4.9 Attracting Job Applicants

Recruitment somewhat resembles marketing as a process, as its objective is to raise the level of interest of customers (i.e., prospective employees) in what the company has to offer (i.e., jobs). The job posting may be vital in getting the position noticed by your target applicant pool!

Creating a compelling job advertisement is similar to writing a persuasive marketing pitch. It’s no surprise that one of the best practices for recruiting is for an organization to cultivate a strong employment brand.

Company Branding

The image an employer portrays to its employees and job applicants can affect the overall brand image and, as a result, either benefit or hurt it when attracting and retaining employees.

The concept of company branding is relatively new in HRM. This marketing concept focuses on how organizations differentiate themselves from each other. This can be in logo design, name selection or messaging. These marketing efforts tell a story to attract and retain customers. Today, branding is also essential for companies in their competition for talent. The rise of social media platforms has accentuated the importance of HR to manage companies’ public image. For example, Glassdoor is a site that allows current and former employees to review companies and provide salary information anonymously. Most job seekers aged 18-44 look at Glassdoor reviews when deciding to accept a job offer and sign at a new company. Reviewing sites and social pages that collect ratings (like Facebook) is more important than one would think.

Companies in Canada can enhance their identity in the marketplace by being known as one of the best 100 employers in Canada.

Hiring managers must clearly define their employment brand to attract the best candidates. Here are a few specific recommendations to help you do so:

1. Clarify your corporate culture
2. Understand your market position
3. Set performance expectations
4. Help candidates determine whether they would be a good fit before applying.

Realistic Job Preview (RJP)

Recruitment programs should be designed to give job candidates realistic expectations about the job and the organization. A realistic job preview (RJP) is the presentation of positive and negative information about the job and the organization to the prospective employee. The goal is to offer a balanced view that includes both positive aspects and potential challenges of the role, thereby helping candidates make informed decisions about whether they would be a good fit for the job and the organization (Bilal & Bashir, 2016).

In this way, candidates who discover a mismatch will self-select out, removing themselves from the competition. This saves them from making a bad decision and the organization from the cost of hiring and training them. Research indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between the degree of realistic information provided to the employees at the time of recruitment and job satisfaction. This is why organizations should always provide detailed and accurate job descriptions in job postings and recruitment materials (Bilal & Bashir, 2016).

“5.5 Recruitment Strategies” from Human Resources Management – 3rd Edition Copyright © 2023 by Debra Patterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: Used paragraph two.

“Writing a job advertisement” from Business Communication Skills for Managers by Nina Burokas and Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: Used second paragraph of Company brand, edited.