Podcast: Unpacking the UK Candidate Attraction Report

In this HR Grapevine podcast, Erik Niewiarowski, Head of Video Content & social media at HR Grapevine, sits down with Bruce Groves, Marketing Director at Eploy to unpack the 6th Annual UK Candidate Attraction Report.

The pair discuss the report findings on issues like strategies for addressing skills shortages, job postings and what kind of content on job sites attract the best candidates.
You can listen to the 16-minute podcast recording here https://bit.ly/eploypodcast

What is covered?

📌 How to address the skills shortage

Part of candidate scarcity is a skills shortage in the market and a strategy that survey respondents are focussing on is upskilling with activities such as peer coaching, training, and mentoring. Not only is this a strategy for addressing candidate scarcity but it also aids staff retention.

Another strategy adopted by half of the survey respondents is looking to other industries to attract and recruit candidates. Removing the boundaries of asking for specific sector experience and looking outside of a particular niche opens up additional opportunities.

The full downloadable report assists in this strategy as it breaks down candidate sourcing channels by sector. You can see, at a glance, how those other industries are succeeding in attracting talent AND what sourcing channels you could use to target candidates.

📌 Does it pay to advertise salaries/salary ranges with a job post?

1 in 5 survey respondents states that not advertising salaries holds candidate attraction back. So, does it have an impact on channel performance too? Well, yes, the survey results share that across every candidate sourcing channel not advertising the salary reduces the quality and quantity of results. Worth noting that some channels such as job boards are impacted more than others.

Erik added some context to these findings; in his own job search experience as a candidate, rather than waste time applying for roles that did not meet his salary expectations, or, that he may be over-qualified for, having a salary band with an advertised role, influenced his decision on whether to apply.

📌 What types of content on a careers site gives candidates a rounded view to applying with you?

The right careers site content does attract candidates. Employer brand has been on the agenda for some time, and it is important to filter this down onto the careers site.

At the top of the funnel, in the attraction phase you will see content such as what jobs are available, background info about the company and what is it like to work here.

The interest phase and consideration phase will share content such as how your recruitment process works, EDI policy and career paths. All act to influence an applicant as they then move through to apply. This should continue as a candidate moves through the hiring process, e.g., hints and tips, FAQs, etc.

Having valuable content right through the process helps to improve conversion rates.
The full report shares some really useful stats on how much more a career site will be useful by having certain content.

📌 Expecting an increase in hiring? Do your recruitment budgets support this?

In many cases, recruitment teams are being asked to do more with the same or less. The report breaks this down by industry looking at the anticipated increase in hiring and projected recruitment marketing budgets.

All of this points to maximising the return on investment of recruitment marketing budgets and understanding what is working, identifying under-utilised channels and what channels are working for other sectors where you might look to target candidates.

The full podcast can be accessed here and don’t forget to download your copy of the free report.