Short and Sweet #4: Does your HR team have a marketing plan?

Welcome to Short and Sweet episode 4!

Today I want to talk about something that is fairly popular in Europe and US but not so much in Japan which is “Is your HR team and talent acquisition team having a marketing plan in place.” There is so much written and researched about the candidate shortage in Japan, and yet very few talent acquisition teams and HR teams have a marketing strategy in place to help entice candidates to their company. So here are few tips if you’re getting ready to put that marketing plan in place for your company.

First and foremost, make sure it’s mobile friendly. A lot of companies have a recruitment page already, but make sure its mobile friendly. Most of the people that companies are wanting now are younger generation. They’re doing all their research on mobile phones; not necessarily on a computer.

Second, when you’re writing job descriptions, use a friendly, conversational tone. A lot of companies use to do the basic “job description,” “skills needed,” “ what we’re looking for,” and “benefits.” Those bullet points and that kind of cold job description template doesn’t work anymore. What the younger generation wants is a more conversational style, and certain things to emphasize, which are recent salary survey has highlighted was that work-life balance is much more important then what salary is. the work environment is more important then it was several years ago. So you emphasize the work-life balance and have that conversational tone when your writing up your job description.

Third point is, use social media. I know a lot of companies are using job boards especially in Japan like LinkedIn and some of the others. That’s nice, but you have to have a social media presence using Facebook and Instagram, and really trying to reach people showing pictures of people smiling, people at work, and using videos making sure to engage in an audience and make your place of employment as appealing as possible. These are bout connecting, telling stories, and making your place of employment one where someone wants to go. Then you can get them in the door and evaluate them. But you need to have a marketing plan in place.

So, today’s Short and Sweet, message is for your talent acquisition team, to put in place a marketing plan, 6 month/12 month plan which takes a look at what they’re doing on social media, how they’re making it mobile, how they’re putting videos and pictures together, and making everything work to drive employees to your company. Thank you.