Sheryl Thompson, head of brand communications for HROnline, offers five tips you need to consider when recruiting new members of your team
I recently joined a start-up company called HR Online, and one of my first ambitions was to build a marketing team from scratch.
I was lucky enough to have access to an in-house recruitment team in our parent company Peninsula, so I’ve been able to lean on them for their expertise. I wanted to recruit directly, but as a relatively new start-up I knew that we didn’t have a big brand name to help attract people over.
Here are some of the things I’ve learnt along the way:
1. Approach recruitment like you would any other marketing campaign
You wouldn’t dream of kicking off a marketing campaign without first knowing who you’re targeting and planning how you’re going to reach them. The key is to connect with the right people at the right time, engaging them with relevant and creative content.
Recruitment is no different. Research who you want to attract and tailor your job description and advertising towards them. I see so many lazy job ads out there, that haven’t been updated in years, and it’s off-putting to candidates who want to know whether this role is for them.
Make a conscious effort to ensure your roles sound exciting and unique and allow your brand personality to shine through. Marketers want to work for a company where marketing is intrinsic to the business, so do away with the generic statements and get creative.
If you are a small business, highlight your growth ambitions so that marketers can get excited about the possibilities of working for your brand.
2. Get social
Social has played a huge part in our recruitment – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook have all been used and we’ve produced social media friendly adverts for our people to share. Getting the whole team involved in recruitment has been great. It really helps with motivation across the business and means that when people join us they will already be part of the family.
We have also approached people directly on LinkedIn and found it to be a great way of starting conversations with people who weren’t even looking.
Social recruitment is a cost effective way of getting your ads out there, but be aware that you may need to tweak your ad for an online channel. We generally use shorter job descriptions that are more fun, to set us apart from the other companies advertising.
3. Future proof your team
Ensuring you have the right team structure at the beginning of the recruitment process will save you a lot of heartache and cost further down the road. Recruitment is a lengthy process, often involving senior people with not much time, so it is tempting to ‘back fill’ or ‘see how it goes’ with a candidate. Don’t do this! It’s essential to consider your needs as a team now and in the future.
We were really keen to avoid stretching our digital team too far, as more and more of our marketing needs were turning to online. We knew to recruit for the future so it was important to highlight the key roles and areas we wanted to grow in and recruit people into those roles – essentially future proofing our team.
4. Recruit people better than you
When recruiting for a modern day marketer, always look for people who are part scientist, part artist. Their analytical skills are just as important as their creativity, and it’s really important that they have a positive attitude so they’re with you on the journey as your company changes and moves forward.
When recruiting for digital roles we were looking for a range of specialisms. Their roles are really focused, so expertise in the specific disciplines of PPC, SEO, web design and automation were key.
These interviews tend to be more competency based and it’s important that candidates can bring real knowledge and experience to the role. We want people to educate us in an interview – learning should be a two-way experience. As managers, we actively want to bring in people who know more than us.
5. Wow your candidate
It’s easy to think that it’s the candidate who should be impressing you in an interview, and not the other way around. But you should look at it like a first date; both parties need to impress.
HRonline has invested heavily in making its work environment a creative and fun place to be. Like many start-up companies, we’re very ambitious and results driven. But we’re different in the way we want to achieve these goals. We want to inspire our people to do the best possible job through play and by giving them a place to explore new ideas.
Our leadership team is critical in making this happen – it’s not in every office that you get to take part in a weekly penalty shoot-out against the CEO. Great candidates are hard to come by and your office environment and culture can be the deciding factor for them choosing to come and work for you.
Having a great culture has saved us thousands so far in recruitment fees because once people see the office, they’re keen to join the team.
