iCIMS Hire Expectations™

We've all heard the line about HR being a cost-center to a company, but there is a growing trend among progressive HR Leaders to buck this notion through a creative means to drive new revenue. The source… in-bound candidates and job seekers. Think of how many resumes/applications your company receives on a daily basis. Over time, this becomes a group of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of individuals that have expressed interest in employment with your company. These people have suggested that they want to make your brand a part of their careers; a part of their lives. This audience of captive interest is invaluable to a company; however, many solely see this value within context of talent acquisition. More and more companies have found success in strategies that convert this passion for employment into an even greater passion for your brand.

Over the past decade, talent acquisition departments have vastly improved their approach to employment branding. Within the iCIMS' Talent Platform, many clients already use our HTML Communication Center to deliver branded communications. Some of the more progressive companies have taken this a step further, aligning their efforts directly with Marketing, by incorporating coupons or discount codes on the automatically generated emails that a candidate receives when applying. In addition, how about softening the blow of a rejection letter by including a similarly branded gift certificate for in-store or online use? Consider this:

A candidate applies online for a general manager position at a national restaurant chain. In his confirmation email, an eye catching HTML coupon is included for 10% off the entire bill at this restaurant. This applicant, already excited about the prospect of working for the company, now shares this passion with his family with dinner to your nearby restaurant location. This helps to foster both an increased employment brand image, as well as the brand loyalty every marketer aims to develop.

All promote a healthy job seeker-employer relationship, develop more general brand awareness, and (for iCIMS users) are actually very easy to make reality within our technology. 

Applicants are hanging on every word from the employer about their application, so there is your captive audience. Nearly guaranteed to read it!! Run that by your marketing friends and see if their ears perk up. Of course, this type of program may not make sense for all organizations, but for many it seems like there could be numerous benefits. For these brands, a program along these lines, with discount codes specific to HR, could certainly add a new arrow in HR’s profit center quiver. While this kind of strategy might not break many sales records at any organizations, every company values new ideas to improve the bottom line... and especially value those progressive minds that bring such ideas to the table.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this concept and if you think it would make sense at your company.