Is recruitment really marketing in disguise?
Marketing is the most wonderful discipline. Corny as it sounds, we love recruiting for and working with marketing people. It is always evolving, innovative and exciting; but at its core the basic principles still stand firm.
As Mark Ritson put it in his recent article reviewing the new and “trendy” attempts to reinvent the the good old 4 P’s - “it is beguilingly simple but fantastically applicable. And, as a structuring device, as relevant now as it was 60 years ago."
This is so true.
But what on earth does this have to do with recruitment? And how can it help you if your marketing recruitment project isn’t going to plan?
Let’s take a look at how the 4 P’s can also apply to recruitment and how they can be used to work out where to improve your recruiting strategy.
Product
In marketing recruitment, this is the job you are looking to fill.
Troubleshooting: If you can’t find the correct person, have you considered your USP’s and key selling points of the role? What are the elements that would make someone want to work in this position?
Price
The salary for your marketing role.
Where have you positioned your proposition, i.e. where does the role sit relevant to the rest of the marketing recruitment market? Are you a “cheap option” offering a lower end salary, or are you “top end”? Budgetary constraints obviously play a part in this, so can you consider an attractive benefits package to offset the salary? Bear in mind that if you are reaching for the top marketing talent that the market has to offer, you have to pay accordingly.
Place
Do you use the right channels to attract the right marketing talent you need?
Troubleshooting: If you are struggling to find the calibre of marketing people you need, are you sourcing in the correct places? This is where specialist marketing recruitment consultancies come into their own as they have the established networks and either already know the people you are looking for through long term relationships, or know where to find them.
Promotion
Is your go to market strategy on point?
Troubleshooting: Is your messaging (i.e. job spec, job adverts, briefing for your recruitment partners) correctly positioned? Have you identified the correct marketing recruitment partners to work with you who can advise and support the process?
In my view, when things don’t go to plan in anything, let alone a marketing recruitment project, going back to basics is always the place to start.
Identify where your project isn’t hitting the mark and go from there.
KAREN LLOYD 12 APRIL 2021
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