How Are You Atttracting Talent?
Editor’s Note: This newsletter was originally published on June 14th, 2021.
As teased last week, we need to seriously consider how we are attracting employees for our businesses.
Owners and managers are sharing their frustration in the media and on social platforms. It is rare for a day to go by where you do not hear a story of businesses curtailing hours due to staffing issues. It is equally apparent that customer service at companies once known for it has fallen.
- Restaurant staff shortages (YouTube)
- Business struggling to hiring working & retaining employees (US News)
- Despite unemployment, many jobs hard to fill (Monster.com)
As the post from Monster.com highlights, it is not just food service and service industries struggling to staff. Many of the open positions are for skilled technicians and engineers.
I think the problem has a two-fold root.
First, many businesses have grown complacent with their hiring programs in the past four to five years. This is likely because many companies have spent the last half-decade working through mergers and acquisitions dominated by cost-cutting initiatives and fixed labor budgets.
How many companies have actually been in growth phases or developing/replacing existing products & services?
If you have organized your business trying to manage against “fixed pies” and zero-sum budgeting, it is likely your hiring processes are ill-suited for our current hyper-competitive environment.
Secondly, we need to acknowledge that our recent economic and political policies have at least dampened the need for many to work.
Basic truths like “You get what you feed” and “People do what they have to do” have not changed! Over the past 18 months (extended unemployment benefits, eviction moratoriums, etc) have eased pressures that would drive some into the workforce increasing the available supply of workers.
Without assessing these actions as “good” or “bad”, we have to acknowledge the potential impact they create.
What can we do about it?
I recommend companies need to be setting and executing a marketing budget for employees in the same ways that they now market for customers.
In the same way that you find an audience, nurture them in a relationship, and attempt to sell them your service or product, we need to communicate our vision and message in places where our best potential employees hang out and attracting them to us.
As we introduce an “Employee Marketing Plan”, we need to adapting and evolving our hiring practices to onboard these new employees and embed them into our company culture.
Depending on how long the current environment persists, having an effective marketing structure for employees and workers is just as important as effectively marketing to/for customers!
I found this quote this week from Nate Morley (founder of Works Collective) and think it is completely relevant to the above discussion of instituting an “Employee Marketing” budget and plan to go along with our marketing for customers.
Nate is specifically highlighting Brand messaging in addition to what many companies perform focused on their Products or Services.
While there is nothing wrong with product-based marketing, we must remember that this fosters mostly transactional relationships.
We forget how marketing in the past was often as much about awareness and recognition of brands as it was about the products themselves.
- Most of us can complete the jingle of “Have a Coke and a [??]”. We instinctively expect Polar Bears during the Christmas holidays to be drinking a Coke.
- While we may or may not remember “Where the Beef was?” (for those born after the 1980s, it was Wendy’s), all of us know where it is not – which was the negative branding objective of that program.
- Even though their delivery guarantee hasn’t existed in over two decades, our expectation is still that Domino’s should deliver our pizza in under 30 mins.
In the drive to sell your product or service, don’t overlook the creation and sharing of your brand message.
Ultimately, this will help both your attraction of customers and employees because that brand message communicates Why what you do is important and valuable.
Other Links
Update your Google Chrome (if you haven’t)
If you’re among the 2B Google Chrome users on the planet (yes, you probably are!), they released a critical update to the browser this week that you’ll want to be sure to upload. Among the announced fixes listed was a Zero-Day vulnerability that (according to security professionals) was already being actively targeted in the wild. My advice: Upgrade now if you haven’t!
Top Google Ads alternatives
As the cost-per-click (CPC) rises & the platform continues to saturate (especially among specific audiences), it is a good idea to identify some other alternatives for our ad spends. While Google continues to be at the top, we have to target it, but diversifying your ad spend into different arenas (like Bing Ads) has to be a consideration.
Other SEO options in 2021 (re: Quora, Reddit, etc)
As the core of SEO efforts is answering questions asked by users, oft-ignored options are the Q&A sites like Quora and Reddit where users are (by design) asking questions seeking answers! Don’t overlook this opportunity as both a source of traffic (links) and an idea-generation source for more targeted content that you can create.
How to create Rich Snippets for Google
While Rich Snippets are not currently a ranking factor for SEO, there is nothing currently stated that suggests that will be the case in the future. They are worth your attention if only for the enhanced User Experience they create & the potential they have for attracting more clicks from individual users. Remember: The objective of search engines is to best solve User queries. Rich Snippets follow that intent.
For those checking out the book reviews, I finished The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. My post of notes from the book is complete. You can check it out on my blog at this link.
If you would like to read along, I will be starting Content Inc. by Joe Pulizzi soon.
Note: Book links are Amazon affiliate links.
