- There’s no doubt that it’s tough to find good employee talent these days.
- But at the same time it’s nearly as tough from an employee’s point of view to find companies that are every bit as good as their brand advertises.
- If you run a solid employee-friendly business yet are having difficulty attracting new competent employees, it may be time you look into bolstering your brand to lure in the topmost employees.
Pity the business that has expanded successfully and now is in desperate need for more employees. Why? Because literally every business these days is in desperate need for more employees.
And as far as the topmost employees go – the ones with solid track records of loyalty and longevity, and who have as a consequence of their own abilities, improved a business – that rarefied sort of worker is either unavailable (already employed) or long gone from the job search scene as someone probably already scooped them up.
So where does that leave you and your business? Well, for the most part on the sidelines. But then again it’s not as if you can’t do some maintenance to your company’s brand to attract strong talent once the next round of employee availability occurs.
In an article recently published on Launchpad, 10 suggestions are given that every manager and/or business owner should know as they strive to improve their brand. Keep reading to find out what those 10 suggestions are.
- Define your message with your type of business in mind.
The message you create for your business should be authentic and reflective of what your company is. A fun business geared toward younger people should have a likewise voice, while a business dealing in finance and/or wealth management should have a calm but more serious tone.
As for the candidates your voice will separate you from the myriad of other companies who are searching for employees which will make a potential employee’s targeting of you much more accurate.
In the end, less time will be wasted by you and job candidates if you define exactly what and who your company is.
- Nurture your culture by selecting the correct type of employee.
Recruitment plays an influential role in nurturing a company’s culture, and is critical toward finding the right fit to bring on board.
Ask yourself what type of culture you want to instill in your company. Is your company more “fun” or more “serious?”
Of course you will also need to sprinkle in a good amount of human-like aspects such as work-life balance, and diversity/inclusiveness to be considered work-friendly.
As the Launchpad article states, employer brand is a reflection of your culture rather than something that can be prescribed, and so building a positive culture is the root of a strong employer brand.
- Understand how your brand will be perceived.
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 as well as others such as email, texts and particularly word-of-mouth are sources that provide valuable feedback to address elements of your employee value proposition.
Needless to say, not all employees will be happy all of the time, so to that end take all the information you’ve gathered regarding your business and analyze it for anything that can detract from who you are as a company and in that deter the right-fit talent from applying.
- Build your brand advocacy.
Thanks to technology and social media, marketing is no longer the guardian of brand. Both corporate and employer brand are in the hands of your employees and customers.
In fact, 84% of people trust peer-to-peer recommendations over all other forms of advertising according to the marketing magazine, The Drum.
This fact also applies to recruitment; if your recruiting process is positive, you will read and/or hear about it through the various social outlets.
If your recruiting process is a big negative, you will assuredly hear or read about that as well.
As to your employees, both present and future, it is imperative that your branding gets everyone on board who can amplify your brand. This includes front-line staff to hiring managers.
Afford employees some freedom on social media and provide platforms for them build their own brand by sharing elements of their working lives with others. First-person testimonials can have a huge influence on potential job candidates who might be interested in your company.
In the meantime, consider how you can use posts from employees on enterprise social networks, internal Facebook groups and intranets on your career social channels to give yourself further job seeker exposure.
- Embrace technology, whether you like it or not.
Technology lends a huge boost to employer brands by providing better communication channels and improving the candidate experience.
Commit to interfaces that will give job candidates a smooth and personalized journey from their first engagement with your company right through to bringing them on as employees.
Technology can also be a time saver.
It can streamline candidate engagement, job search, applications, assessment and selection processes, as well as interview scheduling and feedback.
Utilize technology so that your recruitment teams can provide an exceptional candidate experience that reinforces your business’s brand.
- Treat job candidates as if they are customers.
With the advent of job listing sites such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Google Jobs, etc., job searching for those who seek employment has become more like online shopping.
As part of their research job-seekers want to know about your company’s expectations, work style and interview process. They may also leave reviews about their candidate experience.
To that end, it is important to provide a positive, consistent, fair and engaging experience in your recruiting process.
Give thought to the latest technology in online communication such as conference calls and video interviewing. Other tech-savvy recruiting tools can include game-based assessment or psychometrics – depending of course upon your type of company.
Keep in mind that technology can also help streamline your recruiting process and save you time and money.
For example, automation can assist you by moving candidates more quickly through the recruitment stages, helping you to avoid delays in the process.
- Give your business a story in which you are the storyteller.
Good stories never disappoint. And good stories about a business – such as how the business started, grew and what it seeks to do for society at large can attract anyone from job candidates to potential investors and merger offers.
For job candidates, your story has to be both alluring and positive. It needs to speak to those who are considering working for you.
It’s also important that once you’ve initiated contact with target talent that you keep those potential candidates engaged through regular communication.
As for the technical aspects of storytelling, consider enhancing your website by including landing pages that show videos relevant to job roles posted or sharing stories from current employees about their own experiences working with your company.
Remember, storytelling provides you the opportunity to make your brand personal. Include those who work alongside you to avoid your company looking like a faceless corporate entity.
By using engaging human narratives, you’ll better attract the type of candidates who could see themselves creating similar stories.
But most importantly is your storytelling can increase the probability that the right fit will enter the top of your recruitment process.
- Consider depth and detail in your description/storytelling.
Launchpad suggests that 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.
Of course this falls under the umbrella of good storytelling which is made much better with anecdotes, mission statements, testimonials as well as other sensory offerings that can attract a job candidate to your business. Many of our clients are exploring social media channels like Snapchat and Instagram to connect with their target talent populations.
Launchpad states that depth also means making communication a conversation rather than a one-way street.
To that end consider tools like chatbots for helping candidates get answers to their questions or hosting online chats about careers.
- Don’t just know your space, own your space.
If your prospective talent populates social media, you should too.
Regardless if your future hires are on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, for them to find you, you have to make your impact on each one of these platforms.
A strong social media presence can also help you to hire in an area that’s outside your usual sphere. An example of this can be literature majors or writers if you have an opening for a copywriter.
- Make and maintain the connection between employer and corporate brand.
There’s no doubt that a positive candidate experience adds value to both employer and consumer brand.
In fact, for a candidate to have a negative experience can become detrimental to a company through social media as well as word-of-mouth.
When you have a strong brand that accurately and honestly reflects who your company is, all bets are off. There’s no room for error or confusion.
An honest brand represents an honest company, which gives those outside your organization an understanding of your purpose, vision and culture.
And while corporate and employer brand have different audiences, the messages should be consistent.
With companies under scrutiny by clients as much as they are under consideration by job seekers, it can easily be discerned that many of the same channels that speak to prospective customers also speak to prospective job candidates.
