The Great Power Shift

“Candidates are the customers, recruiters are the marketers, and hiring managers are the sales force,” said SmartRecruiters CEO Jerome Ternynck.

Talent Function CEO Elaine Orler and SmartRecruiters CEO Jerome Ternynck presented HR Tech Europe’s keynote, “The Great Power Shift” on the Amsterdam RAI main stage.

Orler explained that “candidate” covers the lifecycle of anyone who is interested in your company (a lead) through the process until hired. Ternynck followed up with, the apply and track generation is gone; we all need to reinvent talent acquisition practices from the ground up.

#HRTechEurope ‘Please apply, we’ll let you know if you’re selected’ is no longer an acceptable talent acquisition strategy @SmartRecruiters

— MervynDinnen (@MervynDinnen) October 23, 2014

According to Orler’s 78,000+ candidate survey, 44.8% said they needed to research the company before they applied to work there. And the average candidate researched the company for 2 hours. But what were they looking for? Orler reports:

Company Values (41.7%)
Product/Service Information (39.2%)
Employee Testimonials (33%)
Answers to ‘Why’ People Want to Work Here (31.3%)
Answers to ‘Why’ People Stay Here (23.2%)
Financial Information (21.8%)

Considering a new employer is an emotionally charged decision. When candidates consider expressing interest in your company, the company’s values and the details of the people who make up the company are far more important than the financial considerations.

With these seeming visceral factors carrying such importance, it can be tough to leverage metrics in your recruitment department. Ternynck pointed out two analytics that combine brand sentiment and recruiting technology to measure your company’s recruitment effort: the percentage of hires from inbound traffic and referrals, and the percentage of candidates from organic sources.

Think of organic recruitment traffic and employee referral volume as a direct measure of your employer brand. Referrals mean people like your employer brand so much, they are actively advising others to join. A marketer would call a referer an advocate. To a marketer this is common sense, but is there a truer measure of raw candidate demand than percentage of your candidates (and quality candidates) that come from organic traffic to job ads, career pages, and recruitment related content?

“The candidates are the customer. And they are the voice that really matters.” @elaineorler. #HRTechEurope

— SmartRecruiters (@SmartRecruiters) October 23, 2014