Finding a focus is the mantra for corporations. Most organizations expend time and energy to identify and focus on a core product or service and not dilute their efforts with other activities. Marketers narrow their messages to a specific audience and promote products via media aimed at that audience. One of the inherent benefits of the Internet is that it can deliver a message cheaply to as few as just one person. We live in an age of personalized messaging and customized products.
We in the recruiting profession need to do the same. Unfortunately, the recruiting strategies I see are typically broad and try to encompass all positions and openings the organization has. The result of this broad recruiting practice is that no one at all is targeted. Messages are generic. Advertisements attract anyone and everyone. And, the result is that we are swamped with countless unqualified applicants, hundreds of useless resumes, and many unhappy candidates.
A well-designed recruiting process will start with a clear understanding of corporate strategy and be aligned with it. For example, if your corporate strategy is to build a software product, then the focus has to be on programmers or whatever group of people will develop that product. If you look at sports teams, you will see a carefully aligned recruiting strategy. When a sports manager speaks of talent, he is not talking about every player. He is talking specifically about those individuals on the team who make the points, block the other team, or whom the fans and players identify as essential for success. Even though they may be hiring trainers, medical staff, administrators, and so forth, all recruiting messaging and communications are directly aimed at the specific players who contribute to the team’s immediate success.
Many recruiting managers feel that creating a focused message equals a lack of fairness or even shows favoritism. While it may feel unfair to rank open positions as more or less valuable, this is the reality of the market. Some jobs pay more and some contribute more, and there ought to be a relationship between the two. Usually there is, but salary alone is not the best guide. I suggest that you rigorously examine every position in your company and determine which the key ones are and which are not so important. The evaluation criteria should be how much the position contributes to the product or service, how much to the profitability of the firm, and how much it has a direct connection to customers. People with little or no direct contribution are, by definition, placed in a lower level than those that do.
Here are the four steps to follow to align your recruiting with your corporate direction and needs:
An obvious but not easy first step is to make absolutely sure that you know what the corporate direction is and which people in your firm contribute the most to its success. Spend time with the line managers, hiring managers, and executive staff, and define the one or two professions that are vital. Perhaps you will come up with a list of several positions, but there will probably be commonalities that you can identify and use in your sourcing and messaging. If there are distinct differences, you will need a sourcing and marketing strategy for each that is unique. What is most critical, though, is to be certain of who you need to go after and then identify the messages that will appeal to them.
Ask what motivates this group of people. What makes them do the work they do, and what are they seeking in an opportunity? You may have to identify and interview the people in these roles who already work for your organization to figure this out. And, it may take several experiments to find messages that really do attract the right people. What I can assure you is that once you have done this, you will find that you are attracting more people of a higher quality than you were before.
Find out where the kinds of people you are looking for work or play, and then go after them.
Targeted marketing is common in every area of a corporation except recruiting. The lessons learned from your own corporate sales and marketing department can be applied to your recruiting efforts. And, it is a good idea to talk to them and even get them involved in redoing your careers site, interview guides, telephone scripts, and any other material you use for convincing candidates to come work with you.
Targeted strategies executed with focus will give you the candidates who are easy to place and who hit the bull’s-eye for your organization.
