News and Articles
What is your Recruitment Brand?
17th October 2006
Typically when we consider the term "branding" we think of promoting our product or service out to the marketplace. Organisations spend copious amounts of time and money promoting profit generating consumer brands, but as an organisation how much attention do you pay to your recruitment brand? Your recruitment brand is the image you portray to potential employees and existing staff.The image a company portrays as an employer is as important as the image it portrays for its saleable goods and services. People are an organisations greatest asset, therefore a successful organisation needs to attract the greatest people.
Unemployment in New Zealand is sitting at the lowest it has been in approximately 30 years which causes a huge shift in employee attitudes. Employees these days aren't grateful to just have a job anymore, they are much more selective about where they want to work and expect to be valued and appreciated for the work they do.
Like any brand an organisations recruitment brand is made up of past behaviours and the messages portrayed. If your organisation has disgruntled staff, high staff turnover, low moral and productivity it will be known in the market place, people talk.
The recruitment process plays a huge part in portraying your recruitment brand to the market place. Think about the last time you advertised for staff did you do a small anonymous ad with no mention of the company name? or did you go proud and bold knowing that people want to be associated with your company and work for you? How well did you respond to applicants? Was every one who applied for the role sent an acknowledgement or polite rejection letter. Were unsuccessful applicants given feedback on why they did not get the role or did you not contact them again after the interview?
Potential employees are looking at a company's values and leadership to decide if this is an organisation that they want to work for. How they are treated throughout the initial job application process provides a good indication of how they can expect to be treated as an employee of the company. Many people now consider work life balance factors, the effects of work induced stress on their health, wellbeing and lifestyle, and are more prepared to sacrifice salary in order to work in an environment that they deem to have the values and leadership style that will provide the balance they are looking for.
To enhance your recruitment brand talk to your current employees, find out how they really feel about working for you. One way this can be done is by conducting an anonymous employee survey. Think about your induction procedures how welcome is a new employee made to feel on their first day in the job? Do you follow through on your promises and commitments to your employees? Are employees given professional and personal development opportunities, is their performance regularly reviewed and discussed with them? Focusing on and improving internal human resource issues will result in the flow on effect of a more positive recruitment brand.
The ultimate test - will your employees recommend your company to their friends as a great place to work?.... if the answer is no you need to think about what you can do to enhance your recruitment brand.
Prepared by Liz Plank and Ian Chitty