There is lots of information out there about employer branding, who’s doing it…who’s doing it well, who needs to do it, how to do it etc. There is a consensus that we should be doing it and it should be a priority – you are only as good as your staff after all, so you want to be recruiting the best.
Why is it then, that most of us still dont have one? There is always soemthing that stops us from all our good intentions!
But fear not, because your recruitment consultant is doing all this for you already, quietly behind the scenes he/she is promoting you and your business to potential candidates.
Even without a large marketing team to build your employer brand across all manner of social channels, you can still recruit and engage with the best candidates on the market, by keeping a close relationship with your Recruitment Consultant to help you to build a pipeline of potential candidates.
Three ways a recruiter promotes your business
Selling the dream
A Recruiter has the advantage of being an intermediary. Being able to talk to candidates in a more open and candid way, to really explore what is important to them in their next role - and knowing what makes the candidate tick, gives the Recruiter the benefit of promoting the role and business to them in a personalised way to generate genuine intrigue and appeal with the candidate.
Your recruiter will have taken details about your business, questioned you about the challenges in the role, the challenges for the business, investigated what the people are like, and what how the company works, it structures, strategy, people and processes. When they interview each candidate they will be questioning on a number of levels, to investigate skills, knowledge and behaviours, but also motivators and interest inhibitors.
Closely investigating each candidate reveals different elements of how suitable they are. They may have the skills, be very experienced, have come from a similar industry, but still are not right for the job, because the meaning in their work is not the same as the challenge presented to them.
When closing a candidate to gauge their interest, the description of the job, will have been overlaid with the actual challenge of the role, the nuances of the business and the “what’s in it for me” will have been understood by the candidate, so there will be genuine interest…or not.
Delivering the Bad News
If the candidate is unsuitable or doesn’t get the job, it’s the Recruiter that lets them know. How this is handled is extremely important to how your business is seen. You want all people associated with your business to have a positive respectful interation, so even when its bad news it should be handled, respectfully, promptly and with honesty – if the interview didn’t go well, how could they have improved? How else could they have prepared for the interview? What can they take away that was positive from the interview experience? You don’t want to have sour grapes interrupting your twitter feed.
Reliability of Communication
Your Recruiter will be the initial point of contact, making approaches, responding to applications, arranging interviews, giving feedback, and managing the onboarding process. This continuity provides one point of contact, reassurance and a reliability of service. Your recruiter will press you to get dates for the interview, get feedback for each candidate, ensure offers are negotiated, the contract produced and sent, the candidate chased to ensure the contract is signed, negotiate all the detail and support the candidate through notice giving and counter offers, ensuring both parties have everything they need to get started.
This contact with the candidate is reassuring and supports your business as an employer of choice. The momentum is compelling to the candidate, and demonstrates to them that they have made the right decision.
Using your Recruiter to support your vision and brand values, market your opportunities into their networks, and deliver meaningful vacancies to the market, all reinforces your employer brand in a positive and purposeful way. Supporting your business to engaging with the best candidates on a personal and individual level.
