlines of a male and a female, and an arrow pointing to them reading “you”. The introduction on the profile stated that they were looking for a ‘three-month stand with a dynamo marketing intern’. This innovative use of recruitment marketing clearly paid off as they received 270 applications from interested candidates and secured the candidate they were looking for. As candidates are already on mobile, using apps is a natural fit for employers looking to reach millennials.
Gamification
Using gaming in this setting helps to identify potential employees by creating virtual challenges that require certain skills for a job role, and can introduce your company to candidates who may not have previously considered a job in your industry. It’s also a great way of building brand awareness by getting candidates to associate your brand with positive values and company culture.
Marriott International understood this concept perfectly when they launched the ‘My Marriott Hotel’ game, where players managed a virtual hotel restaurant kitchen, purchased supplies on a budget and managed employees. Subsequently, the game helped Marriott International generate interest in the hospitality industry, increase brand awareness and pinpoint talent. According to Marriott, there were players from 120 different countries running their own virtual kitchens at any given time, and there was also increased traffic to their careers site.
Furthermore, Mitre Corp., an engineering and technology services corporation, wanted to reach out to a younger demographic to diversify their workforce. After determining that the majority of its target audience played video games, the company created a game to aid their own recruitment efforts. The result was ‘Job of Honor,’ where players could take a self-guided virtual tour of the company’s workplace and spend a day in the life of a Mitre project manager. They received more than 5,200 hits and accumulated over 600 registered players in 48 US states and 25 countries around the world.
Conclusion
Based on the calibre of candidates you want to attract and where they are in the digital space, every recruitment strategy will differ. Whether it’s a 360 video, a Snapchat geofilter, or even a match on Tinder, employers that capitalise on growing trends and target candidates in an innovative way will reap the rewards.