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Kathi May

Employer brand: developing a strategy for external and internal audiences

Employer brand: developing a strategy for external and internal audiences

Kathi May

Suzanne Chadwick, Director of Employer Brand (APAC) discusses the four key audiences your employer brand needs to engage.

Employer brand: developing a strategy for external and internal audiences

Ideally your employer brand strategy needs to be an octopus.  It needs to be able to touch multiple target audiences and do a range of different things.

Your employer brand strategy and message externally needs to attract passive talent through the content you share, the positioning of your leaders, the employee stories you tell as well as focusing on information that top talent in specific role families or industries want to know more about.

By doing that you can raise the brand awareness of your organisation which then spikes the interest of people who may not have known about you before or might not have considered your organisation as a potential employer.

It also needs to secure the active candidate who is out in the market looking at a number of options.  The messages around leadership, opportunities, future vision are critical for these candidates but what can be the deal maker or breaker for an active candidate is the recruitment experience.  You’re literally up against your competitors with how you manage the recruitment process, the message they hear from the minute they engage with your organisation through to hiring manger interviews and then potential offer.  Your employer brand message has to be consistent and compelling throughout the process or you’ll lose their trust.

Internally you have different audiences as well.  You have those who are highly engaged and they want to be part of the message and brand ambassadors.  These could be your high performers, people who love what they do and they’re in for the long haul – so you need to keep them engaged.

Then the 2nd internal audience are people who aren’t engaged.  You either need to remind them of all the great things the organisation can do for them or share more around where the organisation is going and how they can be part of that journey.  It is possible to turn disengaged employees into engaged employees with the right strategies.  Forbes recently put the cost a disengaged employee at around $30k, so looking at how the organisation can make real change is always going to be worthwhile.

So when you’re looking at your employer brand strategy and recruitment marketing, segmenting your messages and really understanding who you’re talking to, what their drivers are and what’s important to them is what matters.

Kathi May Headshot

Kathi May

Regional Director, Marketing & Employer Branding

Kathi leads Marketing and Employer Branding in APAC and is passionate about helping Hudson RPO clients attract, engage and retain top talent through innovative employer branding initiatives.  She works closely with the Client Solutions team to develop meaningful marketing strategies that promote the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing in delivering cost reductions, reduced time to hire and significant improvements in quality of talent, staff retention and recruitment service levels.

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Employer brand ambassadors: empower the team to share their best stories

Employer brand ambassadors: empower the team to share their best stories

Kathi May

Suzanne Chadwick, Director of Employer Brand (APAC), discusses brand ambassadors, your most undervalued employer brand resource.

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Employer brand ambassadors: empower the team to share their best stories

Let’s talk Employer Brand Ambassadors. 

Whenever we do a strategy with a client this is one of the key things we look at.  It’s like anything – before we buy we look for real reviews by real people and a job is no different.  We all know that the career site and website will give us the formal information we’re looking for about the company but having stories from employees is where the impact is.

It’s not – I love working for this business type statements, it the real stories like “I’ve been in the organisation for 10 years.  I started as an onsite manager, managed large teams and then did a job swap that was facilitated by my manager who genuinely cared that I was happy and challenged in my role. Getting to work with global brands, have flexible working, work from home with colleagues and clients that span Australia, Asia, the US and UK is amazing and I can honestly say that it’s been an amazing ride and I have an incredible leadership team that supports me not just as a professional but as a person with ambition a mum, wife, creative being.  That’s what makes the organisation I work for different.”

Those are the stories you want.  The real stories of people who have experienced great leadership, great opportunities, supportive colleagues and managers. Those are the things that make the difference, because we’re not just looking for more money now – we’re looking for values alignment, great leadership, supportive work environments, flexible working so we can be with our families and more.  I always say to our client – make your employees the heroes of your stories and that will be more powerful that a styled marketing campaign!

Kathi May Headshot

Kathi May

Regional Director, Marketing & Employer Branding

Kathi leads Marketing and Employer Branding in APAC and is passionate about helping Hudson RPO clients attract, engage and retain top talent through innovative employer branding initiatives.  She works closely with the Client Solutions team to develop meaningful marketing strategies that promote the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing in delivering cost reductions, reduced time to hire and significant improvements in quality of talent, staff retention and recruitment service levels.

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Building the brands of leaders to help inspire candidates

Building the brands of leaders to help inspire candidates

Kathi May

Suzanne Chadwick, Director of Employer Brand (APAC), in a discussion of building your leader’s personal brands as an Employer Branding strategy.

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Building the brands of leaders to help inspire candidates

Personal Brands have been around for a long time but it’s different now. People are looking for leadership in organisations and it can be a deciding factor for high calibre talent when it comes to who they’ll be working for and reporting to. People want forward thinking and they’re looking for different.

If you have exceptional people in your organisation who do things differently, who think differently, who have great relationships with clients and employees and really embody your organisations values then now is the time to build their personal brands both within the organisation and outside of it.

When you’re looking at roles and industries like technology, AI, strategy, innovation and development people want to work with leaders in the field.  So it’s so important for organisations to recognise the talents of their leaders and not just take it for granted because it could be a really strong asset to not only your organisation but to your attraction and employer brand strategy.

So identify your key leaders, understand what their key strengths are and what insights they can bring to the table is really worthwhile. Where do they think the market is going in their area of expertise, how can they be positioned as a leader in their field more, then start to build content around them.

Think about video content, articles on LinkedIn, having them speak at industry events or contribute to white papers on specific topics you’re wanting to build your brand around.  Highlight their impact in your business, their values which obviously align with the organisations values and help them stand out.

If you have leaders that others want to follow or work with then you’re already a step ahead of your competitors.

Kathi May Headshot

Kathi May

Regional Director, Marketing & Employer Branding

Kathi leads Marketing and Employer Branding in APAC and is passionate about helping Hudson RPO clients attract, engage and retain top talent through innovative employer branding initiatives.  She works closely with the Client Solutions team to develop meaningful marketing strategies that promote the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing in delivering cost reductions, reduced time to hire and significant improvements in quality of talent, staff retention and recruitment service levels.

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5 tips for a good candidate experience

5 tips for a good candidate experience

Kathi May

Suzanne Chadwick, Director of Employer Brand (APAC), discusses Employer Branding: 5 Key things to focus on right now!

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5 tips for a good candidate experience

If you’re looking to really make sure that you’re creating a great candidate experience online, there are some basic things you can review.

  1. Your career site has to be mobile optimised. Now some people may roll their eyes at that because it’s been around for so long, but I’ve been on so many corporate career sites that aren’t mobile responsive, which means it’s a terrible candidate and user experience and it makes me think straight away that the organisation isn’t keep with the times when it comes to business, technology and potentially how the organisation runs. Which leads me to number 2
  2. Make sure someone in the recruitment team actually goes through the candidate experience on a mobile device and navigates around. Does it look good? Is it easy to use? Can I apply quickly and easily and see all current roles or do I have to jump through hoops and it takes me an hour – because you know I’m going to click away if that’s the case – ease of use is one of the most important things. Make it hard for potential candidates and they’re to looking for your competitors.
  3. Number 3 – is there multi content collateral on your career site? Am I faced with a wall of text or is it interesting. Does it make me want to scroll around and find out more? Is there great copy that is engaging? Images of your people? Videos? Etc – don’t tell me your forward thinking or innovative then give me a really poor user experience. Time on page or site can be a good indication if your content is engaging or not.
  4. Am I able to hear from people who work in your organisation or are the testimonials and videos 5 years old? Make sure you’re keeping your content fresh, up to date and keep it relevant.
  5. Is it clear who the leaders are, what their vision is and what the opportunity for me is if I come and work in your organisation?

Candidates don’t have the patience or time to work things out, and if the experience you’re creating online isn’t easy, accessible and up to date then you’re missing out on top talent who know what good looks like.

Kathi May Headshot

Kathi May

Regional Director, Marketing & Employer Branding

Kathi leads Marketing and Employer Branding in APAC and is passionate about helping Hudson RPO clients attract, engage and retain top talent through innovative employer branding initiatives.  She works closely with the Client Solutions team to develop meaningful marketing strategies that promote the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing in delivering cost reductions, reduced time to hire and significant improvements in quality of talent, staff retention and recruitment service levels.

Related articles

Do diversity KPIs in a recruitment process get the right outcomes?

Do diversity KPIs in a recruitment process get the right outcomes?

Kathi May
Across your recruitment processes, do diversity KPIs achieve the right outcomes? With the right support and follow-through, diversity KPIs can signal meaningful progress, says Nicki McCulloch, Director of Client Solutions in APAC. Scroll down for the full text.

Do diversity KPIs in a recruitment process get the right outcomes?

Every organisation I speak to has a diversity agenda. Generally, at a minimum, they are seeking greater female representation — particularly in senior leadership roles or typically under-represented job families such as STEM — but we work with businesses that actively consider diversity across a much broader arena.

Our recruitment teams are obviously a key part in assisting an organisation to achieve its diversity objectives, but where we see this work successfully is when the leadership team of that organisation is fully invested in the program and they drive that culturally through their teams. If hiring managers don’t believe in the importance of diversity, recruiters will simply be going through a futile ‘tick the box’ exercise.

Diversity KPIs in recruitment can absolutely help to drive outcomes, but they need to be carefully considered. Due diligence needs to be applied to check that the KPI is really helping to drive the right behaviours.

The first step for us when working with an organisation to help them achieve their diversity objectives is to undertake an audit of the recruitment process to ensure that the under-represented group we are trying to attract is given every opportunity to succeed.

This starts from the candidate sourcing stage: are we looking in the right places and are we taking the opportunity to the right groups?

Once we have candidates we have approached or who have applied, are they given the appropriate methods to be able to represent themselves? Are the hiring managers sufficiently trained in how to interview a candidate who may be from a minority group? Are we assessing the candidates in an appropriate way? Is the interview panel itself diverse?

Great recruitment teams absolutely impact diversity, but only when in partnership with a passionate business and a joint understanding of what objectives are trying to be met.

Kathi May Headshot

Kathi May

Regional Director, Marketing & Employer Branding

Kathi leads Marketing and Employer Branding in APAC and is passionate about helping Hudson RPO clients attract, engage and retain top talent through innovative employer branding initiatives.  She works closely with the Client Solutions team to develop meaningful marketing strategies that promote the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing in delivering cost reductions, reduced time to hire and significant improvements in quality of talent, staff retention and recruitment service levels.

Related articles

Scaling up or down in recruitment: managing costs

Scaling up or down in recruitment: managing costs

Kathi May

How do you manage costs across your recruitment function? Moreover, how do you ensure it can flex up or down, ready to respond to fluid business requirements? Find out from Nicki McCulloch, Director of Client Solutions in APAC.

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Scalability in recruitment

It’s quite unusual for an organisation to experience steady, regular recruitment volumes year in, year out, with no fluctuations. Whether it’s a global hiring freeze affecting local operations, or a special project requiring extra resources to be recruited, most businesses at times find themselves in the situation of needing to scale their recruitment teams up or down.

This can be really difficult for internal functions. Where do you re-deploy your recruiters to, when there are no roles to recruit? Do you have the headcount approval to be able to hire more recruiters when your volumes increase? Do you have access to a talent pool of recruiters who are quickly available to step in and assist?

This is where an RPO solution can really make a difference as we have the ability to scale — both up and down. We have shared services teams both on and offshore who are readily available to supplement the activities of the core team. They can do this from an onsite or offsite perspective.

Likewise, if hiring volumes drop or stop all together, we are able to redeploy recruiters to other solutions until that organisation needs them back again. And it’s not just recruiters that we are able to apply this scalability to; we have sourcing specialists and administrators who provide the same shared-service offerings.

Giving an organisation the flexibility to scale their recruitment team up and down, without having to make redundancies, increase their own headcount or massively increase their recruitment spend by relying on agencies is a key benefit of RPO and something we know our clients truly appreciate from partnering with us.

Kathi May Headshot

Kathi May

Regional Director, Marketing & Employer Branding

Kathi leads Marketing and Employer Branding in APAC and is passionate about helping Hudson RPO clients attract, engage and retain top talent through innovative employer branding initiatives.  She works closely with the Client Solutions team to develop meaningful marketing strategies that promote the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing in delivering cost reductions, reduced time to hire and significant improvements in quality of talent, staff retention and recruitment service levels.

Related articles

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