When looking for a new job, candidates look at a variety of sources: from reviews online to the experiences of their close friends. Public sector organizations often face challenges because there is a limited amount of talent that these organizations can hire, and competition with the private sector over top talent is fierce. Understanding talent marketing for public sector organizations can help your organization tap into the best talent in your surrounding area while helping you build a pipeline of new applicants when the time is right.
In a study, LinkedIn shared that "72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreed that employer brand has a significant impact on hiring." Talent marketing helps improve your employer brand and makes your organization more appealing to candidates. Talent marketing may not be something you've invested a ton of time in, but it's essential for companies who need to make the most of their talent pool.
Understanding the impact of talent marketing is the first step. Next, you need to have actionable strategies that you can use to put this idea into action. You can build a solid government recruiting strategy by leaning on the four essentials of talent marketing for public sector organizations.
The first step to creating a stellar talent marketing strategy is understanding what value working for your organization brings to employees. Why would someone choose to work with your organization over another private or public sector job?
You need to know your candidates and potential employees inside and out. Take a look at your demographics and how you can help each type of candidate. Gain further insight by asking these essential questions to candidates and current staff members:
Once you can understand your value and how employees react to it, you can make a helpful employer value proposition. This statement can make it easier for recruiters and managers to promote your brand and attract more applicants.
Digital recruiting for public sector organizations can be challenging. To find the best candidates, you need to find interesting ways to build awareness and recruit team members. Forget about post and hope methods. Track data and see where you find your best candidates.
For example, you might post a social ad on Facebook. When someone clicks on that link and checks out your landing page, you can track that the click came from Facebook to your website. Your applicant tracking system can typically track where users are coming from so you can compare who applies.
Another strategy you can use is asking where employees learned about the job posting on the application. With this data, you can make better spending decisions and focus on channels that bring in high-quality applicants.
Here are a few places you can use to find candidates today:
Your organization needs to humanize itself to attract top talent. People join people, not just organizations. Your staff members are your greatest asset for recruiting new faces.
If you want to get off the hamster wheel of finding talent, you need to connect and build your talent database. Many organizations have an email list where they can connect with potential employees, share resources, and send out openings. If you nurture your list, you'll find more relevant candidates who can apply when you have a new job listing.
Last, you can connect by attending recruiting events. In the digital age, many events have gone virtual. Check local community organizations for virtual career fairs to set up a booth. Have some of your talented employees on hand to answer questions and build camaraderie with potential candidates.
Once you have employees in your database, you should follow the last step of the talent marketing process, remind. Employees (especially those who are actively looking for work) get busy. They may forget about your organization or the positions you have readily available. Don't give up on these candidates just yet.
Instead, you can use social media advertisements, employee influencers, and email updates to keep your potential candidates in the loop. If you have the correct tracking enabled on your site, investing in these avenues becomes cost-effective.
Investing in talent marketing can seem expensive, but it's important to look at the alternative. Struggling to find consistent talent can stress your team members and leave vacancies in your organization. If you follow the four steps we shared today, you'll be able to make the most of local talent and build a candidate pipeline of people ready to work for your public sector organization.
CPS HR Consulting is a self-supporting public agency providing a full range of integrated HR solutions to government and nonprofit clients across the country. Our strategic approach to increasing the effectiveness of human resources results in improved organizational performance for our clients. We have a deep expertise and unmatched perspective in guiding our clients in the areas of organizational strategy, recruitment and selection, classification and compensation, and training and development.
.png)
