Every step of the way, organizations need to bare their proverbial soul and communicate through exceptional cultural branding. The way you speak to and communicate with a potential career seeker is exceptionally personal.
Defining Your Employer Value
First and foremost, it's essential to know that having job availability and offering workers opportunities is not enough to fill a seat in today's economy. Most job seekers are no longer satisfied with the status quos of the past. Because of this, it is now vital that your business sets itself apart by defining what benefits your company can offer to potential future employees.
- Can you work from home?
- Do you have on-site childcare?
- Do you offer training programs?
- Are there opportunities for promotion?
- Do you participate in corporate social responsibility?
- Do you have community give-back programs?
Brands that do it well:
- Google: “Google Diversity” features in-depth statistics on the company’s demographics and describes how they support diversity in hiring, the workplace, education and the communities they serve.
- Marriott: Their “We Put People First” value links onto a section called “Heart of the House,” which features moving stories about different employees.
- Rackspace: Their “Culture” page includes a video on “Rackspace Core Values Day,” showing that their employees not only have fun. They enjoy an entire day of activities centered around the core values.
- Capital One: The “Capital One Campus Blog” is comprised of articles written by interns about their experience with the company.
Today's employers really have to understand that traditional work-life balance no longer exists. Work and life are wholly integrated, and that needs to be reflected and defined within your culture.
Defining Your Ideal Employee
Similar to understanding your ideal client, you'll want to take a moment to consider your ideal employee.
Example: If you are looking for a quality, long-term employee, you will want to talk about long-term benefits. This means your candidate may be more likely to be at the beginning or in the middle of their career and are interested in finding a work home for the long-term.
Example: If you are looking for a resourceful, part-time worker, you will want to talk about short-term benefits. This may mean that your candidate is at the end of their career or are interested in simply being active by bringing supportive value to your organization.
Showcasing Culture
Though it may feel uncomfortable, get personal. Your business is now a reflection of you, or your family, or the work-family you've created. When you are talking about your business, lean on "we, our, you, your" statements and speak from the second-person perspective. The tone that you create will be used throughout your materials to connect with talent during the recruitment processes.
Example: "When you become a member of our team, you become a member of our family. Our team benefits from flexible work hours, competitive salaries, and up to 12-weeks off for expectant parents."
Be specific and use inclusive language. Using your employer value and your ideal employee profile, you can now create defined job descriptions that you can list online. Again, get personal, and speak in the second person. While you will still need to showcase the job description and ideal qualifications, you need to go beyond essential bullet points and share growth opportunities and cultural benefits.
Quality candidates want to use their skills to excel in their roles in order to satisfy and support their ambitions. Employer matching is now a mutually beneficial activity. Be genuine, be friendly, and be informative. Additionally, just like any other online content, you want to make sure that keywords are included within your job description for searchability.
Amplifying Reach
Now that you have defined your value and are ready to showcase your culture, you will want to infuse that content into your digital materials. You can amplify your reach on your website, social media, and even in paid advertising.
- Create a stunning career and culture page on your website: Make it an accurate showcase of who you are; add photos, employee testimonials, videos and more.
- Please make sure these pages are mobile-friendly: Most people do a quick search for jobs when they're frustrated, meaning they're likely to look on their phones first (while on the job).
- Leverage social media platforms: To be clear, not all businesses need to be on all social channels. But if you are on a social media channel, use it to distribute career opportunities.
- Optimize on-page and technical SEO: The preview descriptions you see when using a search engine can be modified to include the keywords and phrases for open positions. Change this content to reflect your culture and employee benefits just as you may for a product or service.
- Using paid search: If you choose to leverage paid search opportunities to find candidates, you will want to do additional research into the market, determine competition, and focus on your ideal candidate. By using paid retargeting techniques, you may be able to reach candidates more efficiently.
Doubling Down on The User Experience
All of these reach opportunities have one thing in common, user experience. It is important to write for your ideal candidate during every step of their online journey. It needs to be easy for them to jump from your social media page to your website so they can learn more about your business. Your CTA buttons, links, and titles need to reflect exactly why they're there and what they get by staying engaged with your recruitment process.
User experience covers a fairly wide scope. It includes content strategy, brand design, the online journey, and a clear display of information architecture. These four things can make or break your visual and written communications to qualified candidates.
Other Considerations
- Qualified candidates may be fielding multiple offers, and you will want to be the organization that is keeping them up-to-date on the process. Skilled job seekers who don't hear from companies in a timely manner, or companies who don't close the loop on their processes, leave a bad impression; similar to a bad review, it's hard to get that reputation back.
- You can also ask your current employees for employer testimonials, offering a first-hand account of working with your team and your clients. Those recommendations can go a long way with new recruits.
- There's also a lot of benefits to simplifying your interview process. Less is more. Qualified candidates will already tik a lot of boxes based on their résumé alone. Take this time to get familiar with your candidate, learn who they are. Consider it a meet-and-greet, not an interview.
- Similar to the sales process, you can create a talent pipeline. Passive job seekers are crucial in a candidate-driven market. Applying for and waiting to hear about a job is only halfway through the decision-making process for both company and talent.
If online recruiting sounds a lot like your client's digital experience, that's because it is. The relationships you build with your employees are vital to the long-term success of your company.
