Mar
Selling your company to employees (more than the interview)
Filed Under (Business) by Jason Monastra on 08-03-2008
How does your company look from the outside looking in? What do prospective employees think about your company?
Very few companies have a pulse on what their company looks like from the outside. Candidly, some simply do not care. They have branded themselves through media outlets that have portrayed them as the upper echelon of their respective verticals eliminating them from the need to care about employee interest or love of the company. However most companies do enjoy such solitude and require company branding for a positive outcome in their recruitment efforts.
Understanding what your company feels like for an outsider allows you to establish a methodology for recruiting that embraces or combats those images, making it easier to overcome objections and leverage the benefits of working with the company. For example, if ABC Technical Services is one of the leading Northeastern infrastructure services firm, but has a reputation for not caring about its employees, skimping on bonuses and working people to the bone - don’t you think it makes sense to know about that when recruiting. What if they are not true and a prospective candidate spoke to a sour employee, or looked up a social media board where that is the only reference to your company. Your hiring managers can defuse the situation by addressing those circumstances up front making the candidates feel more at ease.
The recruiting process starts well before the posting of a job, a whisper of an opening, or a sit down for an interview. The recruiting process begins with image. What do people that do not know you think about you or what information is easiest to access on working for your company? Ensure that it is positive, use every opportunity to impress the potential employee, and show them real life scenarios so they can see it for themselves.
Be conscious of your interview process when attracting new professionals. This can be a real life image for the candidate on what the company will be like to work for if they come on board. If the process is too short, it can appear that they do not qualify their employees and therefore are not considered “selective” making the attractiveness of an offer from the company not as appealing considering anyone could receive it. If it is too long, the selective and carefulness turns into hyper-analysis and ridiculous behavior not taking into account the candidate’s time and making the image of the company appear dismal. They key is well balanced interview - if multiple parties are needed, do it all in the same visit and ensure that you communicate the required time to the candidate previous to scheduling.
