Are JobGrams the next step in recruitment advertising for social recruiting?
There is absolutely no excuse now to post a poor job advert, yet we see so many job adverts that are just plain boring and uninteresting to the job seekers (how many recruiters still just cut and post job secs, I wonder?). So when something comes along that grabs the job advertising concept by the ***** and is not afraid to be different, it is really worth taking a good look.
In the social media world, there is a HUGE craving for images (pictures and video) - on Twitter (links), Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn (now with the media uploads), Flickr, blogs and many, many other sites. Add to that the HUGE desire and capacity for people to share content at the click of a link, on their desktops, mobiles and tablets. And then finally factor in the HUGE demand for people liking infographics (Pinterest wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the 2.7 million infographics on that site - **warning** - I made up that stat, but if you have been on Pinterest you know what I mean 
)
What if you added these three things together and made your job advert something that visually looked great, told the story behind the job AND was really easy for people to share? Well Paul Jacobs from New Zealand has done just that with his product called JobGram.
Social recruiting is using the power of social media in recruitment, and I think that what Paul is doing is cleverly bringing recruitment advertising into the social recruiting world.
For all the traditionalists reading this there is a warning here with JobGrams - you will hate them! You will find every reason not to like them - but remember THEY AREN'T for you, they are for the new breed of job seeker who you are trying to attract. They like visuals, they like video and they like simple and easy.
So now you want to see them right?
Well here is the new video format that has just been rolled to recruit for Banking Sales Managers:
Jobgram30 - ASB Transaction Sales Managers from Jobgram on Vimeo.
And here are some of the static JobGrams:
So do you like them then? I do - particularly the video - I think there will be a few more of these popping up soon!
You will notice that they all drive the applicants back to the career site for conversion, which is really important. These are really an update (or a different take) on those print recruitment adverts from a few years back. But these are more visual, appealing and definitely more shareable.
I expect to see many more different styles and approaches to recruitment advertising appearing over the next few months and years, as the technology now exists to be the bearer of all our ideas.
For any of you that want to explore Paul's new product further for your advertising, he will be over at TruLondon in March, and I am sure happy to talk JobGrams with you:-)
Maybe Paul can add some comments below to explain how successful they have been in driving applicants and (more importantly) successful hires for the companies?
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Comments 7
Career Sherpa
Andy,
I couldn’t agree more! I also think that creating a visual job description forces the employer to really think about who they want and what skills, talents, abilities and interests will make them a good cultural fit! This helps both the job seeker and the hiring company!
I hope we see more progressive companies jump on this bandwagon…it just makes sense!
Andy Headworth
I am sure we will see things change as more companies are prepared to go outside their normal ‘comfort zones’ in recruitment.
@Alconcalcia
All well and good but how much would a video like that cost to produce in terms of the wording and design? Currently, a lot of recruiters won’t even invest in copywriting (preferring instead to cut & paste job descriptions or come up with some semi-,iterate offering with all the allure of a dead sheep) which is a minimal outlay in the greater scheme of things such as quality of response, so I can’t see too many queuing up for this if it has a price attached that’s anything other than minimal. But then, as I say, someone has to write the script/storyboard etc. etc. Maybe more job boards should start enabling clients to supply PDFs or JPEGs of finished ads which have been professionally produced - i.e. the quality of a press ad, but online. I can’t imagine the cost would be any more restrictive. As I have said many times elsewhere, we are complicating the recruitment process more than is necessary. The simple facts are that human beings are driven by their emotions. They see a job ad that reaches out to them and ticks all the boxes in terms of who they are and where they are in their career and there is a good chance they will be tempted to apply. Gadgetry, gimmicks, badly written ads and coloured boxes alone won’t do it - at any price.
Andy Headworth
Alasdair,
I sort of knew this would not appeal to you
You are right, ‘Gadgetry, gimmicks, badly written ads and coloured boxes alone won’t do it ‘ and that is not the point of me highlighting this interesting innovation.
They are simply different ways to capture people’s imagination and drive them back to the career site, where there is more detail about the roles and the obvious application process. In my mind they are no difference to recruitment advertising of a few years ago. They are simply making use of the different mechanisms of job distribution (social) that a simple text add (however well written they are) can’t do.
Will they appeal to everyone? No. But they will appeal to some, and according to Paul they are working well for his clients.
The art of well written copy for job ads will never disappear, and your skills will always be in need, but there are times when it is worth trying something a little different.
This is not about complicating the recruitment process, but just adding something different to the mix. These adverts are just as likely to ‘stir an emotion’ with a jobseeker, as a ‘standard’ job board advert, an image, a video or a slideshare deck could do.
It is surely not the medium used, but the content and the message that is important?
@Alconcalcia
Indeed Andy, I am not against adding to the mix, but as I said, what about the cost? I’m all for creativity in the form of design, colour AND words, but it generally comes at a price. hence why I said it’s all well and good but how much would something like this cost and would your average recruiter be willing to shell out for it given some are reluctant even to write good copy let alone incorporate the cost of decent design and layout. As you mentuoned “no difference to recruitment advertising of a few years ago” which is what I sometimes hark back to. The difference being these days that with the ease of online posting freely available to all, many are ignoring the quality aspect of days of youre and instead posting absolute dross. How would this new innovation change thet given a reulctance to invest at the ‘front end’ by a lot of recruiters?
TsvetomirTodorov
Thank you for the useful advice! When I was seeking a job online last month, I had similar impressions about the offers - very dull and boring. When there is an image, a different font of the text it just makes it more appealing.
On the other hand, even the good looking ones often didn’t have proper business communication - the message that the eventual employer was trying to send wasn’t structered properly and some parts about the job were unclear, which causes confusion and misunderstanding. I think that one or two good courses in the use of social media are a must for every employer nowadays.
ReidyRZGroup
On the money Andy !!!!