Using Marketing Automation to Improve Corporate Recruiting Effort
Client: Child & Family Support Services, a behavioral health company in Arizona
Role: UX/UI designer, process designer
Tools: SharpSpring Automation, Adobe Creative Suite, Gmail/Outlook/Yahoo Mail
Overview: The client struggled to get potential employment candidates to complete critical steps in the recruitment, application, interview, and job offer processes. I led a team of UX/UI designers, writers, and marketing professionals to use a popular automation platform to improve opens, track activities across multiple platforms, and increase the performance of employment candidates recruited by the client.
Results and Achievements
With more than 35 custom email designs, each with a specific purpose, goal, and place in the new recruiting system, my team and I more than doubled the number of recruits getting to the interview, and 4x the number of email opens while cutting spam complaints by more than half.
The client, operating in a high-turnover industry, also decreased first-year turnover by 27%, attributed to our first-year employee post-hire email designs that maintained contact, provided helpful resources, and connected new hires to their experienced colleagues.
This new system was so successful we expanded it to cover the client’s offices in three other cities and improved its efforts to fill the firm’s more than 700 frontline staffing needs.
Campaign One: Book the Interview
Goal: Schedule an interview slot on the recruiting team’s Google Calendar using Calendly, a meeting scheduling platform.
Triggers:
Click the booking link in the email or in-person contact with a recruiter who schedules the interview time.
Confirmation email received from Calendly, a 3rd-party meeting booking system
Failure to engage with the emails triggers a new email sequence to either confirm their interest in the position or move them out of the system.
Email Campaign Sequencing
Identifying each element of the recruiting team’s goals throughout the process was key to identifying the actions and triggers that are most likely to lead to their desired results. In four specific email campaigns, the cadence with which we sent follow-up emails, the design of each email, the targeted content contained, and their purposes helped rapidly improve recruiting results. Below are my automation designs for each of the four campaigns, along with their purposes, triggers, and final email sequence goal. Click the images below for larger views of the Email Campaign Sequences.
Campaign Two: Make It to the Interview
Goal: Get the candidate to their interview time as scheduled in Campaign One.
Email Sequence:
If the interview is scheduled in fewer than 4 days, the system will only send one reminder email with details, including date, time, and location.
If the interview is scheduled between 4 and 7 days, the system sends out two reminder emails, including custom content about the company, the position, and the interview expectations.
If the interview is scheduled beyond 7 days, the system sends out three emails with more details about the company, the position, interview expectations, and company culture.
Campaign Three: Complete the Application
Goal: Make sure candidates with successful interviews complete applications and background check requirements. Before I designed this new system, more than 65% of candidate dropouts happened here.
Email Sequence (Post-Interview):
For successful candidates, an email sequence provides links and clear instructions on completing the application and background check.
Notifications are sent to recruiters both when the candidate completes the application and when their background check is complete.
For unsuccessful candidates, the system sends out one email thanking them for their application and informing them they did not get the job.
Campaign Four: Attend New Hire Training
Goal: Ensure new hires get to their new hire training on time.
Email Sequence (Post-Interview):
All new hires receive details about their new hire training. The number of emails and the content each receives depends on how far in advance their training is scheduled.
