Post-Covid recruitment: HR marketing is the new normal

No one could have predicted what happened in 2020 and the impact it had on recruitment and on businesses. Whatever your profession or wherever you worked, "business as usual" became anything but usual. Even those who thought they were on top of trends and shifts are now having to evolve. The economic landscape is changing at a frantic pace, and continuous adaptation is needed to stay relevant.

HR marketing is no different. Before, the most common concerns were time to hire, spending and understanding the best way to attract talent.

Today, recruitment teams are focusing on building and showcasing a strong employer brand. While the changing recruitment landscape keeps creating challenges, this period also gives companies new opportunities to rethink their strategies and innovate.

Here is a quick overview of the HR marketing trends that will help employers stay effective.

1. Employer branding has become paramount

Layoffs have slowed, but the problem remains: the job market slowed considerably in 2020. Candidates are far more discerning about the companies they apply to, taking into account the organization's history, mission and culture. We have gone from a situation where employees fought to find an employer to one where employers are scrambling to find employees.

If your company is one of those that had to reduce headcount since the pandemic, employer brand management should be your team's top concern over the coming months. Think about your messaging, focus on how to make your company's story more appealing to potential candidates and pay close attention to how that story is received. Defining and promoting your organization's Employee Value Proposition (EVP) can strengthen your story by conveying what it is like to work at your company, whether that is a diverse and inclusive culture, opportunities to grow and learn, or job-related benefits.

2. So has your ability to adapt

One concrete example is that the pandemic accelerated the future of work, and demand for flexibility and autonomy has skyrocketed among employees worldwide. As a result, companies, from large corporations to fast-growing start-ups, have been tasked with creating a work model that not only gives employees more choice but also fosters an inclusive and connected company culture in a changing landscape.

Hybrid work, which lets workers choose between two or more different work environments depending on what suits them best, has become an essential part of modern working life. For some, moving away from traditional working hours was an easy transition. For others, this rebalancing created a disconnect from colleagues and blurred the boundaries between work and private life.

What has become clear is that the world of work can no longer take a "one size fits all" approach. With hybrid work here to stay, business leaders now need to build forward-looking workplace strategies that align the company's professionals with employee expectations. Workplace strategies built on trust, flexibility and choice will be at stake for every company in the future, especially if it wants to stay competitive in the race to attract and retain the best talent.

3. Include your employees in your storytelling

When you define and communicate about your company in the coming months, remember that your current employees are the best ambassadors for your brand. Hearing testimonials and experiences from people who work at the company builds trust and credibility. Encourage your team to share their experience of working at your company on sites such as Indeed, Glassdoor and LinkedIn.

It is this type of engagement, called EGC (Employee Generated Content, a variant of User Generated Content), that helps potential candidates see how they could fit into your culture, and how they could potentially make an impact.

4. Go social, seriously!

It cannot be said often enough: one of the most obvious changes in HR marketing is the power of social media. Because of the changing digital landscape, social media has become an essential part of defining and promoting the employer brand.

Social media lets organizations engage with candidates in creative and unique ways, by publishing visually appealing and fun content that showcases the brand's personality as well as its heart. It has proven to be an effective tool for recruiters, because it connects companies and potential candidates in a more organic and authentic way. Discover our guide to social media recruitment.

5. Programmatic HR: get in front of the right people

Most candidates are not on active job search portals (on Seeqle campaigns, 80% of the profiles reached are passive) and have to be reached proactively by companies. By adopting a programmatic recruitment solution such as Seeqle, you make yourself visible to 100% of the market across the entire web, including social media, to showcase your employer brand. But you will then need to learn how to convince them.

Imagine a team of Marketing and HR experts working for you for the price of software: that is Seeqle.

Programmatic advertising applied to recruitment automates the distribution of job offers, employer brand content, training programs and other HR communications across all relevant media environments (job sites, websites and mobile apps).

Once the right candidates have been targeted with the right message, at the right time and in the right place, they click on the ad and land on your destination page (job offer, presentation page, careers site, etc.) to complete the desired action, which is most often filling in an application form.

To succeed in today's recruitment, marketing and HR teams need to work together to build a story that resonates in a crowded market. By investing time and resources in defining your employer brand, engaging your employees, and using social media and programmatic HR marketing to communicate in a more innovative and effective way, your organization will undoubtedly attract, engage and convert the best talent.

Curious about programmatic advertising applied to HR? Get a personalized audience analysis to find out the cost and results of your future targeted HR marketing campaign, before you even launch it!

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