How Targeted Emails Help One Agency Fill Critical Jobs
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The Oregon Department of Transportation is using data software to target recruitment emails to potential job candidates.
To fill critical job openings, the Oregon Department of Transportation relies on targeted email campaigns and other tech-based recruiting methods.
Since shifting recruitment communications from email and fax to using govDelivery, a cloud-based integrated communication solution from Granicus, ODOT has seen “huge growth” in rates of engagement, click-through and subscriptions to the 100-plus specialized email alerts, including job listings, that the department offers, said Sally Ridenour, chief content strategist at ODOT.
“I am a self-proclaimed data nerd, so I love to make data-based decisions,” Ridenour said during a June 6 webinar on transforming job recruiting hosted by Granicus.
She works with various teams around the agency to collect that data, researching how applicants find digital job listings and what topics in previous email campaigns generated the most clicks and at what time of day. “We use that data to help us really target our audience with the best messages we possibly can,” Ridenour said.
One of the lessons she’s learned from analyzing the data is that it’s more effective to reach out to the public about multiple topics, rather than a single job category. “We have topics that are just focused on jobs where you sign up because you just want to know about [say] administrative jobs,” Ridenour said. “But instead of just sending to that list, we’ll also send to our meeting announcement list because people who are signed up for meeting announcements might also be interested in coming to work here.”
Sometimes a targeted campaign can help, though. The content team grew subscriptions by 101% with a campaign to recruit for open surveyor positions. They reached out to associations and colleges “with a specialized message about those positions and why it’s awesome to work at ODOT vs. somewhere else,” she said.
The department also uses data from email campaigns to see who didn’t open the message so that the next email blast goes only to those who did “because they’re obviously interested in jobs,” Ridenour said. Another lesson learned is to have a consistent look and feel to all agency communications and to use plain language in recruiting, she added.
Besides email blasts, ODOT recruits through in-person outreach events, social media and in all communications, not just those related to hiring.
“We have a sign-up link for job announcements in the footer of all the communications, and then we like to take QR codes out in the field,” Ridenour said. “People can just scan that, and they can get right to that quick subscribe.”
ODOT hosts an hour-long training session for content employees once a month on how to use govDelivery and understand the data. The department records those sessions so that anyone who can’t attend can watch them on demand.
Overall, Ridenour advised recruitment teams to build and follow a strategy.
“It’s always good to have a plan. It helps you outline how you’re going to reach your goals,” she said. “Your strategy usually encompasses some measurable objectives. You identify who your target audience is, what your strategies and tactics are for reaching that audience,” she said. “It just gives you guidance as you work through those actions in that campaign.”
In the future, she said she expects recruitment to remain competitive, especially with the private sector, and tech-based engagement will become increasingly important. But the best way to reach job seekers will fundamentally stay the same: “Find out what appeals to your audience…[by] talking to people who have come into your agency, talking to people who you want to come into your agency,” Ridenour said.
Stephanie Kanowitz is a freelance writer based in northern Virginia.
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