As I’m sure many of you have been reading lately, the bright light recently placed on brand reputation has the c-suite reconsidering its strategic choices and priorities. When organizations overlay their branding efforts on top of customer and talent acquisition, conversations can become suddenly quite interesting as the company's website, hiring practices and marketing tactics are evaluated through the lens of those who are either going to buy or apply. Here are three quick tests to see how well your talent acquisition process is serving your hiring needs.
Where's Your Ideal Candidate? When we work with companies on improving their ability to attract and fill their pipeline with top prospects, we often complete an exercise in which they describe their ideal candidate in terms of experience, expertise and behavioral attributes. Then together, we review the company's website end-to-end to identify where content and images align with their ideal profile, and highlight those pages where there's a gap. Often times there's quite an "ah-ha" moment in the room when we come across a section or graphic that actually risks turning candidates away. Just like your average consumer, applicants are looking for those attributes of a company's culture and strategic direction that clearly resonates with their own career objectives.
How Many Clicks Is That? Just this month, I reviewed a client's application process and, once again, I found the workflow limited in terms of keeping a potential employee engaged from start to finish. On a 6 tab form, it wasn't until tab 4 that I actually got to enter my experience and background. The first 3 tabs asked questions related to legal regulations and required me to enter emergency contact information before continuing on to the next tab. (Why a potential employer needs to know who to contact in case I hit my head before I'm even considered for a position remains beyond me.) When comparing this workflow to that of a retail site, the contrast is night and day. We wouldn't even know the brand name "Amazon" today if their site asked us 7 questions before we reached the check-out page. Candidates have the same mind-set when completing an online application in terms of expectations, ease of use and continued interest.
Are Your hiring Practices From This Century? We've worked with hiring managers who would keep candidates in the dark for weeks, schedule interviews on Saturday mornings, or ask questions that have nothing to do with the actual job, and then act surprised when the applicants move on to other opportunities. While the hiring manager may think these are useful tactics to test a potential employee's level of commitment, the individual herself has received a very clear message about the employer's brand. The adage, "I believe what I see over what I hear" really comes in to play during the hiring process. Candidates, just like prospective clients, will evaluate the opportunity from the experience of the application process itself as much as the attributes offered with the position. A better bet is to demonstrate your company's values, especially the people-related ones, by treating the candidates in same way as you would your favorite team member - sending a clear indicator of your leadership style and the company's value prop.
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