How your recruitment is affecting your employer brand

The objective of a successful recruitment process is to find the most suited candidate for your company, but how does your process reflect on your business?

JOBJACK Blog

By Dané Viljoen on Thu Apr 28 2022

Employer brand is a term used to define a company's reputation and popularity from the perspective of a potential and current employees. Your employer brand is something that inherently forms part of your recruitment process and can affect the applications that you are getting. The way you manage recruitment for your company will affect your employer brand.

To maintain a positive employer brand, you need to be considered towards the candidates within your recruitment process, from your job posting to the hired candidate. Here is how you can create a more candidate conscious recruitment process.

Job information

The first point of contact, apart from your established corporate brand, a job seeker will have in your recruitment process is the job listing. If a job seeker has no prior opinion of you, this will be their first impression of your company. In this case, branded job boards and job postings are a bonus for a first impression.

It is important to add as much valuable information for the job seeker as possible. A clear job title, description and outline of expected responsibilities are key in helping you attract the right candidate. This is also the best opportunity to showcase your unique value offering to potential new hires. The more information available on the job advertisement, the better-informed applicants can be.

Application process

Once your job listing is live and you have attracted potential candidates, you need to look at the application process from a candidate’s perspective.

You need to establish if the amount of steps needed to complete the application process is justified. Some job postings may require more screening than others, as long as the candidate understands what is expected in the application and why it is necessary.

It would also be wise to assess at which point in your recruitment process will the screening take place, for example, all candidates receive a few job-specific questions on the application and only shortlisted candidates are required to write a test. This is important to consider when you assess the amount of time and resources a candidate has to spend on their application versus the probability of being hired for the position.

Feedback on applications

One of the largest contributing factors to the overall experience of a candidate during the recruitment process is feedback. If a candidate has invested time and resources into an application, they deserve feedback, whether they form part of the larger application group or part of the shortlisted candidates.

Stipulating a hiring timeline can help to maintain candidates’ feedback expectations and overall waiting period. Technology and recruitment platforms have also made it possible to make larger recruitment more personal. Responding to applications by name through multiple channels like email, the recruitment platform and SMS are now possible on a larger scale.

Interviewing candidates

Candidates that move to the interview phase of the recruitment will have a more personalised experience, as they will be in direct contact with an existing employee. Make sure your interview is fair and concise and that the experience is enjoyable for the candidate.

Your recruitment process can have lasting effects on your employer brand, simply from candidates who go through your hiring process. Your input into these individuals and their experience with your company is of a shorter nature than compared to your hired employees, that is why a candidate conscious recruitment process will be majorly beneficial to your overall employer brand.

The ideal is that you would want unsuccessful candidates to have a positive experience, ultimately wanting them to advocate for you and to want to apply for other opportunities at your company.