As candidate behavior changes, recruitment marketing is rising to the forefront

The United States is missing 1.7 million Americans from the workforce compared to February 2020, according to the nation’s Chamber of Commerce. As competition for talent intensifies, recruitment marketing—which likens candidate behavior to consumer behavior—has become a modern option for reaching job seekers.

During isolved’s recent Virtual Connect, Heidi Barnett, CEO of hiring software firm ApplicantPro, and Brian Atwood, ApplicantPro’s chief marketing officer, told the audience that an impactful recruitment marketing strategy blends brand awareness with data-driven outreach.

With job openings outpacing available workers and workforce participation down to 62% (below pre-pandemic levels), Barnett stresses that—in some sectors—there’s a massive labor shortage. “Because it’s so crowded, you need to almost shout to get noticed,” she explains.

Barnett and Atwood say that for today’s job seekers, an organization’s brand is a crucial factor in their decision-making—this includes buying decisions and application decisions. “Seventy-five percent of job seekers consider the employer brand as a factor before applying,” says Atwood. The ApplicantPro team says HR teams can build brand awareness by auditing the current brand perception, showcasing awards, sharing employee stories and leveraging social media to reach candidates directly and authentically.

According to Barnett, data-driven strategies allow HR teams to make informed decisions that enhance the hiring process from application to onboarding. She says recruitment marketing funnels, which guide candidates through stages from initial awareness to hiring, rely on applicant and business data for both short-term and long-term improvements.

Candidates behave like buyers

Many companies run an application process that feels outdated and frustrating, and Neil Costa, founder and CEO of global recruitment marketing agency HireClix, says this is a huge problem. “Career sites act as the welcome mat to your potential employees, and many of them are deplorable,” he says. Instead of relying on the career site, Costa suggests a shift toward an e-commerce-inspired recruitment experience to attract and engage job seekers.

HR leaders know they need more than a career site, according to Costa. “When speaking at recent HR Executive events, I have asked the audience whether they were proud of their career sites, and 100% of the time, only a handful of people raise their hand to say yes,” he says.

However, Costa says that HR leaders don’t have to be stuck with this low level of satisfaction. He says that borrowing these features from the user experience of e-commerce sites can yield significant benefits:

First impressions matter

Costa says consumers have come to expect a certain level of online service because of the progress made in e-commerce in recent years. On top of that, people use their mobile devices to job search just as much or more than they use their computers. This means, at minimum, the application process needs to be quick and mobile-friendly.

Simplified application processes

According to a June 2024 HireClix Candidate Experience Survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 and above, long job applications deter 35% of job seekers. Costa says quick-apply options inspired by e-commerce platforms make job applications fast and straightforward for hesitant candidates. “There is a chance to leverage first mover advantage in today’s market given how many organizations have bad creative and old technology at the core of their candidate experience,” according to Costa.

Automated communication and engagement

Costa says that a better candidate experience and an amazing employer brand may attract an overabundance of candidates. But he says this isn’t the worst problem: “I’d take these risks over others all day long, but they do offer up some additional challenges.”

One of these is a lack of communication with applicants. Candidates, like shoppers, appreciate frequent updates, says Costa. HR leaders must consider having a strong communication cadence in place because being unresponsive to applicants can directly impact the perception of an employer.

Give a realistic view of open roles

Use assets that help candidates self-assess their fit for the role, suggests Costa, such as educational content or videos that realistically portray the job. “Maybe it sounds better than it is or maybe they want to get in the company at all costs but don’t know enough about the reality,” he says. Explanatory resources can clarify what the job is truly like, address misconceptions and manage expectations.

Don’t bet on gamification

While gamification was once popular, Costa sees it as largely outdated. “Job seekers get their gaming elsewhere,” he says. Instead, Costa advocates for a clear and engaging application experience with unmistakable calls to action. “Simple and clear wins the day since captivating someone’s attention is challenging in today’s world,” he says.

Avoid these recruiting pitfalls

As application processes become easier, maintaining high-quality candidate screening is crucial. Costa notes a few possible pitfalls here. As companies have started using AI for screening purposes, explainability is important. HR leaders must be aware of how AI is making employment-related decisions to avoid perpetuating bias of any sort in this process.

Costa also advises companies to use pre-screening questions thoughtfully to avoid filtering out strong candidates inadvertently. Additionally, role-specific screening is essential. “Jobs that require licenses, like healthcare, benefit from robust pre-screening, but in high-demand areas, such as software engineering, it might make sense to reduce screening.”

Costa warns that many companies are not fully addressing today’s competitive labor dynamics. “The current labor market is like no other that we have experienced, and too many organizations are trying to make do with things they have always done,” he says.

The CEO predicts that changes in job seeker behavior, automation, employer branding and skills-based hiring will “swamp” organizations that don’t adapt.

His advice is urgent. Given the “glacial pace of change and innovation” in some organizations, he expects that unfilled key positions may cause these companies to fall behind the best players in their industries. “By the time this happens to your organization, it will be too late to make the changes needed to be competitive,” says Costa. “There are too many moving parts to handle all at once so you’ve got to start adapting now.”