Five tips for your efficient HR strategy

Are you, like many HR managers, currently facing the challenge of finding new talent and high professionals for open positions in project management or in specialized areas such as marketing, development or consulting? We will show you new ways in HR marketing and give you five concrete tips on how to innovate your HR strategy and achieve visible success in recruiting.

The shortage of skilled workers poses a major challenge for HR managers and decision-makers in companies these days: the market for applicants seems to have run dry and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find suitable candidates for advertised positions. These days you cannot simply publish a job ad on the common platforms and hope that applications will automatically be send to your mailbox. The “war for talent” is in full swing, and in many areas employers are now clearly on the short side of the market. We give you five tips on how to create new momentum in your HR strategy and how to develop a concrete roadmap for successful HR marketing:

1. Stand for something and not for everything 

When it comes to deciding on a new job, it’s often not the hard facts that are decisive in the end. Soft values and the culture within the company becomes more and more important. Nowadays, almost all companies advertise flexible working hours, good payment and modern offices. However, these facts are now simply taken for granted by sought-after talents. These factors are no longer unique selling points.

It is better to define values that are really important to you as a company and that you actively spread with your employees. Just like the motto “Stand for something not everything”. In doing so, you have to decide whether you want to focus more on corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues – such as compatibility with family planning, team cohesion or female empowerment – or whether you want to emphasize issues such as sustainability and ecological responsibility. The important thing is that you show your colors and don’t focus on everything at once.

At best, develop your values with the team (see point 2) and also describe them in detail on your website – ideally in a separate HR section – and on social media. Also outline your corporate ethics and responsibilities there, how you support your employees and how you interact with customers. And again: Don’t try to be all-encompassing, but focus. As an agency, we develop what we call a “theme house” for companies to identify core values and present them to the outside world.

2. Involve employees and let them embody values 

Values want to be lived! Involve your employees by regularly asking them which values are particularly important to them – and also actively involve them in the formulation of your values and corporate ethics. In this way, you strengthen the company’s connectivity and the team’s loyalty to the company. Only if employees have helped to shape the inner core values, it’s possible to spread the message to the outside world – keyword “internal marketing”.

You can then integrate your employees into HR marketing in an excellent way. For example, support selected and particularly authentic employees in becoming active as company ambassadors on social media. Our tip: As the person in charge, you should also give employees the opportunity to live out the values you have defined together – whether on social media or by participating in charity programs and training courses.

3. Take advantage of the new possibilities of digital HR marketing

A successful HR strategy requires a whole new level of interaction between marketing and HR. Make a strong call on HR to leverage the new marketing capabilities your company is already using for HR purposes. Again, you don’t have to use every channel your company already uses.

These are the standards you should focus on: A basic set includes a meaningful career section on your website where prospective candidates can find all the important information about the company, the culture and the application process – try to give as personal an insight into the company as possible. Social media recruiting has also long been accepted as a basic in HR marketing. No company can get around the career networks LinkedIn and Xing anymore. The advantage is that you can approach suitable talents quite casually and thus also reach those who are not even actively looking for a new job. When it comes to Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and Co., question marks arise as to whether you need these channels. We rather recommend, in addition to the basic channels, to use unusual channels now in interaction with marketing, where the competition does not show up.

For example, use native advertising. By using platforms such as Outbrain and Plista for native advertising via the major German publishing houses, you can draw a lot of attention to your job ad. Collaborate with your marketing in order to rely on other alternatives such as podcasts or post-PR and digital campaigns. At Evernine, we consistently achieve great results in projects by placing HR videos on unexpected channels across the web.

4. Take a look into the psychological toolbox

Of course, your competitors are not resting either and are actively trying new ways and channels to look for new employees. Therefore, we recommend taking a look into your psychological toolkit to reach out to new talents on a completely different level than others do.

One idea would be to transform the application process into a game. If you have a lot of jobs advertised, a job matcher could be interesting, for example: The applicant leaves a few details about himself or herself on an attractive landing page – including personal questions – and the job matcher then throws up a suitable position, including a salary estimate. Or turn the tables around: Say goodbye to conventional roles such as “recruiter” or “candidate. Apply for a suitable position only based on the resume. Because what matters today are people who get to know each other and talk to each other. Keyword: Human 2 Human.

New social tools can also be used for this purpose: Send a voice message to your applicants via WhatsApp or send a personal video greeting via Instagram direct message. That’s surprising and will leave a lasting impression.

5. Videos with a creative touch

In HR marketing, videos are being used more and more often. And that’s a good thing: visual storytelling and videos are the most popular content formats in the digital world. Whether on landing or job pages, in social media, in emails or on the career blog – videos achieve better results than pure text formats. This translates into better click-through and conversion rates, more leads, and ultimately more job applications – the dream of every marketer and HR executive.

Good video storytelling that also consists of surprising elements is another technique to stand out against the competitors. Find a plot twist and individual touch that fits your company and value system – even think around corners and stay authentic. For example, film in an unusual location that represents your company well. Or involve many employees and let them pass the baton to each other in an unconventional way. Very important: The focus is always on the motivation as well as the employees’ enjoyment of working in the company – not on your own products and services. As the implementing agency, we always come up with special stories about how to present companies by slightly exaggerating their values in a positive way.

We hope that we have been able to give you exciting insights into new ways of HR marketing and provide impetus for your HR strategy. As a communications consultancy and full-service agency, we would be happy to support you in highlighting the special features of your employer brand together with you and reflecting these in the best possible way across all communication channels.

In the areas of “Consult HR”, “Connect HR” and “Create HR”, Evernine accompanies companies from strategic planning, the development of communication concepts, the elaboration of a suitable Candidate Journey, to the conception of HR campaigns with the appropriate tool selection and provision of technologies, and finally in the implementation and execution of all measures – whether internal or external. Feel free to contact us directly!

“For me, the team’s active involvement in shaping the company’s values is particularly important. That’s why at Evernine we rely on a mentoring program to integrate new team members from the start and encourage them to actively help shape the agency and its values. Supporting junior staff also has the advantage that we can fill future management positions from the internal talent pool,” says Charlotte von Braunbehrens, CHRO at Evernine.

For more information on Evernine Group’s current services and benefits related to effective HR marketing, click here.

Image Source: Adobe Stock / Alex from the Rock