There is a great deal out there on the importance of building a strong employment brand and how essential it is to carefully nurture the relationship with job seekers and current employees. We feel strongly that all companies – no matter how big or small ( actually small companies need to care deeply about this ) should be acutely aware of the importance of investing time and money into building an attractive employment brand, and creating the absolute BEST candidate experience.
Yes this can be a time-consuming, can cost money and resources – but should be viewed as an essential ingredient in any talent acquisition strategy. If it’s not well taken care of, it can bring long-term damage.
I’ve heard this quote many times and I tend to believe it’s true: “It can take years to build a brand or impression – and only five minutes to completely destroy it” – this speaks to the ” first impression ” discussion in a previous blog – but I digress…..
So, here they are, 3 ways to completely destroy your employer brand, and sadly we see this out there every day.
1. Offering a poor applicant & candidate experience. The sad truth is that many companies are doing the bare minimum here and do not go the extra mile to ensure that this experience is relatively seamless and positive. Candidates generally put a great deal of effort into resumes, cover letters, application forms, writing exercises, doing company research or interview preparation. It has almost become acceptable for companies to ignore these applicants and too many companies are creating excruciatingly long application and interview processes. BAD MOVE ! The candidate experience should be as important to both job seekers and employers, it is another way to speak to the market around what your company is all about.
2. Not acknowledging receipt of an application or resume – this is the ” black hole ” concept of corporate recruiting – or worse not giving feedback or just not doing performance reviews to existing employees. Humans crave feedback and performance reviews and these are among the most valuable resources for a company. Ideally, regular conversations should be taking throughout the year as performance problems can be easily resolved when they are promptly brought up and good performance can be enhanced if people are given positive feedback. In addition to regular feedback, a more formal annual or bi annual performance review should also be given. Sure – these can be time-consuming, but ” forgetting ” or avoiding this process is taking away the opportunity to reflect, reset and re-focus on achieving new goals and professional growth.
3. Failing to keep promises. There’s nothing worse than failing to match the reality of what a new employee was promised – the ” not as advertised ” syndrome. All employees are expecting the company to deliver on its promises, to be honest and open in all communications, to invest in them and treat them fairly. Therefore, each company should make sure everything they promised will be delivered once the employee joins the business. This is a sure way to find greater success in talent attraction and keeping great people engaged.
In the ” Glassdoor ” world we live in today — with true globalization and your business becoming increasingly transparent, word can get around very quickly – therefore all employers should be aware that their EVP – employer value proposition – can provide them with a strong competitive advantage.
Corporate Dyak 