The lines blur between marketing and recruitment, the best brands are bold and authentic, sharing ‘what it’s really like to work here.’
An insight into company culture, career progression, and colleagues, is now a must for job seekers.
Define Your Message
You must define your message, create an authentic message, and create a tone of voice for your brand so that candidates know exactly what to expect as an employee. Make sure the brand voice is consistent at every touchpoint by aligning the messaging on your career’s website with video content, advertising, assessment platforms, and one-on-one conversations with the recruitment team.
Aim to present a cohesive picture of the organisation but not to the point that uniformity detracts from the human elements and differentiators of your brand which are an essential ingredient of an employee value proposition.
Nurture your culture
Recruitment plays an influential role in nurturing culture, ensuring that the right-fit talent is brought on board. Consider what type of culture you’re aiming to create. For example, 83% of millennials are actively engaged when they believe an organisation fosters an inclusive culture and there are lots of things you can do as a recruitment team to make hiring more inclusive.
An employer brand reflects your culture rather than something that can be prescribed, so building a positive culture is the root of a strong employer brand.
Understand brand perception
Employees will undoubtedly use platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Glassdoor, and Indeed to share their experiences. In fact, Glassdoor reports that 70% of people look at reviews before they make career decisions.
These platforms are a source of valuable feedback to address elements of your employee value proposition. Of course, not all employees will be happy all the time but look out for pain points that could deter right-fit talent from applying.
Build brand advocacy
Thanks to technology and social media, marketing is no longer the guardian of a brand. Both corporate and employer brands are in the hands of your employees & customers. 84% of people trust peer-to-peer recommendations over any other form of advertising according to the marketing magazine. This applies to recruitment too.
Hence, it’s vital to get everyone who can amplify your employer brand on board, from front-line staff to hiring managers. Afford employees some freedom on social media and provide platforms for them to build their own brand by sharing elements of their working lives with others. Consider how you can use posts from employees on enterprise social networks, internal Facebook groups, and intranets on your career social channels.
Embrace technology
Technology lends a huge boost to employer brand by providing better communication channels and improving the candidate experience. Platforms like LaunchPad mean candidates have a smooth and personalised journey from their first engagement with a company right through to onboarding.
Technology can streamline candidate engagement, job search, applications, assessment, and selection processes, as well as interview scheduling and feedback. Thanks to technology, all recruitment teams can provide an exceptional candidate experience that reinforces the employer brand.
Treat candidates like customers
Glassdoor endorses the view that candidates are increasingly treating a job search like online shopping. As part of their research jobseekers want to know about your company’s expectations, work style, and interview process. They may also leave reviews about their candidate experience.
Therefore, it’s important to provide a positive, consistent, fair, and engaging journey.
Use storytelling
Once you’ve initiated contact with target talent, keep potential candidates engaged through regular communication. Telling the story might include landing pages that show videos relevant to job roles posted or sharing stories from current employees about their own experiences.
Storytelling is an opportunity to make a brand personality, to tell the story of real people rather than the faceless corporate. By using engaging human narratives, you’ll better attract the type of candidates who could see themselves creating similar stories.
Add depth
There are plenty of tactics beyond words that you can use to actively promote your employer brand. Providing an appealing vision that inspires people can often be best accomplished visually through photography, imagery, or video.
Depth also means making communication a conversation rather than a one-way street. You could consider tools like chatbots for helping candidates get answers to their questions or hosting online chats about careers.
Own your space
Make sure you are where your target talent is. Whether it be LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.
This tactic is especially valuable if you’re trying to hire in an area that’s outside your usual sphere – think of banks that need fintech talent or a retailer moving into new geographical markets.
Connect employer and corporate brand
A positive candidate experience adds value to both employer and consumer brands. And conversely, there are risks: 25% of UK jobseekers have either stopped purchasing or purchased less from a brand because of a negative candidate experience.
Employer brand enables those outside your organisation to understand your purpose, vision, and culture. Although corporate and employer brands have different audiences, the messages should be consistent. In our connected world, we use many of the same channels to speak to our customers as we do our candidates.
Ways to Improve Employer Branding & Attract Top Talent
Next Week on RecSmarts
The phenomenon called “ghosting”, & why jobseekers quit responding