Schrock Innovations Airs new “Recruitment” Radio Ad
- Comments: 16
- Written on: February 17th, 2010
Last December I attended a seminar about the various ways radio advertising can be used to accomplish goals other than simple product and service marketing.
One of the speakers spoke about using radio to recruit new employees rather than the newspaper or a recruitment service – especially when you are hiring for key positions.
Why Use Radio to Recruit Employees?
For one thing, it can be less expensive than the newspaper and is definitely less expensive than a recruiting service.
Schrock is hiring a Web Development Director, and it would have cost us over $900 to place a classified ad in the Lincoln Journal Star for that position.
A recruiter would have charged a percentage of the employees annual salary – typically 10% – which would have been up to $4,000 for this position.
Second, using radio allows us to do more than just look for an employee with an ad. It also tells all of the station’s listeners that we are hiring, we pay well, and that working at Schrock is a great experience.
While we are reaching out to potential employees, we are also increasing our brand awareness.
Here is the ad we ran for our Web Development Director position.
What Kind of Employees Do You Find With Radio?
The biggest reason to use radio for recruitment is so simple most HR managers miss it.
When you post an ad on Craigslist, in the classifieds, or on Monster you are advertising to the available pool of unemployed workers – or at best un-loyal workers who are always shopping around.
When you think about it, the people you want to reach are the ones that employers have held on to. These key people have the best skill sets, the highest degree of training, and are competent at what they do.
When you hire from the pool of employed people rather than the pool of unemployed people you get fewer applicants, but the applicants you do get are of a much higher caliber.
So How Much Does a Recruitment Ad Cost?
We ran an ad about 60 times on one local station for about $800. We had one very qualified applicant, currently employed with a competitor, on the first day the ad ran. The ad is still running, so I will post about how it comes out.
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- Comments: 16
“When you hire from the pool of employed people rather than the pool of unemployed people you get fewer applicants, but the applicants you do get are of a much higher caliber.” Shame on you for saying the unemployed are not as high a caliber as employed applicants. ”
When you post an ad on Craigslist, in the classifieds, or on Monster you are advertising to the available pool of unemployed workers – or at best un-loyal workers who are always shopping around.” Really you would rather have un-loyal workers then a currently unemployed person??
Do you know all the unemployed people in the US??? What a cold hearted thing to say when many of the unemployed are unemployed due to the economy and layoffs. You are no better then they are.
It can be a useful exercise to ask applicants to include details of their non-work interests and achievements. This can often be a good indicator of a potential candidate’s social skills, determination and their attitudes towards others.
Till then,
Jean
It’s either paying 4 grand for a recruiter’s service or spend more time (money) picking needle from the haystack – there is always an opportunity cost either way.
@seara
Don’t misunderstand, I am not saying there are not great people available for hire from the ranks of the unemployed right now – there are.
However the unemployment rate in Lincoln, NE is 4.2% today – statistical full employment.
Additionally, doesn’t it make sense that the absolute best employees are still being retained by their employers because they can’t afford to lose them?
That is indeed out of the box thinking and the logic is impeccable. The ad is appealing and I now look forward to your further post on the net outcome.
Looking for employees using radio? That is something new for me.
its has been years when peoples looking employees using radio. thats one of advertising, but i rarely heard it self, only few times a month.
Good thinking there Thor! It is a double whammy, where your recruitment drive also spreads the word about your business to potential customers. On top of all of this you save money. Classic! Have you managed to fill the position as of yet?
nice post and and all is very fantastic sharing telling about Recruitment” Radio Ad all is very informative.
@seara.. The way you are getting touchy about these issues (including the one in another article), I am sure you have never run a business. Thor never meant any disrespect to unemployed workers, but he has all the rights to choose from a pool that he wants.
@thor..keep us posted on how it went, and do you really see value add of radio ads in terms of money spent/response..
That sign is really hilarious (now hiring – ‘must have a clue’)! Any idea where it’s located?
Till then,
Jean
@Net Age
Yes, actually it was very effective. We found an applicant who met the criteria and accepted the position a couple days ago.
I will post the details in an upcoming post. We are so thrilled that we are running another ad next week for a computer repair technician.
@Thor – congrats. That’s good to know that your radio ad worked out for you… Keep us posted with the details.
Radio advertising definitely sounds like an ingenious idea. A very insightful and interesting post to read.
Using radio allows us to do more than just look for an employee with an ad. It also tells all of the station’s listeners that we are hiring, we pay well, and that working at Schrock is a great experience.
[...] Innovations successfully hired a new Web Development Director last week thanks to a radio recruitment advertisement we ran on KIBZ-FM, The [...]