The role of the HR function is evolving faster than it was before. With the limited availability of skilled resources, it is a challenge for the HR team to recruit and retain talent.
While the task of brand management has always been managed by the marketing team, it is time that HR team steps up to take charge of the Employer Brand.
“Employer Branding can be defined as a perception of your brand that prospective Employees perceive.”
Scouting for talent has become one of the most demanding jobs of the recruitment team, specifically if they are trying to hire talent for emerging technologies such as AI, RPA, Analytics etc.
Given the limited availability of skilled talent pool and high demand it is very important to build an Employer Brand which not only conveys to prospective employees of why your organization is one of the best places to work and why they should choose that over others, without competing on salaries and fringe benefits.
Working with multiple clients, we feel that these 5 factors play an important role in building the employer brand
TAKE YOUR RATINGS VERY SERIOUSLY:
The amount of information that is today available on the internet is unprecedented. Within a few minutes, prospective employees can gather information about your company, culture, management, CEO etc.
There are more than 5 websites including Glassdoor which offer insights on an organization’s culture, salaries and many more parameters. This makes it critical for you to manage your ratings online.
While no one can modify these ratings but there are various strategies that you can leverage to ensure how negative ratings are responded and actionable programs build to create an overall positive impact. You can read that in our blog here.
GETTING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY RIGHT:
In most large organizations, the responsibility of managing the social media handles of the company is with the Marketing team of the organization.
While most marketers will be averse to create separate social media handles as that will split the audience, we feel it is perfectly alright to do that.
When marketers put the content on social media handles, it is to promote the organization’s capabilities and not attract talent.
For example, when you are sharing a case study on LinkedIn the messaging should be completely different for a client vis a vis a potential employee.
While a potential client would be more interested in the kind of savings / business transformation etc. that you did for similar companies a prospective employee would be more interested in the kind of learnings, exposure and the technologies that people working on that team got.
GET YOUR WEBSITE STRAIGHT AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT YOUR COMPANY WEBSITE:
I have seen brand invest thousands of dollars in making their organization website, they would use personalization tools, build the wireframe models, map the buyer persona, create client experience and spends hours of discussions on getting the right menu etc. but the career section will be the most ignored section of the website (in most cases).
The standard practice will be to post a few current openings, some of them would have closed months ago, an apply now button which in most cases will take you to an application management system and few employee testimonials which may even have pictures of employees who left months ago.
Personally, I feel HR leaders should take charge of the career website and not leave it with marketing or IT.
The reason being marketing doesn’t care about hiring as they are judged by leads that they bring in and IT doesn’t care about the experience of prospective employees, they are too consumed to manage security / process and other network related issues.
The website is the first impression that a prospective employee will have with your brand. Why not give them the same experience as you would have given to your client.
Spend dollars on designing an engaging website which can make it easy for the candidates to apply and learn a lot more about the culture / values of the brand rather than just see a few openings.
ENHANCING DIGITAL EXPERIENCE USING TECH:
One of the things that technology like AR and VR allows us to do is give a unique experience to people in the comfort of their homes.
The cost of building AR and VR solutions has reduced to a tenth of what it was a few years ago. In addition, the equipment needed to experience these are now low cost and widely available.
Yet, there is very limited content available for candidates to experience before they join an organization.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to see your workplace, campus and some amazing tech labs before you join an organization?
ENGAGE WITH PROSPECTIVE CANDIDATES:
How many times has it happened to you that you have rolled out an offer letter to a candidate and they have refused to join at the last minute.
This is a frequent occurrence in the corporate world. Interview is generally a one-way conversation, where all you have is someone asking skills related questions and you answering them.
In most cases the recruiter has no clue about the role and is juggling multiple positions. So, who do you ask the questions that are about the team etc.
When I was given an offer to work with Innodata one of things my manager did was to invite me for a cup of coffee outside the office.
We had a great conversation and I was able to understand his expectations and convey my apprehensions and get answers to those. This coffee conversation went on for a few hrs. and by the end I was pretty much convinced to join.
My manager at that time also would have judged if I will accept this position or not.
The cost associated with this initiative is just a few cups of coffee and a few hrs. of the managers time, but this does save a lot of hassle in identifying other candidate after you have wasted a few weeks.
These are a few insights based on my experiences that we think the HR team can easily deploy to create a unique and strong employer brand.
