2018/08/21(Sender: FC Owners Operations Office)
Currently, every company is struggling with a shortage of personnel. This is true even for franchise stores with a certain level of brand recognition. Traditional recruitment methods that rely on the brand power of franchises are likely to struggle to secure personnel. If there is not enough personnel, it becomes difficult to operate the store and sales opportunities will be missed.
Therefore, this time, we will introduce a recruitment method that utilizes sales promotion activities, titled "Recruitment Method Combined with PR."
When you hear the term PR, you generally imagine "public relations activities for sales promotion," so you might think it has nothing to do with recruiting personnel. However, there is actually a deep connection.
PR is an abbreviation for public relations, and in addition to meaning "public relations," it also includes the meaning of "activities in which companies and organizations build good relationships with society." In other words, PR is not about selling, but about building good trust with customers, and sales are a result of those activities.
For example, even if you have never used a store before, if you feel that it is trustworthy based on prior information, you will feel at ease. This way of thinking also applies to recruiting personnel.
Job seekers who are interested after seeing a job posting will always want to know, "What kind of store is it really?" If they can find information that makes them think, "I could work here," they will be more likely to decide to apply.
Therefore, conducting store PR to build trust can lead not only to attracting customers but also to recruiting personnel.
Even when posting similar job openings, some stores and companies are more likely to attract personnel than others. The difference lies in how trust is built.
Generally, when recruiting personnel, especially when hiring part-time or temporary workers, only basic information such as job description, hourly wage, and workplace is often disclosed. This limited information becomes the only basis for job seekers to decide which company to apply to.
Therefore, if you can highlight a differentiating strength, such as "the hourly wage is significantly higher than others" or "working there is a status symbol," it will be an attractive job posting for job seekers.
However, in reality, such cases are rare. Therefore, it is important to regularly disseminate information to build trust and increase your fan base.A trend seen in stores and companies that easily attract personnel is that they actively engage in PR activities using social media, etc.
By conducting unique PR activities for your store on social media, you can expect to increase your fan base.
Furthermore, actively using social media makes it easier to encourage people to regularly check store information, and consequently, when you post job openings, it naturally becomes easier for them to check them.Moreover, building trust has the added benefit of attracting applicants with positive reasons for wanting to work at your store.
Stores and companies that are successful in securing talent consistently engage in PR activities to build trust.
So, how should you conduct recruitment that also serves as PR? The answer is to use social media and the store's own website.This is because it allows you to conduct PR activities efficiently at a low cost (however, some FCs prohibit such store-specific information dissemination. Please check in advance).
The key points when conducting PR activities are targeting and continuity.Targeting means making the desired candidate profile more specific. The reason why some businesses are having trouble recruiting is that they are posting job advertisements vaguely, without targeting, with the attitude of "I wonder if a good person will apply."That won't create attractive job postings. Also, just because it's PR doesn't mean that you should only post information about your franchise or products; that will just come across as a sales pitch and be counterproductive.
Therefore, think about things like, "What do the people we want to work for?", "What do they find attractive?", and "What do they prioritize when choosing a workplace?" and then post information that is attractive to those people.
This may sound difficult, but for example, it's fine to share stories of the store manager's failures and work ethic, or stories about the struggles of the staff that take place in the back room, which are not usually seen. Stories of the store manager's failures, in particular, can make people feel a sense of closeness and humanity towards the store manager, which is likely to increase the number of fans who support you.
Next is continuity.
While PR is a versatile recruitment method that also serves as public relations, unfortunately, it's not something that can be expected to produce immediate results. This is because building trust takes time.PR activities must be continued to build trust, and eventually, their effects will become apparent in terms of recruitment.
In FC operations, conducting store-specific PR activities can be considered an important management strategy that differentiates your store not only from competitors but also from other stores within the same FC.
Whether you view PR as "activities for sales promotion" or "activities for building trust" will greatly affect the content of those activities and the effects you can achieve.
If you're going to engage in PR activities, focus on building trust that will influence not only customer acquisition but also talent recruitment.
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伊藤 伸朗
Sales promotion consultant
A "Fan-Making Producer" who supports businesses in "creating reasons for customers to choose them." Targeting entrepreneurs, small business owners, and business owners, they provide strategies that prioritize increasing the number of loyal customers who will build long-term relationships, rather than focusing solely on short-term sales.
HP "Fan Creation"