Top 10+ Ideas for Building Your Best Talent Brand
Everybody understands the importance of company branding, but when you are recruiting for a position, it is essential you pay attention to your 'Talent Brand'.
We understand that Talent Branding plays a major part in how companies and their future are perceived and shaped in today’s market. Organizations like Glassdoor and others are helping to define the brand of many companies in the market today, but why would you want someone else making these important, even crucial, decisions for you and your company?
What is Talent Branding?
This “new” idea of Talent Branding has been kicked around for years. Some say it’s the overall look and feel of the company (including on-line); others say it’s the internal pulse on whether people like or dislike the organization, and some even say it’s complete nonsense.
As defined by LinkedIn, “Talent branding is the highly social, totally public version of an employer brand that incorporates talent thinks, feels, and shares about your company as a place to work.” This differs from employer brands, which are set and guided by the company, rather than being influenced from the public.
To put it simply, there is an increasingly wide spectrum of talent in the marketplace, meaning we have to be seen from the outside… by the talent. This is why our talent brand matters.
In fact, our findings indicate it is so important that your company’s livelihood might just depend on it. It is well established that people dictate the success or failure of an organization, so it’s safe to say that the attraction of the right talent to an organization is the catalyst for the final outcome, whatever that may be, for the overall company.
What Impacts Talent Branding?
Talent Branding is the overall encapsulation of all things that attract or repel your future employees to your company. These things include: job boards, landing pages, advertisements (print and online), employee reviews, candidate reviews, career pages, application software, application processes, interview processes, interview teams, communications, feedback and employee engagement. Since this list is not exhaustive, one can see that Talent Branding should be taken very seriously.
Research shows that people make a decision whether they like or dislike a webpage in less than 1 second. There is also research that shows that hiring managers decide in the first 5 minutes whether they will hire someone. All of this information points to a decisive and judgmental group of people — in this case candidates or future employees. If we are to be proactive in attracting, capturing and retaining to our company, we must begin to think whine marketing that only pertains to their “end customers” and begin actively marketing to talent!
If you want to know what your Talent Brand looks like, ask current and former employees; or better yet, go online and do a search on your company. Websites like Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com will show an employer how they are being perceived by current, and past employees... as well as current job seekers. How do they feel about working for your company? If they were a job seeker, how was their application and interview experience?
Remember, with a strong talent brand strategy, you can significantly reduce your cost per hire and lower turnover rates. Your company’s future depends on it.
What Makes a Good Talent Brand?
First and foremost, what gets measured gets managed, so you have to start measuring everything in order to improve your Talent Branding. Areas to focus on can differ by client, but we start by measuring information about your Brand Reputation, Careers Page and Applications Rates (drops, incompletes, etc.).
We then try to define what the ideal candidate is for your organization. Remember that the “soft” skills or experience are just as important as their previous employment and education. If we don’t know exactly who our ideal candidate is by way of attitudes, values, etc, it’s very hard to segment your Talent Brand to attract this type of person.
We work with our clients to help them identify who that person is by building a persona around who is the perfect candidate / employee for your team. Sound strange? So did the name Google, but today is readily understood in every language around the world as a Proper Noun, Noun, Verb and Adjective. Is this Google worthy? Not yet, but as more and more companies align their Talent Brands around those people who thrive in their corporate environment, the business world as we know it today is going to change.
What to prioritize and how to promote your Talent Brand
- Candidate Targets – research and locate your desired candidate group.
- Message Broadcast – create the appropriate message that will translate into acquiring and retaining priority candidates.
- Properly define job and company culture – convey long term benefits of working at your company.
- Compensation and benefits - make sure that you communicate your level of commitment in these areas.
- Promoting Talent Brand – Use job postings, online feedback centers i.e. Glassdoor, various social media outlets, and public relations channels to get the message out.
Leading recruiters and HR departments agree that talent branding is important, and does affect their ability to hire top talent. Although US companies are ahead of most of their foreign counterparts when it comes to managing their talent brand, there is still work to be done.
How to Build a Talent Brand
Your talent brand is far more valuable than you realize. LinkedIn has launched a very worthwhile guideline called their ‘Employer Brand Playbook’. The playbook reinforces the value of a strong talent brand and reminds us that with a genuine and powerful plan in place...
“You’ll spend less on hiring. Lower your cost per hire by as much as 50%.”
AND
“You’ll boost retention. Reduce employee turnover by up to 28%.”
The determination and planning around a talent brand is unique to any business, but as a best practice, the LinkedIn Branding Playbook is any professional’s go to. There are also other great resources available to help you upgrade your talent branding strategy, including this great article on Instagram talent brands.
The 5 steps to building your talent brand campaign are below. This has been released directly by LinkedIn and referenced from their Playbook.
- Get Buy-In
a. Start at the top
b. Arm yourself with data
c. Bring partners to the table
Listen and Learn
a. Audit your existing materials
b. Conduct research based on who, what, where, when, and how
Craft Your Approach
a. Be real
b. Be personal
c. Be brave
d. Be consistent
e. Set your goals
f. Test drive your messaging
Promote and Engage
a. Empower your employees
b. Target your messages
c. Make your culture shine
d. Be visual, and more!
Measure and Adjust
a. Explore and apply Talent Brand Index
b. Choose your key indicators
So, why invest in talent branding? What's the ROI?
- As a result of building the talent brand, you will experience an increased belief in the company brand.
- It helps to prepare for future hiring needs by cultivating and sourcing candidates early.
- It satisfies the need to build general awareness for your company and your recruiting efforts.
- It provides leverage to combat the increased competition level for talent.
- It also helps to overcome the difficulty of hiring quality candidates.
Where to Begin
Although many people are involved in improving their talent brand, it is marketing and HR that shoulder most of the burden in this area. By investing and creating a talent brand strategy, recruiting leaders can stay ahead of their competition and create more efficiency in the hiring process.
Like most big-picture projects, it's important to get buy-in from your executive leadership, and of course having the data to back you up. It is becoming clearer that your talent brand is important, and can really enhance your recruiting efforts.
What Services Are Offered?
At CercaTalent+, we are aware of how busy HR is becoming. It is more and more challenging to keep up with technology, and the various forms of communication... both online and offline. We remain committed to you and your efforts to continually seek ways to improve your workforce and recruiting efforts.
Cerca Talent offers a Growth-Driven Talent Brand Design that allows us to activate integrated Talent Branding Campaigns, strategically designed to achieve Talent Acquisition and Talent Retention goals and business result.
Talent Brand Report
Your Talent Brand is the foundation upon which your entire organization and Talent Campaigns are built. Our report includes:
- Talent Brand Strategy
- Application Process Analysis
- Careers Page Analytics and Analysis
- Key Messages
- Brand Identity – helping you identify the right talent to your organization with your unique needs.
Scott Rivers is the Managing Director of Cerca Talent+, a talent agency for the Diagnostic and Life Science Industries. Scott's recruiting experience extends into the areas of Diagnostics, Life Sciences, Oncology and Genetics. His team manages recruitment for all levels within the commercial area of these businesses.
As a leader who has worked at all levels of commercial, medical sales and global marketing, Scott is an intense professional who works with organizations to fine tune talent branding. If you are a leader looking to expand your team with professionals who are focused on delivering work in which they take pride, and you can be proud of, every day, then Scott would be privileged to help you in the process. Having been a professional in the fields where you focus, Scott knows the ins and outs of the companies, the business and the customers you are working to come alongside.
Cerca Talent+ is a full-service Executive Search Firm with a strategic focus in the areas of Clinical Diagnostics, Molecular Diagnostics and Oncology, Genomic and Genetic Medicine. Our clients choose Cerca because of our deep understanding of the industries we serve. They continue to work with us based on our extensive market knowledge, vast connections and quality of results.
We Provide Top Talent to create Peak Performance. That’s a good match for any company. Partner with the group that can talk shop and gain rapport with the pros who will lead your business into the future. Email Scott Rivers today at [email protected], or call direct at 201-594-2101, and we will begin the process of finding you Top Gun Talent guaranteed to help you set records.