This is the third post in the integration series.
In part one we looked at selecting the right technology to support the talent attraction, candidate engagement and application process through to offer, rejection or hiring.
In part two we looked at the social places and channels, and how to identify which channels and social places starting with an employee survey to find out where they hang out and what they do, and the way in which the social channels are evolving. Getting the first two stages in place first means that you are ready to start creating content, and content in a social way. It also means that you are going to start engaging and interacting with people, so your recruiters are going to need a different approach. It takes a very different approach to convert a fan in to a candidate, compared with the traditional route of managing incoming ad response. The people phase of implantation requires two strategies, one for brand advocates from the whole of the business, and the other strategy governs the recruiters, the make up of the team and their approach.
Brand Advocates
Brand advocates tell the story of working in your business in a public place, contribute to referral programs and encourage others outside of the organisation to come to your social places. They fuel the talent attraction and engagement, and make your social recruiting efforts successful. Brand advocates are critical, but they don’t happen by chance, and certain things need to happen to make it work. There are 5 stages to implementing a brand advocate program:
1: Recruiting
I open the program up to everyone in the organisation. You will also have a good idea of who to approach based on the results of the questionnaire talked about in the last blog post. It’s also worth using Klout to identify the scores of all your employees. I’m not a big believer in the influence part of Klout, but I have seen that those with higher scores are the most active, and understand how the social channels work.
2: Permission and sponsorship
Staff joining a corporate business are usually told on day one that they can not speak on behalf of the company without levels of authorisation and permission. Content has always been censored. Social content is instant and requires trust. You need a high level sponsor to make it clear that the company trusts the advocates and encourage them to take part.
3: Guidelines
I’m not a fan of strict content policies and rules. I find guidelines and training are much more effective. Nothing changes when you introduce social. People get fired for the same things they always have, like sharing secrets or client information, or speaking in a derogatory way about the company. It’s not different because the posts go on Facebook. Set guidelines in simple terms. My personal choice is “Respect the company, be a grown up. Don’t post anything stupid.”
4: Training
Brand advocates need training and guidance. I open up the training to anyone in the business to take part. The sessions last around 2 hours. The biggest area is getting contributors to understand that their day to day is actually interesting to the outside world, and content like pictures and video are a great way to show this. I conclude the sessions with agreeing a 31 day content calendar with people agreeing to create content over the next month, to join the social referral program and to encourage others to take part.
5: Community
The last part is bringing the advocates together to talk content and coverage of what’s going on in the company. Typically this is at events like Brand Advocate breakfasts. The off line social encourages the on line social, and helps to communicate content that needs sharing.
The recruiters need training and organising to identify how they can take part in the program. Recruiters should not be brand advocates, but create places for conversations like Livestream, Google+ hang outs, Twitter chats etc. They also need to understand social profiling to identify everyone engaging or visiting the social places, managing referral candidates and other differences between social and traditional recruiting.
Next week I’m going to be posting on the launch stage which concludes the series. We will also be announcing a webinar and whitepaper which will cover the content of the whole series with some real case study’s and up to date data to show you what is working.
Bill
