Budgeting is never easy and rarely fun, but this year it takes on an entirely new twist as your business continues its pandemic recovery and weathers The Great Resignation of 2021. Finding and retaining top talent has never been more challenging. So, what can you do to set a realistic, effective job advertising budget for the year ahead?
Be Flexible
As the economic picture continues to be repainted, flexibility is key to all aspects of recruitment planning, including budgeting. Know that you may need to pivot as you determine what level of business growth you anticipate in 2022. Also ask yourself:
- How many new job orders will it take to achieve that growth level?
- How many applies do you need for each order?
- And, how much will you earn on each one?
Build a hiring formula for the year based on these parameters, yet don’t lose sight of that flexibility in order to deal with any additional uncertainty that may lie ahead.
Use Technology and Data to Your Advantage
Part of maximizing the ROI from your advertising spend is balancing not only dollars, but also the time invested in the process. The key is to source candidates faster and in doing so, attract not just any talent, but the right talent.
- Use automation so your recruiters can devote value-added time to other, more strategic work. For instance, consider automating job title testing and location expansion. One approach is to use software to post ads in multiple cities. This makes it as simple as possible for your jobs to appear in a variety of desirable markets.
- Make data-driven decisions. Don’t rely solely on gut instinct. Look at your data to know how many applications you need for each open position. Build your budget around that.
Add programmatic job boards to your budget toolkit.
Programmatic advertising is not a panacea, nor should it be. But it can be a valuable added candidate source. Its differentiator is algorithms, which read your information and use it to determine exactly which job boards to use to reach the right candidates at the right time.
- Programmatic job boards tend to work best with professional and skilled trade jobs, versus high volume click-and-apply positions. It will not bring in a flood of candidates, but it has a number of important benefits. Among them: It helps with diversification of job board distribution. And, algorithms can make decisions much faster than any human could. Programmatic advertising can be a good way to achieve an increase in applications without a hike in cost.
At Haley Marketing, our recruitment experts can help you craft the most realistic, achievable and reliable advertising budget in the face of the uncertain 2022 job market looming on the horizon. Our mission since 1996 has been to help our clients succeed, sustain growth, stay top of mind, and realize optimal ROI and business results. Read our related posts or contact us today to learn more.
