Many businesses and companies spend large amounts of money and time trying to recruit new hires, especially when they seek top talent. It’s a common misconception that attracting the best candidates has to be difficult, and that it rarely pays off. Companies typically struggle to attract ideal candidates because they cast a wide net and post on generalized job boards, instead of creating a strong employer brand that attracts passive candidates.
What is an Employer Brand?
Companies work hard to create a brand that people want to purchase products and services from, but many companies neglect to create an interesting and enticing employer brand as well. An employer brand is your company’s reputation for being an intriguing, engaging, and overall pleasurable place to work. Employer brands can also incorporate your company’s missions, values, as well as your company’s personality or culture.
Companies should strive to be known as a place where employees enjoy going to work and where the work culture is collaborative and supportive. Creating an employer brand of this kind can take a good deal of elbow grease, but having this type of reputation will catch the attention of passive candidates that can possess more desirable qualities than those actively seeking jobs.
What are Passive Candidates?
The traditional approach for hiring candidates is by releasing a job opening on job boards, accepting applications, interviewing job seekers, and making a selection. Those who seek out your job opening and apply are active candidates. Passive candidates, on the other hand, are people are not currently seeking out new opportunities. They find out about jobs by accepting an invitation to interview by HR managers, getting recruited by an employee referral program, being a part of a company’s talent pool.
Recruiting passive candidates can be an effective method for obtaining the top talent your company is looking for, as they have already demonstrated that they possess the skills and knowledge your company desires. Active candidates can be more of a wild card, since hiring managers have little direct knowledge of the work these candidates have actually done and what skills they truly have.
There are numerous benefits to recruiting passive candidates, but many will not leave their current jobs unless your company can offer a compelling reason to try something new. A strong employee brand can be a major factor for encouraging passive candidates to feel excited about the possibility of joining your team.
How Can I Strengthen My Employer Brand?
Whether you have tried to create an employer brand or not, your company likely already has a reputation for what it might be like to work there. If the perception of your brand as an employer is not quite where you want it to be, there are a few actions you can take to improve your company’s image.
Create a Genuine, Welcoming Company Culture
Every company has a culture, whether built intentionally or created spontaneously. What is the culture like at your company? Take a few moments to answer the following questions that can help you visualize a clear picture of your current company culture:
- Is my company a warm, welcoming place to customers and employees?
- Do people genuinely enjoy working here?
- Do employees stick around for more than a few years, or do we have a high turnover rate?
- Does your company take steps to facilitate team building, and to create a collaborative environment among different departments?
It can be hard from an HR or management perspective to understand company culture for administrative or entry-level employees. Take time to interview a few of your employees and gather their honest opinion about what it is like to work at this company, and how the culture could be improved.
Build a Meaningful Employee Value Proposition
Prospective employees, especially those from younger generations, have higher expectations about employee value propositions. Comprehensive benefit packages, exclusive perks, and flexible working times and conditions can all contribute to your employee value proposition, and they can all go a long way in strengthening your employer brand as a company that truly cares about their employees. How can you enhance what you already offer?
Some companies have taken to providing meals and snacks, allowing pets to join employees at work, and implementing a causal dress code. Others provide progressive policies like paid maternity/paternity leave or the ability to work from home a few days per week. You can always ask your current employees what perks they currently enjoy, and what benefits would be most attractive to them if they were applying for a job.
Utilize Social Media and Brand Ambassadors
If your company is not already on social media providing a behind-the-scenes look at your brand for customers and prospective employees, now is the time to create a strong social media presence. It can take time for an organization’s social media accounts to build traction and obtain a meaningful number of followers, but you can also enlist the help of brand ambassadors to promote your company and social media content.
How We Can Help
Creating a customized recruitment strategy to fit your individual employer brand can be overwhelming at first, but it can give your company a major edge when it comes to attracting top talent in the job market. If you’d like to learn more about how your company can appeal to ideal candidates through great benefits and company culture, please subscribe to our blog today.
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