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Employer branding18

Apr 27
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Persuasion versus promotion: The power of employer branding

By Employer branding

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Careers Websites - Content Marketing - Persuasion Blog Hero Image

Is employer branding misunderstood? I frequently encounter this question, and those who ask it can be forgiven for assuming the answer is ‘yes’. Too often, how companies present themselves to current and prospective employees feels unimaginative or formulaic. There seems to be a lack of appreciation for what strong employer branding can achieve. Somewhere along the way, many organisations have confused its purpose. Employer branding is less about promotion and more about persuasion.

Consider the difference between these two approaches. Promotion is broadcasting a message: job postings, benefit summaries, and corporate slogans. A careers page that simply says, “We’re hiring – apply now.” The office tour video that focuses on the free snacks or the social posts listing your awards, rewards and perks. Promotion is all about visibility. But its impact often stops there. It tells but doesn’t connect.

Persuasion, by contrast, is about storytelling, articulating culture, and building an emotional connection. It’s about showing – not telling – people why your organisation is a great place to work. It’s about crafting an authentic narrative that resonates with individuals, whether they’re candidates, colleagues, or ex-employees. Great employer brands use persuasion to build trust, foster loyalty, and spark genuine excitement. They invite people into something bigger: a shared purpose, an inclusive organisation and a culture worth being part of.

This means a slight shift in mindset for our friends working in talent acquisition. To move away from sourcing candidates, generating applications and creating shortlists, and towards persuading the right people to believe in, invest in, and champion your culture. And that includes those people who already work for you. If we capture the hearts and minds of people, their bodies and talent will quickly follow.

In short

Next time you review your employer branding efforts, ask yourself: how much of it leans on promotion versus persuasion? And consider how to tip the balance decisively toward the latter.

Need a little help?

We hope you’ve found this article helpful. If you want help, support or even just a chat about this or any aspect of your employer brand or talent strategy, then drop us a line. Between you and I, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea, chocolate Hobnob and a video call.

Apr 10
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That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Careers Websites - Content Marketing - Cost of a poor employer brand thumbnail image

The real cost of a poor employer brand. And how to fix it.

By Employer branding

If you’re in talent acquisition right now, you may well be juggling a long list of open roles, increasing candidate drop-off rates, more turnover, and rising recruitment costs. It may well be that your employer brand isn’t doing what it should. The good news? It’s totally fixable. The sooner you address it, the better – it’s cheaper to tackle the problem before it snowballs into something bigger. Think of us as your employer brand doctor – here to help prevent problems before they start!

Stick with us, and we’ll show you exactly how a weak employer brand can be bad for business, plus some simple, cost-effective ways to turn things around.

So, what exactly is your employer brand?

In a nutshell: it’s everything. It’s how potential candidates view you, not how you see yourself. In today’s job market, your brand needs to stay fresh and appealing to attract top talent and keep them around. Crucially, your brand impacts more than just hiring. It influences your reputation with customers, investors, and even stakeholders too.

The stats are clear: 88% of job seekers take your employer brand into account before applying, and companies with a strong brand are three times more likely to hire quality candidates. On the flip side, 69% of candidates say they’d turn down a job offer from a company with a poor reputation – even if they’re unemployed. If you want to get ahead and keep top talent coming in, making sure your employer brand is solid is more important than ever.

(Source: MRINetwork)

The cost implications of a poor employer brand

A weak employer brand isn’t just an image problem – it hits you where it hurts: your wallet. It’s often hard to see at first, but over time, a weak employer brand can cost you big in ways you might not even realise. From recruitment expenses to lost productivity, here’s a rundown of where your brand is draining your resources:

The cost of candidate fallout

If your brand is a turn-off, candidates will be dropping off too.  A 2024 Cronofy report found that 43% of candidates bail on interviews because of scheduling delays. And it doesn’t stop there – drop-off rates are high at every stage: 22% during application, 24% at screening, and 25% at interviews.

The cost of increased turnover and poor candidate quality

With a poor employer brand, you’re going to attract lower-quality candidates, which means higher recruitment costs and more turnover. Companies with weak brands may need to bump up salaries by 10% to attract talent (source: Harvard Business Review), and you’ll probably spend more time filling roles, which can hurt your operations. On the flip side, companies with strong brands experience 28% less turnover. That’s huge, considering replacing an employee can cost up to 200% of their salary!

The cost of increased reliance on agencies

When your employer brand is weak, you might lean more heavily on recruitment agencies. And guess what? Those fees can run anywhere from 15% to 30% of a candidate’s first-year salary – sometimes even higher for hard-to-fill roles. 

The cost of low engagement and productivity

Engaged employees are happy employees. Companies with engaged employees see 23% higher profitability and 17% more productivity. In contrast, disengaged workers are contributing to a global loss of $8.8 trillion in productivity each year. So, poor engagement can definitely hurt your bottom line.

In short, a poor employer brand might seem like a minor issue now, but it adds up fast – and it’s costing you more than you think. Fixing it is a smart way to save money in the long run and stay competitive.

Time to fix your employer brand?

Your employer brand doesn’t stay fixed – it’s always evolving. With the way things are changing in the job market (think shifting employee expectations, more hybrid work, and a bigger focus on purpose-driven workplaces) your brand could probably use a refresh to stay competitive. Brands need regular attention, so let’s make sure yours stays attractive to the best talent out there.

Review your employer value proposition (EVP)

Today’s employees expect more than just a salary. They want things like flexible working, mental health support, and psychological safety. DEI is no longer just about policies. It’s about action and creating an inclusive culture. Plus, your EVP needs to adapt to the changing landscape of job roles, especially with AI and automation on the rise, and increased demands for pay transparency and career progression.

If your EVP isn’t aligned with these evolving needs, it’s time to rethink it. A little investment now could make a huge difference in how your brand is perceived and how you attract and keep top talent. For more guidance, check out How to Make Your EVP Work Harder by our friends at BrandPointZero.

Adapt your EVP for different audiences

Just as consumer brands tweak their messages for different customer groups, your employer brand should speak to the unique needs of each team within your company. Salesforce are nailing this by using LinkedIn to showcase diverse content for different roles within their organisation. Similarly, Marriott does a great job with Instagram reels, highlighting everything from hospitality to corporate roles.

These brands understand that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work. Platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram Reels are really popular with brand right now who are using them to show behind-the-scenes peeks at their workplace cultures. This authentic, real-life content helps you connect with the right people.

If you need inspiration, check out our case study with NFU Mutual, where we helped them create a super-targeted EVP for their pricing team.

Don’t stop at the candidate experience

The candidate experience is a big deal, and rightly so. If candidates drop out of your hiring process, you lose time and money, plus you might end up paying agency fees to fill the role. A bad candidate experience can even hurt your reputation and make it harder to hire top talent in the future.

AI is changing the game. Companies like Chipotle have slashed hiring times from 12 days to just 4 using AI-powered assistants. Also, fairness and ethical practices in hiring is a must have. By creating clear, unbiased hiring criteria and offering equal opportunities to all applicants, you’ll boost your employer brand and attract a more diverse pool of candidates. And with remote work now a staple, it’s crucial that your hiring and onboarding processes are seamless, even virtually. Clear communication is key, and making remote hires feel valued from the start will help ensure a smooth transition.

Check out our article ‘Candidate experience: How to meet and exceed their expectations’ but don’t forget to carry those good experiences through into equally good on-boarding as that’s the time new hires will be evaluating promises against reality.

Re-engage candidates with your employer brand

Once you’ve nailed your employer brand story, it’s time to get it out there. Encourage your employees to share their real experiences on LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. Trust us – real stories from real employees resonate way more than polished corporate ads. Companies that embrace employee-generated content see up to twice as much engagement. If you want to dive deeper into this, check out ‘Content marketing for recruiters. Engaging candidates with your employer brand’.

In conclusion

A weak employer brand is probably costing you more than you think. It’s not just about recruitment fees – it impacts your reputation and even customer loyalty. If you let things slide, it’ll only get harder to fix. So, take a moment to ask yourself: Is your EVP still delivering what your employees want? A little tweak could make a huge difference. And let’s face it – a strong employer brand isn’t just a feel-good thing – it pays off hugely in the long run. If you need help, we’re here to chat!

Want some help?

If you feel you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around your careers website or aspects of your employer brand and talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a Zoom call.

Jul 23
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That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Employee Engagement Thumbnail

The success of your employer brand lies in employee engagement

By Employer branding

If your employees are not happy and engaged, good luck with positioning your organisation as an employer of choice and a great place to work. You can have a beautiful building, it means nothing if the people within it aren’t positively engaged in your culture, values and purpose.

This article isn’t about how to engage your people – that’s a whole topic by itself. But we will cover what engagement means and why it matters. This is about showing how it impacts on perceptions of your employer brand, and what good employee engagement looks like in your authentic employer brand communications and content.

What is employee engagement?

A phrase you hear a lot around employee engagement is ‘going the extra mile’. It’s that discretionary effort, an emotional ‘buy in’ to achieving the organisation’s goals. There’s often something about the leadership, culture and the way values are lived in engaging organisations that makes employees want to give more time, energy and commitment. And this is all feeds into perceptions of your employer brand.

And why does it matter?

Just as you have an employer brand whether you like it or not, the same applies to employee engagement. It’s just a case of how high the levels are that determines whether your people are engaged – or disengaged.

Broken promises, a disconnect with values and a lack of employee ‘voice’ – these are often cited as reasons why people become disengaged. Unfortunately, thanks to LinkedIn, Glassdoor and other sites, low levels of engagement are very difficult to contain. The upside is that these sites can also communicate positive stories and evidence of good engagement.

Engaged employees make great advocates for the employer brand. They are more likely to share their positive experiences which helps recruitment. And candidates tend to trust others they perceive to be like them. In fact, research by the Edelman Trust found that employee voice is three times more credible that that of the CEO when discussing what it’s like to work for an organisation.

How can we identify employee engagement?

Employee engagement is a speciality discipline within the world of HR and people. It has its own framework, the ‘Four Enablers of Employee Engagement’ that’s supported by the CIPD and ACAS, no less.

The ‘Four Enablers’ look at many of the key elements needed to create a culture that fosters engagement. It’s easy to see how negatives in any of these areas would dampen levels of engagement – and therefore also be damaging to perceptions of the employer brand.

Strategic narrative

Is there empowering leadership providing a strong strategic narrative about the organisation, where it’s come from and where it’s going?

Engaging and motivating managers

Do they give their people focus and scope while treating them as individuals? Can they stretch and coach them to their goals?

Employee voice

Are people encouraged to challenge and ask questions – both between functions and externally? Do the employees feel that their opinions really count?

Organisational integrity

Are the ‘values on the wall’ reflected in day to day behaviours? Are the expected behaviours explicit, understood and bought into? Is there a culture of high trust?

This is all very logical – but there’s also a problem. For all the benefits that employee engagement brings, the actual levels aren’t currently that high.

A warning shot to employers

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workforce 2023, only 13% of Europe’s workforce feel engaged. 72% are not engaged and 15% are actively disengaged due to issues like ‘quiet quitting’ and losing touch with colleagues and the purpose of their roles since the pandemic.

These numbers serve as a warning shot to employers and remind them that, what they think engages their employees may well have changed over the past few years. It may well be timely to review the EVP and employer brand to reset your employee deal – and in turn help increase engagement levels. We’ve written an article all about how to do this. ‘10 things to consider when refreshing your employer brand.’

Benefits of employee engagement – in numbers

It’s definitely worth focusing on boosting employee engagement as these stats suggest. According to research, positive employee engagement can bring:

  • 23% higher profits in companies with engaged employees than those with workers who feel miserable. (Gallup)
  • 5 times the revenuefor organisations that achieve the highest rates of employee engagement – compared to those with the lowest. (Hay Group)
  • 10% higher customer ratings and18% higher revenue. (Gallup)
  • 41% lower absenteeism in companies with higher employee engagement. (Gallup)
  • Highly engaged companies benefit from10% higher customer ratings and 18% higher revenue. (Gallup)

Where employee engagement supports the employer brand

So, how can your employer brand communicate positive employee engagement? We’ll use the ‘Four Enablers’ as a reference point here. As the embodiment of good engagement, it’s a good plan to showcase them in your employer branding comms.

Leadership presence and strategic narrative

Visible leaders have an impact on employee engagement and the employer brand. We’d say Sir Richard Branson would be a good example of someone promoting the values of the organisation and putting people very much at the centre of the Virgin strategy. He contributes to the Virgin blog, is passionate about people and is highly visible on Linked – although we suspect he might have a little help. The late Anita Roddick of Body Shop provided a strong narrative to the sustainable objectives of her company, long before we’d heard of sustainability and B-Corp status. Authenticity is key to any leadership involvement in employer brand messaging, especially at a time when many are re-evaluating what they want from the career and employer. So, if they get involved, they have to follow through on what they promise.

Employee advocacy

We’ve already covered how important your people are when it comes to building trust with potential candidates. That’s why their thoughts on your culture, and the way they are developed and managed is so important. The content on your careers website and blog should show the projects that have engaged them, the way their ideas have been embraced and the projects that have enabled them to make a difference and why. For examples of how we’ve helped our clients to do this, take a look at these case studies:

Miele X – the people in the digital centre of excellence of this iconic brand have a great employee engagement story to tell. That’s why we’ve put them, and their stories, at the centre of their new careers website.

NFU Mutual – you can’t have a business that’s guided by mutual values unless their people feel engaged and aligned with those values. And that’s exactly the story here with the NFU Mutual pricing team. We researched internally to find out what it was from their development opportunities, variety of work, culture, leadership that engaged and motivated them. The insight has since been used in videos, blogs and on LinkedIn. Here’s the story of their Pricing Recruitment Campaign.

The power of film

Film is a creative way to show employee engagement. You really can’t fake someone enjoying their work, candidates would see through it in a nano second. Film enables us to tell the story of people and the impact that their work has on them and the world around them. It’s about showing how people are valued and in turn the value in the work that they do. It is why film plays such an integral role in employer branding.

Deichmann UK – is a lovely case study demonstrating how effective film can be in telling a retailer’s employer story.

Conclusion

Employee engagement comes from positive buy-in to what it’s like to work for you. It’s a vote of confidence in your culture, values, the way the organisation is led and the delivery of an employee experience that delivers on the promise made in your EVP and employer brand. And this alone is why any organisation will struggle to promote a strong employer brand without good levels of employee engagement. You can’t have one without the other.

Need a little help?

If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around LinkedIn or any aspect of your employer brand and talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a Zoom call.

Jul 18
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Promote your employer brand on LinkedIn

Promoting your employer brand on LinkedIn

By Content marketing, Employer branding

If you are going to use a social network to promote your employer brand, don’t go anywhere until you have mastered LinkedIn. We don’t need to dangle the latest stats to confirm what all recruiters know – LinkedIn is a thriving community of potential candidates and customers of your employer brand. And the number of users is increasing at speed.

This article has been updated to cover the major changes LinkedIn made to its algorithm, announced in 2024. LinkedIn wants to see more knowledge and advice – and less of the selfies and ‘Facebooky’ content that’s been creeping in since the pandemic. There’s some new guidance and in return, content that ticks these boxes will enjoy better reach. We’ve added a section on these changes – and the opportunities they offer recruiters – at the end of the blog.

The growing user base

There were 36.9 million UK Linkedin users in May 2023, which accounted for 53.9% of the entire UK population. This is an increase of 2 million from when we first published this blog in October 2022. Just over 50% are in the 25 to 34 years age group and 1 in 4 are in the 35 to 54 year age group. LinkedIn user numbers have steadily grown throughout 2022 and seen a 17% increase in users since September 2020.

All of what we’ll cover is based on the free LinkedIn company page and the posts that you as an employer, and your employees can post using their personal accounts. We’re not covering LinkedIn Recruiter which is a whole different proposition and a specific hiring platform.

So, let’s look at some of the best tactics you can use to promote your employer brand on LinkedIn. After all, it’s the place we all go to share career news and build relationships.

Optimising your company page

It’s unlikely to be the first place candidates will start when exploring your employer brand; they’ll probably see a post or a video in their feed first. But, if they are interested in finding out more, they’ll eventually end up on your LinkedIn page. We’ve seen a few ‘tumbleweed’ company pages and that’s a wasted opportunity. Don’t let yours be an underwhelming experience.

The LinkedIn company page is an opportunity for talent to discover why they should want to work for you – so give them a positive view of your culture and careers. Fill it with posts,  the latest career related blog articles and videos. Update it at least 2-3 times a week. Research from social media platform Hootsuite found that complete company pages double the visits compared to those that are incomplete. So, keep it fresh and the kind of place that candidates will want to follow and come back to.

Who posts your content on LinkedIn?

Before we cover what you can post, it’s important to explain the importance of who posts it, and indeed where it goes. Yes, employers can and do post their own content on LinkedIn, that’s fine. But employees often have far more followers of their own compared to their employers. What’s more, not only do more people see what employees post, because they are connected with friends and colleagues, these posts get much more engagement (likes, shares and comments) too. Do you see where we are going with this?

“Typically, what your employees say and post has far
more reach and engagement than corporate posts.”

Let’s break this down a little further…

Company posts

This is when you post content on your company page – posting as the company. You can post text, embed images, links to full long-form articles on LinkedIn – or on your own website/careers blog and of course videos which can get 5x more engagement that static content on LinkedIn.

Employee posts (also known as employee generated content)

This is where your employees post about their own experiences of working for you on their profiles. They can share what they think of your work and values, their roles, projects and feelings of being a part of your team. If they’ve written any blog articles or made any videos, they can link to or upload them to LinkedIn. They can also share company posts via their own profiles.

The advantages of employee generated content is that carries a level of trust and authenticity that goes beyond a company post, as truthful as that post might be. People naturally value the opinions of those they trust and, by posting their own content on LinkedIn, employees become advocates of your employer brand. To put some perspective on the value of employee advocacy, research by Nielsen in 2021 found that 88% of audiences trust recommendations from people they know.

Crafting the perfect LinkedIn post

A LinkedIn post has the same challenge that any communication has – it has to attract and hold the interest of those you want to read it. So, think to yourself, ”What is this post meant to achieve?” Or if you’re using LinkedIn to promote your employer proposition, “Which pillar is this post promoting?” If it doesn’t have a purpose, or isn’t promoting a particular pillar … don’t post it. Here’s a helpful structure:

  • Hook (to get attention): What will stop people scrolling, make them curious and resonate with them? You could share some career development advice in a certain area or draw their attention to a new role.
  • Teaser (get their commitment): What will keep them reading? It could be mentioning the thoughts of a leader or influencer, or why a new team is being created and what that offers.
  • Substance (the value they’ll get): This is often a summary of 2-3 points covered in more length in the article or download you are promoting. It should be enough to get them to read more.
  • Action (next steps): Always end with a simple call to action. Such as click to read more, view the job, visit the microsite, download here, etc.
  • Hashtags (flag your audience): You’ll need these to be relevant to your target audience. Find out more in the Hashtag strategy section below.

Use of images

Posts need an image. Often, if you are sharing an article, this will have been setup so that the visual appears in social media posts. Therefore, in most cases, the image will automatically appear. If it doesn’t, or if you are posting text only, you’ll need to support your update with an image that will attract attention and help position your post. These should always be landscape, never portrait.

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Social Media - LinkedIn Article Image

How to get your posts shared

Engage your employees

You need to help employees appreciate the value of sharing employment content on LinkedIn. Putting out internal comms along the lines of ‘we value your influence as employees, and we’d love you to share the news/roles/videos/blog articles that we’re posting’. If they are engaged with your employer brand and values, they’ll be happy to post when they are comfortable. You could even run a session to help them understand how sharing and posting works – and where to find your content. If you like the idea of this – we can help.

Get your leaders posting

If your leaders start to share, write posts and longer articles, they start to encourage all your employees to do the same. You may not have your very own Richard Branson but even in smaller businesses, your founders and leaders are well known in their sectors and carry a lot of influence. Getting them on-board with posting and engagement will really start to show results.

The best time to post?

Ask this question in a Google search and you’ll have no shortage of opinions. If we look at some credible sources working in social media, it does narrow this down. For example, Hootsuite say that the best time to post on LinkedIn is 9:00 AM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Scheduling tool SocialPilot say 10 am is a good time and that professionals will clear their inbox first, before they are open to new messages. They also say that commuter hours are good. (7 am-9 am, 6 pm-8 pm): People see their LinkedIn feed while traveling to work in the early morning or coming back home.

From this we would agree that the earlier in the day gives the post more time to gain traction. However, different audiences will respond at different times and it’s a case of experimentation. It’s also true that the quality of the post matters more. A poorly written post of little value posted at the optimum time wont fare as well as a well written post, offering value to the target audience.

Hashtag strategy

Hashtags help connect with people who might be interested in what you have to say. You’ll often find hashtags at the end of posts as a signpost for people searching for posts around a certain topic to be able to find them. But LinkedIn isn’t Instagram where multiple hashtags are used. On LinkedIn, the recommended number is three – max. Anymore and it risks making the post appear to be desperate for attention. This also allows your posts to be more focused and help you connect with a larger audience.

To find hashtags, LinkedIn has a search bar located in the top right corner of the main screen. Type in the # symbol followed by the word or phrase you’re interested in, and LinkedIn will give you a list of related options. In our little world of employer branding, marketing and talent attraction, we regularly use these hashtags.

#recruitmentmarketing #employerbranding #talentacquisition #talentattraction
#resourcing #EVP #employeevalueproposition #ATS #applicanttrackingsystem
#candidateexperience

Sometimes a specific campaign might have a trending hashtag. Many of the awareness days relevant to the world of work have trending hashtags. For example, #worldmentalhealthday, #stresswarenessday or events, such as #recfest.

No doubt you’ll be able to find many more, using the LinkedIn search bar. Again, as with the timing of posts, experimentation will show you which hashtags get the best results.

The LinkedIn algorithm change

LinkedIn has introduced what it feels are positive changes to tackle irrelevant content, prioritising valuable knowledge and advice for its users. For savvy recruiters and those highly engaged employer brand advocates you’ve been nurturing, the new algorithm offers good news. Here’s why – and what they mean for career related content.

There are four key changes LinkedIn wants to see more of. We think they will help you create better careers content that will reach a wider audience.

Writing for a distinct audience

Targeting your content to a specific audience can enhance your reach and engagement. Think about who you are writing for, and why they’d want to read your content. The clearer you can be the better, so name that audience. Why not write a series of articles about a specific role or department? If you want to recruit to a certain role, what are they interested in? What will engage them, and what values do they have that are reflected in your organisation?

Staying true to your core subject area

There are benefits in maintaining consistency and establishing yourself as an authority in your niche. This applies to LinkedIn in general. If you are all over the place in the content you share, people won’t know what to expect from you and your content probably won’t get the attention it should deserve. So, be consistent and be known for your knowledge in certain areas – and stick to them.

Encouraging meaningful comments

Fostering engaging discussions can boost your content’s visibility and overall performance. This is one of the hardest aspects of LinkedIn to get right – and it takes effort. Ideally, you want to encourage meaningful comments on your posts so they need to be written in a way that’s easy to digest and the message – or value – you are communicating is clear. The clearer you are about your audience, the more likely they’ll be to see how your post is for them which will encourage them to comment. And the comments should have some depth to them – which also applies to any comments you make yourself on other’s posts. Comments like ‘great post’ and ‘I agree’ aren’t of any value.

Providing perspective-driven content

Sharing unique perspectives and insights can differentiate your content and attract more attention. Here’s where your careers blog can really shine. Candidates really value hearing the personal perspectives of people they feel are like them, doing the roles that they may want to do. If you can get your subject experts involved in generating their own content, which could be blogs and video, then you’ll be producing exactly what LinkedIn wants to see. That Little Agency works with many of our clients to interview people doing all sorts of roles – and they really do make the most interesting career stories. If you’d like to find out how we could do this for you, please get in touch.

In short

LinkedIn is the world’s leading networking site with a strong emphasis on building relationships and career development. Not everyone posts, but many people read content and start to form ideas about their careers and engage with content that inspires them and resonates with their values. It’s therefore essential that your employer brand has a presence on LinkedIn and that you, as the employer, are actively involved in managing and promoting how your employer brand is perceived. While you can post as an employer on your company page, the real key to LinkedIn success is engaging your people to generate and share their own content – and in the ‘valuable knowledge and advice’ ethos that LinkedIn encourages. They have the biggest reach and, as advocates of your employer brand, they are who your potential hires will trust most of all.

Need a little help?

If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around LinkedIn or any aspect of your employer brand and talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a Zoom call.

Mar 27
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Candidate experience: How to meet and exceed their expectations

By Employer branding

Have you noticed your candidates dropping out of the hiring process? Research from Glassdoor found drop-off rates during the application process can be as high as 80%. The candidate experience clearly needs to be better, but what do they actually want from the recruitment process?

The term candidate experience has been around for some time. In order to deliver the best experience, we think employers need to have a better understanding of their candidate’s expectations. As we’ll show, understanding these expectations is easy – there’s plenty of research we’ll draw on. But, if research by People Scout is any indicator, less than 20% of candidates would rate this experience as excellent. There’s plenty of room for improvement.

Candidate experience is customer experience

Did we say ‘customer’? Yes we did. They are weighing up the employment part of what is really one company wide brand before they buy. They are well aware they have options too – and it’s a candidate’s market. And, if barely 20% of candidates rate the process they are going through, you don’t need to be Einstein to work out that 80% feel employers could do better. Indeed, this number seems to back up the 80% that Glassdoor say could be dropping out.

And, for any organisation faced with 80% of their customer based being less than in love with the experience, there could be wider consequences. Strap yourselves in …

The business case for a better candidate experience

We love a good statistic at TLA. A whopping big percentage makes the point so much clearer. A good candidate experience isn’t just better for the candidate. Here’s why investing in the process is good for business too.

  • 52% of organisations that prioritise the candidate experience saw increases in revenue of 10% or more. Source: Brandon Hall Group.
  • 50% of candidates who receive a bad experience would not buy that company’s product. Source: LinkedIn Hiring Stats.
  • To put the above into context, research by Virgin Media found that poor candidate experience was potentially costing them £5.4 million a year in cancelled subscriptions. Source: Virgin Media.
  • Candidates talk – especially unhappy ones. 74% of jobseekers would let others know if they had a negative experience with a company during the recruitment process. Source: Webrecruit.

You get the picture. A poor candidate experience doesn’t only frustrate candidates and recruiters – it costs in terms of reputation damage and revenue.

So, what do candidates actually want?

Meeting as many of these expectations as you can will improve the candidate experience and reduce the risk of dropout.

Easy to find information

Research by People Scout ‘Inside the Candidate Experience’, found that 2/3 of candidates use social media to research potential employers. However, a third of employers are not posting career related content to their social channels at least once a week. What’s more, LinkedIn claim that 52% of candidates like to visit a careers website and use social media to find out more. So, don’t risk not showing up.

Candidates want as much information as possible, it helps them decide whether they engage further or look elsewhere. The most prominent social platform for sharing career related content is almost certainly LinkedIn. And, while the employer can use it to share content and promote their employer brand, so can employees – and these can be the most powerful advocates of all.

How well does your company show up in searches for career content? Why not try looking for information about the roles you would like to be found for. What do you see? Your main competitor? If that’s the case, so will your candidates.

Want to know about how to use LinkedIn to help candidates experience your employer brand? Then read our article Promoting your employer brand on LinkedIn.

Recognising people like them

The People Scout research found that as many as 35% of career sites don’t feature real employees. We think this is a huge waste of an opportunity to enhance the candidate experience. At TLA every careers website we build has a number of features that helps candidates recognise and hear from people just like them. We always use our own photography and we feature, wherever possible, career videos featuring employee stories as well as career blogs where employees share their career stories and tips.

One that achieves this particularly well is our series of employer branding films for retailer Deichmann. These films were made to be shared on social media. If you were a candidate looking at retail as a career, we think this is a really engaging way to find out more while gaining a feel for the personality of the business and its people.

Take a look at the case study and watch the videos here: Using film to tell a retailer’s employer story.

To see your inclusive culture

We can’t emphasise enough how important it is to candidates that they find evidence of  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) in what they see about your organisation. It’s a hugely important part of helping them decide if they’ll fit in – and therefore whether they want to apply or progress any application. Glassdoor’s Diversity Hiring Survey in 2020 found that nearly a third of employees and job seekers (32%) would not apply to a job at a company where there is a lack of diversity among its workforce.

DE&I is such an important issue for recruiters that we wrote an article focused on helping employers better embed and communicate what they are doing and how to consider the candidate experience. Reflecting diversity, equity and inclusion in your employer brand.

A fast and responsive process

Again, the parallels between what customers and candidates now expect is very apparent here. We are living in an increasingly responsive world in terms of customer expectations, and this reflected in the candidate experience. According to Talos 360, 40% of job applicants will lose interest if they don’t hear back from employers within 48 hours of applying. This isn’t that surprising. This view is supported by Webrecruit research who found that 77% of job seekers expect to wait no longer than 3 days before they have their CV application acknowledged. The survey, entitled “Improving the Candidate Experience” also found that 83% expect to hear in less than five days whether it is being passed on to a hiring manager, shortlisted or rejected.

Candidates are increasingly expecting a well-run recruitment process and time is an important factor. Probably the most compelling statistic we found on the speed of the process is this. According to Fortune magazine, 96% of candidates want to apply to a company with a reputation for keeping candidates informed. This really matters. A candidate with 2-3 other applications that are progressing more quickly isn’t going to wait – and why should they.

To feel valued (and this includes feedback)

According to research covered on LinkedIn, nearly 4 in 5 candidates (78%) say the overall candidate experience they receive is an indicator of how a company values its people. A poor candidate experience is likely to create a negative impression and we’ve already covered how candidates who feel neglected will be only too pleased to share their experience. Of course, some candidates are going to be disappointed and not everyone will be hired. But the candidate experience can still end well – providing you can give helpful feedback.

In one final nod to the People Scout research, which you can find here, they found that nearly half (48%) of candidates did not receive feedback on their last application. And of those who did, 38% stated that the comments they received weren’t helpful. This is a wasted opportunity. Without doubt candidate feedback enhances the experience. It even increases candidates’ likelihood of applying for future roles. Research by ConveyIQ found that candidates are 4 times more likely to consider your company in the future for a job if you’ve offered constructive feedback during the interview process.

Conclusion

We started this article by saying candidate experience is customer experience. This ethos really works throughout the process of discovering and deciding whether to join – or whether to dropout of an application process. Thinking of what your candidates are experiencing through the lens of a customer will tell you if it’s going to engage them further – or not. And remember, a candidate’s experience is only going to be positive if you’ve also met their expectations.

Need a little help?

If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around building your employer brand and next careers website or any aspect of your talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a Zoom call.

Aug 13
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What these employer branding statistics mean for your careers website

By Careers websites, Employer branding

Maybe you are developing your employer brand or putting together a proposal for a new careers website. Chances are, someone has asked you for some hard facts. Don’t they always. Some good old ‘employer branding statistics’ that will back up your case. Well, you’ve come to the right place.

We love a good stat. They often cut through to the crux of an issue and tell it how it is in black and white. People tend to take notice too, especially when they come from sources like LinkedIn and Glassdoor. We’ve listed stats that show what matters to candidates and therefore recruiters. We then explain what you need to do to make sure you’ve got these issues covered. And rest assured, these are not just the same stats that you’ve seen rolled out for the past three years. These are new ones. Good ones. Valuable ones. Ones that you’ll be using for the next 12 months.

75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job (Source: LinkedIn)

The importance of a positive employer brand seems to be held in equal measure by candidates and recruiters alike. A report in HR News found that 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agree that the employer brand significantly impacts hiring. We believe that all organisations have an employer brand, whether they like it or not. You can’t choose whether or not people have a perception of you as an employer, but you can decide to project that perception in a positive light. And that’s why your careers website is so influential in the recruitment process.

So, what does this mean for your careers site?

It’s effectively the home of your employer brand, certainly to any candidate searching for more information. All the good things about working for you need to be there; your values as an organisation, your Employer Value Proposition (EVP), what your people say about working for you, a smooth and fast application process and not forgetting job adverts that excite and inspire. Fail on any of these and you may lose good candidates before they even apply.

60% of the public will choose a place to work based on their beliefs and values (Source: Edelman Trust, 2022)

Many people re-evaluated their lives during the pandemic, and this included the nature of their work. While salary remains important, and this may well increase in the current cost of living crisis, people want to feel a connection with the work they do, and a sense of pride. That’s not possible if they don’t share the same values as their employer.

So, what does this mean for your careers site?

Employees aren’t only interested in what you do, they really want to know why you do it. The more you can communicate about your values, the better they’ll be able to identify if you are a good cultural fit. While you can talk about your statements and policies on sustainability and how you give something back, the most relatable content for candidates are employee stories of how their actual work helps with this.

The number one obstacle in the application process is not knowing what it’s like to work at an organisation (Source: LinkedIn)

We’re not surprised to see this statistic. After all, joining an organisation is a big step at any stage of a career. This also explains the popularity of sites like Glassdoor and is the recruitment equivalent of why we all look at reviews on TripAdvisor, Amazon and Google. We all want to find out as much as we can before we buy. And candidates are customers of the recruitment process.

So, what does this mean for your careers site?

It needs to be transparent about what it feels like to work for you. And this is best achieved when you put your own people in the spotlight. Candidates most relate to people like them, doing the roles they are interested in. They want to hear from people they can see on your careers site and look up on LinkedIn. The use of video and a blog are both powerful platforms to share a window into your organisation.

76% of jobseekers report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating employers (Source: Glassdoor Diversity Hiring Survey)

There is a powerful business case for a more diverse and inclusive workforce. It creates more innovative thinking and research from McKinsey found that ethnically diverse and gender-diverse companies were more profitable. However, we think that it’s also because people want to feel like their potential employer looks like the right place to work. This means seeing evidence of people who look like them.

So, what does this mean for your careers site?

It needs to help you attract diverse talent. On a visual and content level, your site needs relatable and authentic photography reflecting your diversity and culture, especially with under represented groups. What’s more, job seekers trust employees the most when it comes to understanding what diversity & inclusion (DEI) really looks like. So, content made by different ethnic groups could be highly influential. Take a look at the diversity and inclusion page we built as part of the careers site for Derbyshire Constabulary. It creates an authentic view of a diverse organisation, covering their plans for cultural change and how they plan to build a positive and supportive workforce.

40% of job applicants will lose interest if they don’t hear back from employers within 48 hours of applying (Source: Talos360, 2022)

We posted this statistic on LinkedIn a couple of months back and we quickly heard from recruiters who agreed. Candidates are increasingly expecting a well run recruitment process and time is an important factor. If they have 2-3 other applications in the pipeline, and these are progressing, it’s no surprise when the slowest recruiter off the blocks loses out.

So, what does this mean for your careers site?

This is where your ATS really can make a difference. The very best candidate experience comes when they enter the application stage. Your site has done the hard work of attracting and engaging your candidate, they’ve been inspired to apply. So far so good. You need to make sure the application process from here on is well timed and enhances your employer brand. There are all sorts of ways your ATS can help with this. Recruiters need to ensure that they are using technology to create automated responses starting with acknowledgement.

Almost one-quarter (23%) say they’d be put off applying by a boring job advert (Source: Talos360, 2022)

Don’t let a poorly written job advert ruin your otherwise excellent employer branding efforts. The problem often lies in the job advert itself. The worst offenders are those ‘cut and paste’ nightmares with sections lifted from the job description, bullet points and absolutely nothing about why they might want to apply.

So, what does this mean for your careers site?

Give your job ads the attention they deserve and need. It’s the last thing a candidate will read before they apply – or decide to go elsewhere. Not only do they need to be written well, they also need to be set up so your candidates can find them in job searches – a whole topic in itself and covered in more depth in our article ‘How to improve the SEO of your careers website’. And, for tips on improving those ads from the get go, read our  ‘A little guide to writing a successful job advert’.

In conclusion

There are many statistics on the employer brand and candidate experience. They’ll tell you a lot about what jobseekers are looking for, motivated by and what downright annoys them. But these stats are only worth knowing if you make sure that your careers site has those issues covered. We hope these stats have been helpful in shaping your view on what makes a good careers website.

If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around building your employer brand and next careers website or any aspect of your talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a Zoom call.

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