Recruiters understand that the talent acquisition universe has changed. Candidates are like consumers, researching employers the same way they research products and expecting their engagement with employers to be hyper relevant and transparent. Recruitment Marketing (RM) practices is gaining significant prominence among the Fortune 500 companies in the recent times.

To help talent acquisition teams adapt to modern recruiting, SmashFly Technologies, the leading recruitment marketing platform provider has released “The SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Report Card for the Fortune 500 in 2015.” This report presents an analysis on how the largest U.S companies are using best practice recruitment marketing principles to lure, attract and retain talent.

Key findings on 134 companies surveyed on the 2015 Fortune 500 lists, indicates an “A” or “B” for use of their recruitment marketing practices that gives them a winning edge in the war for talent. Some of the more commonly used RM practices by companies are:

1. Posting employee stories and videos on their career site with landing pages per job family that brings their employer brand to life
2. Talent network forms that let pre-applicants opt-in to receive relevant communications and job alerts without being required to apply for a job first
3. Careers-specific social channels and blogs that promote content and culture, not just jobs. Career-specific social channels let you keep candidates engaged with career-targeted content and showcase your employer brand and culture.
4. Messaging specific for student and campus hiring as well as diversity and military initiatives

“A recruiter’s job is to convert applicants into hires. A recruitment marketer’s job comes first: to attract leads and convert them into applicants, giving recruiters more qualified applicants to source from,” said Mike Hennessy, Founder and CEO, SmashFly. “Combining inbound recruitment marketing with outbound recruiting is how modern recruiting organizations will gain competitive edge for great new hires.”The 2015 Fortune 500 are doing a “good” job in their use of Recruitment Marketing but can gain a competitive advantage in talent acquisition by providing more targeted messaging, improving mobile and social recruiting, and adding talent network forms to capture leads before they’re ready to apply.

See: Holistic Solution for Streamlining Recruitment

The untapped modern recruitment marketing practices below will help employers find and attract their target candidate personas, engage passive talent on social and mobile, and nurture leads and convert them into qualified applicants. Organisations can then draw comparisons, strategise efforts and develop practices they should invest to better compete for talent.

1. Career Blog: A careers-specific blog communicates directly with candidates about your culture and jobs, and positions your organization as a valued resource. For example: Cisco’s “Life at Cisco” blog shares employee stories and offers IT career advice.
2. Inserting images and videos in job descriptions: This recruitment marketing practice if implemented, bring a company’s employer brand to life in the most important call-to-action: apply now. For example: WestRock embeds videos in job descriptions to help drive applicant conversions.
3. Mobile Friendly Career Site: A career site’s homepage deemed “mobile friendly” using Google’s algorithm ensures candidates can find and browse your site from their Smartphone or tablet device.
4. Mobile friendly job search and apply process: A job search engine that is deemed mobile friendly by Google ensures your jobs are easily found by candidates searching from their mobile devices. Additionally, apply process for jobs if simplified on mobile can maximise number of applications, since applicants can easily apply from their mobile devices, minimising drop-off.
5. Campus Initiative to Recruitment: Messaging directly to interns and first-time job seekers works to enhance recruitment efforts and recruit best talent. Campus-specific messaging and content attracts students seeking internships and first-time jobs.
6. Diversity Initiative: Organisations should include content dedicated to diversity policy and inclusion. Workforce diversity messaging shows candidates your commitment to inclusion. For example, Allstate demonstrates that diversity is a top priority to prospective applicants.
7. Message directly to transitioning military and veterans: Military-specific messaging helps tap into a highly skilled talent pool of transitioning military and veterans. For instance, Home Depot is on a mission to hire 55,000 veterans, and has a micro-site devoted to this initiative.

These recruitment marketing practices will help companies to learn lessons from the Fortune 500 and strategise recruitment efforts to effectively market the job role, attract best talent and combat the talent crisis across markets.

Also read: 5 Recruitment Hacks You Can Implement Immediately

Image credit: glassdoor.com