Times have changed drastically, and the traditional way of rolling out boring job descriptions and eagerly awaiting the dream employee/candidate to show up knocking at the office door is gone forever. (And not just because the office door may now be gone as well.)
It’s almost 2022, it’s a talent marketplace and it’s time to get creative. And by that, I mean creating a positive employer brand is more important than ever before. I know, you did that already. But bad news. If your employer brand was created or refreshed any time before 2021, it’s already outdated.
And even if you just rolled it out, take another look. Employer branding is a continuous effort, that requires authenticity, creativity, and doesn’t end with a successful hire. Retaining talent is just as (if not more) important.
The following are some ways that could help you level up your employer branding game.
1. Strategy
Starting from scratch? Read my book “The Talent Brand” for a step-by-step, best-in-class playbook on crafting a perfect employer branding strategy that’s just as effective for start-ups as it is for multi-national Fortune 1000 organizations.
If you have been a part of the game for some time, be mindful of how your target audience currently sees you and your culture, and the kinds of associations they have with your competitors as well. Understanding where your strengths and weaknesses lie is important in building out differentiation and a persuasive narrative.
2. Create a Voice for Your Brand
Create a messaging framework so the candidates know exactly what to expect from your culture and their expectations as employees. I know it seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many instances I see of Career Sites where this is missing. Maintain employer brand voice consistency by aligning external earned media and content, advertisements, and social with your employee experience. Always aim to bring forth a cohesive picture of the organization to build engagement and advocacy.
3. Establish Brand Advocacy
With advancements in technology, review sites, retargeting and social media, an authentic employer brand is highly dependent on your employees and what they are feeling, sharing and doing.
Employees are leveraging platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Glassdoor to share their experiences at work. Glassdoor even reported that 70% of professionals consider employee reviews before joining any company. These platforms are a great source that can be leveraged to improve employee value propositions. Easy to use social sharing technology like Proko is helpful to capture and share stories, build pipelines and gamify referrals.
4. Like Clients Like Candidates
Glassdoor research states that candidates have been treating job search like cybershopping. They want to know from A-Z about the company’s work culture, environment, interview process, etc. These candidates are even free to leave reviews about their interaction-based experiences. Hence, it’s imperative to provide a rich, consistent, and engaging journey.
5. Leverage the Art of Storytelling to Add Depth
Once you have started engaging with your target talent, make sure you segregate the potential candidates from the others and regularly communicate with them in a highly personalized fashion. Storytelling includes landing pages with videos relevant to job roles published or sharing employee testimonials talking about their experiences.
Storytelling gives you an opportunity to personalize your brand and engage with real people instead faceless corporations. Doing this will allow you to attract the right talent who see themselves creating similar stories, in the recruitment funnel.
In order to add depth, and make the online communication a meaningful “conversation”, rather than a one-way street, consider using opt-in tools and chatbots to assist website visitors with their queries or hosting online chats/YouTube LIVE interactions and podcasts about career development and advancement.
6. Be Where Your Talent Is
Your target talent can be found anywhere – LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest. You will have to be omnipresent to be able to make an impact in all the right places. Microsoft uses Twitter to make an impact showcasing #MicrosoftLife; meanwhile, McDonald’s is active on Snapchat in order to connect with its younger recruits.
Wrapping Up
In a nutshell, the number of tactics that can be used to promote an employer brand, cannot be quantified, but it’s important to choose the right places to focus your efforts.
How Brandemix can Help.
Brandemix reimagines the entire process of attracting, recruiting, and retaining talent through leveraging the latest and best practice trends in technology, creativity, and capturing employee insights.
Our highly qualified and experienced team at Brandemix can help you-
- Build and activate a unique employer brand and architecture.
- Define your employer value proposition and also bring it to life.
- Implement tactics and solutions to follow the candidate funnel.
- Monitor results against predetermined metrics such as –
- Website traffic/visitors
- Cost per click
- Cost per talent hire
Doesn’t that sound great?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.”
