How HR can slash recruitment costs by being brand-savvy

Recruitment is often one of the major responsibilities of HR professionals. And, it can often be a daunting and expensive exercise. A study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), estimates that companies spend approximately six to nine months of an employee’s salary to find, onboard and train a replacement. SHRM itself acknowledges that the costs could be even higher, citing research conducted by the Center for America Progress that suggests that the cost of losing an employee could range from 16% for hourly, unsalaried employees to 213% for highly trained positions! No matter the size of your company or the industry that you’re in, that’s a lot of money!

But, if your HR team is sufficiently brand-savvy, they can help their organizations to rein in these costs by addressing the major concerns of potential employees, and by improving the likelihood of attracting a higher caliber of candidates who would be a good fit for the open position – in the process, saving valuable man-hours and reducing the costs associated with the recruitment and onboarding processes.

According to LinkedIn’s Ultimate List of Employer Brand Statistics For Hiring Managers, HR Professionals and Recruiters, the number one obstacle candidates experience when searching for a job is not knowing what it’s like to work at an organization before they apply. The same research uncovered that candidates trust a company’s employees three times more than they trust the company to provide credible information on what it’s really like to work there. The research also pointed out that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job, with 52% of candidates seeking out the company's website and social media pages to learn more about the organization.?

How brand-savvy HR professionals can lower the cost of talent acquisition

Compared to traditional HR professionals, who are mostly confined to administrative tasks, brand-savvy HR professionals utilize the skillsets of both HR and branding (such as marketing, advertising, storytelling and people engagement) to help their departments achieve a more robust ROI on HR investments and make a positive contribution to their organizations’ bottom lines. These HR teams understand enough about branding to carry out simple branding activities within their own departments and enough to know when they need to partner with their branding teams in a synergistic relationship which I refer to as “Bhranding” (Branding + HR = “Bhranding”).

The first way that brand-savvy HR professionals can help slash the costs of recruitment is by using the same people engagement skills that have been used for decades by professional marketers – not to engage customers, but to create a highly engaged workplace culture where employees are excited about the work they do and are committed to helping their organizations meet their branding and business goals. This culture often forms the basis of a strong employer brand for the organization – organically attracting their industries’ most talented individuals to want to work at the organization. This organic attraction has a clear and measurable impact on the bottom line. LinkedIn’s research also shows that having a solid employer brand can lead to a 28% reduction in the organization’s turnover rate, a 50% reduction in cost to hire and 50% more qualified applicants. The research also uncovered that having a great employer brand can cut the time to hire candidates in half – essentially speeding up the time to fill these positions and saving an untold number of manhours. Collectively, these improvements add up, saving significant amounts of time and money which, when combined, could be worth millions in large organizations.

Proactivity is key!

But, brand-savvy HR professionals don’t just rest on their laurels of having built a highly engaged culture that helps to attract qualified candidates. Proactive HR professionals actively target potential candidates through activities that were once considered the exclusive domain of professional marketers. These include developing impactful websites, producing engaging social media content and, in some cases, managing entire social media channels – in this case, to market the brand to potential employees and give them an idea of the organization’s company culture and work environment. These initiatives directly address the primary challenge that applicants experience when searching for a job – not knowing what it’s like to work at an organization before they apply. Spotify is a good example of a company that uses what would normally be considered as marketing channels to achieve its recruitment goals. Run a search for “Life at Spotify” and you’ll easily find Spotify’s career website, Instagram page, X (formerly Twitter) page and YouTube page – all dedicated to interested candidates who might want to apply for a job at the company. And no matter what your preferred social media platform may be, if you do a Google search for the hashtag #LifeAtSpotify, you’re sure to come across content geared specifically for job seekers interested in working at Spotify.

Understanding that potential candidates trust employees’ descriptions of the organization more than what the organization itself has to say about itself, as part of their recruitment efforts, many organizations encourage employees to provide descriptions of their experience at the organization in their own words. Google’s Build Your Future With Google and Marriot Careers’ Blog do just that!

Some companies even go as far as producing marketing-styled campaigns to attract top talent. The General Electric (GE) team produced a marketing-inspired recruitment campaign called ‘What’s the matter with Owen’ aimed at repositioning the company in the minds of candidates and getting their industry’s most qualified talent to apply to the company. According to Linda Boff, GE’s then-Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, after the campaign was released, GE’s recruitment increased eight-fold! GE partnered with the highly-respected ad agency BBDO to produce the campaign – a partnership that would typically be reserved for marketing campaigns targeting consumers, not for campaigns designed to recruit new employees.

Of course, GE isn’t the only organization whose recruitment team uses its branding chops to attract new talent. Britain’s Royal Marines developed an adrenaline-pumping campaign called “What’s Your Limit?” designed to target individuals who would be willing to endure the harsh training regimen of the Royal Marines. The campaign gives a no-holds-barred peek at the intense training that Royal Marines go through and ends with the call-to-action “99.99% need not apply” – a clear message targeting the 0.01% of people who think themselves tough enough to become a Royal Marine. But this ad wasn’t a one-off. The Royal Marines maintains a YouTube channel called RoyalMarinesRecruitment that showcases several follow-up ads that use engaging storytelling and other branding principles to recruit individuals to sign up to become a Royal Marine.

Candidates as customers

By treating candidates like customers and engaging them as effectively as marketers engage customers, brand-savvy HR professionals can play a big role in attracting and engaging highly qualified candidates, reducing the time to hire, and having a measurable impact on profitability. By treating candidates as customers who need to be “wowed” by the brand – not to buy products and services, but to “buy into” the company’s purpose and vision for the future, brand-savvy HR professionals can optimize their efforts and convert curious candidates into highly engaged employees.?

If you’re looking for ways to positively impact your bottom line, consider encouraging your branding and HR teams to work together and find creative ways to attract the best and brightest of your industry to want to work at your organization. By engaging candidates with the same vigor that your marketing team engages customers, your brand-savvy HR team can help slash the costs of talent acquisition and, by extension, make a positive impact on your bottom line.

*A version of this article has been published on FastCompany. Need your HR team to be more brand-savvy? DM me right here on LinkedIn. We provide Executive coaching, Workshops and keynotes, Brand training for HR teams, Brand support for HR teams, De-siloing branding and HR teams and other "Bhranding" services.