Symphony Talent Blog

Are You Allergic to Buzzwords? Too Bad: Omnichannel is Here to Stay

Posted by Shannon Seery

Marketing communication is changing and changing fast, moving away from the mass marketing approach of yore. Not surprisingly, marketing has joined the shift toward personalized, one-on-one communication across the spectrum of available channels and devices used by seekers. Omnichannel recruitment marketing is the now, and it’s important that you get on board. Candidates don’t just want a seamless omnichannel experience, they expect it. And employers need to embrace the approach in order to attract and retain quality talent.

So, what makes omnichannel recruitment marketing more important than ever? CNN reported that, for the first time in 20-plus years, there’s a worker shortage. Yep, there are more job openings (67 million as of April 2018) than people looking to fill them. That puts the ratio of unemployed workers to available below one, according to the June 5, 2018, report from the Labor Department.

Redefining how brands and talent connect | symphonytalent.com Low as it may be, unemployed workers are not necessarily the ones filling the job gap. The reasons are considerably more complex than low numbers suggest, since filling those jobs with quality hires proves more challenging than you’d expect. So, what’s going on?

• Open jobs and those seeking them may be in different locales. • Job-seekers may not possess employer-required skills. • And while that unemployment number seems ultra-low, it fails to reveal some key details. • Instead hiring unemployed workers to fill positions, employers often find themselves hiring from competitors. • Sidelined workers may be working part-time but are still looking for full-time work. • Unemployed, potential candidates may find themselves waiting for better offers since growth remains low.

Enter the omnichannel approach to recruitment marketing.

Social platforms like LinkedIn aren’t really enough to attract the right talent anymore — at least not in and of themselves. So, there has to be a better way, right? Employers can — and should — take a targeted approach to hiring. There is, after all, a reason this “buzzword” — omnichannel — is on the rise.

Think of job seekers like you would consumers — and savvy ones at that. These connected candidates control where and when they engage with an employer’s brand, and they want — make that expect — a seamless, personalized experience, no matter the channel or device they use. Job seekers want to get a sense of company culture, too, so that integration provides a key opportunity to enlist consistent employer branding — the sort that tells a digital story about who and what you are. More to the point, it can suggest why a prospective candidate would feel they’re aligned.

While multichannel recruitment marketing relied on things like job boards, social media platforms and employer websites to disperse information, omnichannel recruitment marketing is — for all intents and purposes —its more strategic, sophisticated cousin. It optimizes multiple recruiting channels, but does so interconnectedly, with different channels integrated with one another. For this reason, employers have the ability to meet candidates where they’re at, using tactics such as social media outreach to interact with viable prospects.

Here’s an example of how it works. Picture a Facebook job promising a personal, hands-on approach to recruiting and employee development. When the prospective candidate clicks on it, they’re taken to the employer’s site, where a chat encourages them to directly interact with a recruiter. That interaction was, in fact, personal since they connected with someone at the company. It also lead to action — chatting with a recruiter online.

Redefining how brands and talent connect | symphonytalent.com What makes omnichannel recruitment marketing so useful is it equips employers with an understanding of who candidates are. Employers can personalize their strategic messaging and respond to prospective candidates’ habits. They can create “behavior targets” and interact in a way that elicits a response. In a perfect world, that “response” then leaves the candidate engaged and enthused about working for the company.

That’s a win-win for employers and job-seekers, saving time, money and frustration overall. And it certainly beats the broad-swath approach that dominated talent acquisition back in the day. And because omnichannel recruitment marketing is here to stay, it’s necessary to harness its power to provide a seamless, time-saving and personalized candidate experience that will get you the right candidates when you need it most.

Fortunately, Symphony Talent’s solutions redefine how employers and candidates connect, combining technology, creative and media optimization to deliver a personalized experience that does just that. Learn more about us here, and subscribe to our blog to stay up on what’s timely and #NowTrending.

Listen to our on-demand webinar 3 Ways to Win Quality Talent to learn how to use personalization to drive exceptional candidate and employee experience.

Redefining how brands and talent connect | symphonytalent.com