Across the United States, recruiting and hiring qualified candidates is one of the greatest challenges that home service businesses face. You’ve probably already noticed the radical shift in recruitment over the past year—and attracting skilled job seekers to your company requires fine-tuning your strategy to account for these shifts. So, what does this mean for your company? Is it possible to find employees online?
Now more than ever, workers are re-evaluating their priorities to pinpoint exactly what they want to get out of their work experience. From HVAC contractors to home builders, blue-collar workers are searching for employers that bring respect, authenticity, and transparency to the table. The “one-size-fits-all” approach isn’t going to work in post-pandemic recruiting, where flexibility and autonomy are top priorities among candidates.
To thrive in the “new normal,” you need to embrace today’s 24/7/365 always-on digital landscape. Countless companies are competing for the same candidates—and you want to drive top talent straight to your application. So, instead of just posting your open positions on Indeed or Glassdoor and waiting for applications to roll in, you need to meet candidates where they are: on social media. Then, you need to grab their attention, highlight your company culture, and promote your job opening.
After all, 86 percent of job seekers use social media in their search—and you want to get in front of as many of your ideal candidates as possible. So, what are you waiting for? Here’s how to start finding employees online.
Your employer brand is a living thing, and it’s constantly changing and evolving—even if you’re not actively shaping it. A positive employer brand—sometimes referred to as your “talent” brand—shows that your company is a good employer and a great place to work. A positive employer brand not only fuels your recruitment efforts but also promotes employee retention and engagement.
Main Street Recruitment, our sister company, defines employer branding as what “showcases your organization’s reputation among the workforce,” as well as something that “represents your employees’ perception of you as an employer.” They recommend starting to build your employer brand by auditing the brand you already have—even if you haven’t updated your strategy in a few years. This begins with taking a real look at your current reputation as a company and how you are viewed as an employer.
To start building a compelling, captivating employee brand, think about your company culture.
For most home service companies, this is all about focusing on current employees. After all, if you have a standout company culture, your employees are going to be your biggest advocates. By showcasing employee stories, company events, workplace benefits, and other company culture touchpoints, you’ll show interested candidates a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it’s like to work for your company.
Candidates want transparency and authenticity from their employers—and the most authentic, credible, and effective way to communicate your employer brand is to give your employees the power to share their own stories. Employee interviews, employee-created content, and employee spotlights (i.e., blog posts) can help show potential candidates what your company is all about. This was the strategy behind a series of videos that WyattWorks Plumbing filmed to show their prospective employees the people behind their brand. Not only do their videos build credibility with clients, but they show potential job candidates what it would be like to be on the job with the WyattWorks team.
Don’t forget to pair your employer branding strategy with an effective social media campaign. Social media is one of the best tools for conveying your company culture to potential candidates. You can brand your social channels, post pictures, and even create videos showcasing your company culture. Plus, you can interact with job seekers, learn more about your candidates, and meet your ideal candidates where they are.
Now that you’ve spent some time strengthening your employer brand, it’s time to start researching. You’ll need to spend some time researching your ideal candidates to appeal to the right talent segments and personas. Then, you need to craft and mold your employer brand to appeal to create unique stories for each segment.
First, you’ll need to identify the type of job seeker your company wants to attract. This way, you can tailor your marketing strategy to target better cultural fits that align with your company’s core competencies. You want to identify your ideal candidate, learn more about their interests, pinpoint their motivations, and determine their frustrations with past employers.
Take a look at your best employees and craft your ideal candidate around them. Then, create a candidate persona sheet to understand exactly what your ideal candidate responds to and what social media channels they’re using. You’ll want to collaborate across HR and marketing so your organization knows exactly who to target.
Remember: Your employer brand and social media strategy will influence who applies for your company. Don’t be afraid to appeal to your ideal candidate’s pain points, interests, or career goals. You want to show your ideal candidates what sets your company apart from the rest and why it’s the best fit for them.
The recruitment process is shifting. Not only are home service companies searching for new skill sets and talents, but the way businesses search for ideal candidates is evolving. Today’s top talent relies on social media to search for new job openings—and you need to meet them where they are.
So, how can you use social media recruitment to your advantage? As next-gen talent enters the workforce, the prevalence of social media in the recruitment process is only going to keep growing. If you don’t tweak your strategy now, you’re going to lose qualified candidates to the competition. In fact, 92 percent of employers are already using social networks to recruit talent.
When businesses use the right social recruiting strategies, they showcase their employer brand across multiple social platforms. Social recruiting is a great way to show potential candidates a glimpse of what your company culture looks like. It also gives recruiters a valuable opportunity to reach passive candidates who aren’t actively searching for a new job. Many service companies are using digital video as the foundation for their social recruiting campaigns. As an example, check out the video ad campaign ran by Rad Air Complete Car Care & Tire Centers to engage potential employees in their brand.
Keep in mind that if you try to start recruiting without any clear strategy, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. Instead, jumpstart your social media recruitment strategy with a detailed plan. Here’s how to get started.
Now you know where to find your ideal candidates, but how can you stand out from the crowd and get noticed? Video marketing.
If you’re not already using video to grow your employer brand, what are you waiting for? Studies show that video content helps boost engagement across all social media platforms. What’s more, 83.3 percent of Internet users watched videos in 2020, and 55 percent viewed online videos every day. Social media users expect brands to deliver engaging, captivating content on social media more than ever before, and video is one of the best ways to do so.
Of course, crafting the perfect employer branding video is a form of art. And with more and more companies leveraging video to recruit top talent, you want to stand out from the crowd with eye-catching content. It’s time to start creating your own video content—or hire a team of professionals to help you effectively convey your employer brand.
No matter which path you choose, your employer branding videos should include the following ingredients:
Video marketing is one of the best tools to reach passive candidates, too. Most people who aren’t actively searching for a job are still scrolling through social media. Some of these people might be a great fit for your company, and they might even apply if they learn a little bit more about your company, your values, and your culture.
With video marketing, you can significantly grow your talent pool by getting your company in front of passive candidates. After passive candidates watch your video and learn how amazing your company culture is, they might sign up for your text campaign or email newsletter to learn more about your company. Then, when they’re ready to leave their current position and apply for a new job, you’ll be at the top of their mind.
As with any strategy, you should always be measuring your results. Data can help guide your recruitment strategy by showing you exactly what your ideal candidates are responding to. Then, you can optimize your campaign to fuel more conversions and get the most bang out of your recruitment budget. Sounds like a win-win, right?
Whether you’re streamlining your recruitment process or crafting your social media strategy, here are some metrics you should be tracking:
If you’re new to analytics, a CRM will be your greatest ally. CRMs extract valuable insights, empowering your HR team with actionable data. You’ll be able to view your website traffic, conversions, and social engagement with one simple, easy-to-use dashboard. This way, you can say goodbye to the Excel spreadsheet and streamline your recruitment process.
Recruiting new talent requires valuable time, money, and resources—but you already know that. According to a recent report, the average cost of hiring a new employee is $4,425. Meanwhile, replacing an entry-level employee can cost roughly 30 percent of the person’s annual salary, while mid- and senior-level roles can cost even more.
If you’re constantly replacing employees, you can’t afford to ignore the cost of a new hire. So, how can you retain top talent and cut your recruiting costs? It’s simple: You need a great onboarding process.
Think about it: Onboarding sets the tone for an employee’s experience with your company. Studies show that employees experience higher rates of burnout and emotional exhaustion after a poor organizational socialization process. Onboarding has a major impact on job performance, employee engagement, satisfaction, and even organizational commitment.
In other words, investing in your onboarding process is well worth it. It’ll save you money in the long run. Welcome your new employees with a comprehensive onboarding strategy to make the most of your hiring investment and retain top talent for years to come.
If you’re a victim of today’s talent shortage, it’s time to rethink your recruitment marketing strategy. With a powerful employer brand, an effective social media strategy, and the right analytics, you can start using your resources to grow your company with skilled, qualified candidates.
Ready to change the way your company recruits? Set up a discovery call with our partners at Main Street Recruitment to start developing your long-term recruitment strategy. Main Street Recruitment is a recruitment marketing agency, meaning they can help you take a different approach to attracting, engaging, and hiring the talent you need to fill open positions at your company—and that starts with having a strong employer brand.
