While you don’t see the value of promoting the HR brand or aren’t actively doing it, large companies are investing thousands of dollars in it.
The reason is simple – 75% of employees research an employer brand before they apply (according to a LinkedIn study). The company’s job is to show that it is the best place to work in its field and deserves only the most talented employees. And to achieve this effect, just an “About” block on the website isn’t enough.
Create company profile on job search sites and career portals
The essence of this format of HR brand promotion is to collect important information for potential candidates about the company in one place and focus on several aspects: the organization’s successes, its projects, areas of activity, values, size, and number of employees. Adding data about the team, photos of the office and potential coworkers, and talking about the manager is also important.
This allows candidates to immediately assess the scale of the enterprise and what it lives, does, and understands.
Pros of company profile on job search sites and career portals:
- This format is inexpensive to implement.
- It looks bright and attracts attention, and you can place a link to the profile on your own website or page on social networks.
- It presents the company as one that really cares about how it will be perceived by candidates (and for possible business partners, it signals that even to such a seemingly simple aspect of development, the organization takes very seriously and responsibly).
- It allows to cover a large amount of information about the company in one format – corporate culture, office, employees, company values, future plans, nuances of getting into the team, etc.
Cons of company profile on job search sites and career portals:
- Its development may take 1 to 2 months (if you organize a team and office photo shoot, shoot video, and interview several employees).
- The information must be updated every 4-6 months (if the company is rapidly developing and growing), which is an additional expense.
Great, move on.
Publish promo materials in media where there is a target audience of candidates
Publishing in the media is one way to effectively build your HR brand. It works well if the media has your target audience of candidates, ideally when it focuses on a specific topic or niche.
It is also a successful format for HR brand promotion if you don’t yet have a content department or in-house copywriter to convey your values, ideas, vision, and strengths through text, as media outlets offer journalistic assistance from their side.
The best way to tell about the organization is through interviews with employees, expert columns by top managers or individual employees, and columns about the company’s values.
Pros of promotional publications in media where there is a target audience of candidates:
- You can get interested and better-quality candidates if you select the media list well.
- People remember company names better through case studies and success stories.
- Since you can turn to any writing service, you don’t have to hire a copywriter or content manager on your team to write texts.
- It is easier to communicate the company’s real values through employee stories.
- This way, you can generally increase the brand awareness of the organization.
Cons of promotional publications in media where there is a target audience of candidates:
- It is important to choose the right words and meanings in the articles; otherwise, you can attract the wrong specialists (for example, they will come to you not for work but for perks).
- If you choose the media poorly, you can drain the budget and not even increase brand awareness.
- Positive and negative comments may appear under publications, which must be dealt with quickly and competently without damaging the company’s reputation.
Great, move on.
Create a separate account in social media specifically to promote the HR brand
The essence of this format is to demonstrate the corporate culture of the company, its current employees, the atmosphere in the team, and the process of working on projects or products (depending on the type of activity) through various interactive tools.
How to form an HR brand in social media competently? It is important to use all available types of content and allocate separate sections for each. For example, in stories, shoot entertaining content about office life and the team. In posts, tell success stories of individual employees or share information about how the team is selected.
Don’t forget to create a special hashtag that employees can add to their pages, unknowingly promoting the company’s HR brand.
Pros of a separate account in social media for promoting the HR brand:
- Fast promotion in social media is possible if you have a budget and know how to set up targeting.
- You can grow your HR brand ambassadors and then promote through their accounts without investing in advertising.
- You can attract young people aged 18-30 and collect applications for vacancies directly from social media (for example, through chatbots in messengers, Google Forms, and e-mail).
- You can attract quality candidates with an already high level of loyalty and select the best among them.
Cons of a separate account in social media for promoting the HR brand:
- It does not work very well if the whole team is remote, as it is more difficult to convey team spirit and peculiarities of corporate culture (but if you have a very cheerful and creative team, you can come up with original content formats, and then this drawback will disappear).
- Without a budget, you will most likely take a long time to promote your HR page.
- It is necessary to constantly fill the page with quality content (posts at least 2 times a week, if possible, stories, videos).
- It is better if 1 person is responsible for maintaining this page (all employees can participate in content development); otherwise, the page will be quickly forgotten, and maintaining it will be no point.
- Risk of becoming the object of a scandal due to inability to handle negativity or poor tracking of comments, marks, and posts about the company outside the page.
A separate social media account will be a powerful tool for your HR brand.
Conclusion
We recommend regularly developing at least a few tools to promote the HR brand. After 3-6 months of use, you should evaluate the effectiveness of each and consider adding new tools.
BIO:
Stacey Wonder is a content marketer who enjoys sharing best practices for self-development and careers with others. In her free time, Stacey is fond of contemporary dance and classic French movies. You may feel free to reach out to her at GuestpostingNinja@gmail.com or for collaboration suggestions.
