Recently I was in discussion with some industry peers talking about the word “pivot.” What does it actually mean? Humans are creatures of habit. How can we openly pivot?
Many of them complimented TA 4.0 and said HelloFresh TA is doing what most companies struggle to do in talent acquisition, which is “pivot.”
But I thought to myself, “We have so far to go; not everyone is bought-in.” So I want you to think of this scenario to understand what we are trying to do.
The scenario: Selling hats at a big concert
Imagine yourself at a very large concert with 80,000 people in the audience. There are huge 30ft tall screens, seated areas, and multiple shops to purchase drinks and snacks.
In between aisles, you have workers with baskets of food and drinks walking around trying to sell them. At the end of every aisle, there is a vending machine.
The problem: Trying to sell 10,000 hats with a basket and a few workers
Now, imagine you are trying to sell hats to these guests. You have a basket, and you walk in between the aisles to sell your hats. You might sell 10, 20, 30, maybe even 100 hats.
But you want to sell 10,000 hats. So now you hire 5 workers who walk in between the aisles selling hats too. Again you might sell 100, 200, or 300 but still not reach 10,000. The desirability isn’t there.
The pivot: Doubling down on recruitment marketing to build brand and desire
Your current method of selling isn’t working to its optimal capacity. It works, but it does not have the reach you require to achieve your goal. So you decide to double down on getting everyone’s attention.
You’re realizing not everyone knows that hats are being sold. So you speak to shop owners and make sure your hats are being sold there. You speak to the vending machine operators and make a deal to have your hats sold in the vending machines.
You speak to the organizers of the concert to ensure they play an advert for your product on the 30ft screens every 30 minutes.
You get adverts placed behind every seat at the concert. In the toilets, you get adverts placed inside every cubicle.
You set up a website where people can buy your hat directly, and the hats get shipped the next day.
The result: Selling 10,000 hats with multiple efforts + collaborative sourcing
Eventually, you start to sell 10,000 hats.
More people at the concert know about your product. They line up at the shops to purchase your hats, more people talk about your product, you have a lot more people stopping you at the aisles, and so on.
The concert is life.
The shop is a job board.
The person with the basket is a sourcer or recruiter.
The adverts on the 30ft screen are mass marketing campaigns.
The adverts on the chairs and cubicles are niche-targeted campaigns.
The website is the community page.
Hopefully, you’ve figured out where I am going with this. But if you haven’t, here is the simplest way to look at this analogy.
Everyone is distracted by life. Every company is selling a job. To attract talent, multiple efforts have to be combined to build a brand and desire.
The importance of recruitment marketing
Your job today will eventually evolve, whether by choice or by force. At some point, you will realize the efforts you make are superseded by actions far less time-consuming.
In this example, 1-to-1 sourcing is far outweighed by 1-to-many recruitment marketing.
Not to say sourcing isn’t required. On the contrary, it is required in collaboration, among other things, to achieve the end goal, which is to sell 10,000 hats, not 100.
Think about this the next time you dismiss a task that might not provide visible, tangible results.
