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When it comes to recruitment challenges and social values, there are few things companies like more than talking about sustainability as an attraction USP. And while the vast majority of organisations are genuine in their efforts and commitments to having a positive impact on the planet, there are events that happen within the industry itself that trigger behavioural changes.
We’re only a few days into 2024 but I wanted to get stuck into one trend that we’ve been reporting on for the last 18 months and believe will shape the year ahead. I sat down with our Paid Search & Social Coordinator, Amanda, to get stuck right into a fiercely contentious topic.
Within the Paid Search team it’s always important to understand trends in the markets so we can provide our clients with clever, meaningful and relevant insights. Which is why we put together a Sustainable Job Search Trend Report
Now, data can look scary but Amanda very reassuringly explained the report structure:
The insights are across 3 different tabs, each with dynamic drop down filters where data changes based on your selection. Each tab plots out how Google Search trends have been impacted by climate events over time, we’ve also thrown in a case study for fun to have a play around with.
Break down the report into three tabs:
- Google Trends
- Google Search Keywords
- Google Search Trends – Patagonia
We establish that real-world events influence search trends. In September 2022, Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard announced all future profits would go to charity. Around this time, we began collecting data on sustainability trends in job markets across the UK, US, India, and Australia. We went back as far as 2004 when COP10 took place, examining searches across Google. And we started noticing very clear spikes.
For example, shortly after the annual COP conferences, dating back 20 years (with the exception of 2020) there is a spike in demand for ‘Environmental Job Search Trends’. Therefore, planning a campaign around these events would be advisable for organisations wanting to target potential candidates with this interest.
Another example is the global announcement from Patagonia that accompanied their ‘Earth is our only shareholder’ official statement. Up until that point there were around 17k job searches that included ‘Patagonia’. Since September 2022, this number surged to 79k and has stayed consistently high.
As the conversation around climate change continues, the power of influence and content creators increases.
Being able to track and analyse powerful sustainability trends allows us to use these insights to advise organisations effectively. When the best time to post content that targets environmentally conscious candidates is. How to effectively launch recruitment campaigns to align with increased search terms following global sustainability events. And there’s so much more we can do with this information. We’re just excited to see what we discover next.
