The job market in 2021 is shaping up to be known as “The Great Resignation.” Almost every company in every industry under the sun is feeling the pain of not being able to find and hire quality talent fast enough.
Conventional strategies of finding job seekers are not working. The old messaging is no longer creating leads.
That’s where staffing and recruiting agencies come in. More specifically, marketing for staffing and recruiting firms.
That is why many staffing and recruiting companies are turning to marketing agencies with niche expertise in their industry. They’re looking for content marketing and digital marketing campaigns that can help them navigate this incredibly difficult time.
Read on to learn how marketing for staffing agencies can make the difference in solving for a historically high shortage of workers.
Why Conventional Staffing/Recruiting Strategies Aren’t Working After the Covid Shutdown
Many employers are faced with a cruel irony in our current job market: now that they’re reopening and aggressively rehiring, workers are either unwilling or unable to return to work.
Many are calling the newfound perspective that workers gained during the COVID shutdown a welcome wake-up call for employers. The argument is that many employers have not had to adjust wages or benefits for too long. So the economic shutdown during COVID was the final straw for many employees who have felt underappreciated, under-compensated, and overworked.
The argument could be made that workers are asking too much of their employers. But one notable study from the Economic Policy Institute was able to put this succinctly into graphs what many workers have been noticing all along:
In the past 40 years, the cumulative percentage growth in worker productivity has increased by over 243%. But for all this rise in productivity, worker compensation only increased by 108%.
It would appear these are dark days to be an employer with the unenviable task of looking for and hiring workers in this climate. That is especially true for anyone whose sole enterprise is sourcing and hiring employees – that of staffing and recruiting companies.
It is safe to say the old strategies for finding and recruiting talent after COVID is going to need a different approach.
A Digital Marketing Strategy Can Beat the Odds
Currently, employers and job seekers seem locked in a stalemate.
Many workers are simply unable to return to the workforce. For many working parents, childcare is still prohibitive or simply unavailable. And the Delta Variant is further complicating a robust return to work for those with preexisting conditions, and even for those who’ve received the COVID-19 vaccination.
But for those job seekers who are actively looking for work, they are returning to the labor market with a newfound perspective and bargaining power. They know they are a limited and highly sought-after commodity – the definition of a candidate-driven market.
It is not a coincidence that the employers who fail to recognize this shift and assume workers are eager to return to an unchanged labor market are experiencing a labor shortage.
On the other hand, it would seem equally unlikely that employers would be able to simply raise wages and offer generous benefits while remaining solvent, let alone profitable.
So where do we go from here?
The way around the stalemate is through marketing. And again, specifically marketing for staffing and recruiting agencies.
Why Content Marketing for Staffing and Recruiting Agencies is the Solution to the Worker Shortage
The power of attracting candidates with a marketing strategy uniquely crafted for staffing and recruiting agencies is undeniable.
More than in-person meet-and-greets and calling on your old network of industry professionals, a marketing plan specifically designed for staffing agencies is perhaps the most effective tool to nurture leads and to source and hire plentiful, exceptional talent.
During any other time, in a regular labor market, these crucial digital marketing tactics would include (but are not limited to) things like:
- Ensuring your firm has a robust marketing automation strategy to remain top of mind without wasting time and money on repetitive tasks.
- Optimize your recruiting strategy so that when you find you can beat the competition and provide quality talent at a moment’s notice.
- Building your brand credibility to promote your agency as the premier solution to employer’s hiring challenges and job seekers’ search for employment.
But in this market, it takes more than just showing up for your clients and potential job-seekers.
Now, more than ever, the strategy to attract talent is in changing the narrative with your marketing content.
Job Seekers and Employers Want Good News
This is a difficult time for everyone. People are looking for good news. Where there is a lack of jobs, workers are looking for better opportunities. Where there is seemingly no good talent to be found, your content can describe the unique steps you’re taking to nurture plentiful, highly qualified talent.
It would be highly advantageous if your agency creates a positive spin on the current market. You could do this in a variety of ways:
- Highlighting your industry partners who are adapting to the new normal, and raising wages, benefits or making strides to create a better work culture.
- Doing a series on specific job openings. Get in the weeds and describe how one specific job for which you’re recruiting is solving a previously unsolvable problem and creating avenues to success and new opportunities.
- Showcase industry success stories on how high-performing employees are being recognized and rewarded for a job well done. Do any of your clients have a rewards program? How is your marketing strategy communicating that to job seekers?
- Do any of your clients have an employee development program? If so, that content would be highly beneficial for leads who are looking to advance their career.
- Workers are looking for better working conditions. Develop content around company culture and find creative ways to deliver that content in a way that resonates with the current needs of today’s workers.
To put it simply, your clients and candidates need reassurance that everything is going to be okay and you’re the one, in spite of the odds, who can help to get them to a better place.
The key to creating content with the best messaging is to partner with a marketing agency that specializes in your industry. Your marketing partners will help you highlight the many positive elements of our current labor market, and to create the positive narrative job seekers are looking for.
Partner With Parqa to Create Game-Changing Marketing Content
With Parqa, your marketing content will empower your staffing and recruiting firm to overcome what seems to many an impossible labor market.
With the correct messaging, your clients will be able to withstand “The Great Resignation” and come out of this turbulent time as leaders in their industry.
Contact Parqa today and get started on a unique content strategy that can turn the narrative on its head and create the excitement job seekers and employers are looking for!
