Recruitment Marketing Has a Big FOFO Problem.

by Othamar Gama Filho

With the rapid pace of change in every aspect of our lives, it's natural to feel as if we're missing out on certain opportunities. This sensation, known as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), will likely intensify as the world continues to accelerate. While FOMO can indeed lead to personal and professional anxiety, it also prompts people, albeit apprehensively, to explore new products and solutions. However, over time, FOMO often transforms into FOFO (Fear of Finding Out), which carries more profound and long-lasting implications.

Introducing the Twins: FOMO and FOFO

FOMO: Fear of Missing Out - Imagine this scenario: It's a Friday night, and you're at home scrolling through your social media feeds. Pictures of friends vacationing in a tropical paradise pop up. That slight twinge of envy you experience? That's FOMO in action. In the realm of digital marketing, FOMO embodies the anxiety of falling behind the curve of the latest trends. For instance, upon hearing that someone you know in Talent Acquisition is leveraging Spotify to advertise high-demand hourly jobs, you might ponder, "Am I overlooking this platform? Could it be the next big thing, and I’m out of the loop?"

FOFO: Fear of Finding Out - This sentiment is slightly more nuanced. Ever hesitated to glance at your credit card statement post-vacation? That hesitation is FOFO at play. In the world of recruitment, FOFO manifests as an aversion to diving deep into metrics or analytics, often due to concerns about discovering potential flaws in our approaches. Building on the previous example, one might rationalize, "We received so many clicks from our Spotify campaign; surely, we must have successfully recruited a good number of candidates."

From FOMO to FOFO in Recruitment Marketing

In the dynamic world of recruitment marketing, innovators and early adopters are usually the first to experience FOMO, and they feel it most intensely, drawn to every new fresh trend. Venturing first into new solutions might not always yield anticipated outcomes, but when it does, it offers a tangible competitive edge.

Interestingly, FOFO tends to emerge when the initial cause of FOMO proves to be a genuinely valuable solution. Consider the early adopters of CRMs and Candidate Channels like Google for Jobs, or Jobs on Facebook (when it was still active), and programmatic job advertising. These innovators reaped significant benefits. However, as FOMO permeates the early and late majority, the broader market's demand for such solutions rises. This heightened demand lures more companies and vendors to these platforms, potentially diluting their effectiveness.

Now, the majority, having invested time in research, attended multiple demos, and considered expert analyses, face the daunting task of calculating the ROI of their decisions. Their hesitancy extends beyond just financial considerations, factoring in the invested time, expertise, and potential reputational risks. It's at this juncture that the initial anxiety of missing out morphs into the more profound fear of discovering the actual results, FOFO.

Navigating the Digital Maze: The Role of Your TA Tech Stack in FOFO

In any digital marketing endeavor, precise measurements need to be our guiding star. Yet, tools like ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) make the task harder for recruitment marketing practitioners, and it will only get more difficult against the backdrop of the digital advertising industry shifts in tracking and privacy norms. Such scenarios set the stage for the rise of FOFO.

As with many new technologies spanning various sectors, when the intensity of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) subsided, FOFO became more pronounced. This led to a form of willful blindness regarding sunk costs. The FOMO-to-FOFO cycle in Talent Acquisition is evident in areas from CRMs and Social Advertising to Chatbots and Programmatic Job Advertising. A few companies begin using these technologies with significant results. The rest follow, thinking, "If it worked for them, it should work for me," merely hoping to replicate similar success.

The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

As technology and the recruitment landscape evolve, introducing new forms of FOMO (Hello, ChatGPT), Talent Acquisition leaders must identify, confront, and address these fears directly. Always keep in mind their primary goal: to aid TA teams in recruiting candidates who adapt quickly, deliver consistently, and stay long enough to contribute to the organization.

However, given the current state of HR tech stacks and pervasive industry FOFO, attaining such detailed insights proves challenging. Consequently, we often turn to proxy metrics like CPAs (Cost-Per-Apply) and clicks. While these may provide a general sense of direction, they are meaningless without context and full visibility into the candidate’s journey.

In Conclusion

While FOMO might not necessarily be detrimental, FOFO certainly is. Emulating the proverbial Three Wise Monkeys offers no benefits. Addressing the FOMO-to-FOFO cycle, though it might seem "easy" in theory, demands a nuanced balance in practice: being innovative without rushing and being analytical without getting lost in details that distract from the truth. It's vital to look beyond mere proxy metrics and aim to comprehend the entire candidate journey. By doing so, we can more effectively cater to our internal stakeholders and leaders. Organizations that have mastered this are the ones that have truly unlocked the potential of recruitment marketing. Already feeling the FOMO rising?