We just had our biggest and best RallyFwd Virtual Conference, and we’re thankful for all the positive feedback from the Rally Recruitment Marketing community! 99% of attendees surveyed would recommend the event to a colleague!
At RallyFwd, we heard 11 practitioners share their expert insight on Talent Engagement strategies across social media, employer branding, text recruiting, recruitment events, careers sites, micro talent networks, and much more. If you missed any of the sessions, you can access the full RallyFwd Virtual Conference on demand to watch at your convenience. Each video presentation is 20-30 minutes long and is packed with actionable strategies to help you upgrade your skills as a practitioner and gain a recruiting advantage.
Below we share the top takeaways from each RallyFwd speaker to help you make Talent Engagement a recruiting advantage.
1. Megan Conley – The New Language of Engagement
People — including candidates — are suffering from “information fatigue.” An overload of content through emails, texts, social posts and videos has created so much noise that 42% of people say they aren’t sure which brands or companies to trust anymore, according to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer Report. This has resulted in the need for a new “language” of engagement so that businesses can break through that noise to reach candidates to build trusting and lasting relationships with them.
There are many tools that employers can use to communicate this new language. Messaging apps and chatbots, live storytelling, video, user-generated content and social engagement are all key ways to interact with candidates and build trust through engagement.
Key takeaway: Go to where your candidates already are! Convincing them to come to you won’t get you optimal results. Craft messaging that speaks directly to candidates on their preferred channels.
Watch Megan’s RallyFwd session on demand here!
Megan Conley shared that messaging apps and chatbots, live storytelling, video, user-generated content and social engagement are all key ways to interact with candidates and build trust through engagement.
2. Brandon Linn – Engaging Your Company to Coauthor Your Talent Brand
You can tell candidates all about your company, teams, culture and experience, but if you’re not showing them, your message will likely fall flat. Putting your current employees front and center to showcase their stories — in other words, engaging them as part of your efforts — is what helps boost talent engagement.
Your culture in action is a culture that humanizes your employer brand and entices candidates to want to join your team. If you want to better engage and connect with candidates, start by engaging your employees and getting them on board with sharing their stories and showing candidates their experiences.
Key takeaway: Find the spark! To bring your employee stories to life and draw out those valuable engagement factors, ask the question “What was the spark or ‘Aha!’ moment when you knew you had made the right decision joining the company?”
Click here to watch Brandon’s RallyFwd session on demand!
3. Jill Shabelman – Designing a Strategy for Micro Talent Networks
Did you know that only 5% of Fortune 500 companies send content other than job postings to candidates? That’s according to the Smashfly Recruitment Marketing Benchmarks Report. If we’re talking about engagement, sending only details about open roles isn’t going to cut it. Relevant content centered around certain job areas can create stronger connections with job seekers and build trust.
So how can businesses deliver this relevant content to drive engagement? Micro Talent Networks! Micro Talent Networks drill down a level deeper from more general Talent Networks to attract candidates within a specific skill set and provide them with content that is relevant to their interests.
Key takeaway: Pinpoint your needed skills! To build Micro Talent Networks, first identify the candidate skill sets and background that your company needs. From there, create an engagement model that reaches candidates in certain areas on their preferred channels and through their preferred content formats.
Check out Jill’s RallyFwd session on demand by clicking here!
A micro talent network is a community specifically created for candidates with certain skill sets or interests. Jill Shabelman uses micro talent networks to create an engagement model that is hyper-relevant to candidates in certain areas on their preferred channels and through their preferred content formats.
4. Gretchen Pfeifer – Turning Talent Engagement into a Recruiting Advantage
With the internet drastically changing the way that candidates look and apply for jobs, reaching top talent quickly is crucial for companies today. On top of that, making it easy for candidates to interact with your company is what keeps them engaged and interested in applying for open positions.
Technology tools like text recruiting and automation can encourage talent to stay in contact with your company and help them find an easy way to apply for jobs they are interested in. Additionally, despite reducing human touchpoints, technology can be customized to create personalized interactions with candidates.
Key takeaway: It’s all about automation! Give candidates the ability to move forward in the application process without needing to interact with a recruiter first.
Watch Gretchen’s full RallyFwd session on demand here!
5. Jenna Sandker – The Two Secrets to Talent Engagement in a Competitive Market
Before candidates even apply for a job with your company, they likely have a range of questions. For instance: What is the culture like? What backgrounds and skill sets do employees have? What is the day-to-day life like? While your careers page can be a valuable resource for finding this information, there’s another tool you can use to give candidates the details they are looking for.
In-person recruiting events are a great way to showcase your culture to candidates. This approach also gives them a way to find out if they truly want to join the company before they’ve even applied.
Key takeaway: Access to your company results in engagement! Events give candidates a way to meet potential future managers, see the work environment and begin to view your company as a trusted place to work.
Click here to watch Jenna’s full RallyFwd session!
6. Aaron Kraljev – Empowering Recruiters to Become Career Advisors
Your recruiting team may be effective at engaging with candidates, but there’s a way to boost those connections even more. Content is your best friend if you want to successfully improve talent engagement. With the right content, every person on your team can be equipped with the tools needed to develop better connections with candidates.
Creating a content library that includes valuable insight and advice for candidates can take your engagement to the next level. Consolidate your content into one central place so that team members can easily direct job seekers to relevant information. Encourage everyone on your team to leverage that content when communicating with candidates to help develop trustworthy relationships.
Key takeaway: Vary up your content! Blogs are great for providing detailed information that candidates want, but videos, infographics and even podcasts can up the engagement factor even more.
Watch Aaron’s full RallyFwd session by clicking here!
Aaron Kraljev says a fully engaged team with effective content can be as effective as any sourcing tool, job board or media strategy. With the right content, every person on a team can be equipped with the tools needed to develop better connections with candidates.
7. Katrina Fowler – The Right and Wrong Approach to Engaging Diverse Talent
Diversity and inclusion in recruiting is vitally important for companies today, as a diverse workforce is a strong and capable workforce. But some businesses run into roadblocks when recruiting diverse talent. With the right approach and strategies, you can ensure diversity and inclusion remains a core part of your recruiting work.
The first thing to remember is to gather as much data as you can to inform your objectives. Next, settle in for the long-haul — recruiting diverse talent is a journey, not a race. Lastly, make sure you have partners on board, including internal and external teams, to help you develop a comprehensive approach.
Key takeaway: Participate in the communities that you want to attract! This not only puts your company name in front of the right candidates, but it gives you insight into their questions and concerns that you can begin to address in your recruiting efforts.
Check out Katrina’s RallyFwd session on demand by clicking here!
8. Frankie Buonocore – Talent Engagement Blueprint for Small Business
For small businesses, focusing on talent engagement might just seem like another thing to add to the recruiting to-do list. But it’s a crucial element of any recruitment strategy — especially for smaller companies. Better engagement with candidates allows you to stand out from the competition and increase your offer acceptance rates.
As a smaller organization, it’s easier to share your recruiting goals with your entire team and get input from every facet of the business. Make sure you’re getting everyone on board with your engagement strategy, and revise as needed. Also, include consistent communications with candidates as part of your efforts and let them know about next steps.
Key takeaway: Be willing to quickly adapt and revise! Small businesses often have more flexibility, so be sure to have your ear to the ground in order to know what candidates want from your company during the application process so that you can quickly make changes.
Click here to watch Frankie’s full RallyFwd session on demand!
9. Mark Diller – Turning Magenta into a Movement of Engagement
Social media isn’t just for posting viral videos, memes and funny content. For Recruitment Marketing practitioners, it can be one of the best tools you have. It can be a way to build trust, tell your employee stories and truly bring your brand to life to attract right-fit candidates.
Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are excellent ways to generate awareness and interest in your company, and the content you post and interactions you have on those channels goes a long way toward creating strong relationships with top talent. Additionally, make it fun, inspirational and uplifting to boost the chances of candidates seeing and engaging with your content.
Key takeaway: Always provide value! This can be through curating third-party content or posting original content from your brand — just make sure that whatever you’re providing to candidates has something valuable for them to take away.
Check out Mark’s RallyFwd session by clicking here!
Mark Diller recommends that employers should track performance within their content categories to tune each social media channel.
10. Amy Warner – Digital and Human: The Dynamic Duo of Talent Engagement
Video is one of the most effective resources you have in your Recruitment Marketing toolkit, especially when it comes to talent engagement. Whether you have an in-house team or are equipped with just a smartphone and video editing app, making video part of your recruitment strategy can help you stand out from the crowd.
It’s important not to rely on just a few videos — create a range of types and lengths that capture candidate attention at every stage of the journey. Also, don’t forget to have fun with it! Candidates want to see what your culture and environment are like — engaging videos can bring that to life.
Key takeaway: Bring human elements into your video strategy! A great way to do this is by featuring employee stories, or even using employee-generated content as part of your approach.
Watch Amy’s full RallyFwd session by clicking here!
11. Joseph Brim – The X Factor: What Your Recruitment Events Are Missing
Incorporating events into your recruitment strategy can’t be done from the employer’s point of view. It must be done from a candidate’s point of view if you want to create an engaging, informative and memorable events experience that will encourage talent to continue interacting — and eventually apply — with your business.
Put yourself in the candidates’ shoes. What are the questions they have about your company, culture, environment, employees, etc.? What do they want to know? Package your culture in a way that you can easily communicate these elements to talent at recruiting events.
Key takeaway: Build an events strategy you won’t see finished! Create event interactions that will add value to people you may never meet or to a concept you’ll never see finished, and that can be built upon in the future.
Click here to check out Joseph’s full RallyFwd session on demand!
Joseph Brim says that incorporating events into your recruitment strategy must be done from a candidate’s point of view in order to create an engaging, informative and memorable events experience that will encourage talent to continue interacting — and eventually apply — with the business.
So there you have it! What key talent engagement strategies will you put to use today? If you want to see the full recorded presentations and slides, then check out RallyFwd On Demand to learn even more!