Recruiting top talent: Keys to smart budget investment

With the Great Resignation impacting hiring and retention across the board, your company may be investing more money in talent acquisition right now.

And you definitely don’t want any of those dollars wasted.

Top pain points

Right now, the field is more competitive than ever, and many of your peers are spending more money on talent acquisition, according to a survey by Gem, a company focused on recruiting solutions.

And the top area that they’re investing in is employer branding, as highlighted by 69% of participants.

Although employers are also investing in other elements of the hiring process, including sourcing tools/tech (60%), expanding the hiring team (53%), email tools (21%) and remote hiring tech (12%), branding is the No. 1 expense.

It’s also one of the biggest pain points in the hiring process.

Here’s why: Without strong branding, it’s tough to stand out in the crowd and attract the candidates you need to fill important roles. And many companies are spending money on boosting their brand without having a strategy in place first.

In fact, per the Gem survey, just 25% of recruiting pros said their company has a consistent branding strategy that addresses the value the company offers candidates in return for their hard work.

Even worse: Another quarter of those surveyed said their company’s just making it all up as it goes along.

That should concern you, since it’s essentially throwing any investments made in company branding down the drain.

Make a good impression on new talent

You may be tempted to shelve any efforts toward branding given this info. However, that’s not the best call.

Effective employer branding can make or break your recruiting efforts, said Gem. Often, a candidate’s first impression of your company is the deciding factor if they’re torn between multiple competing offers.

You don’t want to lose out on top talent in Finance or other departments because your branding is lacking and job-seekers don’t know what you have to offer.

Best branding strategy

So how can you make sure you have a branding strategy that’s worth the investment you’re making in recruiting new hires?

Talk to your current people and ask them directly: What made you decide to work for us? What’s the most fulfilling part of your job?

Get them to talk about the benefits of working for you that may not be listed in the ads you’ve posted on online job boards.

This’ll be a good start in developing a brand strategy designed to highlight the best parts of working for your company.

Along with using this info to develop your brand, you’ll also want to huddle with HR and your hiring team to clearly define your recruitment goals.

To directly see whether the dollars you’ve put into recruiting are working to your advantage, create goals that are measurable and actionable with clear numbers behind them, such as:

• See 10% increase in career site visitors in six months
• Get 20% engagement on social media posts in three months, or
• Fill three open positions by the end of Q2