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IN THE NEWS |
JUMP-START YOUR 'BRANDED CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE'
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In his ERExchange.com article, "How
to Build a Compelling Employer Brand, Part 1"
(2-20-03), David Lee, President of HumanNature@Work,
an HR consulting and training firm Similarly, he observes, "Companies known for providing unique, stand-out customer service ... differentiate themselves in the marketplace with ... a 'branded customer experience.'" Makes eminent sense. Unfortunately, however, too often there exists a disconnection between the branded work or customer experience and what we might call "the branded job applicant experience." For evidence of this problem, look no further than the career websites of the esteemed Fortune 500 largest U.S. public companies. Sadly, the careers section of the corporate websites of fewer than 18% of these household-name firms merit "best practice" status, down from 22% a year earlier. This finding is part of study conducted recently by MMC Group, Inc., an e-staffing practice based in Kendall Park, NJ, and publisher of CareerXroads, a leading directory of the web's best recruiting sites. Worse yet, according to co-author Gerry Crispin, more than 5% of F500 companies make no mention at all of jobs/employment/careers anywhere online. Or consider the case of John D, whose job search includes using one of the major online job boards to identify openings. His search returns, among other openings, three from companies A, B, and C, which are well known for their positive public images. Company B, in fact, employs his cousin, who loves working there. This looks good, John says to himself. He applies online for all three jobs, dutifully researching each company and spending non-trivial time tailoring his resume and cover letter to each position. What happens next characterizes the experiences of an overwhelming majority of job seekers who conduct job searches online. From Company A John receives a brief but cordial standardized e-mail acknowledging receipt of his application and letting him know his resume is being evaluated. Company B responds similarly but less cordially, indicating little more than the applicant tracking number he's been assigned. From Company C he hears nothing. Hmm, John thinks, something doesn't tally here. These companies repeatedly win public accolades for their customer and community service and employee satisfaction. Yet they seem to be treating me as little more than a number, if not a nuisance. Confused and disillusioned, logic leads John to question these companies' brands, whose credibility they work diligently and at great expense to create and sustain among customers and employees. And based on his personal experience as a job seeker, it's not a stretch to believe he'd question the trust these firms merit as current or potential suppliers of goods and services to him and, through word-of-mouth, his considerable circle of family, friends and colleagues. According to Jo Bredwell, Senior Partner with JWT Specialized Communications, a unit of J. Walter Thompson, in New York City, "Employer branding is the process of discovery, analysis, definition and communication of an organization's unique assets. The brand message must reflect the reality of the organization and be recognizable and believable for the people it touches." To be fully aligned with the brand, she adds, "All recruitment and employment systems and procedures must be reviewed and revised to reflect best practice standards. Every message to the external candidate audience is intended to convey the essence of the brand. Bringing the brand to life is about 'walking the talk' and making sure that everything about the employment experience is true to your brand." Remember John D? Think the brand managers at Companies A, B and C would be pleased to see how poorly the firms' recruiters are treating the corporate image they so vigorously try to protect? Or consider the real-life scenario of a highly respected audio technology provider. Known widely for innovation and quality, the company also is known for regularly posting ghost jobs on the major job boards – jobs that don't exist but for the purpose of collecting resumes for some future job openings. Though not uncommon, the practice nevertheless can tarnish this otherwise stellar brand by discouraging top candidates from applying. OK, OK, you might say. So we'll beef up our candidate response system and make the e-mail sound more personal. And we'll stop posting ghost jobs for a while. That should satisfy the brand police. Perhaps, but is the minimum an acceptable standard of professionalism for your recruiting staff as ambassadors of the company brand? – particularly as the labor market turns more challenging? The 'Wow' Candidate Experience What would it take for your company to provide job seekers a truly outstanding job search experience? … an experience that would deliver value to applicants and distinguish you as an employer in touch with the needs and aspirations of individual candidates … one that would enable HR to demonstrate its positive contribution to the company brand in new and innovative ways. What if … What if the very act of applying for a job could include steps that give applicants an accurate view of themselves relative to others in the mix? What if this process led applicants to act with greater confidence – either in pursuit of an ideal job, or by moving on to jobs that better match their skills and experience? What if you enabled applicants to know quickly and effectively whether they are under- or overqualified for the position? What if your recruiting system provided cues that enable highly qualified candidates to pursue well-fitting jobs with gusto, and avoid spinning their wheels on jobs for which they are less well suited? What if there were a process for qualified candidates to express to you their motivation, interest and competitive drive? What if candidates had the flexibility to submit their resumes in the format they prefer, such as Word, PDF or RTF, thereby preserving the layout and fonts they believe best represent themselves? What if there were an automated response system that both acknowledges the individual's application and, once the job is filled, informs all candidates of same, as well as the source of the successful candidate, such as job board or internal hire? What if there were ways to interface conveniently with applicants through the recruiting system itself, rather than through a separate e-mail system, and to track all applicant correspondence, both yours and your colleagues'? With the Interview Exchange, what-if's like these come to life in a single, low-cost, high-value online recruiting package. Typically, 80-90% of job applicants don't meet the job requirements included in the job description posted on job boards, print ads and other job advertising media. We know of one employer who stated very specifically in the job ad that the successful candidate must possess an engineering Ph.D. and university teaching experience. So he scratches his head when hundreds of resumes flood his desktop from applicants who fall far short of these basic requirements. Yet he has little recourse but to sort manually through hundreds of useless resumes to find the needles in the haystack of applicants. Had our overworked recruiter used the patent-pending Interview Exchange applicant qualifying tools, he could have automatically identified the relatively few applicants who meet the requirements. Perhaps more important for promoting your brand, however, powerful yet easy-to-use features of the Interview Exchange dramatically expand the definition of the job search for applicants. For example:
To accommodate the dynamic nature of your hiring needs, you can use one, two or all three Interview Exchange screening tools for any job, all for a single low price. Further, our tools enable fast, direct communication between you and candidates, through a simplified online bulletin board interface. You can personalize candidate communication in other useful ways as well, such as keeping them informed of their status and notifying them when the job is filled and from what source. Unlike virtually any other offering of its kind, the Interview Exchange delivers tangible value to job seekers – value that can go a long way toward reinforcing your employer brand, and making you a more effective ambassador of the essence of that precious asset. Contact David Lee at dal@sacoriver.net, Gerry Crispin at mmc@careerxroads.com, and Jo Bredwell at jo.bredwell@jwt.com.
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Bar Mills, ME, urges employers to create a "...branded
work experience that establishes [the firm] as an
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