iCIMS Hire Expectations™

Many HR professionals partake in one of the most important branding initiatives a company must implement. That’s right, I said HR, not the marketing department…well in some cases, marketing may help…but anyway, this is HR’s branding baby. And what is it you ask? The employer brand.

According to Minchington (2005), an employer brand is:

“the image of your organisation as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders). The art and science of employer branding is therefore concerned with the attraction, engagement and retention of initiatives targeted at enhancing your company's employer brand.”

Developing an employer brand is essential to any organization that desires to obtain quality talent to optimize the productivity and successfulness of a workforce and ultimately, a company.

So, what type of employer brand has been the most successful? Well, that may be an impossible question to answer, but recent trends seem to show that “putting a face to the company” can go a long way. In a recent article on ERE, BP did just that. Notoriously known for the 2010 oil spill that left a great deal of damage in the Gulf Coast region, BP has been able to bounce back with a rebranding campaign dedicated to showing the workers of BP. “Its recruitment advertising has changed, consistent with that brand, but using employees to describe it in human terms.” During this campaign, polls showed that, “more than 50% of people still had an interest in working for BP, and rated the quality of its workforce high.” Putting a face on BP may just be the trick they need to lessen the negativity once associated with them and ultimately, increase the number of quality candidates applying for positions.

McDonalds also leveraged their employer brand to drive recruitment. Back in April 2011, McDonalds made an announcement to hire 50,000 people nationwide during a time when unemployment was high. McDonalds attempted to show they were an employer of the people - striving to help out during desperate times. The ultimate goal being: an increase in candidate submission!

Employer brand is essential. But just having an employer brand isn’t good enough. HR professionals must actively promote this brand to show candidates just what it means to work for the company. Ask yourself the following two questions:

1. Is your career site up to date? Your career site should tell the candidate exactly what they can expect if they apply for a job within your company. Make sure it’s up to date and accurate. Make it fun (yet professional) too! This will increase candidate engagement. Also try leveraging technology to optimize your career site - this will also help candidate conversions.
   
2. What is your employee referral rate? If it’s low, maybe you should check your employee satisfaction rate. If that’s low, make sure employees know of all the benefits that your company offers. The truth of the matter is that most employees can’t name all of the benefits that their company offers. While this is not a set fix for low satisfaction - the more perks employees know they have, the happier they will be. And, the happier they are, the more likely they will be to refer top talent to your organization.
   

Conclusion? Know your employer brand and sell it! Show candidates what they want to see and I promise you will see an increase in top talent hires.