5 Tips to Boost Your Employer Brand

Branding plays a significant role in attracting and retaining candidates. As players in your niche compete for top-notch candidates, which is limited, you need to bolster your employer branding to stay competitive and hire the best talent.

Let’s explore some simple yet effective ways to boost your employer brand.

What is Employer Branding?

Employer branding is the total of the perceptions of your brand or reputation by various stakeholders, including employees, job seekers, and more. It is the stepping stone to establishing yourself as a differentiator and, therefore, a preferred employer.

According to LinkedIn statistics, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreed that employer branding has a great impact on hiring.

While it might seem overwhelming to think of the stages in building your brand, following the easy ways outlined below could make it seem an absolute breeze!

5 Best Ways to Boost Your Employer Brand

Adopt a user-friendly website and a simple application process

Candidates or job seekers visit your website to check for job postings. Ensure they can do this easily and fill out the application form in just a few minutes. Too lengthy applications could demotivate the candidate, causing them to drop off midway, thereby hampering your brand image. 

Ensure timely and assertive communication

Quite often, candidates lose interest in proceeding with the interview process due to a lack of timely communication. Make it a point to promptly intimate the applicants at each stage of the selection process, regardless of whether they have cleared the round.

Check and respond to your employee reviews regularly

There are various sites on which your current or former employees may post reviews. Some may be positive, and others negative. Regardless of the nature of the review, respond to each, as this would build your brand as a responsible and concerned employer. Besides, gather feedback from employees through surveys and focus on areas needing improvement.

Identify appropriate candidate personas

Candidate personas essentially include the attributes like geographical location, qualifications, expertise, and more. Craft a persona for an applicant each time you open a new job posting. This would help look for the right candidates at the right places. For example, you can better target a marketer on Pinterest or Instagram, while for a developer, you would opt for something like GitHub.

Highlight your employee benefits in the job postings

Mostly, candidates take a first glance at the benefits and remuneration that you offer for a job role. Make sure to showcase your benefits packages which include health insurance, paid leaves besides onsite travel, and upskilling opportunities. This would go a long way in boosting your employer brand.

Conclusion

The job market poses stiff competition to employers like never before. That said, it becomes imperative to boost your employer brand and stand apart. A Glassdoor survey indicates that 92% of people would consider changing jobs if offered by a company of great reputation. Follow the useful tips outlined in the blog and carve a niche for yourself as the most sought-after employer.

About the Author

Simon Chou is the Vice President of Operations and Growth at BCjobs.ca. Over the course of his career, he carved a niche in brand development, marketing strategy, and online presence for startups. Prior to joining BCJobs.ca, Simon was an advisor for several global blockchain projects including Litecoin, NEM, and Ripple. In the past, he also worked with Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare space through SM Digital—a global marketing agency.

The post 5 Tips to Boost Your Employer Brand appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

This is something that I have learned from spending the last decade with a man who is terrible at little white lies.

Having your husband gaze into your eyes and tell you, “That haircut is weird!” or “You look kind of puffy, are you tired?” is no fun.

His annoying little habit, although hard on my ego, actually makes him an incredible employee.

Why?

Because he refuses to be a yes man.

My husband’s enduring candor means that he is unwilling to ignore problems in an attempt to keep feathers unruffled.

Today’s workplace culture is so determined to avoid conflict at all costs, that a simple willingness to point out cold hard truths can save companies from investing unsoundly, moving forward on flawed projects, and general self-destruction.

Denise M. Morrison, CEO of Campbell Soup blames “too much emphasis on reaching consensus” for lagging sales back in 2011. She credits the decision to shift from a “play it safe culture” to one that empowered employees to act boldly, and go against the grain, for turning the company’s fortunes around. (https://www.hanakaimaui.com/)

Read more about how Denise cultivated a bold company culture.

According to many top CEO’s, creating a company culture that invites honest feedback, and encourages employees to speak up, and challenge the status quo is vital to an organization’s ability to grow and innovate.

But, I still don’t think my husband would be doing his company’s CEO any favors by telling him that he looks tired. Thankfully (for our financial situation and my ego), he has gotten a lot better at learning the difference between constructive honesty, and brutal truth telling!

“There is a vast difference between picking projects apart and picking people apart.” – Gregory Ciotti, Help Scout and Sparring Mind

Pointing out previously missed, yet possibly fatal flaws when working on a project is constructive, even though it isn’t fun for anyone involved.

Pointing out every single rough patch along the way isn’t helpful, and it can be horribly demoralizing for your team.

Reaching a balance is difficult. Navigating employees’ emotions, navigating your own emotions, and maintaining positivity, whilst maintaining a culture that both accepts and encourages constructive critique is difficult.

Almost as difficult as finding a gentle way to tell your spouse that their favorite pair of pants are no longer flattering… But it can be done!

Here are a couple of tips:

Critique the project, NOT the person

Make sure that you direct your critiques towards the project, how it is moving, and the areas that need improvement, not towards individuals, or their character traits.

Once things get personal, rationality flies out the window, and any insights that may have been gleaned are lost to emotion.

For example:

“Honey, those pants are just too worn out, we should replace them.”

VS

“Honey, you just can’t fit into those skinny jeans anymore.”

Make it about the pants project, not the person.

Offer a solution

Notice the suggestion to replace the pants, this provides a new thing to focus on, a common goal that will bring the team together, and move the project forward.

Not to say that you always have to offer a great solution, but trying to provide some insight or general direction will make any negative feedback easier to swallow.

Maintain control

Just because you are encouraging your team to be real with you, and each other, does not mean you should encourage them to say whatever the heck they want.

You want to cultivate a company culture that encourages employees to challenge the status quo and ask hard questions.

You do not want to encourage bullying, or personal attacks.

Step in when you see team members cross this line, be firm with them so that they know that the behavior will not be tolerated, but also be very clear with them about why you are stepping in.

Not everyone has great, or even decent social skills. Your hard-truth telling employee may not even know that they have crossed a line. As their leader ,you must clearly explain the difference between being brutally honest, and constructively critical. You may even need to break down exactly how their behavior is inappropriate and  advise them on how to proceed in the future.

Be patient with your team, listen to their feedback (even when it stings), and, as always, lead by example.

You will be rewarded with innovation, growth, and success.

PS

I really like my new pants!

The post Why an Honest Culture is Essential for Growth appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

A well crafted Employer profile, with a high quality logo, company colors, and inviting welcome message converts jobseekers into applicants.

Your employer profile should be a glowing representation of your employer brand.

But how can you create a great profile, if you don’t have a fantastic employer brand to base it on?

And, the effectiveness of your BCjobs profile is not the only reason employee branding is essential to your recruiting success, although it’s probably the most important one!

There’s been a huge shift in the past few years when it comes to what attracts jobseekers to employers.

It used to be that people sought out companies based on industry. According to Kortney Kutsop, an employer brand specialist at Universum:

“We’ve really seen a shift over the last few years where students are no longer saying, ‘I’m going to work for a company because I want to go into this industry,’” Kutsop said. “They think, ‘I’m computer science and I can actually work anywhere I want,’ whether it’s a consulting company or an accounting firm or someone like McKinsey or Google.”

Today’s jobseeker wants to work with a company that promotes a culture they find appealing. It is your employer branding that lets those candidates know what your company culture is all about.

The only way to win the war for talent in today’s competitive market is by building an attractive, trustworthy employer brand that is in line with your ideal candidate’s values.

If you haven’t given much thought to employer branding, start by asking yourself these three questions:

What kind of company are you?

Google is all about fostering innovation, ability over experience, and hands-on participation from all employees. Zappos is about teamwork, customer experience, and being “a little weird”!

All the top employers know who they are, and express who they are in every aspect of their employer branding.

Knowing what kind of company you are is the first step in employer branding because is the foundation for every other brand related decision you’ll make

Who are your ideal employees?

Are they highly driven, with a strong desire for advancement, and business minded? Or are they creative, on trend, and motivated by the desire to innovate?

You need to know what kinds of employees thrive at your company, to build a culture that will attract similar candidates, and keep your current team happy too!

Once you have an answer to this question you can then ask…

What do your ideal employees want?

The best way to find out is by getting some help from your best employees.

Chances are the same things that appeal to them about your organization will appeal to your desired candidates.

Find out what those things are and make them a core part of your employer branding strategy!

By asking yourself these questions, you’ll quickly learn what makes your company stand out from the competition, and make your employer brand a talent magnet.

The post 3 Questions That Lay the Foundation for Employer Branding appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

Facebook recruiting is still relatively new to many employers, but luckily there are still lots of innovative early adopters to learn from. This article will look at specific best practices employed by family-run business Gordon Food Service, hospitality giant Hotel Marriott, and the province of Saskatchewan. All three of these businesses provide fantastic examples for any employer interested in giving Facebook recruiting a try. We’ll explain how you can learn from their example and apply their strategies to your own recruiting.

Gordon Food Service

Gordon Food Service has made their Facebook Career Page a place where people can get a more in-depth look at what their company culture is really like. How their staff interact, what their values are, and what the company prioritizes are all showcased on their Facebook Career Page.

GFS uses Facebook to communicate their brand message not just to candidates, but also to current and potential customers. This is why they make branding a key part of their Facebook Career Page.

What can you learn from Gordon Food Service’s strategy?

Use your Facebook Career Page to express company culture and promote your brand.

All of Gordon Food Service’s content is valuable, in that it is useful to clients and potential candidates. The GFS Facebook Career Page is fully branded with company colors and a custom banner to maintain brand consistency. They post updates about community service projects, fun staff activities, and sponsored events. GFS also posts food-related questions to their fans, topical articles, and great tips on grilling. (louisvilleroofing.com) GFS engages with their fans by creating dialogue and asking and answering questions, which has garnered them a very loyal Facebook following. Check out their Company Page and you’ll find tons of positive comments and thank yous from their customers and employees.

Follow their lead and your Facebook Career Page will grow your brand and your talent pool.

Next up, Hotel Marriott

Hotel Marriott turned the social recruiting world on its head by using a social game to recruit thousands of hourly workers for their massive expansion outside of the U.S.

Potential hires create their own virtual restaurant, buy equipment and ingredients on a budget, hire and train employees, and serve customers. Gamers earn points for happy customers… and lose points for poor service. Players’ success is based on their operation turning a profit.

What can you learn from Marriott?

Experiment

I’m not suggesting you invest thousands in creating a virtual game – far from it! But trying new social strategies will set your employer brand apart.

Try out different kinds of content, posting on different days or at different times, and maybe even make a short recruiting video. You won’t know what works best for you unless you experiment.

And last, but most definitely not least, Think Sask Jobs!

The Think Sask Jobs campaign is an effort to brand the Province of Saskatchewan as an awesome place to live and work, in order to fill the many new jobs created by its booming economy. Phoenix Group has been incredibly successful in using Facebook to create an Employer brand for Saskatchewan. Their page has over 5,000 Likes and their average daily reach is around 1.7 million users.

What can you learn from the Think Sask Jobs campaign?

Have a Game Plan

Much of their success is owed to the creation of a brilliant and specific social strategy. Phoenix group researched how frequently they should post, what days and time work best, and what kinds of content are the most appealing to the workers that Saskatchewan needs.

They then created a game plan based on their research.

For example, the content posted on the Think Sask Company page is divided evenly into three categories: job postings, posts about how to get hired in Saskatchewan, local culture and fun lifestyle-related content. That way they know exactly what kind of content is needed each day.

Even the choice of Facebook as a medium for their social recruiting effort was based on solid research into where potential candidates were looking for jobs.

Researching before beginning a social recruiting campaign is a must (you can start with this article about how to use Facebook for recruiting), as is creating a plan to guide your efforts.

What do all three have in common?

Each of these businesses uses metrics to measure their success. Tracking what works and what doesn’t is an important part of any recruiting campaign, social or not! That’s why the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app supplies an easy way to view reports and statistics. You can’t move forward without knowing where you’ve been, so make sure you keep your metrics up to date.

Happy social recruiting!

To make recruiting with Facebook even easier, try using the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app. Jobcast works with BC Jobs, so it’s easy for you to sync your BC Jobs posts with the app, and start using Facebook to find awesome candidates.

For more information about making your recruitment better using Facebook, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Ryan by email at ryan@bcjobs.ca or by phone at 778-331-2122.

The post Learn Facebook Recruiting Best Practices from the Masters appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

With today’s technology, companies of all sizes can take advantage of video to showcase the unique culture within their organization.

Be real, be honest, and focus on presenting your company in an authentic way to potential applicants.

Star employees are on the hunt for more than just a J.O.B and want to work for an organization whose values and mission are in line with their worldview. Great organizations are built when like-minded people come together to work on projects they believe in. What does your organization stand for and how can you present that in a recruitment video?

Ideas for producing your recruitment video

Allow candidates into your world and give them a true feel for who they’ll be working with, what the company’s vision is and why it’s important. Try incorporating some of these ideas into your video footage:

• Add an introduction from the CEO or founder
• Conduct interviews with existing employees
• Provide tours of the office
• Show staff interacting at a company event
• Highlight benefits and perks that make your company unique

Need a little inspiration? Here’s a recent blog post that highlights some great examples of recruitment videos. It also shares links to metrics on using video to hire, and a webinar about making videos that appeal to your target candidates!

Example Recruitment Videos

Rackspace

Hubspot

Ps. Did you know you can embed YouTube Videos into your employer profile on BCjobs.ca? Please visit Starbucks and Sage Software’s links below for two more great recruitment video examples on BCjobs.ca!

Starbucks Jobs | Sage Jobs

The post How to highlight your employer brand & company values with video appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

Employers: Branding is not just for restaurants & consumer products
Your employment brand is the sum total of who you are as a company.  It’s how people and organizations experience you.  It’s what your customers, employees, and ex-employees say about you.  It’s the look and feel of your job ads and includes the way candidates are treated throughout the advertising, interviewing and hiring cycle.

Here’s why branding matters when you’re hiring
Baby boomers are preparing to retire in numbers larger than upcoming generations will be able to fill.  This is creating a talent shortage that we’re feeling right now in North America and that promises to become more severe over the next 10 to 15 years (for more see Business Insider March 11, 2011).  At the same time, globalization means that companies are facing increased competition and pricing pressures that require them to do more with less resources.  Good talent isn’t good enough anymore.  You need the best.  The talent community is aware of these shifts and, as a result, they have become savvy shoppers when it comes to career moves.

Three positive branding steps companies of any size can undertake
First, investigate your external employment brand.  Take a look through glassdoor.com.  You can gain 30 days’ free access to their insight by creating an account.  Google your company name along with a few key words like this (substituting your company name for McDonald’s, of course):
You can also use a site called Twitter search to see what kind of mentions your company is receiving.  It operates on the same principle as a Google or Bing search.

Once you’ve found out what the external chatter looks and sounds like, it’s time for the second step:  talking to your employees.  Does each person understand how to communicate the vision?  Survey them for anonymous feedback to determine engagement levels.  Help them understand that they ARE the brand.  What they say on Facebook or at the family dinner table either adds or detracts from the business.  There is no neutral when it comes to branding.  Find your best internal advocates and deputize them to spread the word and help management understand where improvements could be made.

The third step is external engagement.  Consider starting an online community or forum where people are free to express themselves.  This can be daunting, especially if you have a strong marketing department that is accustomed to one-way communications.  If you decide to engage with the online community, make sure you are committed.  There is nothing worse than a Twitter or Facebook account that lies fallow.
If there is only one, single takeaway from this post, I hope it is that companies need to put at least as much effort into marketing to prospective employees as we do to prospective customers.

Your customer base will be worthless if you don’t have the right talent to deliver.

Related to The War for Talent:

• Benefits of employer branding
•  5 Tips for Boosting Employee Engagement
• Top 10 Social Media Myths and Your Online Reputation

The post The War for Talent: Branding 101 to the Rescue appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

Healthcare organizations describe themselves as “caring” places, where “you can make a difference.” Companies tell us that it’s all about “collaboration,” where your colleagues “feel like family.” Others speak in general terms about “career growth and opportunity.”

How do you cut through the clichés and create something memorable and enticing to candidates, especially when you may not have one startlingly unique attribute to advertise? Consider the following:

It’s about the synthesis.
So, you don’t have an unusual workplace and you’re not the only company in your business. It’s time to do some internal research and discover what you do have to offer. Your employment brand does not have to consist of one huge differentiator. In fact, it should be made up of everything you have to offer, communicated under a common banner, on an as needed basis. Some candidates may want to hear about your culture, while others may prefer to learn about your training programs. They’re all a part of the brand.

It’s about presentation.
A good employment brand is not just a slogan or theme, although a message of that nature may be used to introduce your organization. Think of that initial representation as a first impression or introduction, used to draw in candidates and entice them to get the rest of the story. It’s in this phase where you may want to draw on expert help from a recruitment communications partner, with the ability to develop an employment brand that takes what you’ve got and presents it in a compelling way. A consistent, flexible and creative look and feel can go a long way as you enumerate your many employment brand attributes.

It’s about authenticity.
There’s aspirational…and there’s delusional. It’s okay to tell candidates where you’re going, as long as you are honest about where you are. Of course, you should present the most attractive picture of your organization as possible. Employment branding is a form of advertising, after all. However, you want to avoid focusing exclusively on what you think attracts candidates, especially if it does not match up with what you offer. If candidates arrive and find out they’ve been deceived, you’re set up for turnover and bad buzz.

It’s about word of mouth.
The best employment branding is done by current (and even past) employees, when they speak about their positive experiences with your company. Suddenly, those clichés about “making a difference” and “collaborating” come with real stories and emotional weight – and they serve as powerful reinforcement of the visual and verbal messaging you present in your marketing efforts.

It’s time to get past the myth of creating the unique employment brand – and start to think about a developing holistic approach to communicating what makes your company a great employer. The more facets of your organization you can show to candidates, the more attractive a career destination you will be.

Reprinted from NAS Recruitment Communications

Related to The Myth of the Unique Employment Proposition:

• Company culture as a recruiting technique
• Benefits of employer branding
• 7 Steps to Defining your Unique Employment Brand

The post The Myth of the Unique Employment Proposition appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

On average, people do 22 Google searches per day, each lasting about 11 seconds. Google has replaced encyclopaedias, directories and even ‘Mom’ in many cases (don’t tell her I said that) as the go-to resource for seeking answers. So it should come as no surprise that when people want to find out more about what kind of company yours is to work for, they ask Google.

For instance, if you Google “is Pixar a good place to work?” Google offers about 191,000 results, the first 10 of which are displayed on the first page—and which incidentally reflect exclusively positive comments. Even more remarkable, is the fact that of these top-10 results, only one or two of them come from Pixar-owned sites. The rest are mostly from independent blogs (which cover everything from animation to e-commerce personalization services).

How do they do that?! Aside from actually being a good place to work, and having lots of employees who are happy to say so, Pixar is clearly doing something else right to saturate the internet with that much positive content.

To get at what Pixar is doing to get the word out, it’s important to remember that, like a third-rate comedian who can’t come up with any of their own material, Google can only repeat what others have said. As powerful as Google is, it does not have the capability to manufacture content, it can only index what already exists. And bloggers too, will only blog about topics that already exist. You, as the HR department, need to seed the internet with interesting topics for people to write about.

Some ideas for topics:

• latest employment awards (Canada’s Greenest Employer, Canada’s top 100)
• departmental milestones (our third successful product launch this year, thanks to the dedicated efforts of the R&D team)
• corporate social responsibility activities (fundraisers, donation drives)
• employee certification milestones (congratulations to all five of our Engineers in Training, who have just received their degrees)
• new branches opening (which not only points to hiring more staff but also offers an opportunity to highlight the features/décor that will set the tone in the new facility)

If you don’t have access to your own company blog, you can post summaries or links to these stories on relevant industry or association blogs that your employees are members of. Another way to get people chatting about you is to post a teaser to the full story as a status update on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Examples:

• “We’re voted as green again! We love the new bike lane downtown.”
• “Angela and I just donated our old computers to FreeGeek. Their faces lit up when they saw us!”

Basically, anything you can say about your organization’s culture, industry or approach to hiring will offer both insights into your employer brand and provide others with an opportunity to discuss what they think of those features. Discussions are good – the more people you can engage in the conversation, the better chance you will have of your stories being picked up and shared through the far reaches of the internet.

Does Google think your organization is a good place to work? Ask Google, and then start building your plan for how to seed the internet with answers.

Reprinted with Permission from Midlyn Day Communications

Articles Related to You are what Google says you are:

• Being an Employer of Choice
• Not Just a Pretty Face
• Company culture as a recruiting technique

The post You are what Google says you are appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

It is all about transparency. This can be a good thing! It’s a great opportunity for your company to share what it’s really like to work there, and show off the personality of your brand and your people. So how can you highlight the personality of your staff, and the environment of your company on sites like Facebook?

In a recent post, Brenda mentioned sharing job opportunities through Facebook fan pages and I couldn’t agree more! I collaborated on building the Syndicruit job app mentioned so it’s something that resonates with me. Making your jobs easily accessible on every platform is absolutely critical, be it on your website, a job board or social media sites.

The question is: How can we take the concept of recruitment using Facebook further?

Depending on your company, some great ways to show some personality are:

• Share photos from events or from around the office
• Post videos of your staff (from real people working with you!)
• Encourage discussions on your fan page
• Ask questions and get involved in the conversation
• Add the Twitter feeds of all your staff
• Add open house events to your page and invite potential candidates
• Add your company blog or better still, blogs from your staff
• Add your corporate culture and company mission statement

By sharing, you attract applicants who believe in your corporate culture and have a personality that fits your environment. Imagine always hiring people who share your corporate values and are passionate about what you do! That’s the real power of incorporating tools like Facebook into your overall recruitment strategy.

No matter where you post your jobs, include a link to a well-built Facebook fan page and you’ll create a window into the world of your company for applicants to see. Show potential candidates that your company values and mission statement are more than just words crafted by the marketing department, they’re beliefs embodied by the whole team, at all levels.

Related to Not Just a Pretty Face:

• The Good, the Bad and the (not so) Ugly Truth about Social Media in the Workplace
• Using your Facebook Fan Page to Recruit
• Company culture as a recruiting technique

The post Not just a pretty face. Give your brand a little personality. appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

What is an internal brand? The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) defines internal branding as “the set of strategic processes that align and empower employees to deliver the appropriate customer experience in a consistent fashion“.  Just as brands make promises to customers, companies make promises to their employees.

Here are some tips I uncovered for creating your internal brand.

Know your brand. Become familiar with your company’s brand strategy. Talk to marketing and branding and find out how your brand emotionally connects with consumers.

Discover what your employees believe to be your brand; what it promises to customers and what it promises to employees. Where does your internal brand promises live up to, or fall short in the eyes of your employees?

Create a plan. We all love plans. Make internal branding the cornerstone of your HR strategy. This is an opportunity for Human Resources to help ensure that throughout the organization, all of the actions that people take every day are in line with the corporate brand strategy.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. In order to market your employer brand, communication of the brand values to employees is paramount. Your employees need to see the parallels between your customer and employee experiences. Train managers and supervisors to walk the walk – this is up to you to find a way to execute.

And finally, measure the ROI. All those horrid years of math will come in handy now.
Have you had an increase in employee satisfaction?
Have your sales increased?
How about employee turnover – is it up or down?

Using measurable results, you can see the impact of where your branding efforts are working and where they need to be improved.
Ultimately, your employer brand is your promise to employees. If your employees don’t believe in your brand, who will? (https://www.propertyspecialistsinc.com/)
When a company can consistently live up to its brand promises both internally and externally, it is a fabulous place to work!

Dana Sebal has over 10 years Marketing and Human Resources experience.  Outside of her professional career, Dana’s passions include her family, rowing, running, tennis, skiing, yoga, and Beagles.
Republished with permission from Fireside HR BCHRMA’s new blog.

Related to an Internal Brand:

• Employer Branding
• Keeping it Real
• The next frontier in the war for Canada’s talent

The post Building an Internal Brand appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.