How to sell your company’s brand and ethos to attract the best candidates
When it comes to recruiting quality employees to your business, it’s a busy marketplace. With employment figures remaining at a record high, candidates now have more control of their careers and where they want to be.
With this much competition, it is crucial that your company is known, respected and has a positive image to attract the best talent. If projected well, your corporate brand can be a powerful recruitment tool.
Think about your potential candidates as customers
When recruiting for a new role, rather than rushing out a standard job spec and hoping that the right person applies, it can help to take a step back and think about exactly who you want to apply.
Treating your potential candidates like a marketeer would think about their potential customers is good starting point. If your company undertakes any marketing activities, have a look – whether that it is social media, offline ads or your website – what are the key messages, what is the overall look and feel, and who are they trying to attract?
The best brand advocates for your business are your employees, so it seems natural to recruit from your company’s target audience.
Building your employer brand
To understand how your business is perceived as an employer, it may be worth talking to your current employees – what do they like about working for your company? and how they would sell their job to others?
If you are recruiting now, this could be undertaken as a one-off survey or a less structured approach. But if as a business you are looking to grow in the future, it may be worth implementing an ongoing employee satisfaction strategy.
To build a robust brand, you want to focus on the following:
- What are your brand values? These show what your company believes in and sets out your organisation’s priorities. By including them in your recruitment process you can attract like-minded people as candidates can see what you believe in and whether these values are aligned with their own.
- What is the employee culture? This defines the environment in which employees work – this varies hugely depending on the type of business you are. Some have a team-based culture with employee participation on all levels, while others have a more traditional and formal management style. Other companies may have a more casual workplace without many rules and regulations. It is important to be honest about yours – different candidates will respond to different approaches.
- What are the benefits, perks and work-life balance? Obviously, salary and holiday entitlements do come into the mix, but try to differentiate your business so you’re not competing solely on the basics. Are there additional employee benefits? Do you offer free breakfast for staff, regular away days, training opportunities or good social events? Talk about the flexible working options available or your approach to a healthy work-life balance. Perks such as these may convince a candidate to choose your company over the competition.
- What are the career paths advancement opportunities? A good candidate will usually already have an idea of where they want their career to go over the short and medium term. Rather than just focussing on the role available, it is worth talking about progression opportunities within the wider business too and the support your company gives to personal development and training.
Sharing your employer brand
So how do you get your employee brand values out there?
A good starting point is online. Making sure you are visible is essential –the best candidates will want to work for an organisation they’ve heard of and a name they trust. But that does not just mean your corporate website.
Now social media is just as important – if you are using social media platforms to screen candidates pre-interview, then they too will be online and consulting their networks to research your company as a future employer.
It is key to remember that employer branding through social media isn’t just about delivering your corporate message – it must be a conversation between you, your employees and the wider market. Encouraging interaction and participation is a must.
Pitching your brand during the interview
Don’t forget an interview is a two-way street. Although the candidates must impress you with their experiences, skills and capabilities, it can be easy to overlook the fact that your brand needs to impress them. If you don’t pitch your core values, ethos and vision to your candidates, your competitors will.
If a candidate leaves the interview feeling positive and enthused by your company, the role and people they have met, they are much more likely to accept an offer.
Helping you in the recruitment process.
At TN Recruits, we always take time to understand your business, your values and culture. We like to build a solid relationship with you, so we can be your brand advocates when helping you find the best candidates.
We have a wealth of experience recruiting office staff from trainee to board level in many sectors including financial services, law, marketing, insurance, accountancy and currently have a pool of 4,000 candidates which saves our clients time in finding suitable candidates.
Why not call us today on 01892 571105 for a free consultation.
