If I were to say content is a great marketing strategy, i would probably be shoved in a time machine and sent back to 2003-05 era when blogger opened the flood gates of content. But how many startups use it also for Talent Acquisition?
Just focusing on the informal definition of word Talent – It is someone smart, skilled and passionate enough to get the job done. A further dissection and you’ll realize skill is an outcome of passion. It is very difficult to find someone super skilled who hates what he/she does. So naturally passionate people continue to upskill themselves. What’s the best method to learn – Books and Google. So why not publish the latest breakthrough to attract those knowledge hungry seekers and lure them in your HR pipeline. If you are Unilever, why not talk about the latest marketing case, If you are a AI startup, why not talk about your latest implementation of K-means clustering. If you are Indigo, why not talk about the process approach to everything.
The naysayers will bring the “But this is my competitive advantage”. I have 26 counter arguments to this and can go ranting forever but the top ones would include a.) There is always lead time advantage b.) You can disguise it into more theoretical case study c.) Technology has a shelf life – sooner someone else will discover and publish it d.) This is an impetus not to rest on your laurels and discover the next breakthrough.
If you look it from a Talent’s perspective – She needs a place where she gets to do some meaningful work, solve some tough problems and work amongst smart co-workers. Your content can showcase the tough problems you have solved, the scope of potential problems you’ll be solving in the next 3 years and the fact that you are on the bleeding edge – proves that the talent within the company is already smart. If this work is multi-disciplinary, even better which means there is a collaborative culture. This is not limited to tech but marketing, sales, operations etc. Each aspect is crucial and there is tonne to write about.
Content also helps a peek into the company culture. Of course people can catch the bluff over a series of posts so the genuineness of content is a very strong differentiator and a signaling mechanism about the authenticity. It can also help you counter the perception if you have a low Glassdoor score
Don’t forget to build an HR pipeline around it by having the situation specific CTA.
#Cliched Line – Read our other Nuggets here. Any feedback, drop a note at rijul@astarcventures.com
Tags: Hiring, Nugget Series, Talent