How Small Businesses Can Win Through Talent Branding

Rose Choi Talent Brand Consultant

Sarah Widdes Talent Brand Consultant

What we’ll coverWhat is a talent brandWhy is it importantHow to implement a talent brand strategyImpact of a talent brand strategy

Our world is more connected than ever been before

Everyday Usage…

100 billion emails 23 billion text messages

1.8 billion photos uploaded

1.6 billion Facebook logins 57% LinkedIn users on

mobile 500 million tweets

With unemployment below 5%, people are more and more selective of their next employer

Source: http://www.macrotrends.net/1316/us-national-unemployment-rate

People complete 60% of the decision making process prior to any direct interaction with the brand –and that extends to the way people now look for employment.

60% of the decision-making process is made prior to any direct interaction with a sales person.

People don’t treat career decisions any differently

Job switchers are engaging in multiple touch points to inform their decisions

LauraTarget Candidate

Candidates have options and access to information is at their fingertips.

What will candidates learn about your company? What do you want them to know?

are passive and not looking to move…

70%

60%of them are open

to opportunity

Talent brandingis imperative

to successfully recruit passive candidates

However,

Talent Brand n.

the highly social, totally public version of your employer brand incorporating what talent thinks, feels, and shares about your company as a place to work

a significant asset for both hiring/retaining great talent and promoting your corporate image to the market

Talent Branding = Marketing

Goal Sales Hires

Audience

Messaging

Call to Action

Decision-making Journey

Prospects and customers

Consumer Value Proposition

Purchase our products or services

Awareness Interest Intent Purchase

Candidates and employees

Employer Value Proposition

Come work with us

Awareness Interest Application Hire

Marketing Talent Branding

Now, more than ever before, recruitment is marketing.

Start the conversationProactively bring those hard-to-reach candidates into your funnel

Build relationshipsWin them over with content that matters to them in a voice they can relate to

ConvertFrom followers to candidates through outreach for the right opportunities

EvangelizeGive your employees a voice

Aware

Engaged

Considering

Hire

Target Members

Brand AmbassadorsDone well, Talent Brand can accelerate the

hiring funnel by 2x or more

Talent acquisition leaders say employer brand significantly impacts their ability to hire great talent

83%Average reduction in cost per hire

50%Average reduction in turnover

28%Talent professionals who say talent brand is a top priority in 2015

56%

The case for talent brand

Source: LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends Report, Nov 2014

14

“Which channels or tools have you found to be most effective in promoting your talent

brand?”

Social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter)

Friends/family, word of mouth

Online professional networks (e.g.,

LinkedIn)

50%

52%

63%

45%

47%

60%

Large companies Small businesses

Source: LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends Report, Nov 2014

people

employer brand

culture

perks

leadershipalumni

network

current employees

candidate experience

reputation

perception

transparency

authenticity

Employee Value Proposition Company Culture

People Candidate Experience

Your Talent Brand

I’m a small company. Do I have a talent brand?

Of course you do.

Where do I start?

Step 1: Get Buy-In

Step 2: Listen and Learn

Step 3: Craft Your Approach Step 4: Promote and Engage

Step 5: Measure and Adjust

Step 1: Get Buy-In

Get your leaders on board, arm yourself with data, and bring partners to the table

You’ll spend less on hiring. Lower your cost per hire by as much as 50%.

You’ll boost retention. Reduce employee turnover by up to 28%.

You’ll influence the conversation with candidates. If you don’t, others will.

Engage your leaders

High reach and engagement

8K+VIEWS

1,151LIKES

58COMMENTS

Step 2: Listen and Learn

Leverage your current employees and listen to them

Who are your brand ambassadors?

What do they like about working at your company?

What is most important to them?

Educate your brand ambassadors

Step 3: Craft Your Approach

Be real. What you say about your company must

be true or your employees and the marketplace will see through it

Be personal. Use the employee stories you gathered as these can be more easily remembered and

inspiring

Be brave. Don’t be afraid to admit areas of

opportunity and voice some of the bigger initiatives you’re working toward

Be consistent. Partner with your marketing team to

ensure your messaging is aligned with your company’s overall brand

Decide what channels you want to leverage for your messaging

Define what success looks like and set measurable goals

Additional sample goals• Increase offer acceptance rate by X%

• Double the number of employees with an optimized social media presence

• Gain X number of followers on LinkedIn by end of quarter

• Increase number of job applications by X%

LinkedIn’s Talent Brand Index (TBI) measures how well you’re reaching and engaging professionals with your talent brand.

What’s your TBI score?

450M+ LinkedIn members

Talent Brand Engagement those who have proactively shown an interest • Researching your

company and career pages

• Following your company• Viewing jobs and

applying

• Viewing employee profiles

• Connecting with your employees

Talent Brand Reachthose who are familiar with you as an employer

51,277366,263 = 14.0%

Talent brand index

Step 4: Promote and Engage

8 golden rules for promoting(and protecting) your talent brand:

#1Look in the

mirror.

#2Empower your

employees.

#3Inform your leadership.

#4Target your messages.

#5Make your

culture shine.

#6Go viral.

#7Be visual.

#8Don’t bite off

more than you can chew.

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How to promote and engage on Upgrade your profile Help your team update their profiles Brand through LinkedIn job postings Spruce up your Company Page with content Launch your Career Page Leverage ad space on your employee profiles Reach key talent pools with targeted status

updates Convert your team into talent brand ambassadors

Step 5: Measure and Adjust

Track your performance and optimize where it makes sense

In-houseOffer acceptance rateEmployee retention

Internal surveys

Talent Brand IndexHow is the potential pool of talent

engaging with your company?

OnlineWebsite traffic

Job applicationsSocial media growth

Let’s reviewStep 1: Get Buy-InStep 2: Listen and LearnStep 3: Craft Your ApproachStep 4: Promote and Engage Step 5: Measure and Adjust

Companies with a strong talent brand get a 31% higher InMail acceptance rate.

They also see a 43% decrease in cost per hire.

And, they tend to grow 20% faster (aka faster rate of hire).

And strong talent brand leads to 2.5x more job applicants.

Source: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2015/03/the-roi-of-talent-brand

What impact will this have on our talent acquisition efforts?

Be ahead of the trend, not behind the times

Additional resources:

Recruiting for Small Businesses: Ultimate LinkedIn Guide

Small Business Global Recruiting Trends

Ultimate Hiring Toolbox for Small Businesses

2015 Talent Trends for Small Businesses in North America

Employer Brand Playbook

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