What is an omni-channel recruitment strategy?
Omni-channel is a term widely used in retail; customers are targeted at key stages within the purchasing process with the use of different methods and technologies with the aim of a seamless conversation. This strategy can also be implemented in recruiting. Omni-channel uses multiple channels at once to attract candidates. The days when posting listings on traditional job boards are long gone. Recruiters need to be proactive and if needed even partner with parties that help them to create campaigns that help to attract the right candidate when and wherever they are.
Omni-channel to the rescue
You may have heard of the term “multichannel” before as it relates to recruitment marketing. Multichannel recruitment marketing refers to disseminating employer brand messages and job ads through—you guessed it!—multiple channels, like job boards, Ads, Social Media Platforms, and your Employer Website.
Omni-channel on the other hand is a far more sophisticated and strategic take on multichannel recruitment marketing. With omni-channel talent acquisition, not only do you optimize multiple recruiting channels, but your different recruiting channels are integrated with and respond to one another. So we hope that makes it a bit clear on what an omni-channel entitles.
Example: omni-channel
An employer may run a branded advertisement on Facebook that links to the employer website, seamlessly matching the expectations of the candidate who clicked on the ad. At the same moment, he entered the employer website and receives an invitation for a conversation involving a recruiter via a chat function. This can be considered an omni-channel strategy applied for recruitment purposes. But why is omni-channel considered the new Holy Grail in talent acquisition? In this blog, we will tell you exactly what other reasons there are for implementing and optimising the strategy.
Why should you implement an omni-channel recruitment strategy?
An omni-channel recruiting strategy helps you meet candidates where they are. That means the days when you could just post a job opening on a highly trafficked job board and wait for the resumes to roll in (or, at least, qualified resumes). Today, you need to meet candidates where they are active and you should do so in an authentic way—and omni-channel talent acquisition can help in that.
The retail industry has widely adopted omni-channel practices to attract customers, but it is now also using it to attract employees using tactics like social media outreach, blogging, and even “virtual” career fairs to attract attention.
An example of how it can be used is to use Twitter, popular with Millennials, to not only reach but interact with possible candidates. Tweeting about visiting universities is the perfect example of an element of omni-channel in action. You take a traditional recruiting strategy such as visiting a university and amplify its value and reach by using it as content on social media, putting your employer brand in front of more of the right eye. Your integrated tweets fit strategically into the bigger omni-channel picture of developing offline and online marketing channels that “talk” to one another.
It’s all about building personalized relationships
Smart media and the importance of tailoring recruiting content to a candidate is something we already discussed, but you should incorporate personalization into all facets of the hiring process. A strong relationship with candidates, especially with the ones who have already applied, that is essential to the workers of today and tomorrow—they demand the process to be interactive and their employees to be an experience and not merely a job.
The market today is candidate-owned, that is something I already mentioned at the beginning of this webinar. and a company that doesn’t provide this kind of relationship to candidates will find itself at a competitive disadvantage.
Fortunately, there are plenty of opportunities to create this personalization with—from initial interactions on your company’s job website and social media, all the way through to your sourcing, ATS systems, CRM, and credentialing solutions, and even during onboarding stage. The entire process is ripe for micro-engagements so points of communication that build the relationship and arm you with more data to refine your strategy even further. You may want to consider these examples in that: So I listed them in this slide
- A chat function in which a candidate visits an employer’s hiring website and is instantly greeted with a chat window and a live recruiter to talk to.
- Encouraging job seekers to for example like, reply to, and retweet your social media posts. You can also ask your employees and colleagues to do so to get them involved and help you create exposure for the jobs that you have.
- Follow-up interactions, you can do so via email, texts, WhatsApp for Business, and use social media, that keep candidates on your radar even if you aren’t immediately on theirs.
Structure your omni-channel recruitment campaign
Ask yourself, What are the current channels you are using to reach prospective job seekers? And check how well is each of them is performing, do they meet your expectations? Are you targeting specific messages to different groups based on interests? Are you personalizing communications beyond just first name? Are you tracking engagement rates? We’ll dive into this to make sure your current omni-channel strategy is performing at its best.
Using and integrating a variety of recruiting channels is not only strategic from a candidate-journey viewpoint, but it’s more cost-effective for you as well. With smart omni-channel software or partners that can help with your omni-channel recruitment strategy, you can take advantage of a modular framework that allows you to pick and choose the channel that works best for you.
Data allows you to understand how, when and where you can best communicate to your target audience. Think of the value it has if you can predict candidates behaviour and that it shows if and when they view your job ad or visit your career page.
Before gathering this type of data; it is crucial that you conduct research fiirst on your candidates persona’s. Research which channels are available and are used at this moment and reevaluate frequently. Besides traditional job listings on your career page consider other types of channels that play an active role in a job seekers behaviour.
- Job fairs
- Social Networking LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Xing, Viadeo, Pinterest and other social networks.
- Upcoming social platforms (TikTok, Caffeine, Lasso, Houseparty, Steemit etc.)
- Photo Sharing social media (Platforms like Instagram help with brand awareness. Approximately 60% of people say they’ve learned about products or services on Instagram.)
- Video Sharing social media (Videos can be longer than on other social platforms.)
- Interactive Media (They have young audiences, which can help brands better target Gen-Z.)
- Blogging/community Building (These platforms enable you to start conversations about a topic.)
- Recommendations from existing employees
- Software such as Google AdWords, Facebook Ads and other sources
- Proactive candidate search activity
Whichever platform you’re considering or evaluation, ask yourself these questions:
- What are its active user numbers?
- Are publications or thought leaders talking about it?
- Do older platforms have a similar tool and a bigger user base?
- Will my audiences understand how to use the platform?
- Is my audiences even interested in the platform?
- What type of content or post could we use to promote our brand/jobs on the platform?
Omni-channel recruitment is here to stay
By implementing an omni-channel recruitment strategy you are guaranteed to have more candidates find and accept vacancies with your company. But that isn’t the only advantage. The number of resources wasted on underperforming channels can be reduced by the use of data.
Building and launching an omni-channel recruitment strategy is not easy, it’s time-consuming, especially if it is your first time doing so; but the benefits that come with it overpower the first few struggles.
To summarise this blog; omni-channel recruitment marketing has the potential to generate great results, as long as you understand where its power lies. As you explore ways to fit omni-channel into your own recruitment strategy, remember that:
omni-channel is a potent way to present your employer brand consistently across multiple channels, cutting down on candidate confusion—and moving candidates more swiftly down the talent pipeline.
Though remember that an omni-channel approach prioritizes channels where your target candidates live and breathe, taking a more strategic approach to recruitment marketing by reaching more of the right candidates via the right channels.
And finally, remember that if you’re new to the topic, you can get support by working together with the right software or partner, an omni-channel approach can also help you cut costs. Be sure to explore solutions that have a modular framework that fits your needs.
What’s next?
Moving from all the information and advice we’ve given in the text above we would also briefly want to tell you about our activities at Qreer.com. As Smart Recruitment Marketing Platform we help companies to generate the best possible recruitment marketing campaign for your jobs.
Qreer.com is a European Technical Job Board with smart recruitment marketing solutions. We promote vacancies to generate exposure and brand awareness and do this by using a tailor-made plan set-up by our algorithm. In addition, we help you target talent via the right media channels using the right demographics.
We focus on 19 technical educational backgrounds and 740 deeper specializations in Engineering, Science, Software and Technology. And for that reason, Qreer is known as the number 1 technical recruitment marketing platform all over Europe.
A media campaign can include something from posting it on generic and niche job boards, social media channels, university portals, doing direct mailings, banners campaigns, e-commerce, apps, content marketing, sourcing to headhunting in European CV databases.
A partnership with Qreer means a partnership where we look together at how we can target the right candidates via the right channels.
One of the greatest benefits of our service is that we really take-along our clients in an omni-channel strategy for recruitment and show how the data helps them reach their recruitment goals.
Schedule a Free Demo
If you are interested in knowing what we can do for you, feel free to schedule a demo call with one of our campaign specialist. Schedule Free DEMO. You can also contact us by phone via +31 (0)40 700 9709 or E-mail contact@Qreer.com
Join the live webinar on ‘Optimizing Your Omni-Channel Recruitment Strategy’: Register HERE