Everyone knows that marketing jobs have undergone a revolution over the last twenty years, with technological developments opening new vectors of communication for businesses and individuals alike. Alongside these are new rules and new know-how; in short, a new marketing era has dawned. Now that this revolution has taken place, and that the marriage has been consummated so to speak, the impact on jobs which were once thought to be set in stone is becoming visible.

Recruitment is no exception to the rule, far from it. We have already seen this (cf. previous articles); the work of recruiters has changed as a result of the digital revolution. On the corporate side, at a time when we talk about Brand Management, visibility and employer brand, internal recruitment teams are those who have acquired a new role. Yesterday, recruitment was synonymous with discretion. To find future employees, companies often called in head-hunters, discrete middlemen able to find the best qualified people in your competitors’ ranks. HR departments ensured consistency between the values of those presented to a company and the company itself.

 

Today, the process has been somewhat inverted. HR departments are at the heart of marketing actions (or at least they should be). Although their former role is still pertinent, it has become clear that as a window from the outside world on a company, they have a role to play in the latter’s overall communication. For years now, it has been proven that a company’s attractiveness as an employer influences its brand image, and thus consumer behaviour towards it. The digital revolution has given HR departments the opportunity to act on this lever.

 

So, nowadays, discretion is only considered appropriate for highly strategic positions. A company should be visible and post public profiles on social networks so we know who it recruits. Using the same methods as to sell its products, a company must make the best experts in its field want to be a part of it. It is logical, therefore, that the profile of internal recruiters has also changed. Their task is to convey an attractive picture of the company, both through the communication it adopts and its contacts with future employees. The internal recruiter has been forced to come out of the shadows and is now visible and identifiable.

The internal recruiter … is now visible and identifiable

It is the same for the middlemen: head-hunters had a mysterious, even scary, side. Nobody really understood how they find the profiles of professionals. Today, it is clear that reinvention of the function was overdue. From providers, we have become business partners, because we represent the employer brands with which we work. Professionals come to us because we have developed our own brand and communicate our own values. And as partners, we convey the values of the companies we work with to their future employees.

 

Today, whether internal or external, recruiters adopt an attitude that corresponds to the evolution of information, tools and communication. They have a role to play in business communication. They are in the front line when it comes to communicating what an employer brand will be. That is why it is crucial for a company to bear in mind this marketing dimension when choosing a recruitment professional. If a company does not manage its own employer brand, others will do it instead, with all the risks and hazards that this entails.

And you, how will you test your future employees?