Recruiters are on the front line of company branding. Before you go down the candidate experience trail, which is a component of the employer brand, first work on initial forms of communication. Focus areas include your career landing page, recruiting campaigns, talent communities, job notifications and social channels. Brands that communicate a cloudy and inconsistent message give candidates the idea that the company is disorganized, directionless, or dishonest. The following are six things to consider when you’re working on improving your employer brand.
1. Establish your brand identity.
This may seem overly simplistic, but it is key to everything else. You cannot communicate a message that hasn’t been identified. You need to know both your organization’s brand and your talent management brand and strategy. Think through what an ideal employee or hire looks like, and how you communicate that.
2. Be consistent.
Consider all of your mediums – from start to finish, and be sure each component is correctly reflecting your employer brand. Your logos may be perfect, but if candidates click on numerous links to get to the actual application process, you just spoke volumes about your brand. It’s not just about making things look efficient; it’s about everything functioning efficiently.
3. Work from the inside out.
Put other employees out on the front line with you. We’ve talked about employee referrals before. Take it one more step and designate employee brand ambassadors. Make it natural for employees to communicate about the company online. Consider a company blog as a place to communicate with both your internal and external audience – if you have enough desirable content.
4. Don’t ignore multimedia.
Everyone has some level of social media use (and we can debate on how to best implement it), but multimedia can be a powerful tool to tell your company story. Use video and visual images to tell your target audience your story. Keep it simple and make it awesome. No pressure, but a lame video makes your company look lame, as well.
5. Don’t make online job networks an afterthought.
Make your profile pages content rich. This is an inexpensive and efficient way to champion the employer brand. Don’t make candidates go to your company website. Keep candidate attention engaged on the job site. Don’t overlook the available tools. Slapping a Facebook page up without any consideration to message and purpose is pointless and can taint the employer brand. Think about the message first and always consider what your various mediums are communicating about your employer brand. It’s hard being on the front line, but better to engage than let others tell your story for you.
