Tips for Building and Promoting Your Employer Brand

by Startacus Admin

Startacus (that's us) and Jobbio have recently joined forces to create a startup focused careers marketplace for the startup community. Via Startacus, employers (new to Jobbio) can post their first startup job for FREE and job seeking talent seeking employment within the startup community can also view and apply for a whole host of startup jobs.

Here Jobbio share some handy tips on building and promoting your employer brand. (originally published by Jobbio here).

"Once you’ve established the elements that make up your employer brand, you need to assess all the channels through which you can promote it. Try to understand each element that makes up the candidate experience:

Careers site

Your careers site should be responsive, mobile optimised and easy to navigate. It should offer a wealth of knowledge about life in your company in general and where possible about specific roles and departments. The more relevant information the better! It should also be in line with your tone and personality as a brand. If you’re informal and non corporate on your social channels and then your careers page is full of jargon or specialist language, this will jar with prospective talent and possibly deter applications.

Similarly, your application process should be as direct and efficient as possible. That means no CVs or cover letters sent down the black hole of info@cvs.com but a modern application process where information is current and manageable.

Job ads

Ensure you’re writing inclusive and informative job ads. Avoid language that favours one group of people over the other. Use gender neutral pronouns and don’t insist on a certain amount of experience unless it’s crucial to the position.

Be open and honest about salary, location, contract type and title. Don’t try to make a role sound more appealing by giving it an impressive title. Words like Chief, Lead or Head should only be used when the position actually holds a level of seniority or authority.

To boost your visibility, use keywords in your ad to improve your SEO. Don’t be afraid to be creative – add visuals and multimedia to make it more attractive to candidates.

Applications

Not responding to applications is a sure fire way to damage your employer brand. When it comes to job application, being ignored is worse than being rejected, so be sure to respond to candidates even if they’re not suitable for the position. If they’ve shown sufficient interest in your company, and put time into applying for a job, the least they deserve is a response. The more personalised the response you can offer, the better for your employer brand. People appreciate human interactions so try to avoid the “Dear Applicant” autoreply.

Events

Events can be a great way to network with your peers and make lasting offline connections. Consider what events align with your values. Are there events you could sponsor, attend, speak at or host? Use the opportunity to educate talent about who you are and make a pipeline of interested candidates for the future.

Interview process

While you might be tempted to oversell your business to convert that star candidate, not being truthful about the downsides of a role will only disillusion new starters and lead to high employee turnover. Be candid about the difficulties of a position, as the right candidate will relish the challenge. Asking an interviewee to complete certain tasks can be a good way to test their skills and evaluate their suitability to a role. However, it shouldn’t be used as a means to extract free labour from candidates.

Post interview

After the interview, reach out to the candidates as soon as possible after a decision has been made. Where feasible, offer feedback to unsuccessful candidates and thank them for their time and interest. This leaves interviewees with a sense of goodwill towards to the company and does wonders for your employer brand.

Onboarding

The candidate journey doesn’t end once the contracts are signed, thorough onboarding is a crucial part of the process. Undervalue it at your peril!

New hires need to be supported and educated through their introduction and not just left to their own devices to figure things out. Discuss at length the responsibility and remit of their role and encourage them to come to you with any questions they may have in those first few weeks.

Facilitate meetings with other departments so that they have a full picture of how the business works. Tell them about the history of the company and its future vision. This will get them invested in the company mission as soon as possible, while making sure they’re not stepping on any toes. Good onboarding means providing all the information and support a new hire needs to be confident and assured in their new position.

Integration

Being transparent and having good channels of communication are essential for a strong employer brand. Employees like to feel involved in the developments in the business so try to avoid any ambiguity or secrecy surrounding company updates. It’s demoralising and fosters poor relationships with coworkers.

64% of people said that open and honest communication is the most important value a business needs to have long term success as an employer.

Feedback should be sought throughout the lifecycle of an employee, not just during their initiation or when grievances occur. Organise 6 month reviews for new starters and yearly appraisals after that. Create an atmosphere where discussion and feedback are welcome. Empower employees to make suggestions on how things could be improved or made more efficient. This doesn’t just improve your employer brand it leads to a more creative and harmonious work environment.  

Offboarding

Exit interviews are a must for employees leaving your company. It might be hard to listen to negative feedback about your business but it’s a good way to assess your strengths and weaknesses as a team and avoid losing top talent in the future. Be amicable and understanding and make sure to deliver all necessary documentation to them swiftly, including their paycheck.

A mishandled offboarding can outweigh any positive experience an employee may have had at your organisation.

Following a bad experience with an employer, almost half of people surveyed said they would leave a negative review or share their story online.

Partnerships

Partnerships help build relationships with communities who share your values. This can amplify your employer brand through pooled resources and give you access to audiences you wouldn’t normally have."

Talking partnerships...about Startacus and Jobbio

Startacus (that's us) and Jobbio recently joined forces to create a startup focused careers marketplace for the Startacus startup community. Employers (new to Jobbio) can post their first job for FREE and job seeking talent seeking employment within the startup community can also view and apply for a whole host of startup jobs.

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• #talent

Published on: 9th November 2017