The recruitment market has undoubtedly changed over the past few years. With huge skill gaps in some areas it means there are increasingly more and more jobs that companies are struggling to fill. So maybe it’s time to view how we recruit in a different way? Adopting new techniques could be the answer to finding the best possible candidates for every job opportunity you have.
Research from 2022 found that 63% of recruiters think the skills gap is their biggest challenge. This means that they can’t find qualified candidates who are looking for jobs, and this seems to be the case across a wealth of industries, from marketing to construction to healthcare.
But if you look at the flipside, there is talent out there. There are people doing these jobs, but perhaps they’re just not actively looking. Marketing Week’s Career and Salary survey found that 57% of marketers are considering moving job. However, the word “considering” is vital here. It stated that they were open to opportunities but they might not necessarily be actively job hunting.
While your existing recruitment advertising will be reaching active job seekers, it may not be connecting with passive audiences. Your passive audience will be made up of the people who would be open to a discussion if the right job came along, but they aren’t regularly searching for job opportunities.
In 2022, we worked with Practice Plus Group, an independent healthcare provider that is passionate about providing great healthcare. They were heavily recruiting but hadn’t been able to find the right talent. Digital display advertising opened up a whole new world for them.
We worked with them across several stages. Stage one was to recruit nurses in nine locations. We chose to focus on geofencing as the main tactic. We geofenced NHS and Private hospitals surrounding nine Practice Plus Group hospitals to promote the nursing opportunities available. We targeted the staff areas, such as car parks and staff rooms. This was supported by a retargeting campaign to recapture users and serve a follow up message. A massive 1330 people clicked on the advert and went through to the apply page and Practice Plus Group were able to close over a third of their vacancies due to the increased exposure that Geofencing allowed for. This is an audience that might not have seen the job advert otherwise.
The next phase was to run a theatre staff recruitment campaign, which aimed to attract new theatre staff. The tactics used included targeting active job searchers through keywords, and targeting existing theatre staff through third party audiences and passive audiences who might be looking for a career change. These were all narrowed down by adding in location targeting pointing them to specific job pages.
We didn’t just run advertising campaigns in isolation. Not only did we utilise a range of digital tactics together, but we also made sure that they supported other marketing activities that Practice Plus Group was doing too. For example, when they attended careers fairs, we ran campaigns alongside that.
For the RCNi Bristol careers fair, we ran a campaign prior to the event to promote that Practice Plus Group were going to be there. We then also ran a campaign during the event to ask attendees to chat to them, and then finally after the event we reminded visitors of the Practice Plus Group brand. This was achieved by geofencing the event location and targeting relevant keywords.
The BSG Birmingham event was a careers fair for Endoscopy roles and an event that Practice Plus Group couldn’t attend. However, they still wanted to capture the audience to target and we used similar tactics to do this.
The success delivered in these recruitment campaigns led to us taking on responsibility for the vacancies with Practice Plus Group’s prison care contract. We now work with over 15 locations to support the targeting of suitable medical personnel.
The modern day recruiter needs to use every tool at their disposal to expand their reach. This is the only way to ensure they’re capturing every possible candidate, which will in turn increase their chance of filling roles successfully. To include capturing an audience that is already working but would be open to moving on, you can’t wait for them to find you. You need to make sure you’re actively visible to them.
And it can’t end with the advertising. To get them to move on, the whole experience needs to be good. How exciting does the role sound, what are the benefits, how easy is it to apply and how convenient will the interview stages be? Don’t forget you are actively targeting people that you know are already in employment, so take that into consideration.
The more you can optimise your tech stack to make every step of the recruitment process a positive one, the better the chance you’ll have of luring in the best possible candidates.
It’s easier than ever to access a range of technology that could elevate your job advertising, and it can also be very cost effective if you adopt the right techniques. The important thing is make your brand visible online and ensure your job adverts are targeted at precisely the audience you want to reach.
Read the full Practice Plus Group case study.
If you’d like to explore how digital display advertising could optimise your recruitment, please book a demo.