“We shouldn’t need to sell our company, they should want to work for us!”

Prospective Candidates are your customers and your success in attracting high calibre candidates will depend on the talent markets perception of what it is like to work for you. We explore some things to consider in this post.

I should frame this post by saying, ‘the short supply of talent is a long term demographics based problem and it’s not going away anytime soon.’ There is no doubt that we will see corrections in the supply and demand equation (i.e. GFC) and it’s obvious that during these corrections talent will be in greater supply, but it’s during these times that the highest quality people are harder to find; because the probability of them moving employers in uncertain economic times is very low.

Our view at Peerlo is that a major part of what we are responsible for is educating our clients about the talent market’s perception of their  Employer Brand & Employer Value Proposition (EVP) (Basically, both of these combined answers the question: why a candidate would want to work for your company over another company).

3 Things to consider when looking at your employer brand:

1. How do your customers (talent) see your brand?

I have purposely used the word customers NOT candidates: candidates are people who apply for jobs, and given the supply and demand equation your company will more than likely be trying to attract people to your brand. You must therefore create communication strategies to enter into a conversation with your customers and seduce them.

2. Eat your own dog food.

Do your employees actually believe, live and deliver upon your employee value proposition? Essentially, are you executing internally what your are communicating externally? There’s no point marketing the image of a great company to prospects you want to work for your company… and have it result in people starting work and leaving after a week because you didn’t deliver what you promised.

3. Make every experience a memorable one.

How many touch points does a prospective candidate have with your company? Let’s explore a few:

• Careers site - ensure your careers site interacts with the prospect - they must have come to the site for a reason. That reason initially may be to search for a job, but they will be assessing other important factors (such as the culture). Maybe an interactive video of some of your employees talking naturally about what’s it’s like to work at your company would help the person coming to your site to get a glimpse into the culture?
• Referrals &  Alumni networks - what do previous employees and contacts say about your company and your Employer Brand? How can you harness these important channels to source and influence your future workforce?
• Agency - Do your agency suppliers really understand what’s it’s like to work for you? Have you taken the time to explain your company in detail to ensure they communicate a consistence message to the market?
• Advertised Sourcing - is your branding consistent across online and print? Are the job ads creative, and do they tell the story why it would be great to work with your company?
• Hiring Managers/HR/Internal Recruiters - Do your managers, HR and Internal recruiters have the knowledge and training to assess and qualify prospects and, more importantly, sell prospects on why joining your company is the right career move for them?