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Guest Blog by Kaia Vincent, Director, Brevity Marketing

At the beginning of the financial year, the Guardian reported that Jes Staley, Chief Executive at Barclays, forecast the UK economy would see the biggest boom since 1948. Growth undoubtedly means an increase in job opportunities as companies seek to expand to either meet demand and/or take advantage of profit potential.

But there is a challenge for some industries – a skills shortage! From engineering, IT and marketing, the UK government is aiming to counter this issue by offering free training to anyone over 19 years old via their Lifetime Skills Guarantee. Free training is such a positive step forward, but it doesn’t solve the problem in the short-term – so it’s still up to businesses to attract the best talent from a small pool.

Why are businesses successful?

Here at Brevity Marketing, we’re great believers in businesses being or becoming more successful, because they attract people who like what they do and share common values – that includes customers and employees.

Of course, your business needs a solid proposition – whether that’s developing products or supplying services, but the overall success will be down to other factors too, including the people that work there.

If you attract the ‘wrong tribe’ the success of your business may be hindered.  You’ll know if your people aren’t the right fit because you’ll be experiencing problems like low productivity, high sickness levels and staff-turnaround and at the extreme tribunal cases.

So how do you attract the best talent and the right ‘tribe’ to work at your business?

Your recruitment process should comprise the following groups:

• HR Manager/department – or someone who oversees recruitment at your business
• Recruitment company
• Marketing team

The first two are obvious.  HR is a busy environment so establishing a strong relationship with a local and trusted recruitment consultant is critical. But where does marketing fit in?

Director of Brevity Marketing, Kaia Vincent explains:

“You spend a lot of your life at work – an average of around 1/3 across your lifespan.  That’s a lot of time if you’re doing something you don’t enjoy OR you’re working within an environment where you don’t feel like you fit in.

“Candidates do their homework on your business and your team.  From checking out your website and social media to performing wider internet searches and reviewing directories such as Glassdoor.  Before they even get to interview stage – you’ve been assessed, and assumptions made. So, you need to ensure the way you are presenting yourself grabs their attention in a positive way.

Pre-interview marketing techniques

The first port of call for most candidates will be your website.  They’ll be looking for information about you as a business as well as what it’s like to work at your company, what type of people already work there and the benefits available to employees – so you can already see that a job description simply isn’t enough. Content should be permanent fixture on your website – because, sharing the wise words of Maxine Hart, Director, at Wote Street People – you should always be recruiting if you want to find the best people.

As a minimum Brevity suggests:

• Join us page – Should provide a flavour of what it’s like to work at your business. From presenting your authentic values (that you live and breathe) through to the benefits that candidates receive working at your business.  This may include flexible working weeks, training, wellbeing programmes or the opportunity for progression.  Ideally include photographs of your business in action – perhaps even a video.  The candidate should move on from this page thinking “I’d really like to work there – I want to know more.”
• Day in the life pages – If you employ a workforce that perform similar roles such as in manufacturing, security and customer service, spending time developing real-life stories about members of staff will best highlight what new recruits might expect doing this role at your company. Again, Day in the Life videos can really set the scene and help a candidate decide whether they join you or your competitor.
• Job description pages – Write the content in the same manner as you’d approach attracting a customer. What I mean by this is don’t make it all about you and what your business wants from the candidate.  Of course, talk about the role but ensure you show why working with you is the best choice.  Our advice would be to create a persona of your ideal candidate. At a basic level this can include: personality traits, what will be most important to the candidate when looking to move jobs and how you should and shouldn’t communicate with them.

The marketing doesn’t stop there! Once you’ve done all the hard work to attract the candidate to attend an interview, don’t let the side down when they visit your offices.  Ensure that your business environment reflects the culture you’ve presented online.

If you present yourself online as being innovative and cutting edge a candidate can’t be met with décor from the 1990s.  There needs to be brand consistency.

Think wider than purely the job description and this will better position your business to get noticed by candidates that will best suit your business and who have the top talent.

Kaia Vincent is the Director of Brevity Marketing, a marketing agency with teams in Basingstoke and Brighton. Established for more than a decade, the team delivers effective strategic and tactical marketing for SMEs across the South of England. 75% of their customers have used their services monthly for 3+ years. 80% of their current client base won via a referral.

Boasting a competent and qualified marketing team they have specialist skills in many genres of marketing including: values, personas, customer journey, content writing, SEO, PR, social media, CRM and marketing automation.  Working for a set number of hours per month Brevity offers a complete marketing service for less than the cost of hiring a junior marketing executive.

Talk to Kaia if you would like to find out more about how to use effective marketing within your recruitment process. kaia@brevity.marketing  www.brevity.marketing