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Let’s face it- the internet is obsessed with recommendations. From washing machines to cars. Apps to games. Plumbers to Lawyers. We hardly buy anything online any more without looking at user reviews. They give us the 'social proof' that supports our decision making. And it won’t be long before recruitment becomes the latest industry to strive for 4.6 stars out of 5.
Informed candidates are putting more and more time into researching organisations before applying. They want to know how happy your current employees are. In the same way as when they buy they are looking for social proof before joining your company.
Employee Advocacy describes the exposure that employees generate for brands using their own online assets. Does the idea of your employees’ writing unedited reviews and posting them on the internet fill you with joy, or dread?
In either case, this trend is gaining more and more traction in recruitment. But how many recruiters include employee advocacy as part of their recruitment strategy? Here are three reasons we think you should start including employee advocacy:
1. Candidate Driven Recruitment
Skilled candidates are becoming harder to find. Top talent want to work at top companies and cultural fit is becoming more relevant in the hiring process for recruiters and candidates alike. Recruiters need to do everything in their power to ensure top talent converts into successful new hires.
2. Informed Candidates
Make no mistake- candidates are looking into your organisation during the recruitment process just as much as you are looking into them. Hiring managers and recruiters might have reservations about candidates with inappropriate Facebook profile pics. But what skeletons are lurking in your organisation’s online closet? Could a candidate withdraw their application if they found something they didn’t like on your social media profile as well?
One disgruntled employee review might be understandable - but could you explain fifty? What effect might that have on potential candidates?
3. Happy employees
To have employee advocates, you first need to have happy employees! A happy workforce has many intrinsic benefits, higher retention rates, better productivity and so on. But bottling this happiness and using it as a recruitment tool needs close collaboration with other departments. Department managers and HR need to be on-board with the employee advocacy program.
So are your employees advocates for your organisation? Do they enhance your online employer brand, or detract from it? How can you incorporate this into your online online recruitment strategy recruitment strategy? In order to attract top talent in the future- you probably need to think about employee advocacy now.
