Needle In A Haystack

I heard an ad on the radio last week. It was for ZipRecruiter. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.” A few minutes later, I heard another ad for Indeed.com. “Indeed you do.” The broadcast airwaves are full of ads targeting every business in America to help them solve “The Labor Crisis.”

The U.S. unemployment rate hovers at 3.5%, nearly half the average all-time average of 5.9%. The only time in history it was lower (2.5%) was in the summer of 1953, when the post-war U.S. economy was booming at 8% annual growth rates in GDP. (By the way, our economy is not booming right now, and inflation is four times GDP.)

Why is the unemployment rate so low? Some economists say we are at “full employment,” the phenomenon where there are not enough workers and too many available jobs, usually defined at about 3.9%-4% unemployment. Like any supply and demand issue, high demand for workers and low supply of workers has created an unprecedented imbalance. Finding a qualified team member is tough – some say impossible – in this environment. Where do you find your needle in a haystack?

Madison+Main has been doing a ton of recruitment work in the past few years, even before the pandemic. And the recruitment strategies we employ for clients have changed drastically in the last year. Full employment means more and more companies are competing for a shrinking labor force. 

Instead of simply advertising to people who are unemployed and looking for work, we’ve advised clients to look for great candidates by branding their companies as great places to work. We’re essentially targeting people who already have a job, but don’t love their jobs.

And it’s working. Instead of trying to find the “needles in the haystack” of the chronically unemployed, we’ve been putting marketing messages in front of qualified people who already work…for someone else.

If you’re spending tons of money on Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Monster, SimplyHired, and other job boards, maybe it’s time to rethink your strategies. We recently helped a client get fully staffed for the first time in three years with a digital campaign on LinkedIn and Facebook. And we didn’t target job seekers. We put the ads in front of people who already had jobs. 

If you need help creating a brand that people WANT to work for, we can help. Operators are standing by.