The 2.8 million manufacturing workers in the United States make up the backbone of the domestic supply chain. But, finding and hiring the right people to fill manufacturing roles is often easier said than done. While there are myriad ways to get your open manufacturing job reqs in front of the right audience, one that cannot be overlooked is social media marketing.
According to Glassdoor, 79% of applicants turn to social media when on the hunt for a new job opportunity. With such a staggering statistic regarding social media paired with the overwhelming amount of manufacturing employees required to keep the U.S. factory ecosystem afloat, it’s time for TA teams to focus on social recruiting strategies for manufacturing.
Keep reading for four actionable tips to build your social media recruitment strategy for manufacturing workers from the ground up.
Lean on Your Marketing Team
We can’t all be social media wizards, so when it comes to building your social recruiting strategy for manufacturing, enlist the help of your marketing team! Cat Almanzor-Hancock, Talent Acquisition Leader at North Coast Electric, says that it’s imperative to stay “hip-to-hip” with your marketing team so you can better understand the ins and outs of organic and paid social media marketing.
If you work at a larger organization with an employer branding team, be sure to meet with them regularly to report on your experience speaking directly with manufacturing candidates. Giving your employer branding team deep insight into what really makes your applicants tick will allow them to build better marketing materials that you can, in turn, use to bolster your social recruiting strategy.
Pick Diverse Social Media Channels
When building a social recruiting strategy, the options of where to actually invest your time can be overwhelming! Should you advertise on Twitter or TikTok? What about Clubhouse? What even is Clubhouse?!
Save yourself the headache of trying to understand the ever-changing landscape of social media sites and instead, try to think critically about the various segments of workers you are trying to attract to your roles. Perhaps some are from an urban center while others are based out of the rural area surrounding your warehouse. Maybe you’re trying to hire a high volume of manufacturing employees in an area where the average age skews a bit lower. While the goal is, of course, to draw as much interest as possible, not all your potential employees can be found frequenting the same social media apps.
Use the chart below to better understand which social media sites have the highest adoption rates across various demographics to determine where to focus your social recruiting efforts.
Create Organic and Paid Social Recruiting Content
When building out your social recruiting strategy for manufacturing, consider both organic and paid marketing opportunities. While many assume that because it’s free, organic is the way to go, but paid ads tend to have a more consistent and predictable return when it comes to attracting applicants.
But, don’t give up on organic social completely–many companies do a great job of building momentum using paid posts which in return can help organic posts perform even better.
Get Your Employees Involved
Your employees are your best advocates! Encourage them to help build out your social recruiting strategy by asking them to post on their personal accounts.
Consider creating branded assets for your employees to use to share out about open manufacturing positions. And, to really get the ball rolling, offer your workers referral bonuses so that they have the monetary motivation they need to post about open roles on their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts!
Building a compelling and effective social recruiting strategy can be a bit overwhelming! We hope these four social recruiting tips for manufacturing give you the inspiration you need to start tackling social media recruitment ASAP.
