With such a huge need to hire people these days, you’ll want your message to stand out above everyone else. There are unique ways to capture attention and grab the right candidates to fill your open positions. While many businesses convey the standard benefits, qualifications, and bonus structure of the message, let’s go one step further.
One technique is to say what you don’t want in a new employee to dramatize what you truly are looking for. In the world of branding it’s saying who you are not to explain who you are. It’s how 7-UP differentiated themselves from Coke and Pepsi years ago. They branded themselves as the Un-Cola.
Or the automobile which was first introduced as the Horseless Carriage. Or simply be as honest as the sign I recently saw at a local hotel. Just off the highway, in big bold print, “PETS ALLOWED! EXCEPT FOR BEARS. WE TRIED THAT ONCE!” The message included a pre qualifier and it’s much more inviting than the standard hotel sign of “FREE TV!”
But what if you applied the more clever approach to your recruitment advertising as the hotel with the unique pets allowed reference? Again, say what you want by saying what you don’t want.
What if you were the first one to lay it all out there and be totally straightforward and clever?
Add pre qualifications to automatically eliminate non contenders, throw in a heavy dose of skillful sarcasm, and you might hit the jackpot in the brain of potential candidates.
Example: “MAIL HANDLERS NEEDED. Please do not apply if you oversleep, have to appear in court often, your fingers are stuck in a bowling ball, do not have a babysitter every day, have to get rides to work later than our work day begins, attend the same grandmother funeral over and over, are frequently abducted by aliens, experience flat tires every week, are married to your cell phone while on the company clock or will become an expert at your job with no need to learn or take advice after the first day. Must also remember to come back to work after lunch. Should not expect to receive a bonus for being on time. Cry babies, drama queens and big, fat liars not needed. Dragon Slayers and Superheroes are encouraged to apply ”.
Okay. I’m obviously throwing in old jokes and exaggerating, but imagine if you used one tenth of my example in your current or future recruitment campaign. Something as simple as, “If you think you’re an expert at lame excuses for missing work, we are masters at early detection.”
Right now, anything out of the ordinary will move the needle in a positive direction.
With the many platforms to choose from during your recruitment campaign, always think of inventive ways to stand out.
Let’s say you’re a pizza delivery business. Your hiring message printed on every napkin that goes out the door shows you’re an honest and inviting place to work. It’s much more sincere than let’s say a message on the receipt. The napkin hits more faces around those boxes of pizza.
A high profile corporate business might want a photo on social media of a well dressed and groomed individual sitting in a shiny sports car under this headline, “You should have seen me before I started working for (your company name here)!”
Manufacturing is another category needing to hire employees. What if they posted a photo of someone in traction and full body cast? The creative headline, “Forklift operator wanted. Our last guy wasn’t that good at it.” Be creative and think about saying what you don’t want to get what you do want.
As long as you need to hire, we’ll be right here offering ways for you to accomplish your goals. Make an appointment with us. Let’s bounce around a few zany ideas.
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