First and foremost, only 18% of candidates are currently actively looking for a new job. The great majority therefore fit the description of a passive candidate (whether they're opening doors to opportunities or not). The best way to reach this large proportion of the talent market? Build solid, long-term relationships.
It's true that candidate communications such as emailings or newsletters can be a real asset in reaching those profiles who don't apply for your vacancies, but who might be interested if you communicate regularly with them and share relevant information.
Whether they're young workers or still in higher education (and therefore soon to be on the job market...), young people are the most open to regular communication on your part. So think about animating your talent pools made up of the youngest generations.
If you're planning to recruit these junior profiles, you already know that you'll have an audience interested in your content. So, what themes should you tackle with them?
Content types
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Proportion interested (%) |
Content ideas |
|
Job offers that match their profile
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As with all age groups, the younger generations want to receive job offers that match their profile. 89% of them do! |
You can set up automatic mailings according to their profile, skills, etc. Don't forget that they may be less familiar with recruitment practices than more senior profiles: don't hesitate to detail all the stages of the process and give them advice so that they can anticipate it with confidence. |
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Event invitations where they can meet the company's recruitment teams
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Younger people (18-24) are particularly keen on this content. 88% want to receive information about your events by email (compared to an average of 78% for other age groups). |
If you organize or attend events such as job fairs, job dating, student fairs, etc., don't be shy about suggesting to these profiles that they meet you there. As they are often interested in ongoing learning and training, this could also be an opportunity to invite them to come and discuss your training and development plans? ? |
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Testimonials from company employees working in their field
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The 18-24 age group is also very interested in reading testimonials from your employees (88% would like to receive them, preferably somewhere between once a month and once a quarter). |
The preferred frequency is less regular than for job offers, for example. You can afford to create less content of this type. Why not ask your recent hires to describe in a few words their candidate experience, the reasons why they joined your company and their first steps in the company? You can do that in short videos recorded during their onboarding. The advantage: you shoot these videos just once, and you can reuse them for years to come! |
|
Company and industry news
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Nearly 30% of young people (aged 18-34) would like to receive information about your company and its sector once a quarter. Very few would like to never receive this type of content. |
To attract these young profiles, show your dynamism, whether as an employer brand (atmosphere, organization, conviviality, projects...) or as a company: pioneer in a sector, launching a new product, having received this or that award... In short: draw inspiration from the stories written by your communications department for the news on your website or social networks! |
|
Information on the job market (jobs and training in my sector, laws, rights, duties...)
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90% of 18-24 year olds would like to receive information on the job market! The more experienced would like less. |
These profiles have little experience, so it's not surprising that they need guidance as they take their first steps in the working world. You can also do what's known as curation, i.e. select interesting content from other sites or media and suggest it for reading from your communications. All you have to do is write a short paragraph explaining the relevance of the article and link to it.
The advantage? You regularly send interesting articles (government sites, employment agencies, etc.) without spending a lot of time writing them!
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What about the long-term candidate relationship?
The younger generation is the talent pool that is most willing to receive communications even if they have been turned down for an initial application.
77% of 18-34s would like to continue receiving news from you even if they've been turned down for a job: other job offers in particular, but also information about the job market.Â
Experienced profiles: how do you contact them and what do you tell them?
Slightly less attracted by the idea of receiving regular communications, a large majority of them are nonetheless in favor of it, and generally on the same themes as younger employees: job offers, information about your company and its sector, etc. They are less interested in receiving invitations to events, probably because they are more likely to already be employed.
The other difference with younger people is that they are less interested in receiving information on a regular basis: once a quarter rather than once a month. You need to be able to adapt to these differences, especially as the frequency you choose enables you to reduce your workload and the amount of content you need to produce!
Less content but more specialized
If your target audience is mainly seniors rather than young professionals, you'll need to produce less content, but you may be able to create more complete content and adapt it to your target audience's level of seniority.
Don't waste time with information they already have, and be decisive when it comes to content with higher added value for them: for example, specialized content, case studies or in-depth analyses of trends and challenges within their own field of expertise. This will show that your company is at the forefront of the market and matches the expertise of the most experienced professionals.
Private/public sector: do these professions have different expectations in terms of candidate communication?
Private-sector employees are far more inclined than public-sector workers to be looking for work or listening to the market.
Private-sector employees also seem to be slightly more receptive to regular communications than public-sector (or local authority) workers.
They also seem to expect slightly different information:
- In the public sector, invitations to events seem to be information they wish to receive more regularly than private-sector employees.
- In the private sector, receiving job offers tailored to their profile is the type of content they most want to receive (ahead of information about the company, the sector, the job market, etc.).
Perhaps in the public sector, the idea isn't necessarily to find a new job, but rather to keep abreast of what's new, what's hot and so on. It may be that the job to be done with these âgovernmentâ profiles is a little more time-consuming than that to be done with private-sector employees.
Differences between private and public sector job offers and recruitment processes
What content do you need to present in a job advert or send throughout the recruitment process by email? Does this change if you're a public or private actor?
There are indeed some differences!
In the private sector, it's essential to:
- First and foremost, present the details of the job (essential for 52%, compared with 48% in the public sector): don't hesitate to indicate this in the job description and then, in potential emails, give more details, explaining the team's major projects for example.
- Offer a practical website and/or app to make the application process easy (essential for 36%, versus only 16% in the public sector): applying for a job should be easy, as should the rest of the process! Keep these candidates informed of their process progress: they need everything to be simple and clear.
In the public sector, it's essential to:
- Offer an indication of remuneration as a priority (essential for 45%, compared with 43% in the private sector): you can share salary scales or explain how salaries evolve within your entity.
- Make it possible to interact with people within your company during the recruitment process (essential for 33%, versus 25% in the private sector): at the very least, you can also offer testimonials from these people in short videos, for example, or as written verbatims in emails.Â
Extra tip: if you're recruiting for an organization such as an association or foundation?
We're talking about if you're a non-profit, non-governmental entity!
The profiles you're looking for are often a little more specific, but in the end, they're generally interested in the same content as the rest. They are, however, more interested in information linked to the job market (information on jobs and training, laws, rights, duties, etc.).
They are also the most interested in receiving job offers tailored to their profile (90% versus 85% on average for the public and private sectors) - perhaps because new job opportunities are rarer in this environment?
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Business sector: what do you need to communicate according to the type of talent you're looking for?
Be aware that some professions are more motivated than others to receive regular communications from you:
đ„Infrastructure & Operations professions (industry, transport, construction, retail...) (82.6%)
|
đ„Intellectual professions (law, marketing, sales, teaching, culture...) (76%) |
đ„Service professions (real estate, health, banking, telecoms, accounting...) (70.6%) |
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It's also important to know how interesting each type of content is for each type of profession.
Infrastructure & Operations professions (industry, transport, construction, retail...)Â
Give priority to:
- Job offers adapted to their profile (86%)
- Information on the job market (85%)
Don't forget other information, which is of interest to almost 80% (at least) of this type of talent. You can vary your communications more easily than with other profiles
Intellectual professions (law, marketing, sales, teaching, culture...)
Give priority to:
- Job offers adapted to their profile (79%)
- Information on the job market (76%)
And forget:
- Invitations to events (56%)
Concentrate only on the content that interests your talent, and don't waste time on the rest.Â
Service professions (real estate, health, banking, telecoms, accounting...)Â
Give priority to :
- Job offers adapted to their profile (82%)
- News about your company and its sector (77%)
Other information is also of interest: invitations to events (74%), employee testimonials (73%) and information on the job market (74%).Â
Candidates with higher education or a school-leaving certificate: are they interested in the same information?
In your job hunt, do you already know whether you're planning to recruit highly qualified profiles or not? Here's your chance to find out if there's a difference in the content that candidates with a higher education, without a Bachelor's degree or with the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree, would like to receive.
Generally speaking, those with a higher education are always a little more enthusiastic about receiving regular content from companies, for every type of content: job offers, testimonials, invitations, company and sector news, job market information.
This probably has more to do with the way the information is received (by message, email, etc.) than with the content itself. This type of communication is more likely to be received by âofficeâ workers (who have easy access to a computer or tablet).
However, don't hesitate to set up this type of communication for other profiles despite this. Indeed, they have generally been less affected by new recruitment methods (referral, talent nurturing, active sourcing), and taking this kind of action could make you stand out from the crowd.
Did you know? If you're prepared to recruit people who don't have a baccalaureate or its equivalent? They're 2.5x more likely to respond to you on personal social networks: take your chances with this communication channel rather than by email!
The information they are most interested in are:
- job offers adapted to their profile: try to create formats that summarize the offer, for example in dynamic videos, then link to the full job offer on your site
- information linked to the job market: try to offer short, high-impact information, such as a key figure explained in a few sentences to give context
In short: what content do candidates expect, and how often?
Generally speaking, across all candidate types, here's a summary of the information that most interests talent and the preferred frequencies. Feel free to use it or download our study to find over 50 key figures and best practices for understanding how to build quality relationships with your candidates (French version).
What talent is waiting for...
|
... and how often |
| Job offers that match my profile |
Once a week (32%) to once a month (27%)
|
| Invitations to events where you can meet the company's recruitment teams |
Once a month (24%) to once per quarter (22%)
|
| Testimonials from company employees working in the same sector as you |
Once a month (24%) to once per quarter (20%)
|
| News about the company and its sector of activity |
Once a month (27%) to once per quarter (21%)
|
|
Information on the job market (jobs and training in my industry, laws, rights, duties, etc.)
|
Once a month (26%) to once per quarter (21%)
|
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