Recruiting Basics – Start with Your Brand by Katie Roth 

Do you have a good company brand for hiring? Consider these 6 questions. 

79% of job seekers go online and use social media in their job search. As a recent Gallup report puts it, “Millennials behave as consumers of workplaces, shopping around for the jobs that best align with their needs and life goals.” This means your brand and how you present your organization online is more important now than ever before. Here are some questions to ask yourself. 

1. Do you have a career site or career page on your corporate website? It is easy to find?  Are your jobs up to date? Many websites do not list any positions, simply an email address or contact link to send a resume. Why would someone send a resume into a company and not know what the position is? The least these companies can do is say something to the effect, “We aren’t hiring right now”.  
2. Did you just copy and paste the job description? No one is going to read it all the way through. Candidates will spend less than a minute looking at a job online. Your jobs should entice an applicant not scare them away. Does the job seeker understand who you are and what you do in about five seconds? Your posting needs to be visually attractive, have lots of white space, bullet point the important requirements, have key search words and emphasize why an employee would want to work there, plus a call to action. It’s not about you. It’s about them.  Why would they work for your organization? Hint: it’s not just about salary and benefits. 
3. Is your website visually appealing? Do you have videos and other content that allows job seekers to peek in your organization and see your culture?
4. Is it easy to apply? If you have a job application online that takes more than a few minutes you will lose candidates. Is your website mobile optimized? Eighty-one percent of Americans (81%) own a smart mobile device. You are losing out if they can’t apply on their phone. Every page or your website should have an “Apply Now” button. Or consider offering a one-click apply option such as “Apply with Indeed” or “Apply with LinkedIn”. 
5. Are you optimizing social media with a Twitter account and a business Facebook Page? Is your company on LinkedIn with all the pertinent information? Many companies have incomplete pages and information. Are you positioning your company as an industry thought leader rather than an online commercial? Do your employees post job openings on their Facebook and LinkedIn pages? 
6. Consider video job postings. These can be simply 10 seconds recorded on your smart phone. According to Digi-Me, a video job posting service, candidates will stay on your career site up to five times longer, first page search results increase 53 times and candidates retain 300% more with video. Again, they do not have to be professionally produced. Sometimes it’s better if they are “homemade”. 

I think it’s important to point out that the term “branding” has gotten a bad rap. It’s not about making your company a household name like Coke or Pepsi. Face it, your company is probably not going to get there. However, it is important that your company or organization is represented in the best possible way to attract candidates.