Jobs.ac.uk one of the leading international job boards recently undertook a survey into recruitment trends and the key findings are very much centred around advertising and marketing.

The survey identified candidate attraction and the lack of skilled/ quality candidates as the biggest challenge facing recruiters. This is nothing new and will always be a problem; as the best candidates are rarely actively looking for new opportunities, so how to find them?

Currently there is a lot of hype around LinkedIn, and don’t get me wrong used correctly, it is fantastic, but never forget good old fashioned media research. Thorough media research allows you to target candidates effectively, by identifying key trade publications and websites that your target audience is likely to read, without necessarily searching for a job.

The 2013 survey also identified Job Boards as the most effective recruitment tool, recognising sector …

When trying to fill a new position, HR and recruitment professionals are likely to fall into one of two categories, either:

1) Attract too many unsuitable candidates

or

2) Struggle with a poor response rate and very few applications

To avoid this predicament it is essential to get your job advertisement right in the first place; saving lots of time and money.

Media Research:

You could design the most eye-catching, informative job advert ever, but if it isn’t displayed in the right medium for your target audience, they will never see it.

What media you use depends on the type of candidate you want to attract. For specialist technical roles, trade publications often work well, whereas a local paper tends to be more effective for low-skilled local roles, LinkedIn is effective to attract senior candidates that are not necessarily job seeking and the internet and social media …

Marketing seems to be becoming a more and more dominant aspect of recruitment, as organisations become more demanding and cautious when looking for the ‘perfect’ candidate. Generally recruitment agencies recruit for extremely specific positions, wanting particular technical skills/knowledge from a very specific industry, hence why the client is unable to recruit in-house; the reason for this? These candidates are in such high demand, they are not actively seeking work, so recruiters need to attract and find them. Recruitment consultants need to act like marketers- successfully seeking searching and attracting new talent; but how?

Marketing Skills that Recruiters Need:

Social Media, particularly LinkedIn is invaluable to recruiters, social media allows recruiters to access potential candidate information in regards to current or future roles. It is essential that recruiters understand how to effectively use and utilize digital, social technologies to communicate and attract desired …

Vine is a new mobile video service developed by Twitter, Vine lets users capture and share short looping videos (6 seconds or less) inspiring creativity challenging users to create something short with impact. Vine has been designed to see and share life in motion, giving users the opportunity to share moments and content in unique ways.

The development of Vine illustrates the growing importance of Video both socially and as a marketing tool; a six second Video clip is highly portable and shareable and an excellent way to engage your audience and get people talking about your brand.

Video provides great opportunities for marketers and companies to show users short, easily-digestible content; that can be fun, experimental and innovative. To make Vine and other video platforms work it is important not to bore users with irrelevant, dull content. For further information on …

You can’t go a day without seeing a news article on the growing importance of social media, but how relevant is social media to recruitment?

Social media is becoming an increasingly dominant feature in company’s recruitment strategies. A survey conducted by XpertHR found that employers tend to use social media at the early, candidate attraction stage of recruitment, promoting themselves as an employer and developing their brand amongst job seekers, ultimately driving applicants to the organisations corporate careers website.

Social media has the potential to reach vast audiences at minimal costs; LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are identified as the three most popular social media sites for recruitment advertising, but in this over crowded, over informed market place, how do you stand out from the crowd?

Posting relevant, regular content is vital to engage interest, attract and ultimately retain followers, so why not …