“Attack is the best form of defense”

A wonderful Cruyffian phrase that, despite its contradiction, is now widely accepted as pure truth. And while we’re on the subject of cows:

“A vegetarian steak”

This word combination is beginning to grate on me.

In the same category, in my opinion, falls the following phrase:

“Automating recruitment marketing”

Despite the automation I’ve personally implemented over the past years within the recruitment and staffing world, I still struggle to reconcile these words. What bothers me is the apparent denial of the human element that is intrinsically tied to recruitment. “The human touch simply cannot be automated” is not just an empty soundbite to me.

Yet for quite some time now, many organizations have applied a form of automation in recruitment marketing without losing sight of the importance of personal and qualitative contact.

In fact, through smart automation of recruitment processes, more time becomes available for personal interaction with candidates. In that sense, automation acts as a bridge-builder (yes, I had to use the word “bridge” to tie it in with the photo – taken by yours truly 😉).

Thorough automation eliminates repetitive tasks in the recruitment process. In addition, well-structured automation provides a reinforcing and desirable effect (more on that later).

Automation through Multiposting?

In the “pre-internet” era, an A4 poster on the building’s facade was often enough to attract applicants. Today, there are dozens of job boards alongside your own website where vacancies can be posted. Logging into each job board manually and uploading the vacancy is an impossible task. You literally “can’t see the forest for the trees”—another paradoxical expression worth mentioning.

Fortunately, automation now allows you to publish a job description to multiple platforms at once via multiposting. And if all applications and responses come into a central dashboard, it becomes clear to everyone: repetitive tasks in the recruitment process are automated—without compromising personal contact between recruiter and candidate.

80% of Candidates Are Not Actively Looking

The next step in effective recruitment automation is based on the following insight:

80% of potential candidates are not actively seeking a new job.

In other words, by only posting your vacancies on job boards and your own website, you’re reaching just 20% of the potential audience.

On various social media platforms, you can target your job ads directly at your intended audience. However, doing so is often a time-consuming process.

Fortunately, there is intelligent recruitment marketing software that can automatically convert a job post (for job boards) into a “social media advertisement” campaign.

With just one click, you can reach this large group of passive candidates using intelligent, automated marketing software.

Data-Driven Decision Making

As effective as multiposting may be, its sole use is now considered traditional in the world of recruitment marketing.

This may be a slightly progressive stance, but I believe that the integration of recruitment marketing software with an existing HRM or ATS system is already the standard—or soon will be.

By importing specific attributes of open vacancies, consistency and uniformity across platforms are ensured. Automating these repetitive tasks saves valuable time.

Additionally, a connection with an HRM or ATS system provides detailed insight into published vacancies and the applications and placements that follow. Detailed reports resulting from such integration can accurately answer questions like:

• Which platform performs best?
• For which vacancies does social media play a crucial role?
• What does it really cost to recruit a candidate?
• How long does the entire process take from source to placement?

A well-executed integration between recruitment marketing software and an HRM or ATS system provides clear answers. On one hand, it saves time during recruitment, and on the other, it shows where your efforts yield the highest returns.

This way, automation software frees up more time for meaningful interaction with candidates.

A New Perspective on Reaching Candidates

By now, you’re probably wondering whether the reduction of repetitive tasks is the only value proposition of automating recruitment marketing.

There’s no doubt that reducing repetitive tasks is a key motivator for many organizations to adopt recruitment marketing automation.

However, I believe there’s an even more important reason to view recruitment and marketing as inextricably linked…

In more traditional setups, recruitment marketing focuses mainly on urgent (ad-hoc) staffing needs. But when certain recruitment processes are automated, it creates space to shift the mindset—not just to “filling vacancies,” but also to “building a continuous talent pipeline” through automated marketing.

To put it even more bluntly:

“If sharing your employer branding with future employees were as simple as pressing a big red button… what would stop you from sending a steady stream of messages to potential candidates in every phase of the recruitment process?”

This latent marketing method not only helps reach the 80% of non-active candidates more effectively, but also continuously communicates your company’s values and vision in a meaningful way.

Recruitment Remains Human Work

Despite all the arguments mentioned above, I stand by my earlier statement:

Recruitment is and will always be human work!

Automation is an extremely valuable tool to support that human effort, but fortunately, it does not replace the human touch.

How do you approach automation and recruitment marketing? Do you completely disagree with me, or do you have comments on my story? I’m genuinely curious to hear your perspective and would love to start the conversation!