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PREPRINTED FROM THE ELECTRONIC RECRUITING DAILY

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Developing an Internet Recruiting Strategy - Marketing 101

By Karen Osofsky

Thursday, August 19, 1999

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Determining how to spend your recruitment advertising

dollars is not unlike what a marketing manager for a

consumer products company like Kraft or S. C. Johnson

does in developing their marketing plans.

In recruiting, your product is your company and your

consumer is your potential candidate. Your role is to

develop the ideal "marketing plan" (recruitment plan)

to attract the "consumer" (potential candidates) to

consider purchasing (being employed by) your "product"

(company).

STEP 1:

Define your product attributes, features.

Your product attributes and features are those things

that differentiate you from your competition (broadly

defined as any company who is seeking to hire candidates

with similar skill sets).

Attributes can be defined as a general description of your

company, the type of product or service it provides, the

number of employees, location, revenue -- all the basic

information about your company. The product features are

things like casual work environment, great compensation

and benefits plans, cutting edge technology, free

training, flexible hours, challenging work etc... Taken

together the product attributes and features define many

of the reasons why a candidate would be attracted to your

company.

 

STEP 2:

Define your target market.

Who are your potential employees? This will be different

for each job just as the target market for Kraft American

Cheese slices might be different than the target market for

Kraft Shredded Mozzarella and different than the target

market for Kraft Fat Free Salad Dressings.

Try to develop a description of the types of people that

would make strong potential employees. What are their

skills? What types of jobs might they have now? What type

of work experiences do they have? Who could be their

current employers? What colleges and universities did

they attend?

 

STEP 3:

Marketing Research.

Now that you have defined who your target "consumer" is,

you need to find out where they work and play on the

Internet.

* What type of career sites do they visit?

* What associations do they belong to?

* What online periodicals do they read?

* What discussion groups are they in?

* Are you targeting diverse ethnic and racial groups?

Where might they be on the Internet?

This can be achieved without having a marketing research

budget. If your current employees are a reflection of what

you want in your future employees, your research population

is just an e-mail away. Develop an employee survey asking

them questions related to where they spend their time on

the Internet both for work and play purposes. To achieve

strong survey results communicate the following to the

employees:

* Tell them the exact purpose of the survey

* Make the survey confidential

* Develop the survey such that it has specific sections

related to areas on the Internet. For instance you can

have a section on favorite search engines, career sites,

association sites, trade journal sites, newsgroups,

humor sites, general interest sites, financial sites,

product purchasing sites etc....

The research results will play a significant role in how

you develop your plan.

For example - your results may indicate that a

significantly high percentage of your employees use

Amazon.com on a regular basis. It's expensive, but part

of your plan could include a banner on the Amazon.com site.

Or you may find that employees use their college alumni

sites on a regular basis. Then you may consider placing

ads and banners on selected college alumni sites.

 

STEP 4:

Develop your Unique Selling Proposition.

Match up the specific company features and attributes that

would be attractive to your target market and develop your

Unique Selling Proposition. Your unique selling

proposition is what you would want to tell a potential

candidate about your company and your positions that will

make them interested in learning more. What would you say

to different types of candidates? If you were allotted

just one or two sentences to persuade a potential candidate

to submit a resume or personal profile, what would that be?

 

STEP 5

Outline your marketing Plan:

Combine all the information from steps 1-4 and develop

a plan that provides the broadest reach within your

allocated budget. This will allow you to achieve the

visibility that you need to spread your message.

 

STEP 6

Message Communication.

With all of the above pieces in place you can now develop

a clear, concise and consistent message about your company.

All of your Internet advertisements, whether they are

simple banners with just a few words or complete job

postings with over 500 words, should all communicate the

unique features of your company. Describing the job

requirements is not enough. You need to focus on the

key features that will attract a potential candidate to

take the next step.

Different ads may highlight different company features

depending on where they are placed and the audience.

For example your company may have the following features:

Cutting edge technology, flexible work environment, high

bonus potential, and a strong training program. Postings

in a technical trade journal may put more emphasis on

cutting edge technology and training than on the potential

financial rewards. An ad placed in a Women in Technology

journal may highlight the flexible work environment rather

than the training opportunities.

Despite what each individual ad focuses on, they all must

communicate the same essential message ---- what it will be

like to work at your company.

 

In a nutshell, recruiting is marketing. All recruiters

should be required to take at least one marketing class.

If your company has a "corporate university" as many do

today, encourage them include recruiters in the marketing

courses. The results will be amazing.

____________________________________________________________

Karen Osofsky, karen.o@tiburongroup.com, is a principal

with the Tiburon Group Inc. www.tiburongroup.com . Tiburon

Group provides Internet Recruitment solutions to Fortune

1000 companies, consulting firms, and start-up organizations.

They provide a broad range of recruitment consulting,

sourcing and screening services. Tiburon Group manages the

recruiting resource site www.RecruiterResources.com and is

a Certified AIRS Solutions Partner.

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