Finding, and retaining, good employees is difficult under the best of circumstances. Factor in record-low unemployment and the lingering effects from the pandemic, and many manufacturing companies are facing labor shortages. Leveraging the power of technology through digital marketing recruitment can help you attract top talent.
Digital recruitment marketing tactics are a great way to give your company a competitive edge. They can help eliminate a lot of the hurdles manufacturers face when hiring.
Recruitment is Costly
According to RecruiterBox, the average cost-per-hire in the manufacturing industry is $5,159. Recruiting and hiring top talent can be a strenuous process for any manufacturing company. There are a number of different variables associated with the cost of hiring including the medium you are using to recruit, as well as the position you are trying to fill. The most common methods of recruiting, and their associated costs, are:
- Job fairs - $1,000-$4,000 (limited reach).
- Job boards - $250 per month per job (best value).
- Television and radio ads - $5,000 - $40,000 (most expensive).
- Staffing agencies - 20% of an employee’s first year salary (2nd most expensive).
- Billboards - $1,200 - $3,000 (least targetive).
- Print ads - $500 - $20,000 (limited reach).
- Social media - free (most cost-efficient).
Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to consistently attract qualified candidates using the above recruitment tactics. It is a constant process of trial and error. This is why the vetting process is important. The average cost of training per new hire costs $3,000, so you really want to find people who are going to stick around for the long haul.
The silver lining? The manufacturing industry boasts higher retention rates than other industries, with employees staying at the same company for an average of about five years. You just need to find the right people — and digital marketing recruitment can help!
Digital Marketing for Recruiters
Gone are the days when employers could simply place a newspaper ad for a job opening and find qualified candidates. In 2000, about one-quarter of all jobseekers used the internet to find work. Today, that figure is closer to 80%. That makes having a strong online presence a necessity for recruiters seeking job applicants.
Chances are, you’re already familiar with many digital marketing tactics. You can incorporate most of these into your recruitment efforts. Instead of trying to reach customers, you’re looking for candidates — otherwise, the concept is the same.
One of the key benefits of using digital marketing for recruitment is the ability to target very specific groups of candidates. At the same time, it enables you to promote your company — especially important given that 75% of candidates research a company’s reputation before applying for a job.
The following digital recruitment marketing strategies will help you find the perfect candidate.
- Create SEO Content. The whole purpose of SEO is to boost your search engine rankings so people can find your website more easily on Google and other search engine platforms. Adding keyword-optimized content to your careers page ensures more candidates will find your job postings, so you’ll cast a wider talent pool net. In addition to broad keyword phrases such as “recruiting companies for manufacturers,” you can target location-specific candidates (“manufacturing jobs in Janesville”) to narrow your search as much as you’d like.
- Market on Social Media. Based on our research, this is the most cost-effective way for manufacturing companies to recruit. Organic social media posts on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn will reach a large audience already familiar with your company. Facebook has groups you can post your job to that are specific to your area. If posting on Twitter or Instagram, you can use the hashtags #hiring, #jobs, or #careers in your post. This ensures your posting will show up whenever someone searches for the hashtagged word on any of these platforms. LinkedIn is another avenue you can take; their steps for posting a job are easy to follow. Don’t stop with job postings; include company news, employee spotlights, articles, career tips, and anything else relevant to your industry. You can also encourage employees to share these posts on their social media feeds. Social media is a great platform for building brand awareness; posts that highlight your culture can tempt job seekers looking for a place to work with similar values as theirs.
- Paid Advertising. Paid campaigns can give you an edge and help you reach even more people than you would organically. There are many opportunities for paid advertising in your digital marketing recruitment efforts. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows you to pay for targeted keywords and is a great return on investment for your job search. You can post your ad to a job board like Indeed or Monster.com and it is listed as a “sponsored” ad; you’ll only pay each time the ad is read, and because you’re using keywords that are relevant to your job description, you’re much more likely to reach those candidates who are most qualified. Geofencing is another good strategy. You can establish a virtual location-based boundary and deliver ads to users within the designated area. Geofencing is powerful because it can target specific demographics, categories, and locations. You can even take things a step further with a competitor geofencing ad campaign. Instead of placing a “fence” around your company, you place it around your competitors. This allows you to reach candidates who are looking at jobs advertised by your competitors, and sends them your way.
- Use Video. The power of video is undeniable; sharing behind-the-scenes footage of your company, including testimonials from current employees, is a great way to attract the attention of potential candidates. Videos help personalize an organization and make it easier for others to envision working there. Additionally, if your current interview process is limited to phone screenings and in-person interviews, consider offering options for virtual interviews, as well. Today’s job hunters are just as likely to interview via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet. If nothing else, the pandemic ushered in a new era of video calls and meetings, and nowadays, they’re almost expected.
- Invest in Hiring Software. Automating the process can save you time and money, especially when you have a lot of positions to fill. There is a wide variety of hiring software available; applications like Workable offer and implement things you might not have ever thought of before and take care of things that you otherwise would have had to spend a considerable amount of time on. Given the cost of both turnover and hiring, an investment in software like this will help you make the best hiring decisions and ultimately save your manufacturing company both time and money.
- Utilize Digital Job Boards. Digital job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter are a popular way for both job seekers and manufacturing companies to find each other. On these platforms, you don’t have to wait for a candidate to come to you — you can proactively search for candidates who you would like to interview. Many people who already have jobs keep their resumes on job boards, leaving the door open to greener pastures. It usually doesn’t take more than a month to find a suitable number of candidates you’d like to interview, making job boards one of the most cost-efficient recruiting methods — averaging $250 per job posting per month. If you’re truly looking to speed up your hiring process or need to hire for multiple positions fast, all job boards offer advertising solutions that will place your job posting(s) at the top of the list when job seekers are conducting a search.
Why Digital Recruitment is More Effective
We have thus far focused on digital marketing strategies to improve your recruitment and retention. It’s what we do and what we know. You may feel that traditional mediums like billboards, commercials, or print are more within your wheelhouse or align better with your company’s brand if you’re not that active online. You may have had success with these mediums in the past and have a great relationship with your local TV or radio station. The only problem with this traditional advertising approach is that you’re paying for views that don’t resonate with your message.
Take a billboard, for example. What percentage of people driving by are actively looking for a manufacturing job? In our experience, a $5,000 ad spend can go a lot further digitally than it can on something like print. When you recruit digitally, it is also a lot easier to measure who is coming to your site and where they are coming from. Having access to metrics like these enables you to double down on what’s working and cut out what isn’t.
For instance, let’s say you’re posting to job boards and social media and find that far more candidates are coming to your site from social than they are from the job board. If that is the case, you’ll probably want to focus your efforts on social or even look into advertising there.
Having said that, we don’t want to deter you from what has worked in the past, but would like to at least encourage you to try something new to see if it can increase the speed, efficiency, and quality of your hiring process.
Adopt a Digital Focus for Success
No matter what way you look at it, hiring is expensive because of the amount of time it takes to recruit and interview qualified candidates. This is why retention is so important. The longer employees stay at your company, the less you will have to worry about hiring. When you do have to hire, it is our hope that you can utilize digital marketing resources to make your recruitment efforts as effective as possible. The landscape in the manufacturing industry is changing and employees now have to be more skilled to operate machinery utilizing newer technologies. In the same way, the recruitment process has changed as well, and you should be able to mirror that change in your recruitment efforts by adopting a digital focus.
If you feel your digital efforts can use a boost, feel free to contact us. We understand that navigating the digital landscape in the manufacturing industry can be a tricky process and that no two companies are alike. The reality is that you may be leaving money on the table or losing out to your competition if your website and marketing are not on the cutting edge — and this is especially true when it comes to hiring.