Talent Branding – How to Make a Great Impression on Candidates

The competition for finding the best talent for your roles is growing day after day. There are several companies out there who are hunting for the top talent, just like you. The candidates, therefore, have the flexibility to choose the employer for whom they wish to work. Amidst this crowd of employers, you need talent branding strategies or company branding strategies that would help you stand out in the eyes of your prospective employees.

A suitable designation or a competitive salary indeed attract candidates. But, there are many other factors that govern candidates’ decision to join a company.

So, how can you keep your prospective candidates hooked and engaged in your company? What is it that will make your candidates choose your company over others? It is your talent brand which speaks about your organization which is responsible for attracting qualified candidates.

What is Talent Branding? What is Employer Branding?

Every encounter your candidates make with your brand leaves them with a perception of your company. Whether it is a good impact or a bad one, it is entirely dependent on how you portray your company to your potential candidates. Therefore, you should make efforts that you reach out to your desired candidates and make a lasting impression.

Talent branding or employer branding can be defined as your ability to promote your company as an employer of choice to your prospective candidates.

Talent branding offers several benefits in boosting your company’s reputation.

• Firstly, it helps you in attracting qualified candidates and thus, make the best hire for your roles. This, in turn, helps in decreasing the efforts you put in for advertising your jobs and sourcing the best candidates and speeds up your recruitment process.
• Secondly, employer branding helps you establish yourself as an employer of choice on a long term basis. With the help of reviews of your existing employees and a strong online presence, you can generate a sense of trust in the minds of your potential candidates.
• Lastly, a strong talent brand helps you in nurturing your bond with your candidates. This contributes significantly to employee engagement and retention.

Your hiring team and HR department must define your employer value proposition in order to kick-start your talent branding efforts.

How to Make a Great Impression on Candidates?

First, you should define your employer branding goals and then plan out the strategies accordingly. The main objective here is to communicate your brand message to your prospective candidates effectively.

Here are some ways how you can make use of the talent brand strategy to attract the best talent to your company.

#1. First impression is indeed the last impression.

Your company website is the first among many things that your candidates might resort to research about your company. Design your website in a way that leaves a lasting impression on your candidates. You can hire a professional designer who knows the importance of an excellent user interface to design your website. Your website must showcase and speak about your talent brand.

You can use your website pages to demonstrate your company culture and share glimpses of your work environment. Sharing image galleries of some recent events or videos related to your company achievements will boost your employer branding efforts. You can highlight the benefits you offer to your employees. In addition to this, you can employ your website blog to share your employee’s experiences working with your company, career, and growth opportunities, etc.

Keep your website updated with the recent job openings having clear and concise job descriptions. You can use Jobsoid, the best recruitment software, to manage your job posting process.

Build an attractive website having engaging career pages to create a good first impression on your candidates. Attract talented individuals to your company with your strong employer brand.

#2. Social Media is of great help!

A survey conducted by Glassdoor.com states that almost 43% of the job seekers research their potential employer just 15 minutes before their job interviews. In these 15 minutes, they generally browse through the company’s website and their social media pages.

You can leverage your social media pages to leave a positive first impression on your candidates. The best approach you can follow here would be to advertise your company as a great place to work. For example – you can share the news about the recent accomplishments about your companies, the image galleries of some recent office events or parties, or simply your company story.

You can also showcase some of your employee testimonials on your social media pages. It will help you in highlighting why your company is the best company for them to work in. Nowadays, employers are creating a video ad about their open job vacancies to add a personal touch to the job advertising process. This will allow your potential candidates to know more about your job.

Social Media plays a significant role in attracting qualified candidates to your company.

#3. Go Mobile

With the advent of smartphones, a recent study conducted by CareerBuilder states that only 20 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have mobile-optimized career websites.

Having a mobile-optimized website and job application form can help you deliver a great candidate experience and make your recruitment process a lot easier. You can also use recruitment software like Jobsoid to design your application forms. Jobsoid helps you create short application forms with the help of custom fields and questionnaires. It offers a simpler way to show or hide the questions based on your candidate’s responses.

Filling out forms on mobile can get a bit tedious for candidates. Jobsoid allows your candidates to apply for your jobs via their LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. Thus, making the job application process a lot simpler and faster.

#4. You are an Employer of Choice.

It is your responsibility to provide your employees with a healthy working environment and growth opportunities. Your employees are your brand ambassadors. They act as a strong elevator pitch and help in bringing a personal touch to your talent brand.

You can showcase your employee testimonials on your website and social media in textual or video format. Your employees can talk about how your company helped them grow by providing them the right kind of opportunities. They can document their experiences working in your company in a blog post and share the same on their social media. This will help you maintain your reputation in the eyes of your prospective talent.

In addition to this, your employees can leave their reviews on employer review websites like Glassdoor.

Employee reviews are very beneficial for your employer branding.

#5. Outstanding Candidate Experience matters a lot!

It is imperative to take some time out to evaluate how your recruitment process is treating your potential hires. In addition to attracting the right talent to your brand, you need to make efforts to engage them as well.

Delivering a fantastic candidate experience begins right from the job application process. You should let your candidates know that you value their time and efforts. Design easy-to-apply forms, send out regular recruitment updates to your candidates and keep them engaged in your recruitment process.

Interview scheduling is another pain point for candidates as well as hiring teams. Use modern interview schedulers like Jobsoid to schedule interviews for your candidates. Replace your preliminary interview rounds with video interviews. Allow your candidates to self-select their interview times for on-site interviews.

You should always be clear about your entire recruitment process and never leave your candidates in the dark.

The first impression that your company gives your candidates indeed makes a powerful and positive impact on your employer brand. Though it may not seem important, small gestures like how your receptionist greets your candidates or your interview set up or your recruitment marketing campaigns also play a vital role.

Focusing on improving your company’s online reputation as well as on different aspects of the recruitment process helps you to put together a polished impression on your candidates.

Use your employer branding strategies to create a lasting impression on your candidates!

Jobsoid offers you various talent branding tools to help you establish your employer brand. You can sign up for a Free Jobsoid account and get started with employer branding.