How to marry recruitment with the employment experience

A CareerBuilder survey found that nearly 80% of candidates say the way a company handles recruitment is indicative of how it treats its employees. And with the ability for negative reviews to go viral within hours, it’s important that your recruitment experience reflects the brand you’re aiming to be.

However, even the most desirable employers can slip up – just last month, an Amazon Web Services recruiter sent an email to a woman with “Diversity HIRE” in the subject line. The email, which was shared online, was to encourage a female to apply for a software engineering position.

“Not only can these stories cause chaos, they can seriously damage reputations,” Pete Rice, Global Head of Brand at Penna tells HR Grapevine. “Values are often the first to be hit and scrutinised. Brands that lose trust, lose profit.

“Social media has exacerbated the risk for employers’ reputation to become skewed. We are seeing some brands with devoted press officers who work hard to reduce reputational risk at all times. And, in addition, there are whole teams looking to enhance and protect that reputation further to prevent turning off potential candidates or their current employees becoming demotivated.”