Ok, so you’ve nailed your external brand, your clients know what you do and how you do it, the business is growing and things are going great. Now is the time you start to recruit for yourself. This is the bit where you can get stuck…
As I’ve mentioned in my previous blog posts, over 4000 new recruitment agencies were registered last year, so the fight for good quality recruiters is on. To attract the best there is, you have to show a potential employee what you have to offer, not just salary, but the whole package; culture, training, benefits, the whole deal.
So ask yourself some questions;
- Do your current staff know your company values?
- Do you have a mission statement or set values? Most importantly, do your staff know it?
- What do you stand for?
- How do you motivate and take care of your own staff?
- Why is a recruiter going to come and work for you?
- Do you have an internal brand?
You may do all of these things really well, but if you don’t communicate what you offer to potential employees, they won’t know. So, you need to value your internal brand or your ‘Employer Brand’ as much as your external brand. Realistically, your employer brand can form a part of your external one and they should work together.
We have a plott definition of Employer Branding;
An employer brand refers to the perceptions of key stakeholders, and more importantly current and potential employees. It is about how they view the company; from how you conduct yourselves in the market, through to what they think it would be like to work for your company. An effective Employer Brand presents your organisation as a good employer and a great place to work and can, as a result, help with recruitment, retention and generally affect market perception of your company.
What we can’t do (and this does happen), is make you something you are not! There is no point in having an Employer Brand which makes claims about your fabulous employee benefits and how you develop your staff if you actually don’t do it.
We have worked with many recruiters in our time and one of the biggest threats to their business is loosing great staff. To loose any valued member of staff costs, not only money but your precious time. Give yourself the best possible chance to retain and attract the best people by communicating your internal brand.
Once you have a great team in place, keep up the good work, keep them involved and informed. Depending on the size of your team, there are a few ways you can do this; Newsletters, Intranet, SMS and generally communicating targets and incentives if that’s what makes you tick.
