The 5 Leading Trends in Talent Attraction Websites
July 24, 2019 | By: Susan BrakeAs the talent wars rage on, it’s becoming clear that cities and states in this economic era of historically low unemployment need to have their talent attraction techniques polished to perfection. Part of that is understanding not just what modern professionals are looking for in a job and their location, but also how they are looking for jobs. To do this, we conducted research on how and why professionals find the jobs they choose.
Today, we’re diving right into the data to share our insights with the readers. Whether you’re in charge of helping recruit (or retain) talent to your region or looking to optimize your region’s talent attraction website, these tips should help you find the talent you need and reach out to the talent who want to find you. Here are the top 5 trends in talent attraction websites:
1) They Highlight the Cost of Living
Modern professionals are aware of the full range of costs when relocating for a job. They know that salary doesn’t give the full picture when talking about the quality of life and how far the money will go after the relocation. Our research found that cost of living is ranked highest in relocation priorities. If you’re hoping to attract talent from another city, be sure to highlight the changes in the cost of living. ABetterLifeOKC.com, a site designed to attract talent to Oklahoma City, has an entire page dedicated to quickly calculating the change in the cost of living from any other city in the US compared to Oklahoma City costs. This is incredibly helpful for future employees deciding how far their salary will go in your region.
2) They Use Indeed
Our research found that Indeed is the go-to job board for modern professionals. This makes sense, with its trustworthy brand, nation-wide use, and helpful resume/application platform. Most people head straight to Indeed when they start the job search, so the best strategy is to work with it, not against it. At MoveUpstateSC.com, this talent attraction website has its own job board for South Carolina specific jobs, but the links go directly to Indeed where the employers have posted the positions and where they expect to receive applications from.
The Indeed tie-in allows any specialized talent site to populate their job boards with pre-filtered positions, making this an incredibly useful and efficient localized job board method.
3) They Celebrate Local Professionals & Businesses
If you’re promoting jobs in an under-considered area, it can really help to highlight not just the positions available, but the lifestyles, experiences, and contributions of the local workforce. Cleveland County’s site CharlottesBackyard.com uses a wonderful combination of imagery and descriptions to show off that manufacturing jobs in the region are booming, for both small and large businesses. They tell vivid human stories of what it’s like for real individuals working in the region and in the industries that are most populous in your region.
4) They Provide Resources for Local HR Execs
For regional talent attraction, the goal isn’t to be a company recruiter, it’s to share the location love in a way that will fill your region with talent. In this vein, you want to provide local HR Execs and teams with the resources they need to promote the location/relocation. You’ve got the research and the resources, but talent won’t be moving in unless there’s a great job ready and waiting to receive them – and not to mention, a great job for their partner/spouse.
Northern Colorado’s talent site WorkInNorthernColorado.com has a gated resource hub just for HR execs including tons of tips and downloadables on how to better attract talent to the region. One special asset is the trailing spouse form which uploads a spouse’s resume to the job network to help whole families relocate together.
5) They Go Beyond the Brochure to Tell a Story
Social media is the one place where traditional marketing transcends assets and moved into the realm of real human connections. Use your social media to do more than just promote positions and opportunities. A welcoming and friendly population ranked fourth in our study of relocation priorities. Tell the real living human stories of the people who live and work in your region. Move Upstate SC has a fantastic Instagram page featuring tons of vivid and compelling photos of smiling South Carolinians and all the experience riches that SC has to offer. But there are also many other great examples like Carlsbad Life in Action, SDLifeChanging, Cleveland County, and so many more! Make sure your social media reflects the joy and depth of experience that new professionals will enjoy relocating to your region.
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Here at DCI, we believe in providing more than just numbers and lists. When it comes to attracting talent, the most important thing to remember is that you’re dealing with people. Professionals who lead complete and vivid lives are looking for new opportunities. You can be that opportunity if you know how to share the information that wants to know. For more great talent attraction insights or to see the full results of our research, reach out to Rebecca Gehman our director of talent attraction.
