How do I achieve the most ideal target group orientation possible?
The three dimensions of 'speed', 'transparency' and 'appreciation' are generally the easiest for employers to understand - but you are right to ask yourself how you can achieve the best possible target group orientation. The topic is more complex because we are not necessarily used to acting in a target group-specific manner in recruiting. In the following, I will explain in simplified terms how you can optimally define your target groups and then communicate with them.
Listen to the candidate:
First, I should listen more closely to what my target group wants and what motivates them. To do this, I should either interview previous job holders or external target group peers to understand more about their media behavior, motivation, etc. The best way to do this is in individual interviews - alternatively, you can also hold group discussions. Through the interviews, you learn a lot more about the target group and this is the basis for the next step.
Candidate Personas:
The data from the interviews can then be used to create so-called candidate personas - the typical applicant with their motivations, background, needs and goals. This method helps you to get a concrete idea of how different the target group can be and how differently you can then address and convince this target group.
Candidate Centricity:
Based on these candidate personas, you can now start to create your media mix - the right individual medium for each target group, individual messages, individual imagery and possibly individual offers. The most important method for this is called targeting and will be discussed in more detail shortly. This principle can also be extended to the application and selection processes, which can also be adapted to the different requirements and characteristics of the target group.
Targeting is the individual display of advertising materials, usually via online channels. Using Google or many social media such as Facebook, I can specify exactly who will see my advertising - and then I can adapt my measures accordingly. For example, I could specify on Google that when people search for the search terms "engineer jobs" they will see a special ad from me that is france telegram data aimed at engineers. On Facebook, I could segment them so that only engineers in Germany within a younger age group see an ad with a younger testimonial, and the target group in an older age group sees an ad with an older testimonial.
Using this principle, you can tailor your measures very precisely to the needs of the target groups and thus appeal to potential applicants much better. We have been doing this at my current employer for several years and have found the following: the more specifically we tailor ourselves to the needs of the target group, the higher the number of actual applications in relation to the number of clicks on an ad. This not only enables you to recruit much more difficult target groups, but also reduces relevant key figures such as 'cost per application' and 'cost per hire' for target groups that are not so difficult.
Conclusion
The more we focus on the topic of candidate experience, the better our recruiting and application processes become and the happier our applicants become. Satisfied applicants lead to better recruiting metrics. If we then also manage to address our potential applicants as individually as possible through targeting and other measures, then we also increase the number and quality of our applicants.
So the question is not whether you do it, but who is faster: you or your competition?
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