In the recruitment world, we come across many new terminologies, and it isn’t easy to understand which ones we need to pay attention to and which ones we need to ignore. In recent times, Omnichannel Recruitment Marketing has been doing a lot of buzz, and it is expected to create a long-lasting impression in the recruitment industry. But many people associated with the industry and outside the industry aren’t familiar with Omnichannel Recruitment Marketing. This article will explain what Omnichannel Recruitment Marketing is and how organizations get benefited from it.
Omnichannel is widely used in the retail industry, where the customers are targeted in different stages within the purchasing process by using different technologies and methods to the seamless conversation. So what if we apply the same approach in the recruitment industry? Organizations can use multi-channels (similar to Omnichannel) to attract candidates as they no longer rely on traditional methods to advertise and hire candidates. In today’s competitive world, recruiters need to be pro-active and use multiple channels to attract highly skilled professionals.
Why Should your Organizations need to Use Omnichannel Recruitment?
The COVID-19 pandemic had created chaos in all the industries, and recruitment is one of the severely affected industry. The vaccine is in the corner, and the world is taking baby steps towards the post-COVID-19 world, and the economy is expected to bounce back, which is a piece of good news for many industries. However, this will become a severe challenge for the recruiters; suddenly, there will be an influx of job openings across the industries and fierce competition to notch the highly skilled candidates. According to a study, top candidates are hired within ten days, and firms need to provide best options on the table to attract the best candidates.
So when this scenario becomes a reality, old schools’ methods of using job boards to post the new positions will have the least impact on the candidates. On the other hand, competitors using the latest technology and methods will have a high chance of grabbing the talent. Recruiters do need to reach candidates not only about information about the job and benefits offered by the organizations but also create tailored pitches to appeal and persuade.
Omnichannel recruitment is one of the methods to attract candidates. Organizations can opt for a range of channels such as Social Media (LinkedIn, Xing), Mobile applications, employee engagements, employee referrals, product or service experiences, and other websites such as Glassdoor, Github, and traditional job websites as Dice, Monster, and Indeed. Organizations can also use any other means of channels that can be useful to interact with the potential candidates.
How Can Omnichannel Recruitment Marketing be Implemented?
In Omnichannel recruitment, organizations meet the candidates wherever they are present, and it is considered the primary factor before implementing Omnichannel recruitment marketing. As mentioned earlier in our article, the retail industry had successfully implemented Omnichannel marketing. Now, they are adopting the same approach to hiring candidates by using similar channels like social media outreach, blogging, and even “virtual” career fairs to attract attention.
As a non-retail organization, how can we follow the same approach and find highly skilled candidates? It all comes to where your potential candidates can be found. Suppose your organization is planning to hire more fresh graduates. In that case, the best place to start sourcing candidates is by conducting virtual university job fairs and interacting with the university students by creating Facebook groups and offering free content that will benefit students, as the organization’s brand will be visible and attract students.
Let’s consider another example. If your organization is planning to hire Millennials with less experience (1 to 3 years of job experience), Twitter will be the best place to find such candidates. Twitter is becoming quite popular with Millennials. It not only is the best place to reach them but also to interact with the candidates. Similarly, Github is quite popular with the developers, and this should be your first preference to source candidates with developers skills, and many of the active candidates.
Successful Omnichannel Recruitment Strategy:
Omnichannel recruitment marketing is a useful way to get in touch with candidates and close the open positions. Organizations that involve Omnichannel recruitment marketing will observe positive results in the longer run. However, for Omnichannel recruitment marketing to show results, organizations require data and need to identify the channels through which the candidates enter the recruitment funnel and then gather them. The job listing is the first place to find the candidates, and other significant avenues include job fairs, Google Ads, Referrals, LinkedIn, and other social media websites.
Let’s go back to Omnichannel marketing in retail. Omnichannel marketing aims to move customers from one channel to another without interruption in the conversation flow. For example, a prospective customer will do all the research about the product online, then calls the customer care center for additional info. The customer executive or sales agent will gather all the customers’ history, discuss the product customer, and close the sales faster.
Now in Omnichannel recruitment, the whole process is the same, except the candidate is hired instead of a sales process. However, when an organization wants to hire a candidate, it requires data about the candidate. The recruitment process will be more effective if the recruiter or Talent acquisition team has the candidate’s complete history. For example, knowing whom the candidate has spoken to or which sections of the career website he/she visited, or which question they asked in the Chatbot, their preferred time to get in touch with them. Access to such data will put the recruiter in a stronger position and increase their level of interest.
Omnichannel Recurtiment – Building Personalised Relationship:
For organizations to successfully implement Omnichannel Marketing Recruitment, they need to build a personalized relationship with the candidates. A strong relationship with the highly skilled candidates (especially those already applied for open job positions) demands the recruitment process to be interactive and effective. The highly skilled candidates can find jobs in a shorter time span and to attract such candidates, organizations need to think out of the box while building a relationship.
However, there are plenty of options to build a personalized message to the candidate.
Everything can be customized from the initial interaction on the company career page and social media page to sourcing, ATS systems, CRM, and onboarding process.
Omnichannel is all about finding candidates wherever they are present. If they visit the company’s website, use the chatbot function to send a personalized message. If you interact with the candidate on Twitter, ask them to like and comment about the job application process and employees to like and share such tweets. To follow up with the candidates, recruiters can use methods such as email, text, Whatsapp, phone, and Social media to keep candidates on your radar even if you aren’t initially on theirs.
The Impact of Omnichannel on Retail Recruitment:
The retail industry was the first to come up with the concept of Omnichannel to attract customers and make sales in quick sessions. The COVID-19 had impacted the retail industry, but it did open new jobs in the retail industry. For example, Amazon has created 15,000 new full and part-time warehouse and delivery driver jobs across the UK in goods fulfillment centers. To make these jobs accessible for the potential candidates, retailers must create their jobs as visible as they can in as many locations as possible.
However, to fill vast open positions, the retail organization should know their ideal candidate and tailor their message to the target group. Organizations do need to research on the best-fit candidates and the kind of channels they need to target. Organizations can rely on technology to reach talent across channels.
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Social Media
Social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can get the attention of candidates searching for jobs and the talent that is not searching for the job. If we come across the Twitter page of Retailer Macy’s, it is dedicated to the employer brand. Also, the Instagram page of @MacysCollege is devoted to events and on-campus activities and allows interns to post their personal experiences with the company.
Retail Organizations coming with such interactive pages in Social media will allow them to get in touch with the right talent. They can capitalize on the recruitment process whenever a new position is up for the grab.
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JobBoards
Job boards specifically showcase the employer’s brand and benefits in joining the particular organization. Potential candidates will know the kind of role and perks offered by the company from the job boards. Retail organizations use job boards extensively to hire candidates, and one such company is Belk, an US retail firm. The firm highlights open positions and internships, provide a glimpse of employees’ experiences, and describes professional development opportunities. It goes a step further to showcases its employer’s values, such as community involvement.
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Mobile Apps
We hardly come across any retail firms that haven’t introduced mobile apps that haven’t launched mobile apps for shopping purposes, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Mobile apps are considered one of the best places to find potential candidates for any job. Twenty-eight percent of Americans have used a smartphone in some aspect of their job search. Half of these users have filled out a job application from their mobile devices.
When it comes to Omnichannel recruitment marketing, you need to find the candidates where the candidates are available, and a mobile app is the best place to start. The mobile app must be optimized with all recruitment aspects, including a chatbot to assist the potential candidates.
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In-store Tools
When it comes to retail recruitment, the best-fit candidates might turn out to be your customers. The customers are aware of the company’s branding and the locations of the store. Instead of using a Vacancy sign in the store, the organization can inspire its consumers to apply attractively, on-brand messaging. Using technology, consumers can directly apply for the openings using the mobile apps and train the staff to help candidates who need assistance while applying for the jobs.
Key Takeaways – Conclusion:
Omnichannel Recruitment marketing can be the next big thing in your organization. However, the organization needs to gather the required data and find the appropriate channels to target the potential candidates. On the other hand, organizations should focus on building their brands in all the channels (in a consistent way) and needs to invest in software that will cut down the cost of recruitment. Lastly, while engaging with the potential clients, prioritizes channels where the target candidates most likely are available and willing to interact with your HR team or recruiters. The future of recruitment may be Omnichannel Recruitment marketing, and it is the right time for organizations to plunge into it and offer more value to the customers.
