Non-traditional marketing strategies that target the needs of skilled workers are essential if manufacturers expect to attract today’s talent.
(Louisville, KY) – As manufacturing companies spend millions on marketing campaigns to lure new clients and contracts, the industry’s attrition of skilled employees makes it increasingly difficult for companies to compete. So while firms continue to spend money to gain market share, they frequently hamper themselves by not attracting or retaining an adequately large and skillful workforce. Rather than solve a problem, they invite a new one. Veteran manufacturing consultant Mike Nacke explains that to succeed in today’s environment you need to devise advertising campaigns that aggressively focus solely upon hiring.
Industry experts like Nacke call this approach “candidate marketing”, a term that refers to campaigns that specifically target potential employees in order to attract and retain the best possible people.
While candidate marketing does take cues from traditional marketing and advertising, it is a specialized field requiring innovative skills and implementation. To better explain the concept of candidate marketing, Mike Nacke recently produced a comprehensive resource guide for his clients in the manufacturing sector.
Here is a sample of tips they included:
• Invest in Direct Response Ad Copy Training
Most Human Resource professionals have little or no training in how to write captivating job ads and marketing specialists often lack the proper HR background to craft the kinds of messages that entice job candidates.
By training – and cross training – staff members on the fundamentals of creating enticing headlines, powerful copy, and strong closing techniques, your advertising for candidates can yield dramatically improved results. In fact, recent research suggests that such training can improve ad response rates by 30%.
• Communicate Lifestyle, Not Just Work
When you interview candidates for a position, you want to hear how they will benefit your company. Similarly, potential employees want to know more than just their salary and benefits. They want to hear that a job will help them attain their personal dreams.
Communicate how your company provides people with the keys to the “good life”, and your candidates will become excited about the opportunity to work for you. Win them over and they will tell others who are looking for better careers.
• Get Personal
Most companies have moved away from using phone interviews and face-to-face meetings to initiate contact with candidates, relying instead upon online applications, email, and computer based assessments that keep candidates at an impersonal distance.
This was a smart strategy a few years ago when the availability of talent was sometimes overwhelming. But today companies need to personally connect with as many candidates as possible and minimize their chances of accidentally screening out the good ones. Increase the amount of “face time” you invest with candidates and you’ll increase your roster of qualified, loyal employees.
• Cast a Wider Net
If online job boards and newspapers are your only way of attracting skilled workers; you are in deep trouble. Don’t abandon these sources altogether, but broaden your horizons and cast a wider net by looking in places where great candidates are frequently overlooked, such as:
o Event Sponsorships
o Email Newsletter Advertising
o Direct Mail
o Press Releases
o Editorials
o Article Placements
o Web Blogs
o Your Corporate Web Site
o Non-traditional Newspapers
o Job Fairs
Nacke and other experts emphasize that when highly trained workers walk away from your company they don’t vanish into thin air. “They go apply for a similar job that promises more,” he explains, “with a competitor who is doing a better job of advertising its workplace culture and career opportunities.”
