Companies need to look at interviewing, selection, and hiring processes as sorts of sales opportunities. These processes help companies find the most engaged new potential candidates. If you look into a normal hiring scenario, you may see that the candidates are trying to ‘sell’ themselves to the company; in reality, it is the other way around.
In terms of this sales process, there is a lot of preparation going on – companies often spend thousands, if not millions, of dollars on hiring the right people for their brands. However, people tend not to think similarly—and this needs to change.
The popularity of social media is ever-growing. Therefore, companies need to be in a position to sell employee value proposition (EVP) to leverage the potential of their brand. In fact, firms soon may have to steal a tip or two from their marketing departments to attract potential candidates and explain why they should work for them.
This article will talk about some tips that can help you ‘sell’ your company to potential candidates and improve your hiring and recruitment process.
Tips for Selling Your Company to Prospective Employees
Let us learn some tips that can help you ‘sell’ your company to potential job candidates:
1. Advertisement
Great advertising is one of the most effective secrets that often lead to a great sale. When it comes to your outreach activity, you need to be unique and think creatively.
Today, it is simply not enough to advertise a vacancy in your organization. You also need to know how and where to promote it. You would want the maximum leads generation out of this activity.
If you want to attract better potential employees, you need to check their online networking activities. By reviewing their social media activity, you will find out what they love doing.
Also, take a close look at their networking group. Once you are armed with the required information, you can pursue them with engaging and relevant information about the job requirement/vacancy.
You can also create a compelling job description that can draw the attention of potential candidates to your organization. This is a very proactive approach, and it always provides better results than the traditional forms of advertising.
If you have no idea what you need to do, you can regularly get in touch with a professional company that deals with sales and marketing recruitment.
2. Send a Consistent Message
The company’s reputation is everything – you may have heard of this before. However, what does it mean for an employer looking for potential candidates in the competitive job market?
It means that you will have to prioritize your brand. You need to convey the message to your potential candidates why they should work for you.
So, what makes your organization so different from others? Why should a particular candidate come and work for you? Let them know all the benefits your company has to provide.
For instance, certain candidates like how your company promotes a collaborative work environment—they may like something as simple as community team activities.
Once you start answering these questions, you will build your brand and ensure that your company becomes a more fun place to work in.
3. Use Your Company’s Site to Convey Powerful Details
Evidently, people who see the accomplishments of the company might search to see what’s it like to work for the organization. The site should answer such questions in a “Jobs” or “Careers” page, with critical details about the benefits of getting a job in your company.
As a recruiter, it’s essential to know all this. Here, we’d like to mention Signalhire.com, a recruiting tool and contact search engine that uses its site to answer questions that recruiters may have.
It has tabs with job descriptions, as well as interview questions that can be downloaded in PDF format. You can use all that information to define the next “Jobs” page on your company’s website.
4. Defining the Culture of Your Company
Your organization’s culture needs to be such that it attracts the right potential candidates, not the other way around. While the bones of the company culture need to reflect on your brand’s core mission and its values, your employees require the real cultural experiences that your company has to offer.
This is why you need to have a dedicated management team capable of walking the long way. You need to understand whether your team leaders model the company’s values; you should also know whether these values challenge your employees to be their best each day.
With the help of employee surveys, you will understand the temperature of the company culture and ensure that you meet the required standards. This employee feedback will ensure that your company culture is not half-baked.
Once you start feeling confident in the uniqueness of your company culture, you will be able to entice potential candidates by sharing a few aspects of it during the interview rounds.
5. Explain Your Benefits
Now, candidates are looking for something more than just a suitable corporate culture or work environment. They are also looking for benefits that are comparable, if not better, than what they receive with their current companies. Some of these benefits include paid time-off, retirement savings plans, disability, and life insurance, etc.
In the case of small-scale companies, they may think that they will not be able to compete with larger organizations. However, there are certain benefits that small-scale businesses can offer that are not otherwise available in large-scale companies.
For instance, you can offer telecommuting or flexible work schedules. You can also provide snacks in the resting room. Or, you could include a job shadowing program that can help improve and expand the skills of your employees.
Such special perks often set great companies apart from others. Ensure that you share these benefits with potential future candidates as well.
6. Check Your Online Reputation
When it comes to outdoor dining, we avoid restaurants with bad reviews. Similarly, you would not expect employees to work for your company if it has negative reviews.
Today, candidates have easy access to information about your company even before they answer your call for an interview. You need to ensure that the information is positive.
With various review platforms like Glassdoor, an online forum where former employees can share and describe their experiences with your company, you need to ensure that you are telling your side of the story when looking at negative reviews. While the criticism cannot be undone, you will show that your company is transparent and willing to listen.
For instance, a resentful ex-employee leaves a distasteful comment about their experience with your company. You need to find time to respond publicly to this comment, showing potential candidates that you care.
Final Thoughts
With the help of these tips, you should be able to coax potential candidates to come and work for your brand. If you have not ‘sold’ your company successfully, the candidate will choose to work for someone else. Hence, the saying ‘the first impression is the last impression’ is particularly true in this case.