You’ve got an amazing employee value proposition. You know (because your people and candidates consistently tell you) you offer something special. But do you consistently radiate that truth outwards, to attract the best candidates?
You might’ve read our recent short guide to defining your employee value proposition – the foundation of world-class employer branding.
But a lot happens between a foundation and a finished house.
Senior leaders might be the architects, but your recruitment team are the plumbers, electricians, decorators, and salespeople. Strong foundations are critical but it’s everything that comes afterwards that convinces candidates to sign on the dotted line.
You might have an amazing EVP but unless you’re communicating that proposition outwards in a compelling way, your perfect hires are probably looking elsewhere.
So, if you don’t have a solid, well-articulated EVP yet, read our recent guide first. Then read this, for 11 ways to bring your EVP to life.
11 ways to bring your EVP to life
1. Create a memorable, compelling EVP document
Your EVP can become a self-reinforcing message that grows stronger constantly, but everyone needs to internalise it. That means recruiters, hiring managers, senior leaders, individual employees, then eventually prospective employees too.
(Google is a great example – most people have a reasonable idea what working at Google is like, without direct experience.)
That starts with communicating your EVP internally in a compelling and memorable way. A bland 20-page Google doc isn’t your best bet. Maybe a short PowerPoint? A cool guide? A video? Think about how you communicate your EVP. Are there opportunities for mnemonics, rhymes, pithy statements, puns, cool images?
2. Filter messaging across the recruitment journey
Don’t let your EVP gather dust in that internal document. You’ve done the hard strategic bit but that’s not what resonates with candidates. What resonates with candidates is the shiny new careers site; the LinkedIn profile; job adverts; etc.
Map your recruitment journey, to create a list of places prospective candidates might engage with you. Does each communicate your EVP, in a consistent, compelling way?
This doesn’t necessarily mean copy-pasting a chunk of text into all those places, although you might have a few repeatable blurbs. It’s more about filtering the relevant bits of your EVP into the relevant places. Your Twitter doesn’t need to link to your full perks and benefits, but it does need to communicate the essence of you.
3. Create practical messaging guidelines
You’ve got an awesome EVP, everyone internally is on the same page about who we are, and you’ve communicated that externally in places like your careers site and social media profiles. Great.
Now you need to equip your recruiters to continually communicate your EVP; to turn your recruitment team into a brand army. Work with your teams to understand everywhere they might need to communicate individually, like:
- InMails
- Job adverts
- Social media posts
- Individual social media profiles
- Emails
- Texts
- Phone interviews
Then translate your employer brand into practical messaging guidance. Show your recruiters what an ‘on-brand’ social media post looks like; what a great InMail looks like; what you’d love them to include on their LinkedIn profile. Brief them to be great copywriters!
4. Create on-brand templates
The more you can standardise your recruitment comms, the more control you’ll have over how your EVP’s communicated. And the happier your busy recruiters will be too.
Templates are your friend. Create templates for job adverts, emails, SMS, InMails, landing pages and the like, to keep your team consistently on-brand and off-hassle.
5. Train recruiters how to speak about your EVP
You’ve invested considerable time and effort into developing your EVP. Recruiters’ verbal communication is one of the biggest channels for promoting it – but also an area where you’ve got little control or visibility. What are your recruiters saying to candidates? How?
In an ever-more candidate-driven market, there’s heaps of competition for great people. Investing in your recruiters’ continuing training is good practice anyway to equip them to be at the top of their game. It’s especially valuable to drive adoption for change.
When you’ve developed your EVP, make sure you actively present to your recruitment team (i.e., don’t just send them the document). And consider dedicated training like role playing to help them confidently bring it to life.
6. Check back on progress
To truly cement your EVP into new ways of talking and thinking about your business, recognise change management is an ongoing process. You can’t just present your EVP once and forget about it. Or create one nice document and move on.
Create a feedback loop with your recruiters. Talk to teams about the conversations they’re having, and how they feel they’re doing. Could you embed EVP communication into your performance management conversations? Offer an incentive for teams getting the best candidate feedback around employer brand?
7. Work with hiring managers
The better your hiring managers and recruiters work together, the better the candidate experience (and everyone’s experience). It’s critical your hiring managers are also briefed, trained, and confident in communicating your EVP, or candidates get an inconsistent picture.
Improving how hiring managers brief recruiters can also be valuable, by ensuring recruiters accurately capture how your EVP manifests in each team. The working culture of your dev team versus your marketing team might be totally different.
8. Run recruitment marketing campaigns
Hiring the right people is harder than ever. That’s where recruitment marketing makes a big difference, helping you build warm longer-term relationships. Even with candidates who mightn’t be anywhere near talking to anyone else.
A strong EVP is instrumental to great recruitment marketing, so you’ve got a great start. Knowing your brand proposition, can you now combine with an audience insight to develop a creative campaign concept?
Read more: A practical toolkit – how to run a recruitment campaign
Think of recruitment campaigns like the drumbeat of your brand. Every campaign might feel very different but they should all align with your EVP. That drumbeat might start quietly and slowly but the volume will soon build.
9. Turn your people into ambassadors
It’s not just your recruiters and hiring managers who’re ambassadors for your employer brand. It’s also your people more widely.
Build a referrals program, encourage employee Glassdoor reviews, and run internal comms campaigns. To turn the workforce into a force multiplying army that helps bring a steady stream of great candidates into the business.
10. Rebrief agencies
Agencies can be a major black hole for the candidate experience. Equip your agency partners to sell your brand in the best light.
Once you’ve developed your EVP, hop on a call with your agencies – even sporadic ones – and make sure they know what’s what. You could even create content for agencies to pass on to candidates. Take control over what’s said about you.
11. Equip recruiters with the right tools
Your recruiters are the main embodiment of your EVP externally. Making sure they’re consistently communicating the right things, wherever and however they communicate, is critical to bringing your EVP to the market.
Does your recruitment software make it easy to do the basics right, like never ghosting candidates? Does it include templates for everything recruiters need to say? Does it make building awesome recruitment campaigns simple? Does it enable employee referrals? Does it consistently deliver a fast, flexible, candidate experience?
Having the right tools is a huge part of that. Your team can’t do your brand justice without tools that do them justice.
Tribepad is the trusted tech ally to smart(er) recruiters everywhere. Because we know that when people find the places they belong, we all flourish.
