Change Management and Recruitment Marketing expert Corey Brooks is back in the second installment of the Change Management for Recruitment Marketers series.
In post one, Change Management 101 for Recruitment Marketers, Corey explained what Change Management is and why it’s a valuable framework for Recruitment Marketers to use to influence change in their company’s Talent Acquisition strategy. In this second blog post, Corey dives deeper to explain some of the specific tactics you can put into play at your organization.
—
As members of the Rally Recruitment Marketing community, you’re likely well aware of this: we have been driving a shift towards a Recruitment Marketing-based model in Talent Acquisition and moving away from the more traditional individual “requisition-by-requisition” approach.
This shift can be complex for some leaders, Talent Acquisition professionals, hiring managers and even candidates to fully wrap their heads around. This is where change management comes into play.
The aim with your stakeholders is to help them understand the purpose of your Recruitment Marketing work in their terms and (if applicable) how their behaviours may need to adapt as a result to support this improved approach.
So, what do you need to know? What tactics can you use?
First up, it’s worth noting that Change Management is a really big space. There are a ton of approaches you can use to influence and improve the impact of change. For Recruitment Marketing Change Management, my recommendation is to keep things as simple as possible.
Here are some of the top Change Management tactics for Recruitment Marketers that I’d suggest for managing change in your Talent Acquisition strategy.
Tactic #1: Stakeholder interviews
How to do it:
- Identify who your stakeholder groups are
- Create questions based on what you’re trying to accomplish
- Schedule interviews and determine timelines
Why it works:
- Today, emails and other forms of digital information are flowing 24/7, so engaging people in person or over a dedicated interactive conference call can be more meaningful
- When key stakeholders are suitably informed and engaged in a conversation, your chances of getting the message across so it sticks increases
Stakeholder interviews in action:
If you’re launching a new careers website, interviewing key stakeholders like recruiters and hiring managers will give you great insight into your target candidate personas and give your stakeholders a voice in the new careers site. These stakeholders are a great resource because they’re familiar with the types of information that candidates want to know about your company while they research potential employers and before starting your hiring process.
Tactic #2: Communications tailored to each stakeholder group
How to do it:
- Informed by your stakeholder discussions, you can begin building out your key messages
- Capture everything you can think of that is important to communicate to reinforce the change and its impacts
- Synthesize: get clarity, use brevity and be concise to land on your final set of key messages
- Craft your communications using your key messages creatively tailored to each stakeholder group
Why it works:
- Your communications plan follows up your initial engagement (stakeholder interviews). It gives your stakeholders another chance to ‘get it’ and position themselves toward the change that is coming and grasp what it is they need to do.
Communications planning in action:
Planning a new Recruitment Marketing campaign on social media? Use a communications plan to keep stakeholders informed and up to speed before, during and after the campaign. This can showcase the impact and success of Recruitment Marketing initiatives and can also boost results by leading to more people sharing your campaign with their own networks. In particularly, show recruiters how your plan will help build up the talent pipeline for their hard-to-fill roles.
Tactic #3: Clear, user-friendly training
How to do it:
There are many approaches you can take to conduct training for stakeholders who may have technology or process impacts, here are a few options:
- A webinar
- Animated or interactive videos
- PDF job aids
- Orientation sessions over conference call
Why it works:
- Doing this reinforces all the experiences your stakeholders have had since the initial interviews and ensures that they feel informed and involved
- Once you have stakeholders complete the training, they will feel more accountable to adapt to the change
Clear, user-friendly training in action:
LinkedIn has become a critical platform where many candidates go to research your organization and who they might be working with if they choose to apply. To help your hiring managers and employees update their LinkedIn profiles, you could put together a PDF or webinar training to explain your employer brand messaging, so they can represent your organization in a compelling and authentic way, and help attract candidates.
Tactic #4: Spark discussion between people being impacted
How to do it:
- Share and showcase successes by creating a forum for ongoing discussion and support – this could be as simple as a series of emails or a Slack channel dedicated to the topic
Why it works:
- Keeps the change top of mind and makes people associate it as a positive factor
- By keeping the value of the change visible, it helps the new process or approach to stick better
Sparking discussion in action:
Imagine you’ve adopted a new Recruitment Marketing Platform that gives your recruiters increased tools for candidate communications and engagement. Help members of your Talent Acquisition team to learn the ropes and adopt the new platform by starting a channel or discussion group on whatever system your company uses for internal communications (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Workplace, etc.). Ask prompt questions and use the discussion area frequently to keep the new Recruitment Marketing Platform top of mind and successfully adopted.
The ticket to success for most for these tactics is to make sure that you make a plan for how you’ll administer the tactic and stick with it. These tactics also work best when used together to build a common awareness about the change and how it will require people to think or act differently.
I hope this info helps you to effectively manage change associated with Recruitment Marketing activities at your organization. Next up, in my final installment of the Change Management for Recruitment Marketing series, I’ll make everything a bit more concrete by sharing a specific case study.
