A buyer's journey is something we normally use in marketing to customers, but it also has a lot to do with how well we can recruit quality caregivers and healthcare workers, and keep them. In the highly competitive world of healthcare and home care recruiting, it's an advantage that you don't want to miss. Adding an employee journey to your marketing can be a powerful way to build a competitive advantage in recruiting.
What is an Employee Journey?
Based on the buyer's journey, this is the step-by-step process that employees take as they first consider making a job or location change, how they consider their options, the search process they use as they look for resources. All of that is followed by comparison and evaluation of what they discover - they'll compare what a job listing says, and then they will check out the company behind it. Once they have identified what they think are the best options, they fill out a form or make contact. The employee journey is the process of going from thinking to considering to acting on a new job opportunity.
Why do competitive employers need to consider this process? Simply put, it allows them to get an advantage in the recruiting process and bring their employer brand to the forefront rather than just relying on a listing placed on a job board.
Job Postings are In the employee Journey, But Not at the Beginning
Lots of agencies treat a job posting as the start of the recruiting journey- the first place they engage the employee. Is looking for a new job the beginning of the job search process? We don't think so. Lots of home care agencies start engaging with job seekers at the END of the process- when the employee is shopping for job listings. Companies use job listings because we've been told that's where the employees are. While that's true, visiting a job listing site is not where the journey actually begins for the employee. In fact, it's near the end of the road in their process.
If job listings are the primary place where you compete for great employees, then you are focusing on the most expensive and most competitive moment to reach them.
The employee journey is a big boost to recruiting because it allows the employer to connect with employees long before they are actually ready to enter the job market. It accounts for the drivers in the life of the employee that occur long before that start actively looking for a new position, and, most important for companies that want and need to recruit more effectively, the buyer's journey.
In the 2020 Homecare Benchmarking Survey, Growing agencies provide an insight into the value of the employee journey- they recruit on their own websites almost twice as much as agencies that aren't growing quickly.
Who is defining the job market?
It's not just job seekers who are in the job market. Agencies using listing services are fishing in the job listing market, too. Plus, job listing services have captured and made money by organizing access to job postings and employees. While that's not news, allowing those listing services to define and control the market takes all the power out of the hands of the staffing agency or employer. It also puts the emphasis on recruiting in the wrong place.
What if you could reach employees outside of the crowded job market, and build a relationship with them that would put you on their "search here first list"when they are looking to make a change? That is the value of the employee journey.
Making the Employee Journey Practical
There are two steps to crafting an effective employee journey that will attract prospects before you have to compete for them in the job listing market. First, you have to deeply understand the actual journey of the prospect, and second, you have to implement that journey in a way that adds value to the future employee's step-by-step process.
Detailing the employee journey requires taking these critical steps:
- Identify key drivers for employees
- Look beyond just compensation and benefit factors
- Identify key moments in the dissatisfaction to action process
Once the employee journey is clearly defined, it has to be then activated throughout the digital properties that you manage. The website is almost always the center of this strategy, and social channels will play a supporting role. Most recruiting efforts realize that current employee testimonials are important, but that's where they stop. The employee journey should be a clear progression in the website that speaks to the unique steps and needs that parallel what is happening in the mind and life of a qualified prospect.
