Whether it’s smart social media or collaborating with your rivals, recruitment doesn’t have to start with a hefty outlay
When Wheyhey – a south London start-up which produces healthy, protein-based ice creams – wanted to expand its fledgling team this year by recruiting interns, it faced a familiar quandary. The business was fighting far larger rivals, with enviable employer brands, for a relatively shallow pool of talent. What’s more, it just didn’t have the budget to compete.
Part of Wheyhey’s answer came in the form of an app many assumed existed solely to help teenagers swap pouty selfies. Snapchat – where photos disappear after 10 seconds – has been used by a number of budget-conscious brands as an innovative recruitment tool. “We created some fun artwork and put up our contact details,” says Steph Page, head of marketing and HR at Wheyhey. “Interested applicants can screenshot the picture and get in touch with us if they want to apply.”
The approach underlines the social nature of the firm, which employs two people full-time to manage communications on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It was one of the first companies to join Periscope, the live streaming app where followers can see what’s going on somewhere in real-time, though it has yet to use it for hiring purposes. “Our budget is miniscule so we can’t afford recruitment agencies,” says Page, “but we want to attract high calibre people and compete with larger brands.”
Of course, Snapchat is unlikely to solve your recruitment conundrums. For starters, you can only reach people who are already following you, which greatly limits the potential eyeballs for your posts. But it certainly positions you as an ‘edgy’ recruiter and sends a message about what it will be like to work for you.
And the broader principle of using bite-sized ‘stories’ to sell your business to candidates is catching on among budget-conscious SMEs. Rich, engaging content such as pictures or video (as opposed to simply blasting followers with ads) can offer a cost-effective route since candidates will be more clued up and will have already considered whether they’re a good cultural fit, meaning there’s less likelihood of deselection from the recruitment process or losing them after a few frustrating months.
“Small companies can use video and images to tell people what it’s like to work there, that they’re expected to pitch in, that no two days will be the same,” says Dr Jill Miller, research adviser at the CIPD. “They need to sell the fact that a recruit will get opportunities they might not in a larger, more predictable employer.” Using video (either via a social media app or posting something on a careers page) is a great way to convey this, she adds, and can be produced cheaply with a digital camera and some editing software.
But building engagement does require some groundwork – it’s not just a case of filming a video or sticking up an Instagram image and hoping the right people will respond. “It’s like going fishing – you could just stick a fishing rod in and hope you’ll catch something that tastes nice, or you could lay the ground bait and you’ve got a greater chance of success, a captive audience,” says Andy Headworth, author of Social Media Recruitment: How to Successfully Integrate Social Media into Recruitment Strategy.
There are plenty of free Twitter tools for smaller businesses, such as SocialBro, which breaks followers down demographically, or multi-network dashboards such as Hootsuite that can help refine the posting process. Outsourcing your social media management for recruitment is also an option, says Headworth – there’s an associated cost, but it can still be competitive compared to retaining a recruitment agency.
There are also ways to be savvier about how and where you advertise roles. Multi-job posting software, which allows an organisation to post across a number of job boards at once (at significantly lower cost than approaching them all individually), can save time and money in some circumstances. “We have to post on job boards because we wouldn’t be able to generate enough inbound applicants otherwise,” says Emily Moore, people director at employee engagement consultancy PurpleCubed, which employs 22 people.
“Using multi-posting is much cheaper than paying for each role, and they manage and track all the applications and advise us of the keywords people use when looking for jobs,” she says.
To further streamline the process, there are strict criteria for every application, regardless of role – and the multi-posting system filters candidates out on this basis, vastly reducing the number of applications to deal with. “Applicants must restrict their CV to one page, and send in 10 bullet points on why they’re right for the role. Those who can’t follow the instructions are straight out,” Moore says.
Technology can help smaller businesses close the gap in other ways, too. The new buzz among recruiters is “matching” technology, which takes the principles of dating into job searching. A new service called Rise To requires candidates to make a list of values that matter to them, which are matched to potential employers for whom those values are important. Rival Switch appropriates the “swipe” mechanism from the likes of Tinder to allow candidates to hook up with potential employers. A communications agency recently cut out the middleman by simply posting a Tinder profile and inviting lovelorn jobseekers to find out more.
In start-ups or hard-to-hire sectors, old-fashioned collaboration can increase employers’ chances of recruitment success, as well as regulate costs. “We see employers buddying up,” says Miller. “In the nuclear industry, for example, when one plant is decommissioned, employers will come together to see where these skill sets can be redeployed.”
It’s also a regular occurrence in the growing number of incubators springing up among digital businesses. Zealify, a career site that showcases what it’s like to work at a start-up, is part of London incubator Accelerator, and founder Andy Parker says there is a lot of “cross-promotion” between the companies in the incubator when it comes to talent. “We let people know if someone else is hiring, and there’s a real community feel,” he says. His company’s USP is to provide a branding platform for digital start-ups, enabling them to post photos and videos of their work environment so candidates can see what it’s really like to work for a small business.
For organisations cautious about bringing new recruits on board, there’s always the option to ‘try before you buy’. So-called ‘microjobbing’ sites such as PeopleperHour.com or FiveSquid list hundreds of individuals who can do anything from build a website to produce a training video for a low fixed price.
“The idea is that people can buy services for £5, build up trust with someone and then offer them more work or a bigger job over time,” says Terry Koutsios, FiveSquid’s founder. Sellers that don’t provide services as advertised don’t get paid, so it’s a low-risk strategy, and could lead to a more formal, long-term working relationship. “I do think this will change how people hire,” he says.
Thrifty tips #1
Employees at one company were given business cards with ‘Now hiring’ on one side and their name on the other, so if they met someone with the right attitude or values they could give them a card, creating an instant referral system.
Thrifty tips #2
A US company paid for a 15-second spot at its local cinema. Staff made a video in which they performed their ‘dumbest talent ever’, before the company logo and contact details flashed up.
Thrifty tips #3
Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi invited a group of prospective employees to sell their qualities in a lift. Candidates had to turn up, take a number and join a queue for the “real elevator pitch”, where they got 30 seconds to demonstrate their advertising skills.
Thrifty tips #4
When agency gyro wanted to attract talent from rivals, it used branded sandwich bags in shops they visited at lunchtime, printed with the message: “Is your career going somewhere?”
Get involved
CIPD Training’s Recruitment Using Social Media short course will allow you to share experiences with peers and a leading expert in the field in order to build your skills, and help you make your recruitment process more social and effective. Practical application is a critical part of this London-based workshop, enabling you to experience social recruiting through a range of exercises, applying your learning to your organisation: bit.ly/CIPDsocialmediatraining