I like to fish. I mean really like to fish. I go every chance I get, especially during the spring and fall. And while I fish a good bit, I wouldn't say that I'm a great fisherman. I catch my share of fish. But sometimes I do get skunked and return home without the first bite, much less a catch.
But what I've learned over the years is fishing is all about presentation and frequency. I have to put the right bait or lure in the right place repeatedly if I want to increase my odds of catching a fish, particularly a big one. If I'm using the wrong lure or my presentation is too fast or slow or if I'm simply not casting enough into the right places, I'm doomed to having a long day. The fish are smart, but fairly predictable in their behaviors. I have to use that to my advantage if I'm going to have any success.
The same is true of your employer brand. I define employer brand as the face of the company you're putting forward in the marketplace as it relates to hiring the best candidates for your open positions. It's similar to, but not the same as, your external brand or internal brand. It's based on the same value propositions as your external and internal brands, but the messaging and presentation are different. And just like with fishing, a successful employer brand is based on presentation and frequency.
How you present your company to employees-to-be is critical. If you don't take a highly strategic and aggressive branding approach to the recruiting process, you're much less likely to be successful. Don't leave your employer brand to be defined simply by your external communications activities such as marketing, advertising or community relations. These are only telling part of the story that employees-to-be respond to. You need an effort that involves recruits in the process by engaging them and telling a story about your firm and what it's like to work there.
A great tool for doing that is a careers website. Sure, most companies have a careers section or tab on their websites. But having a separate careers website is a much more aggressive path to follow. Freed from the constraints of living on the external brand's website, recruiting activities and materials can have their own look and feel and speak to a completely separate audience than is typically looking at your external website. Liberal use of video, especially of current employees telling their own stories about working there, will go a long way in attracting and engaging your recruits. And having a separate website helps in popping up on career searches on Google, Bing and the other search engines.
What else can you do to increase your presentation and frequency? Plenty, such as:
These are just a few of the tools you should consider when establishing an employer brand. Obvious other choices include printed collateral, educated and engaging recruiters, placement ads for newspaper classified sections, placements on job boards, advertisements on blogs and discussion boards and direct mail to qualified candidates you've kept in your database of potential hirees.
Using a variety of lures and baits and placing them in the right places over and over increases the odds you'll land a fish. Nuture your employer brand in similar fashion and watch as your pipeline of potential recruits fills up with the kind of folks you really want to hire. All you have to do then is set the hook.
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