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The "drought."
The "war."
The "perfect storm."

Over the years, our industry has come up with dozens of ways to describe recruiting challenges. But right now? Many of our clients are calling recruiting downright IMPOSSIBLE.

Here's what's making it so tough — and expensive — to fill open jobs:

  1. Jobs are back. The U.S. economy gained 916,000 jobs last month, and U.S. job postings on Indeed are up 17.9% (February 1, 2020 vs. April 9, 2021). Production and manufacturing jobs are soaring — up more than 50% over this time last year! Source: Indeed Hiring Lab
  2. Unemployment is dropping. While we're not back to pre-pandemic levels, as of the time of this writing, U.S. unemployment is at 6.0% (down from 6.2% in February). Source: BLS
  3. People have lots of reasons NOT to go back to work:
    • $1,400 per person stimulus payment
    • $300/week extended unemployment benefits
    • $10,200 in unemployment benefits not taxed
    • Health insurance subsidies
  4. Return-to-work anxiety is real. Despite the vaccines, mask-wearing, social distancing and cleaning protocols, many people are still reluctant to return to work for fear of contracting COVID-19.

Bottom line? Increased labor demand, reduced supply, lingering fears and (thanks to the stimulus package) a strong incentive for people to remain on unemployment is making recruiting a real nightmare.

Tired of the cliches — and ready to tackle recruiting challenges head-on?

We have you covered.

For this issue of Big Ideas, we asked the team at Haley Marketing to share their favorite practical tactics for social recruiting. Since we're celebrating our 25th birthday, we planned to share 25 ideas. But as you'll see below, our team came up with more than double that (okay, technically the list goes to 46, but some have ideas sub-lists) — all to help you!

What is social recruiting?

As the name implies, social recruiting refers to the strategies and tactics used to attract and engage active and passive job seekers through social media:

  • With active job seekers, social recruiting is more about job advertising. It's getting these people to find your jobs, see your organization as one they want to work with, and then convincing them to apply or contact you to learn more about the jobs you offer.

  • With passive job seekers, social recruiting is more about creating awareness and brand building than it is about jobs and applications. It's about connecting with people, getting them to see your company (and your recruiters) as a trusted resource, and THEN getting these people to think about new or better jobs.

50+ Tips and Tactics for Social Recruiting

    1. Include fun posts (especially images) in your social posting mix. There is a reason why babies and cats get all the likes!
    2. Try a blogging challenge. Blogging is a great way to improve SEO, promote your jobs, and show off your company culture. But getting people to write can be tough! One easy way to boost blog output is to have a 30-, 60- or 90-day blogging challenge. Then, have each employee share everyone else's blog posts on their social accounts. You can even make the contest fun by rewarding the person who writes and shares the most with a gift card or a celebration for the whole team when they meet the company goals.
    3. Get everyone involved in social sharing (i.e., sharing jobs and content relevant for job seekers). Social algorithms only show your content to a small fraction of your audience. Getting everyone on your team to share candidate-related content won't bombard job seekers, but it will increase your organic visibility. WARNING - Blatant Self Promotion! This is why we created NetSocial! We know how hard it can be to get all yorur salespeople, recruiters, and managers to share content, so we created software to automate it!
    4. Create branded templates for sharing social content. Giving your social posts a cohesive look is more than just professional; it helps increase brand recognition/awareness. Over time, job seekers will associate the look of your posts with your firm, and instantly recognize your content as they scroll through their feeds.
    5. Be authentic. When you are recruiting for open positions, be direct, be transparent, and tell people why they will love working for you (and your clients). Don't sell. Instead, think of yourself as a coach trying to help job seekers make the best career decisions.
    6. Give candidates compelling reasons to work. In your social posts, address the rational and emotional reasons people might want to get back to work:
      • Sense of pride and well-being that comes from earning a paycheck.
      • Right now is the BEST time to land a temp-to-hire job.
      • Pay rates are very competitive right now.
      • It's a great time to get into a desirable field or employer.
      • Avoid gaps on your resume.
      • Get your spouse off the couch (and out of the house!).
    1. Highlight "Employees of the Week." People love to see their name in lights and showing off your top team members (and temporary associates) is a great way to get in front of new candidates. By celebrating the success of your current employees, you'll see your reach expand…and your referrals increase.
    2. Post "Recruiter Spotlights." In some industries, candidates choose an employment agency because of the recruiters. Highlight your staff in fun and interesting posts so candidates can get to know them better and feel more comfortable reaching out to your team.
    3. Use "Fun Fact Fridays" to post facts about recruiters, company, location, etc. This idea is similar to Recruiter Spotlights, but it adds a fun twist to employer branding. Sharing interesting stories and insights about your recruiters will generate involvement from your team and drive more social engagement.
    4. Use paid ads. There is a misconception that social media is free. It can be, but your reach will be limited. To get your jobs and career-focused content in front of more of your ideal candidates, add targeted paid advertising to your social posts.
    5. Highlight top-paying jobs. Thanks to extended relief benefits, some people are making more staying home than working. They won't even think about coming back if that means making less than they do today. To increase applications, focus on jobs that are paying higher wages.
    6. Highlight remote jobs. People want to have the option to return to work, but statistics keep showing that they want remote options. Whenever you have jobs that allow remote work, promote them on social.
    1. Share video testimonials of happy employees. Reward good workers with a gift (e.g., shirt, mug, small gift card) for recording a one-minute video talking about finding a job through your firm and how much they like their job. Brand the video to your agency and share it on social media (be sure to include links to your job board and career site). Shameless Plug #2! If you're looking for an EASY and LOW-COST way to create branded testimonial videos, check out our Video NOW software.
    2. Use real employees in social sharing instead of stock photos. Use (and tag!) photos of real humans. It will not only boost relatability of the post; it will also show the picture on that employee's feed and expose the post to people you may not already be connected to.
    3. Celebrate the wins. When sharing open jobs on social, talk about similar placements made and how you created great matches. Mix these in with open searches so you can communicate the payoff that you are matching great talent with awesome opportunities.
    4. Make a big deal of temp-to-hire conversions. You can turn a single placement into several pieces of content for your social accounts: videos, testimonials, images, blog posts, and more.
    5. Use Facebook Groups as a ground-level way to connect with real people. Search for groups that target your ideal job candidates. There are groups for jobs in almost every city and groups for people with specific career interests. Share your jobs in all relevant local and industry-specific Facebook Groups. While using groups takes work (it's a 1:1 environment and should not be automated), the potential payoffs are huge: Real people use these groups and want to interact!
    6. Post Facebook Jobs. Facebook jobs are FREE to post, and there are even automation tools to post all your jobs from your Career Portal to Facebook! (Yup, this is something Haley Marketing can do for you!)
    7. Create branded Facebook Frames. You can create a branded Facebook Frames for your candidates to use with their profile pictures. How about "I got a new job through XYZ Staffing" or "XYZ Staffing just hired me" frames?
    8. Make a short video of the job and expectations. Bring your jobs to life by creating short videos discussing the job and how candidates can get in touch. Show people where they will work, what the work looks like, and who their supervisor will be. The more you can help people visualize the job, the more response you will get. That Video NOW tool mentioned above…it can create these kinds of videos too!
    9. Use LinkedIn video as an opportunity to showcase expertise and build trust with your audience. Create one- to three-minute educational videos once a week designed to help job seekers achieve their goals.
    1. Give your new hires the tools to show off their new job. Provide your new hires with graphics they can share on their own social media accounts or even something they could wear in a photo to be shared with their friends and family. Take things one step further and hold a weekly or monthly drawing for a fun prize for the people who post!
    2. Share talent from your Talent Showcase on social. Include two links in your posts: one with a job seeker link to sign up, as well as one with an employer link to learn more about the candidate featured in the social share. Let other candidates see that the client showcases their talent and gets them in front of potential employers. The two links will allow clients to see more about the featured candidate, while the signup link will allow for building the talent in the showcase.
    3. Show who you really are! Your social profile is an extension of your brand (consider it your "brand's voice"). It allows you to speak to your audience on a different, more personal level. So, step outside the box and skip the "professional tone." Speak to people on their terms. When you're able to make that type of connection, you're on your way to a long-term relationship.
    4. Use advertising for direct response and organic social to build your employer brand. Ads can target people by location, interest and job title. You can even target ads specifically to candidates already in your ATS to re-engage and reactivate them. Use your organic posts to showcase your brand–who you are, the value you bring to the community, and how you help job seekers and employers.
    5. Use LinkedIn Live or Facebook Live.
        • Host a regular show featuring local jobs, employers, and your recruiters. Think 30 minutes once a week.
        • You can also share job hunting tips, advice on how to get promoted, and other educational content mixed in with discussion about specific jobs you're trying to fill.
      • Go live with interview tips. Have a recruiter go live on Facebook or LinkedIn and provide tips for interviewing. You could even do a mock interview situation where you show good and bad examples of answering interview questions.
      • Use Facebook Live to promote opportunities. While only a tiny percentage of your following will see your non-sponsored Facebook posts, a large percentage will have Facebook Live notifications turned on and will see what you share via video!
      • Try a Facebook Live: Q & A session. Ask your followers for questions, and then answer them in this live video format. It's a nice way to show that there are real people behind the scenes at your company.
    6. Try TikTok to target a younger audience. You can expand your recruiting reach to a different demographic with TikTok videos. Your videos could include resume tips, how to decide what job to look for, interview 101, what to wear, etc.
    7. Use client names and logos in posts. Show off the best employers you represent (make sure you obtain permission to use their company name on social media). Their employment brand can help you attract talent!
    8. Focus on passive job seekers. Share content to capture the attention of people who may be open to a new job, but not actively looking. Your content might address the top reasons why people decided to look for a new career (e.g., hate my boss, not appreciated, underpaid, bad schedule, no opportunities for advancement, etc.).
    9. Post where your audience hangs out. Job hunting professionals are on LinkedIn. The under-30 crowd is mostly on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Their parents are on Facebook (well, almost everyone is on Facebook!). Typically, direct job posts won't get much response (unless you're promoting them), so rather than post jobs, create "stories" about your candidates, your culture and the cool clients you serve.
    1. Create eye-catching "Now Hiring" images. These two simple words will attract the attention of active job seekers.
    2. Create audience personas. A persona is a profile that defines common demographic characteristics, personality traits, interests, challenges and attitudes for each type of candidate you want to recruit on social. When you take the time to define personas, you can better target your recruiting messages.
    3. Make your candidates the "heroes" of your content. Feature the stories of candidates you've placed; highlight successful temporary associates in the field.
    4. Go social with referral programs. Promote your referral incentives via social media. Use direct messaging to ask for referrals. Celebrate referrals who get placed. Show off the rewards you provide. Make sure referral program promotion is part of your monthly social marketing calendar! (You do have a content calendar, right???)
    5. Use better/more fun referral incentives. Who says referral bonuses have to be boring? Try shaking things up a bit (e.g., refer someone and receive a ticket in a drawing to win one big monthly prize, or refer someone and receive one free sick day).
    6. Allow your recruiters to "take over" your social media pages for the day. Show off "A day in the life of working with XYZ Staffing."
    7. Have your recruiters tag candidates they work with on job postings on Facebook. This way, your job posts show up in their newsfeed, and it feels like the recruiter is thinking about them.
    8. Leverage your ATS. Export all the candidates you have placed over the last few years and use that to build a look-alike audience you can target with your content and brand advertising.
    1. Use the comment sections on social media platforms. Encourage your followers to tag friends who are looking for jobs to create a social referral system.
    2. Launch a YouTube channel with career tips for job seekers. You may not think of YouTube as social media, but 30 million people are on it every day. Look at the format of Legal Eagle and Dr. Mike for video ideas.
    3. Leverage the interests of the folks in your team to reach people. Some may gravitate towards Facebook, while others prefer LinkedIn, while others still "get" Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Create a social strategy and let your team implement it on the platforms where they are experts.
    4. Provide ongoing training to your team. Ensure they understand your social recruiting strategy–and know how to use the tools effectively. Consider a "lunch and learn" model for cross-training the folks in your company.
    5. Build a remarketing audience on Facebook through the amount of time a user watches a video. For example, if someone watches 50% of a video, they go into your paid advertising audience.
  1. Create interesting content. What's interesting content? Anything the resonates with your audience! Here are few ideas:
    • Videos that profile your clients and the interesting job assignments you offer.
    • Videos that introduce your recruiters.
    • Pictures that show off your culture and the how you treat candidates.
    • Infographics that explain how to get hired with your firm.
    • Instagram and Facebook stories that celebrate the work your temporaries do.
    • Press releases about your community service.
    • Blog posts that show off the social value of staffing services and how you put people to work.
    • eBooks and guides to getting promoted / getting a raise.
    • Free training courses or videos.
  2. Encourage your employees and candidates to "Tag and Share" content. This way, your content will get shared with their friends…and people who are actively looking for work.
  3. Get proactive about reputation management. In staffing, negative reviews on Google, Indeed and Facebook are inevitable (you can't place or please everyone). To combat negative reviews, implement a proactive feedback collection program with every candidate you interview. Collect testimonials and ask for reviews from the happy ones…and provide a PRIVATE feedback look for the people who aren't so happy. Need help with Reputation Management? We do that! Haley Marketing's Reputation Management services make it easy to get the feedback you need!

Unfortunately, there are no silver bullets to eliminate these challenges. But implementing just a few of these social recruiting ideas will help you attract talent, reduce ghosting and get more of your job orders filled.

Need more big ideas to keep your recruiting funnel full?

  1. Watch: SPECIAL EDITION: Recruiting Strategies 2021. This webinar shares modern strategies to attract talent, reduce no-shows and improve fill rates.
  2. Download: Smart Recruiting Checklist. Get more than 190 ideas to improve your recruiting.
  3. Contact: The social recruiting experts at Haley Marketing! Call 888.696.2900 or visit our recruitment marketing team at www.recruitmentmarketers.com.