New Year’s Resolution: 4 Ways to Exceed Your 2022 Talent Acquisition Goal

At this point in the year, chances are you’ve got all your 2022 New Year’s resolutions written down. There’s an even bigger chance that at least one of those goals is to increase your efforts to acquire valuable talent.

You’re not alone. Most experts are predicting a drastic increase in open positions and recruitment marketing especially in the early part of 2022, looking to fill the record number of open positions that ended the year.

It’s time to turn your talent acquisition New Year’s resolution into a realistic goal as we move into 2022. In a competitive environment, keeping up means getting creative. Here are four ways to reach and exceed your talent acquisition goal in 2022 and beyond.

1. Spread the word about your job openings

Let’s start with the basics. If you have open positions that potential applicants don’t know about, do they even exist? The answer might technically be yes, but a simple truth remains: promoting your open positions is at least as important, if not more important, than the job descriptions themselves.

Here are a few important ways can help you spread the word about those open positions and attract potential applicants:

• Optimize your job descriptions for search engines. That means finding and optimizing your text for keywords your candidates might look for.
• Promote your job openings on social media. Especially channels like LinkedIn can be beneficial, but others, like Twitter, might also make sense depending on your target audience demographics and online preferences.
• Link to your open positions in email signatures. A simple “our company is hiring,” especially in signatures of teams working with external stakeholders, can go a long way toward generating attention.
• Post your job descriptions on relevant job boards. Don’t forget about secondary options, like LinkedIn, which will then suggest open positions to relevant candidates.
• Consider targeted email campaigns. Especially if you frequently hire for many positions, an email campaign to past candidates to promote your current openings can re-generate relevant interest.

One overarching approach, regardless of the individual channels, is treating your recruitment and talent acquisition efforts as a marketing strategy. A single goal and messaging platform can ensure consistency and maximize your ability to get those open positions in front of the most relevant audience at the most relevant times.

2. Boost your employer reputation and brand through testimonials

Employer branding and recruitment marketing have become increasingly linked. Put simply, your reputation as a company and employer can make all the difference when it comes to attracting quality applicants and getting those applicants to choose you over other recruiters. That importance only grows as the labor market becomes more competitive.

Just how you can build your employer brand, of course, is a different question. It takes time and effort—and, most importantly, it requires someone other than you to tell prospects how great you are.

This is where third-party proof enters the equation. Candidates will be much more likely to believe in your positive reputation if current employees, and clients you work with, attest to it. According to LinkedIn, candidates trust the company’s employees three times more than the company itself to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there. That’s probably why 41% of candidates want to see employee testimonials before even considering an application.

The more reputable your company, the higher the demand to work at your organization will be. In addition to employee testimonials, reviews and information from your clients can also play a role in building that reputation. As your applicants see the successes your company contributes to, they’ll more likely want to contribute to those successes.

Finally, testimonials create a perfect content opportunity for all the channels we’ve discussed above. They allow you to diversify your social media posts, creating more opportunities for engagement to attract talent and help them learn about you.

3. Be honest about your perks and benefits

HR trends over the years have shown that, increasingly, benefits and non-salary perks matter more and more for employees. They show how much a company values its employees, creating tangible evidence for highly sought-after employer traits like job satisfaction and work-life balance.

Showcase your benefits, and you’ll show just how much your organizational culture respects its employees as important contributors, not just assets or interchangeable human resources. The respect you generate will result in more interested candidates who will work hard to become a part of that culture.

At the same time, it’s crucial to be honest and specific about your benefits. Promising big things, like unlimited vacation time, tends to gather plenty of attention. But that same benefit matters little if, in reality, your organizational culture discourages any employees from taking significant time off. And here’s the thing: thanks to third-party sites like Glassdoor, chances are that your candidates will learn the truth about your company sooner rather than later.

That type of dissonance almost inevitably leads to a problem in your recruitment funnel. You might get the initial attention you need, but chances are those candidates will not remain interested once they do their research about your organizational culture.

So, while it’s important to be specific about your benefits in your job description and anywhere else you promote open positions, it’s also vital to be honest. List the benefits and perks that actually apply to this position. Given the increasing importance of benefits, it’s tempting to oversell what you have. Honesty, though, will pay off much more significantly in the long run.

One way to test whether you are honestly describing your benefits is to ask your current employees what they would highlight. Focus on the areas they point out, and your chances of creating an internally consistent and convincing job posting increase significantly. As a bonus, you can also use some of your employees’ feedback as potential testimonials down the road.

4. Create an inside look into your company

Finally, it’s time to get immersive. Most organizations looking to hire the same candidates as you will likely follow at least some of the above best practices. To help your employer brand stand apart from that competition, consider adding an inside look into what exactly the job will be like.

According to an internal survey by Concept3D in partnership with a third party, 54.5% of respondents reported that searching for the office location on Google maps was their number one research preference before applying for a position at a new company. The same survey also unearthed that 87.5% of respondents reported that “improved visibility and knowledge about a company’s office location” would “increase the likelihood of considering and applying for a job.”

In other words, your potential employees want to know where you are, and what it’s like to work for you. Words can only do so much in satisfying that need; you’ll need to get specific and consider building more engaging experiences.

At its simplest, that means adding pictures and potentially videos to your careers page and individual job descriptions. It also helps to optimize your Google Business Profile so that, when that step happens, your presence is curated to maximize relevant information for prospective job applicants.

However, you can also get more in-depth in the process. For instance, consider digital tools that offer 360-degree views of your workspace, immersing applicants into your organization and allowing them to get an insider’s peek. You can even create more comprehensive job previews that integrate the job descriptions for open positions, testimonials, and other supporting content.

Build the momentum behind your 2022 talent acquisition New Year’s resolutions

Now is the time to get started. A New Year’s resolution is an honorable endeavor, but following it through with a specific plan is just as important. Especially for hiring managers looking to reach and exceed their talent acquisition goal in 2022, that goal has to include a thoughtful and actionable strategy to build and keep momentum until all open positions are successfully filled.

Getting to that point can take time. With the right pointers, though, you’re well on your way. That includes building a tactical recruitment marketing plan, integrating testimonials from both clients and employees, and being both specific and honest about your organizational perks and benefits.

The final step, then, is creating an immersive inside look into your company. It allows you to engage more of your applicants’ senses, building an environment that sets you apart from other organizations looking to hire the same candidates. You can then use those same tools to enhance your job description and talent acquisition efforts on any channels you use to promote them.

Ready to get started? Let’s talk. Through Concept3D’s virtual recruitment tools, you can build the momentum you need to successfully reach your 2022 talent acquisition New Year’s resolutions. Contact us today to learn about our platform and start the conversation.

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