EMPLOYMENT BRAND = INSTITUTION BRAND ... - Inside Higher Ed

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EMPLOYMENT BRAND = INSTITUTION BRAND Kathlene Collins, Publisher, Inside Higher Ed Washington, DC

Imagine you have an opportunity to communicate a strong message about your institution to a large group of highly engaged academics and administrators. Is this how you'd start: Intnl Stdnt Advisr, Spcl Prgms (113447) Or this: Assoc Dir, Mid East & Muslim Civ Or this: Campus Lfe Wrtr & Spc Proj Ast Imagine for a moment that even a few of these talented, influential individuals were determined enough to dig deeper into your message. Would you continue by saying this: Recruitment ID: 2500512 Or this: Job Summary/Basic Function Or even this: Please be aware we conduct criminal background checks and drug tests As marketing professionals, you're probably reeling at the very idea. Yet the content above was created by highly prestigious institutions, published widely and viewed by thousands of stakeholders in higher education. The real irony? These incomprehensible, off-putting or ungracious communiques were intended to attract the absolute best student services officers, scholars of the Middle East and even marketing professionals to open jobs on campus.

Oh it's JOB advertising, you say. That's not a marketing function so no need to worry. Is this really the case? What's the difference between a potential student (or parent), a potential donor and a potential employee? In some cases, nothing! Yet the highly visible campus communication carried out in service of employment recruiting flies under the radar of most college or university marketing departments. Just how visible is job advertising? A few months ago a high profile university spent top dollar to run a series of print and online image/branding ads. During the campaign, about 50,000 ad impressions a month were delivered on the Inside Higher Ed news pages. In the same period, recruitment ads posted by the same institution received 46,000 page views. The contrast between the messaging in the branding campaign and the institutional image conveyed by the recruitment ads was stark. In aggregate, the jobs listed on Chronicle.com, higheredjobs.com and Inside Higher Ed receive more than three million views a month. Add in the views from job aggregator sites like Indeed.com, Simply Hired, LinkedIn and scores more and the number of individual impressions becomes vast. Print advertising is no less problematic. While the overall volume of print advertising is decreasing, the pages of The Chronicle, the education supplements of The New York Times, and the classified sections of newspapers around the country continue to print dull, computer-generated, or even confrontational job postings for the delectation of broad general readerships. And it's not just external advertising - take this quick test. Surf to your institution's home page, and click on the link for prospective students. You're likely to be pleased with what you see (you probably had a hand in creating it, after all). Now try the link for prospective employees - did you wince? You're not alone. And yet your jobs pages are among the most visited on your Web site. Inside Higher Ed recently conducted an informal survey of nearly 150 college and university human resources professionals. While nearly half had no idea the volume of traffic to their jobs pages, those institutions that do track reported numbers that may surprise you. Nearly two-thirds reported that their jobs pages account for more than 25% of overall site traffic. And more than 10% indicate that their jobs pages account for more than half of the visits to their institution’s Web site! An effective employment recruiting strategy will sell your openings to terrific candidates -- and can also be an important touch point to strengthen your institutional brand, or to erode the impact of an otherwise strong image. Yet rarely is marketing included in the list of stakeholders for employment recruiting.

In our recent survey we asked HR officers about the marketing department’s role in job advertising. A whopping 67% responded that marketing has no role whatsoever in the recruiting process. And while about 25% of institutions said they have guidelines from marketing, or at least can call on their marketing department for assistance, just 4% cite an active role in the recruiting process by their marketing team. The result: Exactly the kind of atrocious ad titles and dull introductions at the beginning of this paper. We asked our HR respondents to engage in a bit of brutal self-examination. More than 50% admit to using generic or abbreviated job titles in their advertising. Nearly 50% acknowledge that their introductions are dull or nonexistent. And a full two-thirds recognize that their advertising is not advertising at all, merely a listing of requirements and qualifications unlikely to intrigue the highest caliber candidates. The fact that those responsible for recruiting generally recognize that they could use some help creates an opportunity for the marketing department to get involved. While your primary motivation may be to protect and enhance your institutional brand, your knowledge of good principles of communication and promotion have the potential to greatly improve the outcomes of your institution’s recruitment efforts – the quintessential win-win. Great hires are the single most important investment your institution makes in its competitiveness and success. Making sure you’re investing in the absolute best is worth a bit of attention and effort, especially when you’re making only a few hires. And your institution’s best chance to attract top talent is with terrific, brandsavvy recruitment advertising. Writing effective recruitment ads is not difficult, but it does take a little thought. Too often institutions use an internal job description (or the sketchy information that resides in an applicant tracking database) as an ad — with woeful results. The thing to remember above all is that you’re not just writing for people who are actively job hunting (and therefore won’t be put off by jargon or a de-humanizing experience), but for terrific hires who are NOT looking – and for the hundreds or even thousands of casual readers who are not candidates at all but will nevertheless form opinions of your institution based on what they see in the classified pages. Your ad needs to grab attention with a strong statement about why a great hire should be interested. And it should be written from the candidate’s perspective. Here are some quick tips for those who haven’t written this kind of advertising before. DON’T 

Mistake your database entries for ads – use real language not internal jargon

 

Start with the “screening” stuff (responsibilities and qualifications) Send people to a generic Web site and expect them to track down the ad

Example: Marketing and Outreach Coordinator (940710) Position Type: Part-Time Professional Non-Instructional/Adm Task Position ID: 854152 Grade: HI FLSA: Exempt — Not Eligible for Overtime Compensation The Marketing and Outreach Coordinator assists the Executive Director of the Center for the Literary Arts with the promotion and marketing of activities. Minimum Requirements: Bachelor’s degree with two (2) years experience or an Associate’s degree with four (4) years of experience in a related field Excellent organizational and communication skills (both oral and written). To apply, please visit www.jobwebsite.edu EA/EO Employer DO Start by selling the job - write a compelling title - lead with why your great hire wants the job Use candidate-focused language: - “To succeed in this role, you’ll need…” not “Qualifications:” - “You’ll have the opportunity to…” not “Responsibilities:” - “If this sounds like the job for you…” not “Application Procedures:” Show a little personality – your model should be online dating, not online tax filing Example: Join a creative marketing team supporting a growing arts organization The Center for Literary Arts at Our University is a terrific place to work. As our new Marketing and Communication Coordinator you’ll work with talented people to create exciting marketing campaigns to support the meaningful work of the Center. All in a lively small city with a burgeoning arts scene. To succeed, you’ll need a solid liberal arts foundation (a B.A. degree is one way to demonstrate that) and a bit of experience in marketing. If this opportunity sounds inspiring, visit www.thisjob.ouruniversity.edu/thisjob for more details and instructions on how to apply. Recruiting doesn’t stop with external postings - employment prospects are a key constituency of your institution’s Web site. Are your jobs pages designed for desperate job hunters or terrific hires? Do they reinforce your institution’s brand? Or communicate all the wrong messages?

Collaborate with your HR department and your provost’s office to make sure these simple rules ensure success:

DO

DON’T

Create an obvious, prominent link to your jobs from your institution's home page

Hide your jobs in confusing navigation or behind cryptic labels Don't make your applicant tracking system your recruiting page – remember that the FIRST thing great hires do is explore, not apply

Communicate your institution's "brand." Use your "prospective students" page as a model – many of the same qualities that attract students will attract employees Use clip art! (it's ALWAYS obvious) Include smiling faces of real employees Lead with the most compelling reason to work at your institution – this can be anything from your location to your benefits to your culture, but really sell it Feature your most interesting jobs prominently, sell the groundskeepers as enthusiastically as the development directors Make faculty jobs as easy to find as staff jobs – even if they're not in the same database, provide clear links and instructions from your main jobs page

Lead with off-putting legalese – save the mentions of drug testing, criminal background checks, and campus crime statistics for later in the process Treat all jobs as an undifferentiated list – nothing is more off-putting to a senior applicant than seeing a job list with custodians and VPs lumped together Assume that no one's coming to your site to search for faculty jobs – they are! And clear navigation, enticing job descriptions and a welcoming tone matter

Sell every job! Start each posting with a Use internal job descriptions as clear, concise and compelling external postings or treat a database statement of why candidates want this view as a publicly available job list job! Treat candidates as data entry clerks – Use language that creates a candidate ask only for what you really need at focus — label the link to your each step of the process and keep application "I want this job" rather than things simple "apply now" Use technology to commoditize your Use technology to be polite – candidates – personalize e-mail acknowledge applications, keep messages and make sure message applicants informed, and remember templates can be adapted to unique that a polite rejection is preferable to requirements being kept hanging

A successful collaboration between marketing and recruitment functions works both ways – a bit of marketing savvy can greatly improve candidate pools. And more polished, compelling recruitment activity can burnish an institution’s brand. Use this checklist to start a conversation: Network! Only 20% of responders to our recent survey of HR officers have any social media dimension to their recruiting strategies – yet just about all hope to add activity in this arena to the mix. Your expertise can help avoid obvious pitfalls (we won’t mention the school that’s literally tweeting every individual job posting – more that 150 a month). And job content can add stickiness and appeal to more general social Web activities. Advertise your institution, not just your jobs. Your department is always promoting your institution to students/parents. Some of the same marketing strategies can ensure that when you have job openings, great candidates will be interested. Be less reactive (starting the recruitment process when the job opens) and more proactive (think of recruiting as an all-the-time activity, like student recruiting). Advertise beyond the job boards. When it is time to publicize a specific opening, job boards are efficient and economical, but they’re only going to reach job hunters. Look for Web sites and other outlets that have a draw for professionals who aren’t on the hunt. Put your job announcements to work. Passive candidates won’t dig your postings out of a database – take advantage of tools like Google AdSense, banner advertising and e-mail advertising to get messages in front of them even when they’re not searching – and to increase the SEO score of your institution as a whole. Write your job postings with passive candidates in mind. Don’t start with responsibilities and qualifications (which are about what your institution needs); instead, highlight the reasons a great hire would really love the job. After all, those are the elements that engage all stakeholders with your brand. Make sure your own jobs Web site sells your jobs. The page candidates hit when they click from your postings or your home page to learn about jobs at your school should create an immediate, positive impression of what it’s like to work at your school. Never miss an opportunity to promote jobs. Make sure the URL for your jobs Web page is included in ALL institutional marketing materials (you never know whose parent might turn out to be your next top hire). A top-quality faculty and staff is a key competitive differentiator for any institution. Yet at most colleges and universities, employment recruiting is perceived as an

administrative chore rather than an important strategic marketing challenge. Work together with your employment recruiting team to take advantage of this highly visible communication channel for your institutional brand – and improve results. For further information contact: Kathlene Collins Publisher Inside Higher Ed 1320 18th Street, NW Fifth Floor Washington, DC 20036 [email protected]