Keep Your Recruitment Techniques Up To Pace With Technology Today

I went shopping with my daughter last night. True to form, she didn't trust my opinion of which tie to buy her boyfriend. Instead, she snapped a photo of the ties with her phone, sent it to her best friend and got a quick text back: go with the yellow and blue one (exactly what I said).

Instant validation.

Text messaging, IM, photo sharing, social networks, blogs, vlogs, wikis, etc. (the list is long) have dramatically changed not only the way we communicate but what we expect from our communications. Technology has given us a way to interact with a global community at the click of a button or the beep of a mobile text. So how do we evolve recruitment and retention methods to keep pace with technology?

With over 150 million US adults plugged in and online today, we have a tremendous opportunity to communicate employment messages if we look beyond the obvious places where job seekers congregate. Don't get me wrong: job boards, niche sites, etc. are a fundamental part of any recruiting strategy. But supplement them with other relevant channels where your audience lives online and you have a powerful combination. Where is your target audience? Those who are employed use the Internet to search, shop, play games, share pictures, read news and share their thoughts...instantly. They chat online; they ask questions and get honest answers from networks they trust. More exposure to your true employment promise gets them talking about your organization and what it's like to work there.

Diversification doesn't need to be expensive - it's just a shift in how you spend your recruiting budget. The ability to target specific groups plus the increase in pay-per-click models has made many new media outlets more affordable, with fewer wasted impressions. Employers have a far better opportunity to have their message read, understood, passed along, and acted on than ever before. From tracking and analyzing our clients' media placements, we've seen huge spikes in traffic when employers combine job postings with strategic media buys. The data is compelling — every day more information is shared, new online communities are formed, and people are talking!

Now if I could just get my daughter to trust my opinion.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me a lori.charest@tmp.com.

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