Moving beyond money and meaning in recruitment marketing
Money and meaning are overrated - or that may be the case in recruitment, at least. Akcelo's brand strategy partner, Simon McCrudden reveals why he’s thinking more deeply about how to attract quality talent in an increasingly tight market.
For many Australians, employment expectations are driven by two dichotomies – money and meaning. People either expect more money than is available or appropriate, or they are searching for a deeper meaning in their work than is achievable.
The truth? Both demands are unhelpful.
A recent ABS report highlighted that almost one-third of Australian businesses are having difficulty recruiting staff, with 79% saying the primary factor was a lack of applicants for advertised positions.
The causes of this are well documented – we’re living through an unemployment rate below 4%, and a huge reduction in immigration numbers post-COVID. The few applicants that do exist are able to demand wages above and beyond what many businesses on tight margins are able to provide.
Plus, simmering in the background is the belief that work has to deliver a transcendental meaning, and that if it doesn’t, we should pursue another role. However, in the grand scheme of things, most work won’t deliver this kind of meaning to our lives.
We perhaps saw the ramifications of this in the viral “Quiet Quitting” wave of headlines last year – and the backlash proved that many are unwilling to accept that work may not provide substantial meaning.
And in a consumerist, image-driven age, more and more of us aren’t ever going to be satisfied with the money in our pockets either.
This is, of course, a challenge for Australian businesses. It is an incredibly tight employment market. Recruiting and retaining people using either money or meaning isn’t going to be effective. So what will?
Identify your employees’ motivations for work
In his excellent book, ‘Why We Work’, psychologist Barry Schwartz identifies seven motivations for work, including money and meaning.
The other five are: Engagement, Autonomy, Social Engagement, Mastery and Challenge. Any of these five drivers can be opportunities for Australian businesses or government agencies that want to drive recruitment, as ways to tap into what motivates their audience.
McDonald’s recent ‘Mates make it Maccas’ campaign by Akcelo used this insight to full effect. One of Australia’s largest employers of young workers, McDonalds has ambitious nationwide recruitment targets to meet this year.
Two of Schwarz’s key drivers were used in the campaign. The first was social engagement, which sits at the heart of the McDonald’s experience. Current staff rated the friendships made at work as one of the elements they valued most about their jobs. This eventually inspired the campaign line, ‘Mates make it Macca’s’.
The second motivation the campaign leveraged was mastery. The Macca’s Burger Challenge mobile game helped prospective crew members build base skills in a gamified experience to test speed, coordination and memory. This encouraged them to find out if they had what it takes to become part of the McDonald’s team. It was a prime example of leveraging the power of mastery in motivational recruitment.
Within one campaign, two key levers were being pulled to help meet, and exceed, the ambitious recruitment objective.
What does your prospective talent really want?
Variety and impact seem to be the go-to strategies for recruiters listing the roles, tasks and experiences a job will entail. But this only scratches the surface of what people are looking for.
When thinking about developing recruitment campaigns, a more valuable starting point would be to dissect and identify the fundamental drivers in the job that the prospective audience wants.
By looking beyond the restricting dichotomy of money and meaning as recruitment strategies, organisations can communicate what their brand really stands for. Not only will this attract more quality talent, it will help develop a reputation for consumers at large.
After all, a recruitment campaign is a broad touchpoint for the whole market that speaks to what a brand values. This is something that’s often overlooked. As such, recruitment can be used to connect with Australian consumers more broadly, as well as those looking for work.
Money and meaning still, and in many cases will always, have a place in recruitment marketing. But in an environment where prospective employees are looking for more, employers will need to rethink their approach – particularly larger employers. Not only will this approach open your organisation to a wider talent pool, it can deliver brand value that goes far beyond headcount.
Simon McCrudden, partner, brand and strategy, Akcelo
