A short(ish) opinion piece I wrote, suggesting recruiters should spend some quality time marketing companies to candidates and examining why specialist recruitment boards work better…

“The effects of the rising oil price are, as yet, not something that’s keeping new media types up at night. However, companies operating in the knowledge economy are facing a fuel shortage of their own, the brains that supply, develop and apply this knowledge.

The pace of development has accelerated almost as quickly as the invention of the new buzzwords: Web 2.0, social networking, web services, folksonomy to name just a few. Many of the country’s top agencies have experienced tremendous growth over the last 18 months and that’s happened before any of this bleeding edge technology makes much of an impact commercially.

The dearth of middleweight and senior staff has created a tough challenge for a sector which now finds itself in rude health. In some areas, particularly media planning/buying, production and account handling, the fallout from the 2001 dotcom bubble is still being felt, many people having left the industry for good.

The appetite for new staff is acute with agencies and companies listing numerous open vacancies, covering the full gambit of skills and disciplines. Finding candidates to fill these positions is difficult and there is ample competition. Fortunately, the lunatic wage inflation of the late 90s is a recent enough memory that it shouldn’t be repeated any time soon.

The irony is that the success in developing new business doesn’t always follow through when it comes to marketing to prospective new employees. The diligence in crafting well thought out and compelling proposals for new clients, doesn’t always follow through in the search for new recruits.

The basic principles of marketing - finding the right target audience - can get thrown out of the window when it comes to recruitment. The usual first reaction is to jump straight for the closest trade magazine or generic jobs website that has bought its way into the front of mind of busy agency types. Traditionally, this strategy has always been used with little analysis and more than a little frustration when it comes to wading through a mountain of CVs.

Will these placements deliver the right candidates? Do they read these publications or visit the websites? Are they even looking for work currently? Are their skills specialist or generalist? For example, is an ActionScripter a programmer, a designer or both?

The ‘obvious’ routes may be effective for some, but being blinkered to the other options such as blogs, social networks, community forums and specialist recruitment websites means missing out. These approaches may be considered niche, but they allow recruiters far more precision in targeting job seekers with the added benefit of attracting casual browsers whose interest may be piqued even if not actively job hunting.

In a market where, to borrow a phrase from the stock market, there is little liquidity, the importance of finely honing the targeting and message of recruitment advertising is vital. Recruiters need to think of this marketing as less of a commodity and more of a carefully tailored campaign. It wouldn’t hurt to borrow some of the techniques of the viral marketing world, either.

Anecdotal stories of the success of this word of mouth distribution are getting more and more frequent. This is unsurprising given the number of active bloggers and the increasing number of participants in social networks. Relevant information, including job vacancies, quickly travels across these communities. For the more jaded, it’s a good reminder of the fierce interest outside of what would ordinarily be considered ‘normal’ working hours, shown by many in the industry.

Like any good marketer, it’s important to test and measure these niche approaches and be prepared for some surprises in the response. Disconcertingly, some websites will yield a handful of great candidates and others will produce nothing at all.

In an environment where it’s possible to micro-target like this, a measure of success and failure is to be expected, but the investment will pay dividends in the quality of candidates and the time saved in sifting fewer responses.

Budget allowing, this is where good recruitment agents can come into their own, particularly specialists who have a good understanding of what has worked previously and a willing to test out new opportunities.

For the bootstrappers, a good starting point is to ask how existing staff found their current and previous jobs. If, as is likely, word of mouth figured prominently, try to discover which websites, communities and mailing lists played a part. It may be a pleasant surprise to discover how viral a job post may become if placed on the right niche website, especially those that appeal to those active in the blogosphere and other online communities.”