3 Overlooked Areas to Promote Company Culture

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Hand holding a megaphone throwing social media iconsDon’t underestimate the value of your company’s culture. It’s a bold statement, but one that’s sure to keep your business attracting the brightest, top talent if heeded.

I wrote a story awhile back on a Millennial who, after a few years, left a Fortune 500 company for a business where he actually fit into the culture. Today, months later, he couldn’t be happier with his decision. And this is happening more and more as people seek overall job satisfaction in their careers.

In the day and age where Millennials have no problem moving from job to job until they find the right one, ensuring 1) you have an attractive company culture and 2) you’re properly showcasing this culture to potential candidates is crucial.

In his book, Hiring for Attitude, Mark Murphy writes that 89 percent of new hires fail due to “attitudinal reasons.” Attitude is extremely important when it comes to a potential employee because that will ultimately play a role in how he or she interacts with your company’s culture.

On the job seeking side, DDI’s Global Selection Forecast 2012 research showed that only 51 percent of job seekers are confident in accepting a job offer; the uncertainty comes from an employer’s failure to paint a realistic picture of the job, department andcompany during the hiring process.

Proper attitudes, job requirements, team cohesion (or not), office atmosphere: each play an important role in shaping company culture. And what’s just as important as ensuring your culture is attractive is displaying that to potential employees. Besides, how will it benefit your company’s recruiting efforts and brand if no one knows about your great corporate culture but current employees?

Below are three easy ways to promote your company’s culture and help attract the “proper fit” to your organization:

Company blog

A company blog is a great way to display your company’s culture. The blog can be used to write fun feature pieces about the ins-and-outs of the organization. You can highlight different employees and/or teams to show your appreciation,  talk about new, creative initiatives and projects your company is working on, and even highlight any community relations events and/or programs your business conducts. Check out the company blog from Zappos to see how community relations and PR can fit in nicely with company updates and even technical announcements.

Your blog of course also serves as outreach to your target audience. For example, Modis, an IT staffing company, offers a blog that connects them with technology professionals and offers tips for technical interviewing.

Social media

Maintaining an active online presence is another easy (and free) way to promote your company’s culture and brand. Many times people recognize a logo or company name and associate a product or service with it, but that’s it. A lot of times, consumers don’t stop to think that there are actual people who work at these places. Social media allows companies to combat that issue and put a face behind the name. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and even LinkedIn are all great tools to create a social media business page for your company. You can upload pictures on Pinterest of the annual Christmas party or ask a daily question to your followers on Twitter and Facebook.

On Recruiter.com’s Twitter account, we’ll share articles and resources from the site, but we’ll also highlight comments from readers, share quotes from industry conferences, or talk about our latest office moves. But most importantly, we’ll have conversations with people – creating a sustainable company culture is very much about engaging with people both inside and outside of the company.

About Section

This area is often overlooked, but can be one of the first impressions a potential employee has of your company’s culture. How many of you have clicked on a company’s “About us” or “Our team” category to discover more information about it? I know I have. The way this section is setup can reveal a lot. Is your company creative, with an artsy, free-spirited group? Why not show this through the about section? Or if your team is very into sports, you can display this when describing your staff.

A good example? You can look to our client ZipRecruiter’s “Our team” section, where you’ll find photos of all the company’s workers from the founder to the advisors. When you hover your cursor over a staff member’s face, a “drawn” animation appears over the person’s photo. For example, some workers have sunglasses, ear phones, pirate eye patches and “s-curl” mustaches that appear over their photos, each representing something unique about that worker. A creative, fun about section like this shows potential employees that the culture at the company must also be creative and fun.

By Shala Marks