Building the Buzz for your Recruitment Company
In today’s looming labor shortage, a strong employer brand is increasingly recognized as the key strategic advantage in the war for talent. For recruiting and staffing companies that must also compete for talent under these conditions, a strong employer brand is not only a key strategic advantage, it may be the only sustainable competitive advantage in an increasingly commoditized industry.
So how do employers and candidates shape their perception of your employer brand? A good place to start is to think about all the touchpoints in your hiring process. Each point in the hiring process represents an opportunity to create an impression on the candidate. When he thinks about all the successful placements he’s done, he may come to the conclusion that he’s established a positive employer brand. But what if you stop to think about all the work orders you didn’t complete, all the locations you didn’t do? Would you consider your personal brand strong if it included all the candidates you didn’t place and all the resumes you submitted that weren’t shortlisted?
The reality is that many candidates touch your process, and each touchpoint represents an opportunity to build a positive employer brand. To illustrate, consider a scenario presented by Lee Salz, president of Sales Dodo LLC:
“Suppose your recruiting and staffing company places 100 people per year and it takes 11 candidates to fill a position. So your company didn’t place 1,000 people. In other words, your process touches a lot of people. So how did you walk away feeling far away about your staffing company?”
If they walked away with less than a stellar staffing experience from your company, it can cost you. Dissatisfied customers often don’t tell the offending company about their poor service experience, but they will tell everyone else. When dissatisfied customers talk, they tend to talk more than satisfied customers. Numerous customer service studies reaffirm this consumer behavior and the cost of negative word of mouth. In a customer service study conducted by TARP for Coca-Cola, less than half of dissatisfied customers filed a customer complaint, but told twice as many people about their bad experience as satisfied customers about their positive experience. A recent study by Verde Group revealed that a dissatisfied customer told an average of 4 other people about their bad experience and the negative impact was further magnified through the process of embellishment and re-telling.
It is important to note that none of these studies considered the impact of the Internet. With the advent of the Internet, the potential impact of negative word of mouth increases exponentially. Dissatisfied customers can now post their comments on blogs, forums, and websites. As an example, take a look at this blog from a prominent marketing executive who decided to write about his poor experience with customer service. (Note the 124,000+ visits, Google Page Rank of 5, and other reader feedback.)
The power of a positive brand
So what’s in it for you? After all, as a staffing company, aren’t candidates really more concerned with their client’s employer brand? While this may be true, the first brand candidates see and make a decision about is your personal brand and not your clients. While there are many benefits to having a strong employer brand, we will limit our focus to just a few when it comes to attracting talent.
In this talent shortage, one of the key benefits is referrals. Obtaining candidate references saves you time and money by not having to incur the cost of advertising and screening unqualified resumes. Additionally, referrals can lead to high-quality candidates, especially if they have been recommended by another high-quality candidate.
Related to the above benefit is the increase in unsolicited requests. Again, a steady stream of unsolicited requests is a testament to the strength of your employer brand. More importantly, it is a source of talent that supports long-term success.
High quality candidates. A positive staff brand attracts elite candidates who might not otherwise have considered your recruiting company. Simply put, today’s top candidates have a choice of who will represent them and there are plenty of staffing firms to choose from.
Be friendlier to candidates
Look at every touch point throughout your recruiting process and ensure a positive candidate experience. From the job posting to the usability of your online application systems, to the job offer. Pay attention not only to the points in the process where clients move through the placement process, but also when the candidate exits your process.
Make sure your recruiting and staffing company is candidate-friendly. In 2007, HRinmotion attended the ASA Staffing Conference, where top recruiters from around the world came together to learn and share their thoughts on best practices. Here are some things staffing companies are doing to be more candidate-friendly:
- Ensuring the Right Perspective. See your candidate as a relationship and not as a transaction.
- Be a career advocate and put your candidate’s needs before your own. When your candidates feel that you are more concerned with their professional needs than your commission, it will pay off.
- Understand your candidate’s career goals. Get a clear understanding of your candidate’s requirements for your next employer. With one candidate it may be job growth, for another it may be job stability. Determine what they are looking for by asking and listening. A good question is to ask: What is your dream job? What would you like to see happen in your career? What do you value in an employer/job?
- Convenient interview times for candidates. Are your interview times convenient for you or your candidate? Very often, talented candidates are already employed, so try to be flexible about meetings before and after work hours.
- Convenient meeting places for candidates. This point is particularly important for those who live far from their office. In these situations, please meet your candidate at a coffee shop closest to your location. Many have found this approach positive, as your candidate is more relaxed and the local coffee shop can be less threatening than at your location.
- Preparation of candidates. Part of the responsibilities of being a candidate career advocate is to provide experience and support in your career search. This means providing honest and respectful feedback, practical suggestions, and the right career resource tools to help them achieve their career goals, whether or not you represent or position them. Giving your candidates a tangible benefit before they receive yours will build trust and long-term relationships.
- stay in contact. Whether you post your candidate or not, stay in touch on birthdays, service anniversaries, holidays, etc. Remembering the simple things is very helpful.
- Support after placement. The greatest risk of an employee quitting occurs shortly after they are hired. The employee turnover by time on the job data slopes steeply to the right. The longer an employee stays with a company, the less likely they are to leave. Therefore, it is important to provide ongoing support to your candidates after you place them, especially during the first few months after their appointment. Meeting for lunch or coffee on your first day of work, coordinating with the employer to ensure a smooth onboarding, and regular follow-up will reduce the stress that comes with being a new employee or contractor.
conclusion
There is an opportunity to make a positive impression on candidates in every part of the hiring process. While it’s understandable that we focus on the people we select, place, hire and promote. But it becomes dangerously short-sighted when we neglect all the résumés and candidates that were overlooked. By ensuring that everyone who touches your recruiting process has a positive experience, you will plant the seeds of a strong employer brand. Finally, in an increasingly commoditized recruiting and staffing industry and a talent-poor job market, a strong employer brand is not just a competitive advantage; it is a competitive advantage that is sustainable.
