I recently was invited to a LinkedIn VIP TEAM session (not bragging) at the LinkedIn offices in Chicago. This session focused on how to create an effective “talent brand”, the 100% public version of your employer brand that encompasses what talent thinks, feels, and shares about your company as a place to work. Regardless of the current challenges your talent acquisition team faces, focusing on your talent brand may have far-reaching effects.
1. Hire Content Marketers, not recruiters.
The old way of recruiting is simply that — old. Recruiting practices are quickly shifting, requiring organizations to employ true content marketers behind their talent acquisition strategies. In fact, 86% of recruiters are saying recruiting is becoming more like marketing. Instead of focusing on job applications and job postings, build an audience for your organization. Update your recruiting strategies from reactive (only posting and pushing content when you have a role open), to “always on” (even if you don’t have roles open). Thus, recruitment focused on content marketing shapes an audience that is always engaged instead of interrupting one’s attention only when you have a job posting.
2. Promote truly authentic content.
Nothing is worse than a paid advertisement. We all see right through this content. Recruiters who only post about their current open roles are quickly unfollowed on LinkedIn. A note to recruiters: your network does not want to (and, shouldn’t) do your job for you. Instead, focus on providing authentic personal content and encourage your organization to highlight their employees’ experiences, and why they enjoy working for your company. When you engage your audience (in this case, your followers) with authentic content, they will be much more likely to respond when you do have a role to share.
3. Candidates need 3–10 touch-points before they are ready to apply.
What does this mean? Most candidates need 3–10 interaction with an organization prior to applying. These “touch-points” can come from a company ad on TV or a billboard, a post on social media, an interaction with their product/service, etc. This statistic further promotes the idea of creating a true talent audience versus traditional job posting methods.
4. 57% of recruiting leaders say that competition is their top challenge.
Long gone are the days of the “post & pray” method of recruiting. Now, recruiting teams must actively seek out top talent to make them aware of their organization. As recruiting teams, we must know our competitors inside and out to truly be effective. If you cannot answer these questions, you are hurting your organization:
Who are your competitors?
What is their “why”? (What is their purpose, cause or belief. Why does the organization exist? Hint: The “why” is NOT about making money.)
Why would an employee leave a competitor to come work for you? Better yet, why would your own employees leave for your competitor(s)?
5. Keep your brand content consistent.
Who is doing it well? Netflix & Unilever.
Why focus on your talent brand?
31% higher LinkedIn InMail acceptance rate for those that highlight their talent brand.
6. Bonus Tip: If you’re going to look for a company to highlight organizational “buy-in”, look no further than LinkedIn.
Every employee in that office seemed genuinely thrilled to be there. They all stood behind the mission of the company and were more excited to talk about LinkedIn over anything else. The “thirsty Thursday” happy hour didn’t hurt. But, behind the cool bean bag chairs were employees that genuinely cared about the product and service they offered.