If only early-career recruiting were like a movie, you could guarantee a happy ending—in this case, your organization attracting and hiring top talent—no matter what struggles you face. But, sadly, your journey to get qualified candidates doesn’t always follow a Hollywood script.
You should use a movie, though, for inspiration to create a successful early-career recruiting process. Start with The Goonies, a classic film that features a group of teenagers who come together to find long-lost treasure. Here’s how a Goonies approach to recruiting could get your organization the ultimate treasure: top diverse early-career talent.
The Goonies became friends because they all live in the Goon Docks area of their Oregon town. When their parents announce their homes are facing foreclosure—and thus presented with the prospect of moving—they realize just how important their connections to their community are.
That’s not unlike how the candidate experience has been viewed. For years, many companies considered a positive candidate experience as a nice-to-have feature of the recruiting process. It’s more than that, though. In today’s tight labor market—with unemployment at 3.5 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—it’s a must if you want to get qualified candidates and have a successful organization.
Look at Virgin Media, for example—they set out to quantify how much their candidate experience affected their bottom line. They found that six percent of candidates canceled their Virgin subscription as a direct result of the interview process, costing the company $5 million annually. That’s most likely just the tip of the iceberg, moreover, as it doesn’t take into account candidates’ family and friends following suit.
The Goonies were so determined to stay together that they embarked on a quest for One-Eyed Willie’s long-lost treasure. While your organization doesn’t have to fight off the Fratellis, they are in the midst of the war for top talent—and any positive differentiator that helps you hire more qualified candidates is worth its weight in gold.
One of the most lovable characters in the film is Sloth, a Fratelli with Herculean strength. When he’s first introduced, however, he’s portrayed as a potential threat to Chunk, one of the Goonies. It’s only through learning more about who Sloth is and what he values that we grow to love him.
The same is true with your company’s employer branding. Potential applicants may not be well-informed about your company’s mission and values. Utilizing employer branding is your chance to tell your organization’s story—and have applicants fall in love with your company.
Just like the Goonies are rewarded for trusting Sloth when he comes to save the day, your early-career recruiting process will reap the rewards. According to LinkedIn, organizations with a strong employer reputation see their cost-per-hire decrease by 43 percent compared to their competitors. At WayUp, we’ve found that custom employer branding campaigns drive a 35 percent uptick in qualified candidates—emphasis on qualified—for our partners and clients. Now that’s how you create an efficient hiring funnel.
In the end, the Goonies find the treasure that solves all their families’ financial woes and allows them to indefinitely live in the same town together. If you focus on creating a positive candidate experience and creating employer branding campaigns, your early-career recruiting process will see similarly positive results.
Just remember: If you create an early-career process inspired by The Goonies, you’ll get the Hollywood ending by attracting—and hiring—top talent.
