How do you use employee testimonials and stories to attract and engage talent?

Identifying goals is key. If you're sharing the testimonials with schools for campus recruitment, quotes from interns or new grads may resonate more than the company veterans.

????????????????????????: Share real stories about employee experiences. ?????????????? ????????????: Feature different perspectives across teams and roles. ???????????? ????????????: Highlight stories of personal and professional development. ?????????????? ??????????????: Showcase your workplace values and environment. ???????????????????? ??????????????: Use videos, blogs, and social media for broader reach. ???????????????? ??????????????????????: Encourage employees to share their stories on platforms like LinkedIn. ???????????? ????????????????????: Use testimonials to build connections with potential hires.

Creating video testimonials is a fun way to add personalization to your social content. Being mindful of your current staff's time, it is important to keep this a quick and simple task, that answers a few pre-determined questions in about 30-60 seconds. Once complete, these videos can be uploaded and stitched together, or used individually to share with your audience.

Creating a Google Form with set questions about employees' work experiences, fun facts about them and what they love about their workplace is an easy way to get started on testimonial content. To ensure a wide variety of respondents, allow employees to self-nominate as well as asking managers for nominations from their teams.

This is a great project to work with cross-functional teams on. If your organization has a dedicated marketing, communications or design department loop them in to ensure your content is on brand.

Editing and polishing employee testimonials is not just about grammar, it's about storytelling. When done right, these narratives can create an emotional connection that resonates with potential hires. Consistency in tone and alignment with your employer brand are crucial, as they reflect your company culture. Adding visuals can enhance engagement, making the content not only informative but also memorable. In a world where authenticity matters, well-crafted testimonials can be a powerful tool to attract talent that aligns with your values and mission.

Empowering employees to create organic content on their personal pages will strengthen the authenticity of your company's brand. Re-sharing company posts doesn't do well with LinkedIn's algorithm, personal posts are the best way to optimize reach and engagement.

Promoting your current employees is an excellent way to reinforce the sense of belonging and attract new talent. Doing testimonials by video is a new tool that I particularly like: you can film your employees daily or do an interview. Show the authenticities of your company to a natural person, which will enable future employees to recognize themselves.

Companies ask for reference checks on their candidates, why not be proactive and do the same? What better way to sell your company & close your candidates by giving them testimonials straight from the source. Candidates expect companies to tell them how great they are. What matters more are the people working in the trenches. How do they like it? Those are the real opinions that matter. Gather those testimonials, share online and with your candidates, and your close rates should start increasing.

Particularly as a startup, keep it simple and don't fear this as a huge task. Go talk to 3 of your team. Ask them questions like why they enjoy working for your startup? What excites them about their impact? Why did they join? What is their hope for the future? Put these answers on your careers page and social media, where the content can engage and excite potential hires. Over time you'll want something more strategic, but with an hour or two of work then you can get something out there.