Imagine starting off your hiring campaign on the right foot. You’re getting ahead of the summer hiring rush, you’re funneling in candidates, and you’re getting quality hires in a cost-effective manner. This is what the process looks like when you are efficiently advertising your jobs and wording your postings. But is this what it really looks like for you?
Our Client Success team sees the same issues year after year when advertising jobs – especially in regard to seasonal hiring pushes. Hiring managers are short on time, talent, and budget. They want candidates tomorrow, so they can start hiring and training just in time for the season to come. However, with limited resources, this can be a challenge.
So how do you fulfill all your hiring needs during the busiest times of the year? How do you specifically target individuals that can fill these desperately needed open positions? The name of the game is volume.
Related: Read our High-Volume Recruiting Guide to hire at scale.
A high volume of traffic is crucial. In this ultra-competitive time, employers are competing for the same (small) talent pool, making it a challenge to fulfill open positions. Here are 5 strategies to use when running a seasonal hiring campaign.
Capitalize on your brand name
If you’re advertising with a large and recognizable brand name, it can help drive traffic to your job posting. When job applicants see a job they want to apply for from a company they already know, like, and trust, it can go a long way. For optimal success, we recommend adding your company name to your job title, and if possible, at the very front. Many people search for jobs by first searching large companies they are familiar with. Leverage this by including your brand in your posting to guarantee that your seasonal position shows up when someone searches your company name.
If you’re not a big brand name, consider using your partners’ and clients’ names to your advantage (not in the job title, but find space somewhere in the description). Additionally, empower your marketing team to conduct brand-building initiatives, and partner with them to strengthen your employer brand.
Include benefits
Benefits are a powerful tool to include in your posting. Whether you have a known brand name or not, people care about what they will receive if they work for your company. Include things like hourly pay, seasonal bonuses, flexible schedules (“Summer Fridays” and beyond), hours guaranteed per week, company culture, or something as simple as food being provided. Whatever your perks, make your job stand out by including some of your top incentives.
Benefits are especially important to include if you’re not revealing the pay – or if the starting wage you’re offering is less exciting than your competitors’. At a time when competition for workers is high and many candidates aren’t accepting the low wages companies are offering, benefits are essential for getting you the hires you’re looking for.
Plan to set a competitive cost per click or cost per application
When recruiting for a popular season like this coming summer, you will be competing for the same candidates as a lot of other companies. With everyone looking for the same talent, setting the right budget can ensure your job posting appears on the first search page and reaches the right audience.
Something to remember here is that not all job postings are created equal. Your budget in Austin, TX may be completely different from one in Denver, CO, and especially different from one in New York, NY. Our team uses Talroo Insights™ to leverage our nationwide industry data and optimize clients’ budgets and campaigns to find the best price for your jobs specifically.
Simplify your application process
The easier and faster you make the application process, the more job applicants you will have to sort through. Again, volume is key to a successful hiring campaign. It can be tempting to provide more hurdles to ensure you’re getting the highest quality candidates, but in this high-traffic scenario, more hurdles may not equal better candidates.
Stick to an application that doesn’t require people to rehash the details of a resume that they’ve already uploaded or answer a bunch of personality-based questions. Save the getting-to-know-you part for the interview and keep your application short and sweet to get more candidates hitting ‘apply.’
Write a clear, concise job description
Conveying a simple and clear message in your job description is essential.
What makes your job different than the others? And what are the top things you need the applicant to know before applying? Don’t burden them with a long list of skills and requirements that they don’t need to use on a daily or weekly basis. Be concise and to-the-point, allowing for job seekers to know exactly what they’d be getting into.
By making all necessary information easily available for candidates, they can pre-qualify themselves, saving you time. You can focus on the candidates that are truly interested, and will have a faster and easier time hiring.
But wait, there’s more!
Timing is crucial and getting out in front of the giant rush of competition for a limited talent pool can make or break your campaign. Candidates often start their seasonal job search at the corresponding time of the year, so for seasonal hiring campaigns, we suggest starting 2–3 months prior to when your hires would start. However, it’s never too late to get started, and with these tips, you should be well on your way to a successful campaign.
