Employer brand. You know you should be paying attention to it, and you know it’s somehow related to your role as a recruiter. What you’re wondering is, just what does that mean?
It means your job as a recruiter, especially if you’re managing a recruitment marketing campaign, is largely about spreading your employer branding far and wide. You’re doing this to attract the best quality potential candidates to your company and to make them want to work there. How do you go about ensuring that you’re getting your brand in front of the right audience, at the right time, and in the right way?
Tip: Be sure you know what your employer brand actually is.
It pains us to say this, but there are recruiters out there who can’t explain in a sentence or two why a person would want to work at their company. Don’t be that recruiter. Employer brand is closely tied to the people who work for a company, and as the person in charge of spreading it, it’s imperative for you to have a firm handle on your employer brand.
You need to have several versions of the classic elevator speech at the ready, so that no matter where you’re posting or talking about it, you’re ready to wow your audience with the amazing company you work for and how its values line up with theirs.
This is how you build trust between your potential candidates and your company. If you don’t know your employer brand well enough to fully embody it, you won’t gain candidates trust, and they won’t want to apply.
Tip: Be selective with the channels you use to spread your employer brand.
This sounds counterintuitive at first, we know. However, knowing your audience is key, and knowing where that audience hangs out online is how you express this knowledge in your marketing efforts. Knowing your audience is key, and knowing where that audience hangs out online is how you express this knowledge in your marketing efforts.
Because spreading your resources thin so you can promote your widget factory on Snapchat may not be the best idea.
If you discover that a channel isn’t returning the results you were looking for, be merciless. Cut that channel out of the campaign so you can focus your available budget and other resources on the channels that are bringing results.
If you discover that a channel isn’t returning the results you were looking for, be merciless. Cut that channel out of the campaign so you can focus your available budget and other resources on the channels that are bringing results.
Tip: Be authentic.
This word is woefully misused these days. Think of it this way: you present an image of your company on social media, via your employer brand story. Then you hook a great applicant. When they come on board, you need them to see that the portrayal they fell in love with is legit, or they’ll lose faith in you and your company and split.
By using your authentic brand voice in all of your marketing communications, you eliminate this possibility. When that great new hire comes on board and sees that your company’s online persona is exactly how the company is in person, they’ll not only fall in love with your company all over again; they’ll convert to a brand ambassador with very little further work on your part.
Tip: Remember that employer brand isn’t a thing, it’s an activity.
As something that you’re actively engaging in daily, your employer brand is not a one-and-done thing. It’s an ongoing part of your daily work, it requires constant tending, shifting, adjusting, and adapting.
Oh yeah, and did you think you didn’t have a brand until you created it? Nope. It’s already out there. People are already talking about you with their friends. It’s your job to nurture it with your marketing campaigns, interactions online, and so on. This is how you develop the great employer brand you need to draw in those high-quality applicants.
Tip: You are active on Facebook, right?
This is the only time in this article we’re going to call out a specific channel. And that’s because when it comes to spreading employer brand, it’s hard to go wrong with Facebook. With an active monthly user base of ~ 2 BILLION people worldwide…chances are that at least one of your candidate personas will be found here at any given time.
One thing to keep in mind, with recent changes to their algorithm, FB is putting content from individual users front and center. That means your employees who post content related to your company will come up before your own content. Take advantage of that by encouraging this sort of sharing by current employees, thus turning them into active brand ambassadors.
People are much more receptive to hearing things from people they already know, so the extra punch of having employees talking about your employer brand is priceless.
Tip: Engage.
Remember that it’s a conversation. You’re not just putting your content out there and walking away, right? You’re checking on that content and replying to comments, liking other people’s content, and sharing things you think your audience can benefit from.
What better way to encourage folks to like your company than to actively engage them in a conversation about topics that affect you both. Use these chats to convey your employer brand in thoughtful, authentic ways, and you’ll make friends and converts to your brand.
This sort of ad hoc advertising is huge in today’s market, where word-of-mouth has more pull than any amount of paid advertising you can muster up.
Tip: Watch out for negative content, and respond fast.
Monitor review sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn. When people leave a company, they often take to these sites to trash the company’s reputation. Turn that around by responding thoughtfully to their complaints, and you can turn their complaining into further advertising for your employer brand. By clarifying the situation, keeping your responses concise, and not letting the conversation turn petty, you can win over new converts and possibly even undo the negative feelings the departing employee was expressing in the first place.
Tip: It’s a myth that employer brand can’t be measured, so be sure you’re measuring yours.
You have a couple of options here. First is the easiest, by using social media dashboards you can watch metrics for likes, re-posts, shares, and comments. These interactions are key to your employer brand, and the more interactions your content is generating, the better the brand is doing. Second, track source-of-hire. This metric will tell you where a new hire first heard about your company, and by extension, your employer brand. If they found out about you via employee referral, social media, or your blog, you can use that information to strengthen these channels and draw in even more quality candidates.
These tips are by no means meant to be an exhaustive guide to spreading your employer brand. Rather, we hope you can use these tips to grasp the power of various tools and find your own unique, creative ways to spread your employer brand, thus attracting the quality hires your company is looking for.
