Return on investment (ROI) can be seen as a dry number-crunching proposition. While to some extent this is true, ROI is exciting.
The data it produces is exciting, and what you can do with it will transform how you evaluate your recruitment campaigns and marketing initiatives. Every resourcing manager should be embracing it, asking for more of it and its analysis. But don’t stop at just thinking about financial return on investment, there is more to it than that. ROI is not just a target, but a behaviour.
Every activity you enter into should be considered in the context of ROI. Creativity can be judged by how well it researches, a website can be judged by how much it has improved in journey to application. Employer branding must be followed up in terms of awareness and engagement. These are web development, branding and creative initiatives but one should always be measuring against a goal.
As an employer, you can now track every step from first seeing an ad or job posting right through to completing an application. This will then allow you to work back to your original advertising and establish whether or not a particular site, placement, job posting or creative is performing for you based on real ROI – cost per applicant. Your website should be built so that you can use this tracking to understand the basic fundamentals of your advertising.
- How many people visited my site?
- How much did it cost to get someone to visit my site?
- How many people applied?
- How much did it cost to get someone to apply?
- Did they visit other pages such as role information?
Web analytics can show you the drop-off rates along your application process: using this information to improve the process means that you will need fewer candidates at the top of the pipeline to achieve the same number of hires, thus saving money.
We have talked about digital primarily here for its obvious benefits but applying an ROI mentality to everything you do should be second nature and your agency should also have the same approach. All of the above involves technology, but it’s not complicated, it’s easy to implement and will open your eyes to data and learning that will impress even the most hardened advocate of the local newspaper route.
Marco Bertozzi, director of advertising and sourcing operations, TMP Worldwide
