New Year is infamous for being that time of year when you have your hands full. With the New Year comes a whole new set of challenges: along with planning campaigns, tactics, resource and budgets, it also happens to be peak time for job hunting. In a market where 51% of employees are considering a new job, this is the time where you could face resignations, or, more hopefully, clinch that star hire you’ve been looking for.

Teams that don’t have the right skills in place or have a resource gap will find it much harder to achieve marketing goals. While the recruitment process can be time-consuming, it’s important to plan it carefully to ensure you identify and attract the best skills you can to round out your team. Here are some pointers for creating a strategy that works for everybody and will help you achieve your marketing targets.

Be prepared to compromise

Choosing the perfect candidate isn’t as simple as ticking off boxes on a checklist: it should be about looking for potential, and for what that candidate can do with their role. 86% of recruiters believed that recruitment was a candidate-driven market last year, and this trend is only going to become more important: there is a candidate shortage in the market, and finding the perfect fit for a certain role is unlikely if you have a rigid idea of what the perfect hire should be.

Instead, go and look at what is on the market: does the role you’re advertising need to evolve to keep up with market trends, or advances in technology? When you’re evaluating people who may not have the perfect CV, look for a balance between marketing skills, sector experience and cultural fit rather than relying solely on experience or qualifications to make your choice. 90% of employers say it’s extremely important to hire somebody that fits in and works well with others: when hiring- especially for low-level positions- enthusiasm to learn and the ability to work well in a team can often make up for lack of experience. Consider too how candidates can impact your marketing plans – while someone may not have the exact number of years’ experience you’re looking for, they may be able to bring specialist knowledge to the table that can help you achieve your goals. For example, a millennial with digital expertise in niche channels you’re looking to tap into could be more valuable than someone with many years of experience but no digital knowledge.

Research competitive salaries

Do you actually know what your competitors pay employees in similar roles? What about the average salary for your market sector? Or for the same role in the same location? Sometimes, salary can make all the difference: money matters most to 49% of employees when it comes to accepting a job offer, so perhaps it’s time to look at what you’re offering. This is important if you have particularly aspirational marketing plans for the year – to achieve your goals and get great results, you need to pay enough to attract the best people.

Salary can be a thorny issue to negotiate: if you pay the same as your competitors, you will need to invest time and money into employer branding in order to sell the job and stand out from other companies. Either be prepared to pay more – or, if you have the time to do so – it may be worth recruiting a junior whom you will be able to train up and develop into the role.

Develop and promote your employer brand

Over the coming year, 53% of corporate leaders expect to invest more in employer branding, and it’s easy to see why: it’s much easier to attract candidates if you can make your company look like somewhere they’d love to work. After all, 92% of candidates would consider leaving their jobs if a company with an excellent reputation offered them a role.

No matter what your marketing plans are for the year, they should include improving your employer brand. To do this, you should invest time into creating careers pages, where potential candidates can find out more about their prospective roles, and videos and day-in-the-life blogs on life at the company. Be active online, and promote both company news and vacancies on social media. Glassdoor is also an excellent resource; cultivate your profile and use it to snag some of the millions of visitors it gets every month. Make sure your company culture is an integral part of your candidate experience; given that employee turnover can be reduced by 28% just by investing in employer branding, this approach pays off for current as well as new staff.

Be quick, organised and communicate

One of the most important things you can do when somebody resigns is to move quickly. One of the top obstacles to increasing headcount is a lengthy hiring practice– indeed, 60% of job seekers say that have quit an application due to its length or complexity- so you need to get sign off and start advertising as soon as possible if you want to avoid a personnel shortage that could potentially impact not only your marketing plans, but your company’s bottom line. Talk to internal teams to finalise the job description, so you’re all agreed on what kind of person you want to hire. Keep your processes short, and when you find somebody, react and offer quickly: after all, once you’ve found your ideal hire, you don’t want them to be poached by somebody else.

Get an expert opinion

The recruitment market is always changing, but at BMS we’re experts at leveraging our in-depth knowledge of the industry to offer useful and actionable insights to our clients. When you have a great marketing plan in place, you want to do everything in your power to recruit the best people to help you achieve your goals.

Interested in knowing more about what makes a great recruitment strategy? Why not check out our blog section here, or get in touch with us here?