Tag: recruitment advertising

Does Radio Work For Health Care Recruiting?

You already know that I’ll say it does — I’m a radio salesman. So ignore me.

Listen to Brandon Byars of Kaiser Permanente here in Portland.

Brandon is Kaiser’s Manager of Recruitment Services and Workforce Planning, and he uses radio advertising — K103 and other stations — to drive traffic to their website and hiring events.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDlgAKzGTEw]

There’s a nationwide shortage of nurses, and good ones are hard to find. Kaiser Permanente has been able to hire more than 40 nurses with radio as an important part of their recruiting effort. And they’re still hiring.

Thanks to my colleague Ann Culhane for the video — and for putting together campaigns that work for Kaiser Permanente.

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Economic Downturn = Recruiting Opportunity

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.   — Warren Buffett

There’s no shortage of marketing advisors who will tell you that the best time to gain market share is during a downturn. Usually that advice is aimed at those who sell a product or service.

But a recent Wall Street Journal article indicates that some employment recruiters are seeing the same opportunity. In some cases, they are aggressively hiring even in cases where it might not make short-term sense on paper.

Among them is Steve Bonner, Chief Executive of Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Here’s his reaction to the applicant pool at their recent hospital opening in Phoenix:

… Bonner was so overwhelmed that he is considering hiring additional employees long before he needs them… ‘I’m asking myself: where are my weak spots, and is this an opportunity to plug one?’

Like Mr. Bonner, some employers are seizing the recession as an opportunity to strengthen their talent pool, poach stars from rivals or rebuild after layoffs. Every opening attracts dozens of qualified, and overqualified, applicants.

Another example from the article:

Consider Model N Inc., a closely held Silicon Valley software maker. Kamal Ahluwalia, vice president of corporate marketing, says Model N traditionally faced tough competition for employees from software giants such as Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, as well as smaller startups.

“Now, all the big guys are on hiring freeze, and most of the startups are dying,” he says. “In this downturn, we really do have an opportunity to hire the best talent.”

Since this is my blog, I’ll mention here that I’ve got a rooting interest in this process.

My company, Clear Channel  Portland, will be putting on a Career and Education Fair on Wednesday, May 20 at Clackamas Town Center. We’ve already got exhibitors from the Portland, Vancouver and Salem areas signed up to fill jobs in the fields of medical & health care, financial services, law enforcement, and armed forces. And there’s plenty of room for more.

We’ll be promoting the event on seven English-language radio stations and four Spanish-language stations, so this will attract a large and diverse applicant pool.

Interested in being an exhibitor? Call me at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Job Fair Gets Results for New England Financial

It’s tough for financial services companies to recruit good representatives. The best ones combine a strong knowledge of investments and finance with the ability to teach and counsel — and you have to be able to sell.

Recently, New England Financial was an exhibitor at the Clear Channel Career and Education Fair at Lloyd Center. Below, Jon Lawry of New England Financial talks about how it went:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fb4J75x_UA]

Our next Career and Education Fair will be Wednesday, May 20 at Clackamas Town Center. If you’d like to be part of it, call Phil Bernstein (that’s me!) at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Recruiting Case Study: Radio Gets Results for Owens Corning

Owens Corning was preparing to open a new plant in Gresham, Oregon. They needed to recruit skilled workers for some tough-to-fill positions.

So Owens Corning decided to give radio advertising a try. We put together a combination radio-and-online campaign on 1190 KEX Radio in Portland.

Did it work? We’ll let John McClellan of Owens Corning tell the story:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSk7rVRVUCs]

Candidates who heard the ad were directed to type in the keyword “Owens Corning” in the search bar on the KEX web site. This took them to a special page we built which described the open positions and qualifications. The page had a link so that candidates could email resumes directly to an Owens Corning recruiter.

It was easy for Owens Corning to track results and know exactly what they got from the campaign.

While the traditional recruitment advertising methods, such as classified ads, job boards,  and career fairs, are good at attracting the “active” job seeker, they miss the very desirable “passive” candidate — the currently employed worker who isn’t seeking a new job, but would be open to a new opportunity.

Radio advertising excels at reaching those candidates as they drive to and from work, and on the job site.

If you’ve got positions to fill in the Portland/Salem/Vancouver area, Phil Bernstein — that’s me! —  can help you get these kind of results. Give me a call at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Recruiters Use Radio Advertising To Reach Passive Candidates

I’m working with a Portland insurance company on a radio-and-internet campaign that hit the airwaves this week. The recruiter needs salespeople, and this is what he told me:

  • Each year, he hires roughly 100 sales agents
  • 50 of those agents will be gone before the end of their first year 
  • Of the 50 who remain, 25 will leave the company before the end of Year 2. 
  • In other words, 75% of the people he hires don’t last two years

He doesn’t have any trouble filling his openings. But he has trouble filling them with people who are good enough to make it work. That’s where radio can help. 

Most of the traditional recruiting avenues – classified ads, job boards, etc – target people who are already actively searching for a job. They may already be unemployed, or failing at their current position.

There’s another, more desirable category of candidate – the person who has a job, isn’t thrilled with it, but would be open to another opportunity. Radio can reach that person in the car on the way to work, at their workstation, and in the car on the way home after a bad day.

The radio-and-internet campaign will give this recruiter access to people who may not have considered financial services as a career – and people who may have considered it, but may not be thinking about his company.

Does this mean that, as a human resources person or recruiter, you should stop all your traditional activity and do nothing but radio? No. You’ll still get some good people through those old methods. But if you’re not getting enough high-quality candidates with your current methods, it may be time to give radio a try.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.