The Power and Appeal of Real-Time Recruitment Marketing Metrics

Originally posted on the SmashFly Interns Blog

I recently read the article, They Don’t Want a Relationship, They Just Want an ‘Apply Now’ Button, on Fistful of Talent by Steve Boese, an HR technology consultant and instructor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The article discussed his students’ experiences and attitudes towards the corporate online application process, from the perspective of a candidate. A few problems Boese said the students highlighted were that it was too long, too confusing, there was too much redundancy (like why are questions asked when the answers can be easily found on the resume) and complaints about never hearing back from the company once they had applied.

The article went on to discuss the students’ preferred method of searching and applying for jobs, which favored online job boards over social networking sites. This information is extremely important from a recruiting perspective because it tells you where candidates are looking for jobs. The problem is that most recruiters do not have the ability to ask candidates where they prefer to look for jobs, which is why having access to real-time recruitment marketing metrics is so important.

Real-time recruitment marketing metrics allows recruiters to meet candidates at their preferred location, regardless of where that is or where they say they go. Some candidates may prefer job boards others may prefer social networking sites, recruitment data takes the guesswork out of the process.

This gets me into the power and appeal of real-time metrics. Tracking the success (or failure) of each job ad and the vehicle used to promote the job, such as online job boards, social networks or corporate job sites is extremely beneficial. Recognizing where candidates are looking and applying for jobs will save the recruiter time and their company money.

The power is in the data that allows informed decisions to be made on reaching top candidates. The appeal is two-fold, the company saves time and money and the candidates apply to jobs using sites they like, whether it’s a job board, social network or corporate site.

About the Author: Sean is a Marketing Intern at SmashFly Technologies. SmashFly is the provider of the first recruitment marketing platform called WildFire that enables companies and staffing firms to easily distribute and more importantly measure the performance of their recruiting efforts online.

The WildFire recruitment marketing platform offers every tool you need for your recruitment marketing needs all in one centralized solution including Real-Time Recruitment Metrics, Job Ad Distribution (job boards, social networks, SEM, email & SMS campaigns), Recruitment Opt-In Database, Recruitment CRM, Web Commercials / Micro-sites and Resume Sourcing services.