Contrary to what you may think, recruitment begins long before the job advertisement goes live. Your recruitment strategy should therefore include a plan or process of recruitment pre-advertising steps to ensure that:
- There is a smooth and time-effective hiring process
- The right calibre of candidates are attracted to apply for the position
- The company’s reputation as a local employer of choice is maximised
- The company can make informed hiring decisions that align with business objectives
Recruitment pre-advertising is a key part of the recruitment and selection process, and this article is going to explore this topic further, outlining the main steps and the importance of each one.
1. Employer brand
Did you realise that your company culture is an invaluable asset in the recruitment pre-advertising process? A happy workforce will promote your company through their behaviour and word-of-mouth recommendations. This unsolicited approval will impress prospective candidates, confirming that your company is the place to work in the local area.
It is therefore essential that you build a strong employer brand, developing a reputation and image that shows your company treats employees with respect, rewards hard workers and is understanding and flexible in attitude. The employer brand is about your reputation as an employer, projecting your values both internally and externally and highlighting the positive experience of working for your company, confirming your position in the industry as a local employer of choice.
What is an employer brand?
There are several key elements essential to building a strong employer brand:
Culture – The mission and values as well as the working environment, interaction with employees and their level of engagement.
Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – Key elements of working for the company, such as compensation, career opportunities, personal development, recognition, and work-life balance. Everything your company offers to employees in return for their commitment, experience, skills and knowledge.
Reputation – With your employees, potential job candidates and the broader community, such as your role in the local community and charity support.
Candidate experience – A positive candidate experience with clear communication and a smooth application process can enhance the employer brand.
Employee brand ambassadors – The positive experience of employees and their perception of your organisation as being a good place to work results in them spreading the word locally among their friends and acquaintances. Their loyalty and advocacy whether through social media, word of mouth, or customer-facing corporate activities such as exhibitions, job fairs and local community events, will influence the perception of others.
Authenticity – Consistent messaging via all touchpoints will underline the company’s vision and values. Alignment with the brand identity reinforces the authenticity and credibility of your employer brand.
So, how can you create a strong employer brand? Effectively listen to and engage your employees through surveys, internal branding campaigns, employee awards and by creating a programme that rewards commitment, initiative and long service. Highlight company culture, leverage positive employee testimonials and reviews on corporate social media platforms and websites. These actions will reinforce your company’s authenticity and credibility within your industry and underline your attractiveness as a local employer.
If you would like to read more about employer branding and its benefits to the recruitment and selection process, this is an interesting white paper from LinkedIn.
2. Gathering social proof
What is social proof? In essence, social proof is when people use the actions, opinions and behaviours of other people to guide their own decision-making process. In a recruitment context, social proof is influence, exerted by the authenticity and reputation of your organisation and the experiences of present and past employees on their own perceptions and decisions.
It is therefore an important step in recruitment pre-advertising because it builds trust and credibility, helping prospective candidates to form positive perceptions about the company before they engage in the recruitment process. They are more likely to trust a company when they see others sharing positive reviews, opinions and experiences.
We explained above why building a strong employer brand is important. Social proof helps validate and authenticate a company’s reputation both locally and in the wider environment by reinforcing values and messages, demonstrating that the experiences of employees match your promises as an employer.
Social proof plays a major part in attracting candidates to work for a company by underlining it as a local employer of choice. If candidates see evidence of engaged, loyal, committed and happy employees, they are more likely to apply for a position with your company.
Changing jobs brings an element of risk. Social proof provides believable evidence that working for a particular employer will be a positive experience, thus improving the confidence of candidates and helping to reduce the risk factor. Social proof also contributes to employee retention. If prospective candidates see evidence of long-serving employees, it will highlight their engagement and loyalty, again reducing the risk for those seeking new positions.
Google reviews
We all recognise the importance of Google reviews when making purchases, but they are about much more than the quality of the product or service provided. Remember that these reviews may be read by prospective candidates, as well as customers, so they should be handled professionally and honestly, without getting into arguments or exacerbating the situation.
Indeed and Glassdoor reviews
Even more important to the credibility of a local employer brand, are the reviews on job sites such as Indeed and Glassdoor, which were key to highlighting the importance of the employer brand to the recruitment and selection process. Reviews on these sites are from both current and past employees, so the feedback they provide to organisations is crucial to combatting negative feedback and creating a strong employer brand.
As the majority of prospective candidates, today will research what employees say about their employer before even thinking about applying for a position. Brand management of reviews is therefore crucial to attracting the right calibre of candidates for a role. Honesty and integrity should shine through when handling negative feedback, and always remember that prospective employees will read company responses intently.
Handling negative reviews
How your company handles negative reviews will project your brand values outwards to anyone who may read them. It is important, therefore, to ensure the right individual within your team answers negative reviews, promptly and politely. The issue highlighted by the reviewer should be acknowledged while outlining the actions the company has taken or will take to rectify it.
Always be honest and authentic to your brand values when responding. Your response also provides an opportunity to highlight some positive changes or actions in your company. These actions will underline the authenticity of the employer brand, as well as reflect the values of the company itself. You can read more about how to approach negative reviews in this article from Zippia.
Social proof plays a critical role in the recruitment process by influencing potential candidate’s perceptions of the company, so negative reviews can be an impending minefield for employers. But if handled honestly, positively and authentically, responses can help to build a positive company culture internally, locally and within the wider community.
3. Preparation of online platforms
The final step in recruitment pre-advertising is to optimise digital channels to attract and engage prospective candidates. How can you do this?
Make sure the careers page on your company’s website is engaging and compelling. Too often, career pages on websites are staid and old-fashioned. Put yourself in the position of a prospective candidate and create content that will attract them to your company such as; values and goals, positive employee reviews, perks and benefits, local community initiatives, compelling videos and photos that demonstrate what you do. Make sure that information is easy to find, and that the page has a ‘call to action’ for downloading more information, application forms, contact details and location maps.
Prioritise data security and compliance to make sure that candidate data is confidential and protected and provide clear messaging about privacy and data usage to candidates.
As part of this process, check that your website is optimised for mobiles, as most people today will go through the whole application process on their mobile devices. Pages that are cut off, or ‘call to action’ buttons that don’t work are major no-nos. Part of a positive candidate experience is to ensure the application process is streamlined and easy to access. For more tips on how to optimise your company website to attract top candidates, please read this LinkedIn article.
Use your social media channels to engage with prospective candidates by sharing updates, highlighting local community activities and interacting with comments. Showcase employee rewards programmes, experiences and testimonials, through quotes, videos and photos. Use questionnaires, or polls to gauge opinion and engage with respondents. Build a following on your social media channels via shared culture and values, which will attract passive candidates, so that you will have a candidate pool already waiting when you start to advertise roles.
By preparing digital channels as part of your recruitment pre-advertising strategy, you will enhance your attractiveness as a local employer of choice, attract a higher calibre of candidates, streamline the recruitment and selection process and create a positive candidate experience.
Recruitment pre-advertising
In this article, we have outlined the steps for recruitment pre-advertising to ensure that you have everything in place to create a positive candidate experience. A strong employer brand reinforces your reputation as a caring employer, backed up by the social proof of employee loyalty and engagement. The transparent and honest handling of negative reviews will only enhance your company values and professionalism, making your business an attractive prospect to high-calibre candidates.
Optimising digital channels and your online presence to highlight your attractiveness as a local employer of choice, and using these channels to streamline the application process, will strengthen your employer brand and ensure prospective candidates enjoy a positive experience when interacting with your company. If you need help to put a recruitment pre-advertising process in place, or you are not sure where to start, why not book an appointment with the Oliver King Consulting team? We can work through the process with you and offer guidance at every step to make sure that your company is the employer of choice for the highest calibre of applicants before a job advertisement goes live.