The Great Resignation boom is upon us. After a tumultuous 18 months of layoffs and stand-downs, employees are the ones left holding all the cards. 

Job openings are soaring. According to PageUp data, there are 50% more open job ads than there were before the pandemic. 

At the same time, the number of Australian workers quitting their roles to pursue new opportunities is increasing. New research shows 38% of Australian workers plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months, and a further 39% are open to new opportunities.

There are a few reasons for this.

Faced with the prospect of returning to the office, many workers are simply quitting their jobs rather than surrendering the flexibility of their work from home lifestyle. 

Dissatisfied with pay freezes and burned out from increased workloads, employees are jumping ship for greener pastures. The best talent knows they have many options.  

But it’s not all bad news. For working professionals, there is optimism and hope for the future. It’s much-needed after a long year spent weathering a health and economic crisis.

For talent acquisition teams, resignations mean high turnover costs and business disruptions. But it also means more talent on the market, and more people searching for jobs better suited to their skills and interests. 

The opportunity lies with businesses that are quick enough to snap up this talent, and strategic enough to retain their most valued people.  

Rethinking rewards and benefits 

In an effort to keep a hold of talent, some employers are raising wages and offering bonuses. 

Wage conversations are always a factor in whether an employee takes a new role or stays put. But they aren’t the only reason a person leaves a job. 

COVID-19 has created a seismic shift in what employees and job seekers look for in a role – and it’s no longer just about the money. Organisations should be prepared to re-think their benefits and Employee Value Proposition for a remote-first world. 

For example: More than half of Australian working professionals would take a pay cut if it meant they could work from home 100% of the time.

Today’s workers are used to the flexibility and freedom of a work from home lifestyle, and they don’t want to go back. In fact, 34% of employees look for a new role if their employer didn’t provide remote work options.

But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Three quarters of Australian workers say they’d like a mix of in-person and remote work. Instead of advertising a signing bonus to attract reluctant candidates back to the office, offering a mix of remote and in-person options could be a far bigger drawcard.

Engage employees with internal mobility opportunities

If your employees have an appetite for change, feed it. Internal mobility opportunities like cross-functional team assignments and secondments in new business units give employees fresh challenges and new perspectives. 

Internal mobility opportunities increase cross-company collaboration, which is crucial for keeping employees engaged, motivated and connected to the organisation. 

As PageUp wrote in our Top 60 Employee Engagement tips article, 

“Collaboration is important for employees to feel included and engaged. Studies show teams that share leadership responsibilities, interpersonal interactions and a cross-functional mentality have lower levels of conflict and stress, and higher levels of overall satisfaction.”

And remember: if you don’t offer employees opportunities for growth and career development within your organisation, they won’t hesitate to find it elsewhere. 

Get onboarding (and re-boarding) right the first time 

Perhaps an inevitable trend to emerge from the pandemic is high turnover among new employees. Most of these workers were onboarded remotely, and many have never met their co-workers in person. 

Sustaining a relationship remotely is difficult. Building a relationship remotely is even harder. 

But it’s something organisations need to do if they are to hold on to their hard-won talent. 

20% of employee turnover occurs within the first 45 days, and 90% of employees make the decision to stay at their company within the first six months. 

Considering how much it costs to replace an employee (up to 60% of their first-year salary) it’s clear that it pays to invest in proper onboarding. 

Onboarding sets the tone for a new starter’s time at an organisation, and is particularly important when welcoming remote hires. If that first impression isn’t a great one, new hires can become disengaged, overwhelmed, and leave. 

When onboarding remotely, it’s imperative to make new hires feel supported, seen and connected to their coworkers online. You want to maximise the “employee honeymoon” phase, and minimise anxiety and disengagement. 

When organisations get onboarding right, new hire productivity increases by 62% and retention of new hires increases by more than 50%. 

Just as important is “re-boarding” employees who return after time away. Whether it’s an ex-employee who has been re-hired, a staff member returning from maternity leave, or a furloughed worker you’ve brought back on board, taking the time to get them up to speed will ensure they hit the ground sprinting. 

This helps returnees reintegrate into the workplace culture more easily, introducing them to new processes and technologies instead of throwing them in the deep end. 

This article originally appeared on PageUp, and has been republished here with permission.

Marion Robinson is responsible for spearheading global growth for PageUp in all its forms. She provides strategic direction across PageUp’s client advocacy, partner alliance, marketing and brand-building programs, ensuring total alignment between them so as to deliver on the PageUp growth strategy. Leveraging a wealth of experience in client management roles across a range of industries including Banking, Human Resources and IT, Marion understands the daily people challenges of clients first-hand. 

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It’s no secret that a diverse and inclusive workforce brings with it a multitude of benefits. In fact, you could wager that the vast majority of common business challenges could be solved by simply having a more diverse team to offer different perspectives, ideas, and solutions.

Yet for too many organisations, diversity and inclusion remain little more than buzzwords – and those who most want organisations to genuinely change can feel that. New research from Indeed reveals that there’s a considerable disconnect between how Australians believe workplaces treat minority groups and the lived reality of these groups. Our research found that 57% of working Australians understand ‘diversity and inclusion’ in the workplace to mean a scenario where all staff can be their true selves at work. However, two thirds (62%) of them admit to concealing part of their identity all or some of the time from their colleagues. And, almost a quarter (23%) say they can’t speak openly in the workplace without fear of criticism.

The findings are alarming and reiterate the fact that many organisations still have a long way to go when it comes to workplace diversity and inclusion. So, what can leaders do to ensure these concepts are more than just meaningless slogans in the workplace?

There are a number of ways to foster authentic diversity and inclusion. Building these strategies into your recruitment process is arguably the most important place to start. After all, a diverse workforce begins with a diverse candidate pool.

So, for those looking for some assistance on where to begin, here are some simple, practical ways to successfully build a diverse and inclusive recruitment process.

Broaden your search

When it comes to increasing diversity in your organisation, you need to try something different. Relying on the same recruitment strategy that you’ve used in the past may be limiting your business’ ability to recruit from a larger and more varied group of candidates. In addition to recruitment agencies, consider partnering with organisations dedicated to enabling greater diversity and inclusion in the workforce. The Australian Network on Disability helps connect your organisation to job seekers with a disability. Also, organisations like CoAct and Shine People Solutions work to find employment for refugees, Indigenous Australians, and the long-term unemployed.

What’s more, thanks to the growth of remote work and talent distribution outside traditional hubs, you can look for candidates located just about anywhere. When geography no longer limits your talent pool, you have more opportunities to attract great candidates. You can also focus on finding people with the skills and experience that most align with your company’s mission, rather than the right person for your postcode. This is a much better use of a recruiter’s time and is more likely to result in a successful hire.

Make your job descriptions more inclusive

The language you use in job descriptions could be limiting your talent pool. In fact, a study conducted by Harvard University found that women were less likely to apply for a role when the job description used words predominantly associated with masculine stereotypes.

For example, words such as ‘tough’, ‘dominant’, and ‘competitive’ are often associated with masculinity. Conversely, words like ‘nurturing’ and ‘supportive’ are associated with femininity. These gender-coded words may impact the likelihood of job seekers applying for roles within your company. Thus, a lack of gender diversity continues. Instead, opt for gender-neutral words like ‘motivated’, ‘professional’, ‘responsible’, and ‘quality’. This increases your chances of attracting a wider range of candidates.

Also, potential applicants shouldn’t have to conduct extensive research to discover the perks and benefits your company offers its employees. Be sure to list any benefits in your job postings so that you’re not limiting your talent pool. Include benefits like paid parental leave, flexible work options, or on-site childcare. Similarly, if your organisation has fully equipped parents’ rooms, accessible or unisex restrooms, or a variety of different lunch options in the cafeteria (i.e., halal, kosher, vegan, etc), it’s worth highlighting these too.

Use inclusive interview panels

During the recruiting process, the employer’s focus is often solely on the candidate pool. After all, the goal is finding the right talent for the role. However, this often means little attention is paid to the people who sit on the other side of the table during the interview process. Are they able to make decisions free from bias and favouritism?

Traditionally, a candidate typically only deals with one or two members of staff from the potential employer. This limits the likelihood of them meeting someone they can identify with. The more a candidate can see themselves working at your company, the greater your chances of hiring diversely. This is why it’s worth considering who sits on your interview panels. A panel of interviewers from different genders, ages, races, and professional backgrounds paints a picture of authentic diversity and inclusion. Allowing the candidate to see themselves represented in the team well before they’ve started their first day.

Use interview techniques designed to reduce unconscious bias

Stereotypes can play out in ways you’re not even aware of. This is why a gut instinct isn’t always reliable, as it’s often influenced by unconscious biases.

For example, if you have a good feeling about a candidate, it may be because they’re similar to you. Perhaps you live in a similar area or they did the same course at university. Ultimately, what may seem like a great personal connection doesn’t always translate to high job performance though.

Work to reduce unconscious biases in the recruitment process by conducting structured interviews with predetermined questions and a rubric for how to evaluate a good response. This way, you have the tools to objectively evaluate future job performance.

To make sure your structured interview runs smoothly, follow this best practice approach for diverse and inclusive recruitment:

1. Prepare a list of open-ended questions to ask candidates, considering both the hard and soft
   skills you’re looking for.
2. Provide interviewers with the questions and evaluative criteria before the interview so they can
   ask clarifying questions of the hiring manager ahead of time.
3. Ask candidates the same questions in the same order.
4. Evaluate candidates using standardised evaluative criteria, such as a rating scale or rubric (what
   a “poor,” “acceptable” or “great” response to each question looks like).

Consider supplementing structured interviews with blind reviews of resumes or cover letters. In blind reviews, the candidate’s personal information (including their name) isn’t revealed until near the end of the selection process. Withholding this information helps reduce the influence of unconscious bias from the hiring manager, which can lead to more diverse and inclusive recruitment practices.

Prioritising and actively cultivating diversity, inclusion, and belonging isn’t just good for your staff and employer brand. It can also help your business succeed. Companies with a diverse workforce are more likely to excel in productivity, performance, innovation, and even revenue. Put these tips into practice the next time your company is hiring and you’ll be on track to cultivating a truly diverse and inclusive workforce.

With more than 15 years of experience in the recruitment industry, Jay Munro has worked in a variety of roles in agencies and job boards, from consulting and recruiting, to leading the product development of new sourcing technologies. As an Employer Insights Strategist with the Indeed Employer Insights Team, Jay pairs platform data with industry trend analysis to share Indeed’s story and bring the value of the company’s programs and solutions to life.

The post How to create a diverse and inclusive recruitment process appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Talent Chooses You has been referred to as the “the roadmap for the next hiring revolution” and “the new bible for the employer branding practitioner and the novice alike.” 

Let’s pretend you are selling tacos. Or doughnuts. Or toothbrushes. It really doesn’t matter. These things are cheap items, maybe costing a dollar each. So you set up a stand or cart and hawk your wares. Anyone who walks up with a dollar in their pocket is a viable customer, and your job is to convince them that your item is worth the dollar to them. Perhaps it will give them more than a dollar’s feeling of satisfaction to eat that taco. Or it will crave that sweet tooth in a way they’d be willing to spend two dollars. Or that brushing will keep them from needing costly dental work down the road. Either way, your item has value, and they’d be a fool to reject it. The conversation is about value conversion.

Which is fine. This is typical commerce: I have a good or service to sell, and I will sell it to whoever can pay for it. You have a dollar. I have a taco. Let’s make some magic happen! Your goal in this space is to replicate this transaction as many times as possible. Having sold the taco, you look to sell another. You are rewarded for selling lots of tacos. Becoming the best taco salesperson is a game of quantity and nothing more. 

In this process, do you ask your buyer if they have a college degree? Did you confirm that they have a reliable mode of transportation? As you are both in the same place, you don’t wonder if they live close enough to you. But are they certified to eat a doughnut? Do they have at least five years’ doughnut-eating experience? Can they provide names and contact information for three people who can confirm they know their way around a doughnut? How many different varieties of doughnut can they discuss with confidence? Hmm…I see a gap of three months in which you were not eating doughnuts. Can you explain that gap?

Have you ever heard of someone saying they only had one doughnut and were going to sell it to the “best” customer? The one who was a cultural fit to the mission of your doughnut?

Of course not. That would be insane. Again, you have a doughnut and they have a dollar. To quote comedian Mitch Hedberg, why do we even need a receipt? This transaction is completed. It doesn’t matter if they don’t have a work visa, a degree, or can pass a drug test.

Dollar. Doughnut. Done.

But when we’re hiring, we aren’t selling doughnuts or tacos. We’re looking for a specific person to do a specific job. We wonder what school they went to, what other jobs they’ve had, and what the outcomes of their work were. We immediately reject them if they don’t have enough experience. We reject them because they don’t “fit.” We reject them because they were arrested and tried for fraud. We reject them because someone was just a little bit better. 

Hiring isn’t a game of quantity, because we’re generally filling one role and we want the best possible person to take that job. We want one person, so we seek the best person.

“We live in a world driven by quantity, and blindly applying marketing and sales techniques designed for quantity to a model designed for quality is a disaster waiting to happen.” 

This seems prima facie obvious, but it is the difference that underlies all hiring and differentiates it from almost any other kind of profession. It is foundational to everything and what differentiates employer branding from every other kind of marketing and branding in the world. The rest of the world is looking to bill more hours, sell more time, build more widgets, train more people, take more cases, fix more pipes, and take on more clients. We live in a world driven by quantity, and blindly applying marketing and sales techniques designed for quantity to a model designed for quality is a disaster waiting to happen. 

If you’re selling tacos and you sell a million tacos, you’re getting a raise. You’re getting a bonus. They’ll put your picture on a wall above the words “Salesperson of the Year.” 

But if you’re “selling” jobs and you get a million people to apply, you’re getting fired. 

Applying great, clever, or even genius-level marketing thinking won’t solve recruiting and hiring, because they are so different. Tennis, golf, and billiards are all played with round balls, but you can’t switch one ball for another and pretend it’s the same game. 

This difference isn’t academic. It is an industry built on a very different foundation to almost everything else we know and do. But embracing this difference is the beginning to solving your hiring problems.

Talent Chooses You has been referred to as “the roadmap for the next hiring revolution” and “the new bible for the employer branding practitioner and the novice alike.” Unlike any other employer brand business book, it is designed from the ground up to be a call to arms to and for talent acquisition to see a better way to hire. One that doesn’t put candidates and recruiters on opposite sides of a fight. And unlike other books, it literally was designed to not make any money, so James is now selling it at cost (he isn’t making a cent on sales) to ensure it gets in the hands of the people who are looking to start their own talent strategy revolution wherever they are. Get your copy now.

It’s possible that the stories are true and that a radioactive recruiter bit born-marketer James Ellis years ago. All we know is that James Ellis has become a well-known podcaster, writer, speaker and consultant in the growing employer brand industry. He’s done everything from putting a public Fortune 1000 brand on his back to building a 19-person employer brand activation team within the biggest recruitment marketing agency in the world. What drives someone to write, podcast, speak and work so obsessively towards revolutionising the recruiting and talent industry? Coffee. Yes, he would like another, thank you.

(Listen to thetalentcast.com podcast here!)

The post Doughnuts, tacos and employer branding: Why hiring is a game of quality, not quantity appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Sharing what’s happening in your organisation right now (as we start to come out of the global pandemic) with candidates can be challenging. But being empathetic and transparent is a great place to start. 

“Adding employee stories gives your underlying message emotional and substantive heft. And it’s just what candidates want and need to hear. Here’s why you need employee stories in your candidate-facing content right now.” 

Your audience wants to know how you’re treating your employees

“According to a LinkedIn study on employer brand during COVID-19, coronavirus-related posts are getting more engagement than other posts. Especially those focusing on how companies are helping.

“A major employer brand recently told us that their COVID-related recruitment marketing content is performing 40 percent higher than other types of content. Their candidate audience really wants to know what it’s like to work through the crisis at their company.” 

It’s more than just candidates searching for this information. The general public is too. 

“A recent survey conducted by People Magazine found that more than 89 percent of respondents are monitoring the treatment of employees by the companies they work for during the crisis. The general public is paying close attention to who is laying off workers, offering paid sick days, giving back to the communities, and more.”

As always, and especially now, how companies treat their employees form the public’s opinion about their leadership and employer brand.

The single most important action organisations can make to build trust with the public is by “treating employees well.”

“Using your employee stories to build trust with candidates is always important, but especially in an uncertain world where every corporate action says something about your workplace culture.”  

Your culture has just been defined for you 

Who are you? If you we’re sure how to define and describe your organisation’s culture before the crisis, you know now.

“Employee safety considerations, converting to a virtual workplace, maintaining employee engagement through Zoom, declining revenues, increased collective emotional stress … a swirl of circumstances has forced your company to make a variety of people decisions. And, most of these decisions showed your real values.”

For some organisations, the global crisis simply reinforced who you are and what you stand for. But for others, it may have instigated some reinvention. 

“Connect employee experiences to the larger story you’re already telling through your corporate actions. Emphasize impact. Candidates are already making assumptions about your culture based on what they’re hearing from your employees, but they need you to connect the dots. 

We did this with our messaging. Stories Inc. co-founder Scott Thompson publicly stated that he defines good leadership as doing everything to avoid layoffs.” 

Organisations have been sharing personal stories from their team members about their experiences during the crises, including how leadership impacted their experience. 

Sharing real stories is far more impactful and meaningful to candidates and external audiences as it connects your organisation’s actions to employee experience, and gives people more context and insight. 

 Employees want to share

“Your team members have been through a lot. They want to talk about their lives now, and how they’ve been supported at work (or not). You still want to vet employee stories to ensure they’re helpful to candidates. But, there is likely a plethora to choose from right now.” 

During crisis events, people typically look to media to stay informed, pass time, find comfort and stay connected and informed. This applies to both life and work. 

“Also, according to a study conducted by the New York Times about why people share content on social media, 84 percent of respondents said they want to spread the word about something they believe in. Your company’s actions have impacted your employees’ emotional, financial, and physical wellbeing. You’ve likely given them a reason to share.”  

So don’t delay, share employee stories now. 

As you think through how to best communicate what’s happening at your organisation with candidates, include employee stories in your strategy, as they show the real, human impact of your organisation’s decisions on your people.

“Specific employee stories further reinforce and define who you are an employer, and that’s exactly what the world wants to know right now. “

Source 

Why you should be sharing employee stories right now

Lauryn Sargeant

Recruiting Daily 

The post Why you should be sharing employee stories right now  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Lately, employer branding may have dropped off your radar. It’s understandable, especially if you’ve been struggling with hundreds of competing priorities (maintaining operations, serving clients and stakeholders and retaining people). Things have also shifted to a candidate-rich market, so you may be struggling with more applications than you can handle. But candidates are looking at employer brands more closely now, more so than before, and if you’re receiving huge volumes of applications, it’s important to continue to build a valuable employer brand for sustainable long-term recovery.

One of the ultimate goals of employer branding is to attract the right candidates and allow the wrong candidates to opt-out early in your recruitment process. While we’ve experienced plenty of change in 2020, this will remain fundamentally the same; especially in a candidate-rich market when you’re being overwhelmed with applications. 

How organisations treat their people during the Covid-19 crisis will be the acid test for candidates considering whether to join and will be a major factor in overall employer branding strategy.

 In considering the principles of how to build valuable brands in uncertain times, let’s first consider what’s valuable. Many people have been re-evaluating what is valuable in their lives and what’s not. With talk about recessions, employers need to consider how they’re going to remain valuable to those who are most important in their future (both their people and customers). 

The past offers brands important and timely insights that can help take the edge off of the uncertainty. During the last recession, brands adopted a variety of tactics to respond to changing consumer attitudes and behaviours. A JWT study from 2009 found that most approaches fit into six buckets: optimism, humour, nationalism, nostalgia, empowerment and value/price. Here’s how these approaches can be tailored to apply to employer branding now.

1. Empower people

Making your current team members feel like they have greater control will help strengthen your employer brand in challenging times and throughout recovery. Look to be the leading provider of choice in new initiatives will give them back control and increase your value to them.  

2. Sharpen up your recruitment advertisements

Traditionally, you may have written your job ads to attract as many candidates as possible. Now, you can afford to get more specific to attract people with the skills, experience and behavioural attributes you’re after. Sharpen and focus your recruitment advertisement to attract top talent, and allow unsuitable applicants to opt-out early.

3. Add value

While you can strategically roll out price promotions, savings and discounts for customers, what about candidates? While more great talent is available in a candidate-rich market, A-players can still be hard to find. If you can still provide a great candidate experience and good communications (Candidate Management Systems, branded email templates will most certainly come in handy), you will distinguish yourself and bolster your long-term strategy. 

4. Communicate with optimism 

During times of uncertainty and recovery, people learn to live with losses, making them more sensitive to what really matters. Inspire your current and future talent with optimism. Being a beacon for optimism in a world of dim circumstances can prove a powerful differentiator.

When used appropriately, a touch of humour in your social media posts and employer brand messaging can create a memorable experience for your people and brand. 

4. Reference the bigger picture 

If you are recruiting now, make a point of emphasising the positive impact that joining your organisation will have on Australia’s road to economic and social recovery. Address the new economy in people’s world, and share how people’s work will stimulate it.

On a similar note, reflecting on the past can help in referencing the bigger picture. Anxiety and nostalgia go hand in hand—when times are tough, it’s only natural to seek comfort in memories of what seems like a simpler era. Think about how you can remind your current talent (as well as customers) that you’ve been with them in good times and bad. For future candidates too, give them a lens to the better world you shared together and the bigger future you will create with them.

So what makes your employer brand valuable? Now is a unique opportunity to adjust and bolster your employer brand and reach a wider audience. Empower people, recruit efficiently with the right processes and tools to continue to add value to candidates. Tailor your communication strategy to include optimism, and reference the bigger picture. 

The post Building valuable employer brands through recovery appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Change is something that everyone had to get used to overnight with the COVID-19 outbreak. It wasn’t something that even the most OCD organisers could plan for (I put myself in that category!).

The market very quickly become ‘candidate strong’ when many people found themselves unexpectedly out of work. This equalled overnight changes to many recruitment strategies. So, when there are many great candidates available, how can you deliver appropriate candidate care and bolster your recruitment strategy for the long term?

Here are 3 ways to take advantage of a strong candidate market, while giving candidates the support they need and deserve.

Honestly showcase of your culture through employer branding

You might think “why would I worry about employer branding now? I have too many candidates and don’t need to market to them”. But that is the wrong attitude to take. When you have so many candidates, you want to make sure you are attracting the RIGHT ones, even just from a pure efficiency of operation perspective.

Attracting the right people means that authentically showcasing your culture is now a must-do. I’m not talking about smoke and mirrors and trying to make out you are the perfect company. I am talking warts and all stuff. The good, the bad and the downright messy. The right candidates appreciate honesty and by knowing what they can expect when working for you, they will decide if you are a right for them also. This is a two-way relationship and should be focused on selecting the right people for your roles. After all, why hire a top candidate who leaves in a few months when they find out that the culture is not a right for them and that you deceived them throughout the hiring process? That doesn’t end well for you or them. I have been on the receiving end of this before and I can tell you the end was not pretty to the point, with me never acknowledging I ever worked for this company.

You have to be honest and keep it real. It’s in your best interests to be talking to the right people and promoting what your culture is really like through your employer branding will save you money in the long term.

Nurture unsuccessful applicants for future roles

The fastest way to lose unsuccessful candidates, who might have been a good fit but weren’t successful on this occasion, is through lack of communication. Too often recruiters use the “I am too busy to reply” excuse, which is not only rude but impacts your personal and business brand. I have refused to work with people who didn’t have the courtesy to respond to me previously (and I’m not alone).

Put a system in place to not only thank them and let them know the status of their application but to also add them to a nurture list for future roles. Nurturing potential clients is as basic in marketing as it should be in recruitment.

It doesn’t need to be a complicated process. A simple process is:

• Add them to targeted or niche list or database (don’t dump them all on one giant list)
• Set up a simple email marketing template to make it easy to share content regularly
• Send them regular emails about your organisation, changes, showcasing company culture and award wins (not just about current roles)
• Stay in touch – this might be every 2 or 3 months but make it regular.

This doesn’t require a lot of time but has huge benefits and means those candidates will talk positively about you and your company. This is about building relationships with people and being human. Anyone can do that with a little effort.

Add personality to your job ads

So many job ads follow a script or template and are quite honestly, boring as hell. Apply the marketing rules to your job ads and make them more engaging to attract top-quality candidates. Don’t be afraid to add personality to your job ads.

Now more than ever, standing out and being authentically you is so important. Remember that old adage of ‘people do business with people they like’? it is very true so why do you want to blend in and follow what everyone else is doing? Blah and boring!!!!

Anyone that has met me knows that I’m not backward in coming forward and I like to sparkle and stand out. I’m certainly not the shy type. For years I’ve refused to have a boring voicemail or out of office message and this is reflected in everything I do.

There are no rules that say you have to follow the same boring script as anyone else. Put some brand personality into them and give me a glimpse of who your organisation really is.

So take advantage of a strong candidate market and deliver appropriate care to your candidates. Now is the time to really be protecting your personal and employer brand. Ensuring you give candidates a great experience with your company will be the difference of not only winning the best talent but keeping them and having them become raving fans of your brand.

Tanya Williams is the pink-loving, sparkly Chief of Everything at Digital Conversations. She wears many hats; entrepreneur, best-selling author, digital trainer, and she is a Social Amplification Specialist with over 20 years’ marketing experience. She works with recruiters to uncover the hidden gold in their existing assets, find ways to leverage every moment of your digital marketing without increasing your marketing budget and amplify your internal champions to increase your visibility. Her goal is to make the hero in your industry sector.  She has a simple, no-tech-talk approach and thrives working with established recruitment companies to tap into the opportunities they might miss, using practical & relevant tactics to drive business outcomes.

The post 3 ways to take advantage of a strong candidate market appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

We’re being swamped with mixed communications, from free webinar invitations to opinion pieces about how to juggle remote working, and mixed news messaging, which can make it tough to determine what’s true and what’s not. This has an enormous impact on how we need to manage the perception and communication of our employer brands.

Employer brands never sleep and, if anything, they’re now in the spotlight! Employees, the talent market and consumers are watching what action organisations are taking to manage and accommodate their most valued resources through this pandemic. 

Effective communication is key both internally and externally. In fact, it’s the glue that will preserve employer brands from fragmenting! HR is front and centre in this crisis. 

The organisations that take deliberate action with consistent, relevant communication, interacting and engaging with their remote workforce will be successful in navigating this situation. 

Employer Branding requires collaboration between leaders. 

As I place an optimistic lens over our current situation, I highlight that now, more than ever, HR and employer branding leaders cannot be held solely responsible for their people driving business continuity and still preserving their employer brand. 

Teamwork is essential. HR leaders must leverage critical partners in their organisations through internal communications, corporate marketing and communications, training and development, transformation officers, IT and the like. That being said, I’ve distilled the most fundamental priorities leaders should be paying attention. 

1. Use ongoing, clear and constructive communication

In monitoring virtual teams, regular, concise, clear and constructive communication is of the utmost importance to building trust and sustaining employee morale. Recruitment leaders must utilise their internal communication partners to assist with the often confusing government and media communications, translating it appropriately to employees to help them understand how new changes will affect them personally, while simultaneously keeping them updated regarding applicable daily health and safety news.

2. Support hiring managers

If you are hiring right now, operational managers at the forefront are often peoples’ first point of contact. For hiring managers to recruit effectively, they need to receive ongoing up-to-date workplace policy changes, understand what support is available for their employees and be properly trained to communicate this effectively with their teams. Leaders don’t like to communicate if they don’t have answers. Therefore, partnering with them, giving them guidance and training assist them in fostering a positive employee experience.

3. Issue transparent communications on COVID-19 management

Conducting weekly update meetings through online video platforms like Zoom, Teams, WebEx is a given, especially if you have interstate or international offices. Communicating best practice and facts about how your organisation is managing operations in light of the crisis is essential, using the utmost transparency and clarity about how deliverables are being met.

4. Maintain employee engagement

Being proactive in delivering answers to employees’ questions regarding their health, wellness and finances, without them having to search for or ask will earn you brand credibility and loyalty.

5. Routinely focus on mission-critical issues

Leaders need to establish a routine and cadence when setting up meetings and stick to mission-critical issues, actions plans, deliverables and dates.

6. Obtain ongoing employee feedback

Welcome ongoing internal employee feedback and schedule real-time, regular pulse surveys. Proactively assess the “heartbeat” of your organisation to overcome the current challenges.

7. Gauge preferred communication channels

Be aware what communication channels your people prefer and test if they’re conducive to the current situation. Video channels, where your people can see and hear you speak, seem to be trumping emails and intranet. Decide what subjects should be communication through which medium. 

8. Humanise remote work environments

To boost morale, change behaviours and maintain team collaboration by setting up virtual coffee sessions, sundowner virtual gatherings or fun quiz competitions. Humanise it by including kids, pets, etc., as many people miss face-to-face connection through phsyical distancing. For example, check out what Spotify is doing through reinforcing their values and prioritising wellbeing. 

9. Remember, you don’t need to have all the answers

There’s no rulebook and you might not have all the answers. (For example, we’re witnessing company announcements, such as from Edcon, who admitted having limited liquidity.) Leaders need to be transparent, authentic and brutally honest when communicating with your people. You’ll gain far more support and understanding through honesty and transparent vulnerability. 

10. Consider cost-cutting measures

News articles are highlighting how organisations are taking cost-cutting initiatives to maintain business stability without haemorrhaging layoffs (for example, initiatives from big brands such as Macy’s and Gap).These include:

• Requesting employees to take an unpaid leave of absence (the most common measure companies are pursuing). Reframe the stigma attached to unpaid leave by referring to it as a sabbatical
• Revising compensation structure and delaying increments (freezing salary-increases, bonuses, overtime, payments into other funds)
• Encouraging employees to seek part-time jobs to supplement their income
• Implementing short work weeks to save costs
• Leveraging training opportunities 
• Identifying and optimising eager talent who are ready to step into new job roles and projects
• Creating a time bank where employees are paid for working reduced hours, but agreeing these hours will be utilised in the future;
• Implementing executive or leadership pay cuts and wage freezes to reallocate cash flow to prevent layoffs. 
• Seeking government support.

Covid-19 has accelerated and shaped the new world of work. Many thought leaders have predicted we won’t return to our normal working environments. This will fundamentally shift how we position our employer brands and value propositions as we look towards the future and attract different roles and skillset (which we’re already witnessing via Glassdoor). We’ll need to revise our current workplace environment to engage and interact with our people differently and endeavour to retain loyal team members who have stuck by our sides as we navigate these extraordinary times. 

Celeste Sirin is the Managing Director of Employer Branding South Africa, a consultancy that focuses on assisting companies to build and market their employer brands in order to attract, engage and retain talent. Having worked within the recruitment industry for many years, running her own recruitment marketing and response management agency, she has first-hand recruiter knowledge, having to recruit best-in-class talent across various industries. A recent contract saw Celeste engaged with the SA Team of Universum Global, a data-led employer brand research company, in sales, facilitation and marketing to national and multinational key accounts.

Celeste’s mission lies in defining and driving the essence of employer branding and the fundamental importance of companies adopting it as a business imperative.

The post 10 tips for using your employer brand compass to navigate uncertain times appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

The big question is – should you pause or pivot your recruitment marketing?

What do I mean by pivot? Pivoting means keeping one foot in contact with the ground and using your other foot to move around to find a new angle or gain an advantage over your defender. 

While you might have seen good examples of recruitment advertising and marketing messages, you will no doubt have seen some bad ones from brands that have ignored the current situation completely.

There have also been brands putting a stop to recruitment, marketing and sales altogether because they don’t want to be seen as opportunistic. But, your messaging should be about selling responsibly. Don’t risk putting your brand reputation in jeopardy by being tone-deaf to internal and external factors. Equally, don’t pause on your activities at the risk of losing out on significant opportunities.

There have been a number of studies going back to the Great Depression that prove the advantages of maintaining or increasing advertising and marketing budgets during a weaker economy. Employers and advertisers that maintained or grew their marketing increased their sales and market share during the recession and afterwards.

Review your recruitment marketing strategy

If you are recruiting, are you using the same templates, or have you added tailored messaging specific to the current situation? What’s changed in your organisation? (Are you onboarding people virtually, do you have delayed start dates?) What is still relevant and what needs to change?

Review your existing plan and take time to consider what needs to change. Do you need to look at new channels? Do you need to amp up your social media marketing to stay visible and communicate updates to your current and future talent? How do your current recruitment marketing messages need to be adjusted to suit the new online environment?

Has your ideal candidate changed?

With a number of new candidates entering the talent market with a variety of skillsets, have you thought about who you’re targeting? Do you need to look at targeting candidates from other industries? Is your core industry struggling, meaning you may face heavy competition in the future when stability returns? And if so, what is the balance between reaching out to candidates in your industry specifically and other industries generally?

For the benefit of our world economy, we need businesses to survive and people to have opportunity. Don’t feel guilty about continuing growing your talent pipeline, especially if you have the potential to support candidates looking for employment. There’s no reason why you can’t reach out to talent in your industry and expand your search to the industries too.  

Also, considering the short-term situation is changing so quickly, being able to pivot is essential. 

Messaging and content

When tailoring your messaging, consider the current “normal”. People are working from home, homeschooling their kids, unable to visit family members. Offices are working remotely, normal socialising is out, and people are bored and looking for entertainment. Combine that with current stressors, there’s a lot of uncertainty. 

So take this into consideration and understand your messaging needs to reflect that. Reassess your content, tone, and positioning. 

Are there any opportunities for you to become a thought leader in your niche or distinguish yourself as an employer of choice when everyone else is pausing? 

Your homework is to action the above points and I’ll return next week to share Part 2 with you. I’ll share more information about deciding if you need to take an acquisition vs retention strategy with your marketing. 

Tanya Williams is the pink-loving, sparkly Chief of Everything at Digital Conversations. She wears many hats; entrepreneur, best-selling author, digital trainer, and she is a Social Amplification Specialist with over 20 years’ marketing experience. She works with recruiters to uncover the hidden gold in their existing assets, find ways to leverage every moment of your digital marketing without increasing your marketing budget and amplify your internal champions to increase your visibility. Her goal is to make the hero in your industry sector.  She has a simple, no-tech-talk approach and thrives working with established recruitment companies to tap into the opportunities they might miss, using practical & relevant tactics to drive business outcomes.

The post It’s time to pivot not pause your recruitment marketing appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Doing the right thing by your employees, customers and stakeholders can be a tough balancing act but your people make your brand and organisations can’t run without them. 

Your employer brand is your brand 

Internal and external communications are becoming public, your employer brand is now your brand, and it plays out for all your customers to see. So ensure you’re carefully considering what you value and acting accordingly. 

As Universum’s Director of Employer Branding James Ellis states, “We’re seeing companies praised for pledging to not lay anyone off, for leaders taking deep pay cuts, for companies giving away its own resources to support a common good. (We’re also seeing companies being called out for lip-service-level of commitment to helping others). If a company demanded that its workers to go back to the office in Wall Street the afternoon of 9/11, it wouldn’t be a company anymore. No one would work there and no one would want to be a client. 

“We are absolutely, in fits and starts and occasional pandemic-driven lurches, moving to a place where the employer brand isn’t a junior partner in the marketing and branding conversation. This means [Employer Branding] has GOT to step up its game. In a lot of ways, we’ve existed in a recruiting/TA ghetto, where mediocre work (no strategy, follow-the-leader-thinking, no experimentation or innovation, etc) was acceptable. If the business is looking to us to help navigate the crisis and thrive beyond it, we all have to set the bar higher and be better.” 

Protect your people 

Billionaire Mark Cuban recently stated that how a company treated its workers would define the company for decades. He warned companies against sending employees back to work too soon during the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Not only is it a safety issue, it’s a business issue,” Cuban said on CNBC’s “Markets in Turmoil” special. How companies respond to that very question is going to define their brand for decades. If you rushed in and somebody got sick, you were that company. If you didn’t take care of your employees or stakeholders and put them first, you were that company,” he added.

Use vulnerable transparency

With an uncertain future at our doorstep, markets and people are anxious for someone to demonstrate decisive leadership, grounded in reality. Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson shared an emotional video to employees, starting the current financial situation was worse than the worst ever quarter for the company, which saw about a 25 percent fall in revenue. 

“In terms of our business, COVID-19 is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he said. Given the brand is nearly one hundred years old, had survived the Great Depression, World War 2, and countless economic downturns, the statement was significant. 

The empathy Sorenson feels is clear to see. When he says this is the most challenging message he’s ever delivered, there is no doubt. He says, “As a leader, I have never had a more difficult moment than this one. There’s simply nothing worse than telling highly-valued associates – people who are the very heart of this company, that their roles are being impacted by events completely outside of their control.” 

Without actions, layoffs and continuity plans, it’s important to consider the long-term immpacts of these changes and clearly articulate your plan for the future. 

Act in line with your values 

It’s worth revisiting your values and ensuring the measures you’re putting in place align with those values. (Don’t just pay lip service to caring about people.) Are your new policies in line the messages you’ve been promoting? 

Consider the impact of changes in communication methods 

With a large portion of the workforce shifting to remote work, consider the impact of changes in communication methods. It can be difficult to convey tone and meaning through emails and chat functions. Video conferencing, while retaining some elements of face-to-face communication, still create a somewhat impersonal barrier. 

Earlier this week, Sephora laid off over 3,000 employees. A Sephora employee describes the devastating moment she and others in her district were suddenly laid off via a conference call.

“You could hear everyone absolutely sobbing,” said one former employee. “I hung up as soon as I heard the first person cry at the end. I couldn’t take it. I was in tears myself.”

According to a statement by Sephora, “All have been offered severance and provided with support resources, including coordination with companies that provide essential services and may be hiring at this time. It is our sincerest hope that we are able to bring these employees back on staff in the near future.”

With online communication detracting from things such as nonverbal cues and tone, carefully consider the impact: be mindful of tone, personalisation and make a conscious effort to increase empathy. 

Communicate changes to corporate policy 

Share any changes to corporate policies, such as leave of absenses or changes to shift work. You also may be eliminating non-essential travel, be implementing hiring freezes, making role and resposibility changs, or starting virtual recruitment and onboarding. 

If your leadership team are making sacrifices, communicate this clearly to show solidarity with your team members. 

Maintain a sense of optimism 

Amidst stress and uncertainty, there’s still hope for the future and that businesses will be restored. Your team members look to leaders to gauge how to feel and act, so maintaining a sense of optimism is a must. 

People need clarity, transparency, empathy and hope right now. It’s time for business leaders to step up and take their employer brand seriously during this time. 

The post Protecting your employer brand during a crisis  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.