Recruitment Marketing: What Is It And How You Can Put It To Work For You

The data from Fullbay’s State of Heavy-Duty Repair report emphasizes this: almost 40% of shops reported it was much more difficult to hire techs in 2021!

Let’s zero in on one of the biggest issues: the growing generational gap in techs. A good chunk of the old guard (Boomers and some Gen-Xers) are retiring or finding new, less physically demanding lines of work. The roles they leave behind are not being filled particularly quickly by younger Millennials or Gen-Z-ers, because…well, Fullbay and the Tech Force Foundation talked about why at length here, so we won’t get too much into it. But in general, there are fewer younger techs out there to fill the workboots of those leaving the industry, which means you’ve got to woo them.

Yes. We said woo.

We’re a marketing agency, so naturally our advice will tie into marketing—really, it’s kind of a two birds, one stone moment (or two techs, one shop?). 

With that said, let’s talk about recruitment marketing.

WHAT IS RECRUITMENT MARKETING?

When broken down to its most basic level, recruitment marketing is basically being a good place to work.

Think about it this way. Most of the younger generation discovers jobs the same way they discover entertainment and products: online. Maybe they’re on their phone, maybe they’re surfing on a computer. The point is they aren’t combing want ads in newspapers anymore or checking out Craigslist.

This is where your shop’s digital footprint becomes a selling point.

And believe us, it’s a big digital footprint.

Let’s say a Millennial technician is looking for a new job. They see you’ve posted a job on Indeed. The potential tech will look at your website. If you’ve got a decent digital presence, they can also look at the following things:

• Your shop’s social media
• The social media of your employees
• Testimonials from customers
• Possibly your customers’ social media profiles

“If someone is applying for a job, they’re gonna go check your online presence,” Patti Moore, Operations Manager at Dieselmatic, confirms. “If you have active social media, if you have a professional website, if you have a lot of reviews and an active Google Business profile … you have that authority that makes someone want to work there.” 

They can get A LOT of information from the aforementioned places. They aren’t restricted to what you say about your company in a want ad. They can do extra research.

And they can find out all sorts of things.

WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOUR SHOP?

It is a well-known fact that most people don’t want to work at places that make them miserable. Look, most of us spend 40+ hours a week at our jobs—if those jobs are terrible, those 40+ hours can absolutely grind you down. 

The young ’uns know this. So they do their research.

A careful examination of a shop’s digital footprint can show them the following:

• Testimonials: Customer opinions can tell us if employees are happy or at least content—do they speak glowingly of their interactions with the staff? Moreover, do they consistently do good work? (Also indicative of a happy or content workforce.)
• Social media: Look, we don’t encourage creeping on people’s private socials. But if employees have public profiles, you’re darn right prospective employees will be looking at them. Do they post about funny stuff that happens on the job? Are there pictures of their colleagues? Do they seem like a happy group? All this stuff goes into the calculation.

Meanwhile, your shop’s social media should be regularly updated and at least somewhat monitored for the odd customer question that may pop up. Most of the younger folks are looking for posts that indicate pride in the workforce—managers celebrating promotions, new certifications, tough jobs, and so on.

HOW TO PUT RECRUITMENT MARKETING TO WORK FOR YOU

Happy employees do better work. Repeat that until it sticks.

The absolute best thing you can do is maintain a workplace that people want to work in. We hope you’re there already, but if not, here’s a crash course in what to do:

• Treat your employees well. 
• Provide raises, bonuses, benefits, and all that jazz.
• Look into covering or going halfsies on additional certifications.
• Give regular reviews.
• Obtain feedback.
• Say “thanks”—and mean it.

Once you’ve got a workplace people want to be in, you go digital.

That’s it. That’s how you get recruitment marketing to work.

“If [potential employees] go to look your shop up and there’s no information,” Patti cautions, “they don’t get the same type of confidence that this could be a long-term employment opportunity.”

HOW CAN DIESELMATIC HELP WITH RECRUITMENT MARKETING?

Dieselmatic is the expert in taking your shop digital and helping you build the kind of footprint that will attract customers and technicians for years to come. But lots of our partners have expressed interest in getting some help with job postings, too—you know, that other big component of hiring. 

We’re happy to oblige. 

Our DieselJobs feature allows you to create job postings from scratch or with the help of a template right inside the Dieselmatic app. You can customize key elements like compensation and benefits, and when it’s good to go, you can automatically post it to your shop’s website. Applications will go to the email inbox you select, and you can review them as they arrive. 

Want to know more? Get in touch with us—we can’t wait to show you what we can do!