Top 10 Recruitment Marketing Blog Posts of 2020

Publishing valuable content every week to keep you informed on what’s happening in Recruitment Marketing, employer branding and talent acquisition is really important to us. This means that we write and share A LOT of content each year. And in our blog posts we cover many different topics — from candidate experience to social media strategies to diversity and inclusion to recruitment automation tools — everything you need to learn new strategies and skills.

However, this year our content focus was a little different from previous years, since 2020 has been such a rollercoaster of never-ending surprises, challenges and even opportunities. As a result, our focus became all about providing resources and strategies to help you navigate the impact of the pandemic and the shift to remote work, virtual candidate experiences and digital recruiting tactics.

Based on our website data, here are the posts that you found most interesting and helpful over the past year. We’re already working on more valuable resources for 2021, so Contact Us to tell us what you want to learn more about — and remember that we’re always looking for new contributors!

Now, here are the top 10 blog posts from Rally Recruitment Marketing in 2020:

1. Managing the Candidate Experience During the COVID-19 Crisis

At the beginning of the pandemic, there was so much uncertainty and change. And for many of us in Recruitment Marketing and recruiting, we were concerned with what this meant for candidates. We wanted to continue to provide an excellent candidate experience despite all of the changes happening to our hiring processes and work environments.
In this post, Ashley Chertes, Head of Marketing, Talent Acquisition at Cigna, provides us with insights on how to manage the candidate experience during difficult times by relying on a thoughtful communication strategy rooted in empathy and transparency.

Key takeaways:

• Continue to examine your processes and consider the ramifications of any changes you make — and then communicate what these changes mean for candidates on a regular basis with both recruiters and candidates
• Keep the focus on honest candidate-centric communications that are based on your target audiences’ current wants and needs

2. Coronavirus: Should Your Recruitment Marketing Change in a Crisis?

COVID-19 raised legitimate questions about what is the right approach to marketing and sales during a crisis — and what the best approach might be for those of us in recruiting and Recruitment Marketing too.

In this post, I shared my own experience in marketing during a crisis, and provided timely guidance for the Rally community on how to move forward.

Key takeaways:

• Pause to review your content calendar. Every ad, video, blog, email, text, chat and social post should be viewed through a lens of situational awareness
• Lead with an empathetic, human-centered approach because it’s the right thing to do and will send positive messages about your organization to candidates that they’ll remember long term

3. 13 Activities to Engage Remote Employees Today

The trend towards remote work was already increasing before COVID-19, but the pandemic has sped things up significantly. And for many organizations, remote will continue to be the norm even after a vaccine is widely distributed. As a result, we need to think about the employee experience a little differently today.

For many of us in HR and Recruitment Marketing, we’ve had to shift our approaches and spend more time thinking about the internal employee experience to maintain our employer brands and have something substantial to communicate about externally. This often meant finding ways to adapt elements of our in-person culture into virtual experiences.

This post provides inspiration on how to create exceptional remote candidate and employee experiences. Practitioners Shannon Feltes Grimes, Head of Employer Branding at GoDaddy, Alex Her, former Global Employer Brand Program Manager at Informatica, Elly Bradley, Director of Talent at TextNow and Aubrey Vispisiano, Staff Talent Brand Manager at Procore, share their strategies for keeping their virtual workforce engaged.

Key takeaways:

• Develop an employee experience task force or culture committee to lead the charge on ideating and planning virtual team activities
• Find ways to create “water cooler” moments while everyone is working apart
• Encourage employees to share their virtual stories and experiences and then package up and share these activities and stories externally with permission

4. How to Build an Employer Brand KPI Dashboard (Template Included)

With the economic outlook still hazy, some organizations are questioning what they should be investing in and are looking for ways to prove their ROI to secure a budget for 2021. This is why comprehensive metrics are key. If you can collect all your data and put it into a simple, visual dashboard that communicates the value your team can bring to the table, you’ll be in great shape to prove your strategic value to your stakeholders.

To walk us through his approach, Chris Fitzner, a Recruitment Marketing Strategist at Appian Corporation, shares his KPI dashboard template. This post and template will help you make informed decisions about your recruiting strategy so you can understand where to invest your employer branding budget and get buy-in from others.

Key takeaways:

• Learn from your marketing team. Our peers in marketing have been tracking many of the metrics that are also important to Recruitment Marketing. Ask if you can take a look at the tools they use and then create your own version with adjustments based on your unique candidate and employee-centric goals
• Review your data regularly and make changes to your strategy based on the insights you glean. Set a regular time in your team’s calendar (either monthly or quarterly) to look for patterns that reveal which content pieces are resonating and which aren’t

5. What Will Matter to Candidates in a Post-Covid World

COVID-19 is rapidly changing candidate and employee expectations. Now more than ever, people are seeking out employers that align with their values and have treated their employees right during this crisis.

In this blog post, Chantell Cooper, the Global Director of Talent Acquisition at Arbonne, shares insights on the shifting candidate mindset and how to adapt your employer brand to meet those needs. Chantell highlights actions you can take immediately as well as in the future to position yourself successfully in front of your target candidates.

Key takeaways:

• Candidates are increasingly interested in roles that offer stability and flexibility
• Today’s candidates are also actively seeking out companies that are transparent and that are doing good in the world

6. Virtual Interview Guide for Remote Hiring

As mentioned earlier, as our hiring processes have shifted and employees moved to remote work, our candidate experiences have changed too. Forward-thinking companies are assessing these changes and looking for ways to continue to provide a stand-out experience to improve their brand, close qualified talent and build brand advocates.

In another of our top posts from the year, Recruitment Marketing professional Ashley Walls shares how her team created a virtual interview guide to improve the candidate experience by helping candidates to feel more informed and prepared. This creative and visually branded document contains key information about the company culture — both during “normal” times and during this remote work period — alongside tips to excel during the interview process.

Key takeaways:

• A virtual interview guide can help make your remote hiring process smoother and provide clarity for all stakeholders involved in the recruiting process
• Measure the effectiveness of your virtual interview guide by collecting quantitative data, like link clicks, page visits, time on page and downloads, as well as qualitative feedback directly from candidates

7. 7 Virtual Interview Guide Examples From Top Employers

In a follow-up to Ashley Wall’s interview guide blog, Rally content contributor Kaitlyn Holbein rounded up an additional 7 examples of virtual interview guides from top employers.

Key takeaways:

• There are multiple approaches to take when creating a virtual interview guide — from creating fully-branded PDF documents, to videos, to blogs and listicles, to landing pages and FAQs
• Regardless of the approach you take, the most important point to remember is to always think about the ways that you can help candidates feel comfortable and prepared for your new remote hiring process

8. Survey Results: COVID-19 Impact on Hiring

Throughout the pandemic, Kevin Grossman and his team at The Talent Board have focused on understanding and cataloguing the impact that COVID-19 has been having on recruiting. Early on in the pandemic, The Talent Board team administered bi-weekly surveys to learn how TA teams across the U.S. were being affected by COVID-19 and how they’re responding to the crisis.

This popular blog post recaps some of the outcomes and insights including:

• How COVID-19 has impacted the hiring landscape
• How employers responded to COVID-19 from a Recruitment Marketing standpoint
• Where organizations plan to focus their future talent acquisition efforts

Key takeaways:

• Many practitioners focused on strategic planning by preparing for possible future scenarios and thinking about how these potential outcomes might impact their recruiting and hiring plans going forward
• Overall, pipelining and building relationships with candidates is always a good spot to focus on, regardless of your whether your hiring has slowed down from COVID-19 or not

9. 8 Companies Sharing Excellent Content From Their Frontline Workers

Recruitment Marketing changed a lot in 2020. Today’s candidates don’t want to see overly-polished content filled with buzzwords. Instead, they want to see how your organization has responded to COVID-19 and how you’ve supported your employees.

Some of the organizations producing the best content now are those who actively hire and employ our frontline heroes in grocery stores, hospitals, pharmacies, manufacturing sites and warehouses. This blog spotlights 8 companies doing an exceptional job of producing content with “heart and substance.”

In this video, UPS thanks their employees for the important work they do such as ensuring medication is delivered, groceries are received and grandparents in isolation get mail and parcels from loved ones.

Key takeaways:

• Candidates and employees alike want to see stories of resilience, courage and bravery during challenging times
• This content pairs well with “lighter” content, such as showcasing your team working from home and your new day-to-day reality

10. The Impact of COVID-19 on Recruiting Benchmarks

Despite tens of millions of people becoming unemployed, the cost per applicant (CPA) skyrocketed from $12 per applicant in January 2020 to $19 per applicant in June 2020 (Appcast).

We chatted with Appcast to understand the impact of COVID-19 on recruiting benchmarks and budgets. We also discuss strategies and tactics that talent acquisition and Recruitment Marketing practitioners can use to stay agile in today’s tough climate.

Key takeaways:

• Be prepared for change. There continues to be many unknowns in front of us, so the best offense right now is to be agile and make sure you haven’t locked yourself into plans or decisions that don’t adapt well
• Programmatic job posting technology is a great way to stay agile as the tech allows you to get in front the right candidates in a cost-effective way.

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And that’s a wrap on our top posts from 2020! I hope these insights and resources help guide you as you build your strategy in 2021.

I want to take this time to thank all of our Rally content contributors this year. The Rally community wouldn’t be what it is today without the amazing practitioners — just like you — who take the time to share their learnings and expertise with one another!

Stay safe, stay healthy and we look forward to sharing even more helpful resources with you in 2021!