3 Steps to Promoting Company Culture Online
For small businesses, company culture can actually be a make-or-break factor in finding the right hire. According to statistics, 46 percent of small business new hires fail within only 18 months, and in 89 percent of these cases the problem comes down to a poor company culture fit.
With the skills gap ensuring that 38 percent of employers have open positions waiting to be filled but cannot find skilled candidates, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your company’s stance on the importance of company culture. After all, your clients can always train for the skills they need, but it’s much harder to onboard the personality that makes employees want to stick around for years to come. With 70 percent employee disengagement in the American workforce costing approximately $550 billion in lost productivity, it’s time to give cultural fit more weight in the hiring process.
Thankfully, the online space is a great place to promote your client’s company culture, find the candidates your client needs, and connect with the best possible cultural fit.
Think About Your Client’s Employer Brand
The first step to finding the best-fitting candidate is to truly know and understand your client’s employer brand. This means diving in deep to understand your client’s company culture and asking some pointed questions to give you more insight into what you need to know.
Schedule a time to sit down and talk to your client. Ask for as much information about their company culture as you can get. What type of candidate are they ideally looking for? Someone who loves hierarchy and order, or someone who responds better to a more chaotic startup environment?
Understanding your client’s culture can help you promote their employer brand, starting as early as the job description. Use the job description to give interested candidates a good idea of what the company culture is like and what personality attributes will flourish in your client’s organization. Include links to drive interested candidates back to your client’s career page, their social media channels, and other online destinations where candidates can educate themselves fully about the company culture.
Utilize Social Media To Share
Social media is a great way to find candidates, connect with smart people, and promote your client’s company culture. Encourage your clients to get visual with their social sharing to give candidates a more concrete feel for their company culture. For instance, clients can share pictures from the company Christmas party and share updates from the annual company brainstorming retreat.
While your clients share what makes their company unique, it’s your job as a staffing pro to pass this information along to interested candidates. Social media is a great place to find the movers and shakers in your client’s industry. The people taking part in industry-related discussions on LinkedIn, sharing advice in a Twitter chat, or posting thought leadership on their blog are the same people who are passionate about the industry and will make for great employees.
Remember that social media channels are two-way streets, and use these networks to connect with the best potential candidates. Once you’ve connected on a personal level, share your client’s top-notch company culture in order to attract the right talent for your clients. If the culture appeals to these social-savvy candidates, you’ll increase the odds of delivering a great cultural fit candidate.
Connect Using Video Interviews
Once you’ve filled your talent pipelines with great candidates, it’s time to connect personally during the interview process. Whether your candidate lives nearby or far away, the video interview can be a great tool to cut down on the traditional hiring process while maintaining a personal connection.
Best of all, the video interview can be a great opportunity to promote your client’s company culture. In a live video interview, which occurs in real-time just like an in-person meeting, you can tell talented candidates all about your client’s culture.
Pay close attention to their non-verbal cues, body language, and reactions to the information you impart. For instance, a candidate can certainly say they’re willing to burn the midnight oil in an innovative startup environment, but their cringing body language could be telling you something very different. Thanks to the visual nature of video interviews, you can promote your client’s company culture online, while never losing track of potential fit during the process.
Finding the best-fitting candidate for your client’s company culture won’t always be simple. Thankfully, the online space has made it easier to connect and share your client’s culture with interested candidates, increasing your odds of finding a cultural fit superstar your client will love for years to come.
What do you think? How can you promote company culture online? Share in the comments!