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.

Until one day, someone mentioned storytelling to them. That’s when the lightbulb went on and things started to change.

Does this sound familiar?

Recruitment is competitive and standing out is very difficult if you don’t have a clear point of difference.

When it comes to content and marketing your services, you need to think beyond a blog post. The old ‘jobs & blogs’ syndrome simply doesn’t cut it anymore and is unlikely to attract the top candidates you’re looking for.

In short, candidates will be attracted to recruiters who they can relate to in some way. Social media is coming around full circle. Candidates want to get to know you first. Remember that thing called building a relationship? Well, it includes online relationships too.

It’s just like in real life when they’re meeting new friends or partners. The process is about getting to know someone before they commit. You may have heard the analogy about ‘not marrying someone on the first date’ and it’s true in many scenarios, including during the recruitment process.

So, where do you start?

It’s simple: tell me your story. 

Storytelling has been around since the beginning of time and fosters connection between people. The act of storytelling stimulates the brain and emotion, creating an impact and making your organisation more memorable and relatable.

As a potential candidate or client, I want to know who you are, what you are about and what your company culture is like.

You might respond with, “but I already have an About Us page on our website”. Well, here’s the thing. Even though About Us pages are typically the 2^nd most visited page on a website (that should tell you how important story is in itself), so many recruiters still don’t have an About Us page that shares anything meaningful, and many of the ones that do are stuffy and lack personality.

I have literally just been on 20 different recruitment websites this morning looking for examples. Some didn’t even have an About Us page and the most of the ones that did, put me to sleep. Hit the snooze button please!

Many careers sites are way too corporate and share professional experience; but what about the people personally in your organisation? After all, I’m buying YOU, not just your service.

Have I convinced you yet?

Here are some practical applications to incorporate more storytelling into your recruitment strategy: 

• Incorporate stories in your job ads – make me interested in the company and want to know more
• Incorporate stories into your talent communities
•  Share the real-life stories of your team
• Share stories of your candidates (don’t share a resume, tell me about that candidate – what drives them, what they are passionate about, something unique they have done)
• Share stories in the videos you create – these can be real life experiences about the day to day.

The two key words to remember with storytelling are personality and authenticity. Think outside the square, think beyond recruitment and remember, you’re dealing with people and they want to be able to relate to you, your organisation and your team.

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 The single, most powerful way to engage candidates appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

“Whenever you join, however long you stay, the exceptional EY experience lasts a lifetime.

“You come to EY to be even better. To be exceptional. You come here because of the people. And the culture. To contribute to the highest-performing teams. To learn from everyone you meet.”

The video is shot in a range of internal and external settings, both professional and casual. The multitude of shots presents each person speaking a segment of a single message. This speaks to the global nature of the business, its diversity, and sense of unity, with shots of people with different accents and personal styles across a range of cultures, ages, and areas of the business. (Not to mention, one strategically placed backdrop with the wording “EY is the #1 professional services employer in the world”!)

“Be part of a powerful network of over one million inspiring EY people and alumni.”

“Together, we build a better working world. Better begins with you. With me. With you. With them. With us.”

How do you use video stories to showcase your people? Leave us a comment!

The post EY’s inspiring people story appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Accenture is a global management consulting and professional services firm that provides strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations services. We spoke with their Managing Director of Marketing and Communications, Tracy Gawthorne who has more than 20 years’ experience building brands, creating unique customer experiences, and driving growth in markets across the globe.

“As the head of marketing and communications for Accenture across Australia and New Zealand, I’m responsible for shaping our brand in market and demonstrating how Accenture is helping Australia and New Zealand live, work, play, protect, and grow. This encompasses every marketing and communications channel through which people interact with our brand, from employer branding, to client and media relationships!”

This unique structuring decision by Accenture aligns with their conscious effort to include employer branding in their overall brand strategy.

“In a professional services environment, our people really are our brand. So, the opportunity to sit across our overall brand offers a whole new degree of consistency. There’s a lot of power in sharing our story and purpose. I have a fantastic team of specialists and together we can gain insights into what people relate to and why they choose us.”

Worldwide, Accenture has more than five hundred thousand people who offer their services, skills, talents, and insights, which is why they pride themselves on attracting the right people and enabling them to build a flourishing career.

Accenture’s employer brand and overall brand strategy communicates their purpose and message through storytelling in a number of ways.

Global to local

Accenture has the challenge of activating their global purpose locally.

“Our global purpose is to bring innovation to improve the way the world lives and works. We bring an Australian flavour to that by understanding what is unique to us here. So, our purpose is, ‘To bring innovation to improve the way Australia lives works, plays, protects and grows.”

Accenture has a strong commitment to the social environment, safety, and security, and understands how these things resonate with people locally.

Making it personal

Accenture also tries to ensure their purpose resonates with their people by encouraging them to align their work with their personal goals, skills, and interests. (For example, this video showcases how their Digital Marketing Analyst aligns his passion for photography with his role.)

“People want to understand how their personal purpose links to the organisation they are working for. We know we’re succeeding and fulfilling our purpose when we’re: creating jobs, helping Australian and New Zealand organisations to grow domestically and internationally, helping build services that make a difference to people, and contributing to the communities in which we live and work.”

“In the last eighteen months, we’ve asked our people how they believe they contribute to that. We work to understand what’s important to them and give them a voice. We’ve created a wonderful catalogue of ideas, experiences, and stories with diverse voices.”

Story Hunters: employee engagement and empowerment

In giving their people a voice, Accenture has stopped looking at recruitment marketing in isolation and are instead looking at their talent brand holistically. This includes employee experience and internal communications.

“It’s no longer possible to have one brand and one face to attract people. We don’t want to have one brand for candidates, one brand internally, and another for clients. In today’s world of social media and fast content, that doesn’t work. Instead, we work to build consistent experiences and interactions, from when people join as graduates or experienced professionals, to how they come onboard, and even after they become part of our alumni. We aim to make their journey consistently interesting across the different stages of their career and life.”

Accenture values the stories of their people and works to unleash them.

“We created a program called ‘Story Hunters’ with the purpose of empowering our people and giving them permissions to share their stories and the stories of others. Everybody in Accenture has the opportunity to pitch a story to our Marketing and Communications team. We offer them professional support with writers who can conduct interviews and bring their stories to life.”

“In the beginning, people were excited, but shy. But now, we’ve published 130 stories internally and externally. We have a pipeline now and it’s hard to keep up! We have so much more content and it’s created so much engagement on social.”

So much content that, in fact, just this year Accenture published a hardcover book of stories called Our People, Our Stories, which can be found in all of their offices.

“From the beginning, we were conscious about opening this channel. We really needed to allow people to be authentic about what they want to share, so we had to have an open mindset about what content was appropriate. We don’t edit heavily, we don’t restrict, and we have very good writers who are coached and trained in our tone of voice and the types of angles we are looking for.

“We ask people to talk about what they’re passionate about, and their challenges. By being open and realistic, it’s added a lot to the program and has built a level of trust in the organisation. Our people know we care about them, and trust that we’ll produce something that they can be proud of.”

These stories cover a wide range of topics including returning from parental leave, work-life balance, diverse lifestyles, sexuality, faith, disability, and more. Some of these stories can even be emotional or confronting. All these stories help Accenture’s people, clients, and candidates understand the power and diversity in their organisation.

Storytelling through social media

Accenture has programs for graduates and experienced professionals. Their graduate program sees them working closely with universities in a traditional sense, maintaining a presence on campuses through speaking engagements and careers fairs. However, they are doing increasingly more on their social channels to target this demographic.

“We experiment across all of our social channels using different formats and forms. In our latest online program, we’re doing a Facebook Live series called “On the Couch”. It’s an interview series where people in the organisation can talk about their passions and stories. People can engage in real time. For graduates, our investment in social is anchored in storytelling.”

Accenture may choose people and stories depending on the type of talent and skill sets they are looking to attract.

“There really is a war for talent, particularly around STEM skills. We offer a lot of training in-house for people with the aptitude and interest to do cross-training. We continue to use social and work with the industry groups that those type of people are attracted to. We anchor this in the same messaging and storytelling so people have a consistent experience with the Accenture brand.”

Accenture also tries to maintain contact with strong candidates who made a different choice, and most of this is through social.

Diversity and inclusion

Tracy is also the executive sponsor for Accenture’s gender equality programs.

“One of our big focuses is gender equality. It’s an area I’m passionate about so I quickly put my hand up for the position! Globally, we have an ambitious goal to have a 50-50 workforce by 2025 and we’re serious about it. It’s an exciting time and we’re doubling down on programs that help us collectively understand the value of diversity in all its forms.”

It is in this way that Accenture makes their commitments transparent and also gives them the ability to share takeaway lessons with other organisations.

A strong employer brand encompasses storytelling, and Accenture does just that. Through employee engagement and internal communications, they empower and trust their people by giving them a voice and platform to share their stories. Their social strategy is also deeply rooted in social story, and their strategy utilises a range of formats and forms including video, imagery and written content, providing them with various touch points to engage with their current and future talent. Through aligning their client and employer brand, and activating their global purpose locally, Accenture’s powerful employer brand and storytelling strategy is one to replicate.

Is your organisation interested in being featured in Recruitment Marketing Magazine? Contact the editor.

The post How Accenture’s powerful employer brand harnesses storytelling appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

“Employer branding” is an often-used term but what does it actually mean? While a consumer brand builds reputation and recognition for your products and services, employer branding builds your reputation as an employer to attract the best candidates and future employees.

Large organisations spend millions of dollars on their employer brand, hiring teams of HR professionals to create and share content about their culture. They also highlight information about their perks and programs through their channels, including social media, video, blogs and third-party sites such as Indeed Company Pages that combine employer reviews and ratings with organisational storytelling.

But here’s the truth: even if you don’t have the budget for a dedicated employer brand specialist, the tools and techniques these professionals use are available to you, regardless of the size of your organisation! No one has a monopoly on compelling storytelling to educate prospective talent and build positive associations.

If you’re a small or medium-sized business (SMB), highlight the unique qualities and strengths only you can bring to the table.

What does this mean in practice? Let’s find out.

Showcase your culture

For some people, big firms are just too big. One of the most attractive things about working for an SMB is the direct impact an individual can have upon the organisation.

At smaller firms you can directly set the tone for the workday and have the power to work closely together with others and get things done. You create the culture in a way that feels real and immediate, and in a world where people are constantly bombarded by slick marketing campaigns, this is a powerful advantage. You can’t buy this kind of authenticity.

But it’s not helping your employer brand if nobody knows about it—so share it!

Use authentic storytelling and showcase your people. Feature real employees on your company’s careers website and social pages instead of stock images. Encourage your people to leave reviews on Glassdoor, Facebook, and your organisation’s other pages. If the content is authentic, your voice will shine through and help you attract people who are a great culture fit.

Big firms may have deeper pockets for luxury perks, but SMBs have the lead when it comes to getting really local, personal or even downright quirky when it comes to culture.

You can transform your location into a dynamic place that reflects your values and attitudes. Maybe you let employees bring their dogs into the office. Maybe you are committed to protecting the environment and have a culture of biking to work and encouraging active living. Maybe you even allow employees to work from anywhere in the world they want for a month.

What works for you? There are many ways to showcase your culture that needn’t break the bank—so do it!

Showcase your people
Another benefit of working for an SMB is that people get to wear different hats. Roles don’t tend to be so specialised, so employees have opportunities to learn new skills.

Maybe some of your people were hired to keep the books, but there are opportunities you can give them in customer service, sales, social media—or other interesting areas!

For candidates looking to explore and gain experience in different career areas, this can be a very attractive offering. So weave these kinds of stories into your employer brand. Feature examples of employee growth and development through:

• your organisation’s website and careers site
• social media channels
• blog (let employees talk about how the opportunities they had to learn new things)
• videos and pictures.

Just make sure you get the story out there!

Showcase your personal ties to the community
Today, lots of people want more than just a salary; they want to know that their work has a larger social purpose.

But you don’t have to support major overseas development projects to “give back.” SMBs can do this too by staying connected to their local communities.

No one knows your neighbours better than you do, so make sure your efforts resonate with the values and tastes of the community you serve. You can do lots of things to build the philanthropic side of your employer brand, from sponsoring a local footy team to taking part in volunteer efforts like Clean-Up Australia Day—or even handing out branded sunscreen at the beach.

Or you could even take a leaf out of Salesforce’s book and give employees VTO—“volunteer time off”—to dedicate to causes they care about.

The key thing here is scale. It’s hard for big brands to develop a close, personal appeal and a sense of warmth.

By giving back, everybody wins—the community and your employees—and candidates will see that you are a company that cares.

Final tips
Whatever your SMB decides to do to build its employer brand, stay true to who you are.

Candidates may be turned off by any effort that seems overly slick or that can be dismissed as insincere talk. As with most efforts, the best way to begin an employer branding endeavour is to listen to the employees you already have. What do they love about working for you, and what are their concerns?

Use these as a foundation to make the changes you need to build your employer brand. Once you embark on this effort, keep listening to your employees.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and start building an employer brand that will attract the kind of employees who will make a difference at your company!

Raj Mukherjee, Senior Vice President of Product at Indeed, drives global product vision and strategy with the Senior Leadership Team and leads day-to-day operations of the global product team. 

Prior to joining Indeed, Raj was Senior Vice President of Product at GoDaddy, helping their 14 million customers build successful businesses online. He has significant experience with SMB customers and led multiple successful acquisitions for the company.

Previously, Raj worked on the Enterprise Platform team at Google and led Product Management for Domains for Google Apps and Google Drive for enterprises. He was also Sr. Product manager for the Online Services division at Microsoft. 

The post 3 tips to promote your employer brand without breaking the bank appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.