UNCOVER WHY You should be alarmed about lack of company branding in your hiring process

Written by Mark Bohdanyk | June 01, 2021

Last week, we discussed the specific lessons we learned with examples here, so this week my HR friend and I's discussion turned to looking at her entire hiring process holistically. "What does that even mean?" she asked.

"Well, have you ever looked at the hiring process through the lens of someone applying for your jobs? Have YOU ever applied for one of your jobs?"

The looks she gave me was a combination of daggers and flushed panic.

"It's ok! You have a lot of people in the exact same boat. Here's what I learned about why company branding is so important in your hiring process."

Almost 60% of job seekers report having a poor candidate experience – with 72%
of that group sharing it “online on an employer review site, such as Glassdoor, on a
social networking site or directly with a colleague or friend.”

That means that 6 out of 10 people have a bad experience. Just think about that. That's 6 out of 10 people who could be brand champions, customers, shareholders or even stockholders.

"How do you fix something like that?" she asked.

"Start from the beginning, I replied:

Are you soliciting testimonials from employees on sites that rate companies? 53% of job seekers look for company information on job search websites, such as Glassdoor.
Are you active as a company on social media? 62% of job seekers use social media channels to evaluate the employer brand of a company.
Apply to your own jobs.
Is it easy?
Are your job descriptions profiled and engaging as we talked about previously?
Is there video in your job descriptions so people can learn more about you as a company? (remember, video gives you 12% more views, 34% more conversions from candidates to applicants and stayed an additional 487% longer on the job description
Is the application process difficult? (how long does it take?) 60% of job seekers quit in the middle of filling out online job applications because of their length or complexity.
Does the ATS you are using require you to upload a resume and then fill in all the information that was on the resume again? (that's a regular and very annoying to job-seekers issue)
Is anyone closing the loop with applicants, or is it a black hole that people apply and never hear from you again? Is that how you would want to be treated? 52% of candidates don’t receive any communication in the two to three (or more) months after applying.
63% of job seekers will likely reject a job offer because of a bad candidate experience.
And inversely, job applicants who do not receive a job offer are 80% more likely to apply again if they already had a positive candidate experience."

My CEO, John Younger, had a conversation with the head of a major retailer discussing their application process. They had literally thousands of people applying daily, and their recruiting team wasn't following up with them. When John pointed out that each one of those applicants was a potential shareholder, stockholder or customer (that could be turned into a brand champion perhaps with a 'Thank you for applying, unfortunately we went a different direction, but would like to thank you for taking some time to spend with us. Here's a coupon for your next purchase,' he slapped himself on the forehead. Tens of thousands of missed opportunities.

"This is a lot," my friend said. I nodded. "It is. But, it is manageable if you start affecting change one step at a time. What are areas you control and can change and work outwards from there. Try and build your application experience with the candidate in mind to promote your brand, your culture and make it easy and fun for people to apply (making it mobile-centric gets you extra points), and you'll convert applicants into people who sing the company's praises (brand champions).

Next week, our conversation turns to what happens when the balls goes back to the internal team for interviews; stay tuned...

(stats taken from the 2021 G2 Recruitment Statistics)

Who are we? HireMojo with RecruiterShare is a diverse team of individuals with over 65 years of combined hiring experience. We use our knowledge and know-how to help companies hire faster, easier and less expensively, while utilizing AI and software learning to reduce the amount of time it takes on all sides of the hiring equation. We design tools to help allow you to concentrate on the human parts of hiring – interviewing, negotiating and making the hire. Learn more about HireMojo here. We also design tools to help you expand your team by matching you with recruiters willing to administrate your entire hiring process at a fraction of traditional agencies. Learn more about RecruiterShare here.

Brian Vogel of sensibleHR says:
Like its parent HireMojo, RecruiterShare, is changing the landscape of recruiting. I have referred their services repeatedly to sensibleHR's clients and the level of high-touch service along with the speedy delivery of a premier candidate pool has been nothing short of jaw-dropping. Sure the initial mind-boggling low cost may be the initial hook, but it is the service from the stable of recruiters and quality candidates that drive the loyalty and high satisfaction.

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