Guide to Promoting Your Employer Brand

Let us pretend for a moment that our dear friend, Jane Austin, after successfully tackling the novel circuit, decided to approach a new challenge: writing employer brand guides for HR. Being of great understanding of the human condition, and a unique ability to convey her thoughts, it is without doubt she would be met with prodigious success. (While this involved a serious amount of time travel our team managed to locate a mint condition DeLorean that did the job.)

The Power of Employer Brand and First Impressions

It is truth universally acknowledged that an employer in possession of quality employment opportunities must be in want of top talent. How pray-tell does such an illustrious organization accomplish such a task? The rather obvious answer is they must write themselves well. Or in a slightly more modern turn of phrase, brand the living hell out of all written content involved in the employment process.

Accomplished Job Descriptions

It is all too easy for us professionals to fall under the spell of copy and paste when dusting off an old job description or constructing a new one. Unfortunately, top candidates regularly view our generic job descriptions and think that they are “tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” While at first blush this attitude may be seen as excessively proud, the facts remain that top talent has the opportunity to pick and choose, and it’s a pity for your organization to be dismissed due to a poor first impression.

Let’s face it, while every organization has strong qualities, some can externally appear rather plain. It is by displaying quality of character and accomplishments that these organizations can begin to compete. How we do this is by exhibiting charm in the way we describe work and team environments, as well as showing off any great accomplishments. For example, sure our organization may produce industrial widgets, but by golly we have the number one charitable donations and volunteer hours given in our area, and we are the most environmentally conscientious in our industry! These personalized features add to the complete picture of your employer brand, something which 75% of job seekers do consider.

Additionally, according to this study, the length of a job description as well as content quality can have a direct impact on the click-to-apply ratio. The findings were that the ideal job description will be right around 4K characters in length. So for all the Mrs. Bates in HR, who have a talent for tittle-tattle, it is best to keep it concise. That same study explores the effect of job title length on perception. The job titles that elicited the most amount of interest were approximately 50-60 characters long. Any longer and it seems to prompt confusion about the position, and any shorter and it leaves job seekers with a feeling of foreboding or disinterest.

LinkedIn Followers Are Your Dance card

Just like a ballroom, LinkedIn is the ideal place to make first introductions. 49% of current job seekers state that the biggest challenge of the job search is not having an introduction to potential employers. Whether your organization is of great fortune or of modest means everyone has the ability to step out and start making new acquaintances. The first step of introduction is to analyze the quality of the content on your company page. Make sure it is the utmost example of your organization. Make it interesting and thought provoking. The second task is to begin to connect with current and potential employees and groups. One way to do this is by keeping your LinkedIn presence up to date and pushing out content of great intrigue and sublime fashion. By supplying your connections with well written content there is a high probability they will share it with others, and as result your followers will begin to grow.

Once your company page has amassed a bustling group of followers, you’re more than halfway there to beginning your candidate courtship. According to this study by the professionals at LinkedIn 58% of company page followers are individuals who would be interested in working for the organization. There you have it, a full dance card to start your candidate search off right.

Inarguably Advantageous

These are but a few examples of ways organizations can construct employer brand value that can begin to rival the illustrious reputations of their peers. By developing a strong employer brand presence it has been proven to increase new hire retention by 40%, as well as decrease cost per hire by 43%. Both are facts which are inarguably advantageous to our positions within HR.