It has become clear that finding talent for your company is often quite similar to finding customers. You treat job seekers that apply to your company with the same respect and dignity you would give customers, and use social media and mobile to target both potential customer and potential employees. Another advertising method that is being increasingly used for recruiting is geo-fencing. Businesses use geo-fencing to confine the placement of their online ads so that they only show up for users that are located within a strategically defined “fence” around a specific location.
To effectively use geo-fencing for recruiting, you may choose to look for candidates near your business, your competitors or a particular area where you know there is a high concentration of qualified candidates. Particularly for businesses such as hotels and restaurants, geo-fencing has been a useful and cost-effective way to find customers for quite a while. Geo-fencing for recruiters works using the same logic.
Geo-Fencing Recruiting Effectively Targets Mobile Users
With mobile phone usage becoming so prevalent, it makes sense that both marketers and recruiters have been focusing more heavily on mobile advertising. Studies have found that location targeting strategies such as geo-fencing have more than doubled the performance of mobile ads. Geo-fencing for recruiters allows you to better target your recruiting efforts so you have less resumes to sort through and less unqualified applicants to interview. This is especially important when proximity to the location of the business is a job requirement. Targeting your ads to a specific location will allow you to fill positions faster, and make it much easier to recruit effectively on a budget.
Some of the other ways geo-fencing works for recruiting is by setting up wireless fences around locations where you have competitors, and narrowing your target audience to people whose Internet activity shows they may be looking to leave their current job. If you are targeting people that are currently employed, it may help to research the factors that may entice passive candidates to leave their current company and work those factors into your ads. These factors can include flexible hours, more vacation time, more potential for career growth or other benefits that may put you ahead of your competitors.
Businesses that Are Using Geo-Fencing for Recruiting
NPR published a recent article entitled Recruiters Use “Geofencing” to Target Potential Hires Where They Live and Work. Mentioned in the article is a recruiter looking for highly specialized neonatal nurse practitioners. Since the talent pool is so small for these positions, she had to get really creative, and turned to geo-fencing as a recruiting tool. She bought lists of potential candidates she found from online profiles and educational records, and used geofencing to set up a wireless fence around areas where these candidates live or work. When qualified candidates enter the area, job ads for the hospital appear on the candidates’ phones. Once a user clicks on the ad, their data is collected and they are sent more ads no matter what location they travel to. Another industry discussed in the article that has found geo-fencing for recruiting useful is trucking. They set up wireless fences around truck stops where they are high concentrations of truck drivers that may be looking for a better opportunity.
With the job market improving, many industries are struggling to find the talent they need to achieve success in their businesses. Particularly for industries that are highly specialized, geo-fencing may be the new answer for many recruiters.
Author: Jessica Cody
Jessica Cody, a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, has a background in online marketing and public relations. Currently, she works at VHMNetwork LLC in the role of Marketing Analyst. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she studied Journalism and Political Science. She is also an avid runner with a passion for the outdoors.
