Inspiration to help you take a more creative approach to your recruitment advertising.

The 2019 Employer Branding Insights Report from Wonderful Workplaces highlights that 94% of jobseekers said they took an employer’s brand into consideration when applying for jobs, which is up four percentage points from our 2016 findings. This demonstrates the increasing importance of a strong brand in hiring talent. However, according to 46% of survey respondents, their employers are failing to effectively communicate their employer brand.

Here are some top tips to inspire you to go the extra mile to attract the right talent you need to help your organisation thrive.

Think creatively

Employers have to work a lot harder and smarter to stand out from the crowd and build an employer brand that attracts the best. The explosion of content and social media has meant that employers are becoming increasingly creative about how they target prospective employees, so don’t get left behind. 

Are you communicating what it’s like to work in your organisation? If so, are those messages reaching the talent you need? Here are some ideas to help you:

• Video is a powerful way of engaging with time poor candidates. You can create rough and ready 360° videos of your office or interviews with employees to give candidates an audiovisual insight into your organisation’s culture. 
• Get employees to shoot short videos on their smartphones and share on social media what they love about working for you.  
• Publish thought leadership and Q&A articles on your website, publications and other channels that your prospective candidates are using. 

Make life easier for applicants

In a candidate-driven market, if you’re not making it easy for candidates to apply for your roles and find out about your company culture, your competitors may well be. Is that something you’re prepared to risk in such a tough war for talent? Make sure your application form or process is no longer than it needs to be. Make sure your job adverts sell your company with the right, honest, messages that will attract the sort of people who will thrive in your organisation. Don’t just list a load of requirements you seek from them.

The onus is not just on HR and in-house recruiters

Everyone in your organisation should have some responsibility for recruiting the right people. Do you feel that there should be a greater onus on hiring managers and senior stakeholders within the business? Why not find the top fans of your business  – these could well be your ‘low hanging fruit hires’.

Need advice or help building your employer brand? Get in touch with Wonderful Workplaces on wonderfulworkplaces@haymarket.com 

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Jennifer Jackson is the senior content editor for Wonderful Workplaces, helping organisations attract and retain top talent through content, research and events. She has over 12 years experience in HR communications and also manages commercial careers content across Haymarket Business Media’s print and online publications, including Campaign, PRWeek, Third Sector, Horticulture Week, People Management Jobs and Planning Jobs. 

Get top tips to help you implement creative approaches to your recruitment marketing activities. Apple, Google and Starbucks are businesses that have successfully positioned themselves as employers of choice. They don’t struggle to find top talent, and such is the love that is felt by their employees, they continuously rank as outstanding places to work. […]

Be inspired to embed a culture of flexible working that permeates throughout your organisation. 

The Employer Branding Insights 2019 whitepaper from Wonderful Workplaces found that for 71% of respondents, a flexible working culture makes for a great place to work. Not only does this contribute to a powerful feel good factor but the bottom line benefits of improved profits, employer brand and employee motivation levels can be financially favourable and far-reaching. 

Leadership from the top

Nothing says more than a leader who is prepared to show by example. Banishing age-old perceptions that you must be visible and present in the office to be working and productive begins with managers and heads of departments breaking down these notions. By working from home, remotely, core or compressed hours and, demonstrating that not only does this work but can boost productivity and levels of motivation, junior colleagues will be encouraged to adopt flexible working practices too. 

It’s important that leaders are champions of flexible working and that it is not viewed as predominantly a perk of senior management. With an accessible policy for all levels, trust is also a key element in embedding flexible working, and leaders can achieve this by empowering employees, celebrating their achievements and supporting their new working patterns.

Open communication

Key to incorporating flexible working into your company’s culture is having open lines of communication with employees. Guidance on how flexible working policies work in practice is crucial for setting boundaries and expectations. Tips and advice on how to communicate and collaborate with colleagues and other key stakeholders if flexible working is adopted is also helpful.

Professional body, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), suggests that organisations should examine the attitudinal and behavioural barriers to effective flexible working that exist within their own workplaces. Having an open dialogue can go some way towards removing these outdated practices and ideas.

Working parties that support flexible working ensure that issues are discussed, and people management systems and processes are in place to support new ways of working.

Supporting technology

Flexible working relies heavily upon robust technology and SMART enabled devices. To truly embed flexible working practices into business culture it therefore follows that employees are equipped with the right technology and supported in how they use it.

Workers can be enabled to work as part of a team even if they are dispersed geographically with skype, cloud and video conferencing. E-mail, Whatsapp messaging and social media can also help employees to feel connected virtually and importantly feel aligned to their organisation’s values and people. Technology can also be deployed to develop employees when they are not in the office with e-learning modules and apps available anytime and anywhere.

Adopting flexible working practices takes time but by making incremental changes and getting buy-in from those at the top of the organisation, a culture of flexible working can be embedded into any organisation whatever the sector or size. Technology that is reliable, well supported and utilised by employees will ensure that when face-to-face contact is not possible, communication doesn’t suffer.

Need advice or help building your employer brand? Get in touch with Wonderful Workplaces on wonderfulworkplaces@haymarket.com 

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Annie Hayes is a specialist HR, skills, careers and L&D writer with 19 years experience in the sector.

This October we celebrate Black History Month and National Coming Out Day, yet despite society saluting the diversity that surrounds us, many employees report that today’s workplaces haven’t come that far since the discrimination acts were introduced in the mid-1970s. So, what can businesses do to forge ahead and finally eliminate unconscious biases and the dangers of groupthink from corporate culture?

The benefits 

According to the 2018 McKinsey and Company report on the issues, businesses with a diverse workforce are 35% more likely to have a financial return above industry medians.  

Companies with a good diversity and inclusion programme are more likely to attract top talent too. The Employer Branding Insights 2019 whitepaper from Wonderful Workplaces supports this view. It found that close to a total majority, 94% of its survey respondents, said they would consider an employer’s brand and culture when choosing who to work for.  

Reputation doesn’t just play a role in recruitment, however, with many companies hitting the headlines unfavourably for ignoring these issues. The subsequent fall out is lost business and faltering profits.  

Building a fair selection process 

The UK Diversity and Inclusion Report 2018, from Hays, a leading specialist staffing business, shows that only 38% say their organisation is proactive in their efforts to source diverse candidates, while just 34% say their organisation ensures interview panels are diverse.  

Creating an inclusive recruitment experience involves taking steps that starts from the beginning and advertising in places to attract the widest talent pool. According to Wonderful Workplaces, one in five candidates (20%) use job sites to find new roles. Recruiters need to start looking at the websites they use to advertise their vacancies on to ensure they can tap into a more diverse candidate base. Imagery and branding in employers’ recruitment materials should also reflect a diverse workforce.  

Mixing up test-based assessments, interview selections and on-the-job skills evaluations helps to ensure that the selection process focuses upon fit for the job. Where an interview does form part of the selection process it is a good idea to have a diverse recruitment panel to ensure a balanced decision is made. Importantly, businesses must make sure their efforts promote positive action over positive discrimination which is unlawful and any reasonable adjustments in the workplace are made to accommodate physically challenged employees. 

Top down approach 

According to the Hays survey, just 35% trust their organisations’ leaders to deliver change on the diversity and inclusion agenda and only 36% believe that their leaders fully understand the relationship between diversity and inclusion and profitability. Having a self-awareness can help leaders move forward. Gathering feedback through 360-degree surveys or face-to-face meetings with colleagues is a valuable way of helping leaders understand their ways of thinking.  

Businesses in which leaders take these issues seriously are often quicker to adopt a positive workplace culture that supports diversity and inclusion than those where it is delegated down the hierarchy. Supporting and promoting debate and diversity of thought is one way leaders can demonstrate their commitment to the issues.  

At Ogilvy UK, the business has put in place teams to challenge the status quo. The networks include: Women of Ogilvy, Ogilvy Pride, Ogilvy Roots, Parents & Carers of Ogilvy and Ogilvy ReWired. Each network has an executive sponsor on the leadership team, which the organisation reports has been vital for its success. 

Equal opportunities for development 

According to the Hays survey, 68% of black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) respondents say their progression has been limited due to their ethnicity, 48% of all disabled respondents say their progression has been limited due to their disability and 43% of all respondents aged 55 or older say their progression has been limited due to their age, whilst 36% of all female respondents say their progression has been limited due to their gender. 

These findings show that progress needs to be made to ensure that development opportunities for career progression are genuinely open to all candidates regardless of ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Creating individual development plans in collaboration with employees and providing performance metrics that are transparent and measurable are ways to achieve this. 

With any diversity and inclusion programme the key is to continuously monitor and assess progress against internal and external benchmarks. Leaders that can adapt their ways of thinking and truly become more inclusive will demonstrate to the organisation the importance of the issues being addressed.

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Annie Hayes is a specialist HR, skills, careers and L&D writer with 19 years experience in the sector.

Just over a quarter of employees (26%) leave their jobs due to lack of career progression, according to the Employer Branding Insights 2019 whitepaper from Wonderful Workplaces. By offering opportunities to grow your employees’ careers you can help retain them, or indeed attract top talent. Here are some steps you can take to achieve this and ensure your get a healthy return on your investment from your employees’ development.

Establish a continuous open dialogue

Professional development shouldn’t be a conversation that is confined to the annual appraisal. For all parties, a continuous and open dialogue between key stakeholders is more beneficial.

Formal discussions do play an important part in embedding specific, measurable and achievable development goals as well as providing a written record of what was talked about and agreed in terms of objectives and outcomes, but an incremental approach with small steps and continuous discussion is vital for understanding where an employee is and what their aims and objectives are. 

Encourage individual ownership for career development

Employees need to take responsibility for the development of their career. Line managers should support and encourage, but the ultimate driver for career development is the employee themselves. 

Employees need to invest in self-learning and learn to self-evaluate against current and desirable competencies. This may involve conducting a 360 degree review and getting feedback from a range of stakeholders. It’s important to understand which competencies an employee requires to take the next step on the career ladder and for line managers to act as a catalyst to get them there. It’s important that everyday opportunities for learning are also taken, small things such as asking what was learned after a presentation or meeting or even after a piece of work has been submitted, all contribute to overall employee career progress.

Offer coaching and mentoring

Coaching creates long-term learning and behavioural change and boosts learning through self-discovery, allowing a more personalised and tailored approach for the individual.

Mentors within the business can also help individuals move their careers forward and offer support from inside the organisation from those that understand its structure, working culture and development opportunities. They can also be assigned to ‘stretch’ the employee and move them out of their career comfort zone.

Champion e-learning and skills acquisition

E-learning courses have the advantage of being impartial, up to date with the latest content, and are quick and easy to use. Courses can also be revisited and can be delivered at a time that is convenient to the user. Blogs, YouTube videos and podcasts are all great learning tools too, so even if it doesn’t come packaged as ‘e-learning’ it may still provide a key source of development.

More formal training can also be necessary if it is a regulatory requirement or if exams need to be undertaken in order to move onto the next level within a career. Any acquired new skills should be documented and rewarded.

Employee development is an organisation-wide initiative. Employees that tap into the opportunities that are available within the business and utilise learning opportunities for stretch and growth will see their career flourish, particularly if they take ownership of their own learning and couple it with self-directed skills acquisition and knowledge harvesting. 

Businesses that champion a learning culture will reap the benefits of improved retention and levels of motivation, as well as empowered employees who are willing to leap out of their comfort zones and become key talent.

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Annie Hayes is a specialist HR, skills, careers and L&D writer with 19 years experience in the sector.