Organizations across the globe are looking for ways to cut costs and streamline processes. Because efficiency is everything in today’s tough economic climate, many organizations are increasingly automating how they attract and engage top talent is the way forward. Seeking to fast track their hiring processes, more and more recruiters are exploring some innovative and creative applications of marketing automation technology, which allows them to nurture candidates throughout the recruitment journey and even engage top talent before they are ready to apply.
Recruitment of alumni talent
Today’s candidates won’t hesitate to jump ship in search of better work-life balance, a higher salary, or faster career progression. But just because employees may be moving on, that doesn’t mean they won’t ever return. In fact, former employees who return (also known as alumni employees or boomerang employees) make up a growing segment of the workforce. In 2021, for example, “of all new hires among companies on LinkedIn, 4.5 percent were boomerang workers.”1 This may not sound like a lot, but in a competitive labor market every bit counts!
Because returning employees already understand an organization’s processes and know where they fit there, this talent pool can be a great source of fast and efficient hires. By automating personalized recruitment campaigns, companies can tailor the messaging they send to alumni talent so that it not only communicates relevant employer brand content but also updates them on what has changed since they left and helps keep them engaged with the employer brand.
Onboarding C-suite Leadership Teams
It isn’t always easy to find the ideal candidate for a highly specialized role—especially when it’s a CEO, CFO, or CTO position. C-suite leaders have weighty responsibilities, and changing careers is no simple matter for senior-level candidates. They need to have high brand awareness of an organization in order to know if they are the right fit for the role. With the ability to personalize and automate candidate nurture, marketing automation allows recruiters to track candidate engagement so they can identify which content candidates are most interested in and know which candidates are interested in the organization.
Long-term Hiring through the Early-Career Market
In 2022 54 percent of HR professionals surveyed said that they were hiring more entry-level talent than they had the year before.2 As more and more recruiters realize the true potential of the early-career market, companies that want to compete for entry-level hiring will need to start engaging early. Through candidate nurture, organizations can ensure that early-career candidates are engaging with their employer brands. Marketing automation makes it possible to connect with potential candidates as students or recent graduates by targeting them with content that is relevant to them, such as interview tips, suggestions for studying, or advice on job hunting.
Refreshing Outdated Candidate Databases
With so many organizations struggling to recruit in-demand talent in today’s global workforce, it’s easy to assume that sourcing new candidates is the way forward. But often a company’s top candidate already exists in the candidate information database in the company’s applicant tracking system. Using marketing automation to filter this data based on real-time engagement scores, recruiters can know exactly who is interested in a company’s employer brand and can categorize its talent pool into defined pipelines of candidates who are “cold,” “warm,” or “hire-ready.”
Driving a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce
With job seekers increasingly factoring workplace diversity into their decision to apply for a role, building an inclusive workforce is no longer just an option for companies but is fast becoming a top priority for recruiters. Marketing automation makes it possible to engage top talent with outreach that highlights a company’s diverse groups, initiatives, and employees that are relevant to them.
Employee Referral Recruiting
Recruiters don’t always think of employee referrals first when strategizing how to attract in-demand talent. But referrals offer a great return on investment, because current employees, who are familiar with an organization’s culture and roles, usually target such outreach to people they already think would fit well there. Marketing automation allows recruiters to create unique forms and landing pages for these referral candidates, track their engagement across the company’s digital footprint, and identify which ones are hire-ready.
As the tough hiring market continues to evolve, recruiters need to use all the tools at their disposal to navigate the road ahead. Integrating marketing automation technology is one strategy that can help recruitment teams better leverage the pipeline processes they have in place and reach their hiring goals.
Rachel Findlay is a content creator for Candidate.ID, an iCIMS company. iCIMS Inc. is a leading provider of innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) talent-acquisition solutions that help businesses win the war for top talent. To learn more about how iCIMS can help your organization, visit www.icims.com.
1 Kelli Nguyen. 2022. “Hello? It's Your Old Boss Calling.” LinkedIn, /www.linkedin.com/news/story/hello-its-your-old-boss-calling-5205836.
2 iCIMS Insights. 2022. “Class of COVID-19.” iCIMS website, www.icims.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iCIMS-Class-of-COVID-19_Report.pdf.
