NEWS

By Martin Berman-Gorvine

March 25 — Recruiters today must strengthen their brand and use video, social media and mobile-friendly websites, Meghan M. Biro, founder and CEO of the blog TalentCulture.com, said in a March 25 webinar sponsored by Waltham, Mass.-based human capital management software company PeopleFluent.

“Number one, focus on your brand,” Biro said. “Any company with a diluted brand won’t recruit as well as one with a crystal-clear brand identity.” In doing this, “it's crucial that employers accurately reflect their positions and the company itself, and what candidates can expect on the job,” she said. “Focus on empowering internal and external influencers and brand ambassadors.”

Top job candidates today expect leading employers to be recruiting using multiple platforms, Biro said. “Essentially, you are how you search.” Video job postings show up much higher in job search results on Google, for example, whereas “static” text-only job postings and descriptions don’t show what’s unique about the company and makes it a good place to work, she added.

It's important that video job descriptions be targeted to the kind of candidate the organization wants to recruit, Biro said: “Create a job-specific video with some really juicy content” aimed at them.

It's also important to “do the research,” she said; according to a 2015 survey by the tech job search website Dice, “half of candidates want recruiters to do more research before picking up the phone,” and “62 percent wanted recruiters to have a better grasp on how their job skills match the position.” That doesn't just consist of reading back the top lines of a prospect's LinkedIn profile to him or her, she cautioned.

Biro also urged recruiters to “embrace a mobile-first strategy.” A Brandon Hall survey “shows 60 percent of organizations using mobile are able to fill positions within two weeks, compared to 47 percent of those without,” she said. If candidates have to zoom in and zoom out on websites that aren't optimized for mobile devices, they will lose interest, she said.

But don't let the availability of high tech lull you into using “bots” or automated messages to recruit candidates, Biro cautioned. Top recruiters aren’t spamming or recruiting “by bot,” but are personally engaged, she said. “It may only take a moment—a text, a tweet—to form that bond” with the right candidate.

To contact the reporter on this story: Martin Berman-Gorvine in Washington at mbermangorvine@bna.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Nadel at snadel@bna.com