How did we engage with ‘talent’ before using the technology we have available today? Sending letters, emails or even picking up the phone and speaking to a candidate all feel like a thing of the past yet ‘talent engagement’ is today’s buzzword in the world of recruitment. Technology is here to stay, and we must embrace it, but no tech application can replace real, quality, human connection and interaction.
Keeping it human is about how and where we use technology, what for, who with and when. Using tech provides us with huge opportunities (as well as risks), which need to be carefully considered, balanced and applied. There’s a real risk that technology is making us busier but not always happier or more productive. We must learn to adapt and evolve to make it work for us rather than being a slave to it.
“We are tech rich but time poor”
How does this link to Talent Engagement?
Talent Engagement is defined as ‘being able to inform, communicate, inspire and emotionally connect talent to your company, its values, mission / goals and principles’. Essentially reaching and attracting the right people to your organisation.
We no longer choose the talent - the talent chooses us.
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There are an estimated 810,000 vacancies in the UK and the average job seeker applies for 6 jobs per week. |
So how do you stand out from the crowd and ensure your organisation and the roles you are recruiting for jump out from your competitors?
Engaging job adverts
Video job adverts are shared 20x more than text ads. Astonishingly, less than 1% of fortune 500 companies enhance their job adverts with video. It’s a simple but effective way to share details of a role, the organisation and even a ‘day in the life of’ video of a colleague currently in that role. Using real content to tell stories, inform and engage potential candidates is vital to stand out. Most videos can now be created simply using a decent mobile phone and a cheap tripod, producing some outstanding results.
Creating a clear EVP
Employee Value Proposition (EVP), in layman’s terms is the set of rewards and benefits that an employee gets in exchange for the skills and experience that they bring to an organisation. Every company has an EVP, however not all are clearly defined, and this can lead to mixed messages for candidates.
Once your EVP is defined, it’s vital to ensure its visible and portrays a clear message to potential candidates through your careers website and your applicant tracking system.
A careers website that includes pages of content to reflect your EVP is key here. The careers website should be easy to keep up to date, include your own images and videos and refresh the content regularly. Armed with information from your career's website plus engaging job adverts, candidates will be flocking to apply.
Automate transactional recruitment processes
The focus here may be on Talent Engagement but using technology to automate those transactional processes will free up time for recruiters to focus on just that.
Your Talent Acquisition Platform should be able to extend your candidate reach by posting jobs automatically to key job boards and, as candidates apply, they should be automatically sifted and assessed without the need for human intervention. The automation can continue through to interview booking and with the right technology in place, candidates will receive an engaging and personalised experience throughout.
With all this potential for freeing up our time, think of all we could be doing…
- Working in partnership with Hiring Managers on training, planning and briefing
- Networking and attending careers fairs
- Speaking to candidates
- Supporting candidates with preparation for interview
- Interviewing
- Delivering personal feedback
- Developing a Talent Engagement strategy
WHAT NEXT?
Download our guide on creating engaging media content that really drives candidate attraction.