How to Make Your Business Stand Out to Job Seekers - Glassdoor for Employers
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How to Make Your Business Stand Out to Job Seekers

When it comes to recruiting to build your business these days, it’s a congested marketplace. Candidates are taking more control of where their careers are headed—so it’s crucial that you position your company in the best possible light to attract the top talent.

Despite the increasingly competitive business world, there are ways in which you can stand out. Here are some of the first things to think about before you start advertising for your new role, from James Taylor, managing director of Macildowie, one of the UK’s most innovative recruitment consultancies.

1. Fine tune your employer brand.

Given that there is an ever-increasing demand for great candidates, there are some robust, tactical measures that you can implement to make yourself more attractive to today's talent.

Ultimately, it boils down to brand.

Google "Employer Brand" today and you will get more than 3 million hits. It's a concept that is being talked about more and more by the UK’s most successful businesses, and it's about more than just recruitment and talent acquisition.

To attract (and retain) the best candidates in the market, you should implement the following:

  • Take the time to work out your “Employee Value Proposition”—essentially why people should want to work for you.
  • Positively promote the business, its values and the culture of your team. What makes where you work so special?
  • Focus on "candidate experience" during the application and interview process—does your recruitment policy reflect the values of the business?
  • Ensure your top team are on board. If you acknowledge that every candidate will research the CEO, Head of Department and Direct Line Manager before they attend an interview, are yours all "on brand"? Do they have a digital footprint that will make a candidate sit up, take notice and want to work for them?
  • Ensure your brand vision is consistent throughout your website. Is your online presence reflecting the values of the organisation? Would it excite new recruits and make them want to get to know you?

2. Write an amazing job spec.

The CV is a candidate’s “sales document”. Conversely, your job spec should be a piece of content that sells the opportunity on behalf of your company.

Frankly, too many job specs are one-dimensional and appear to have been put together in a rush.

Not spending due care, attention and time bringing your opportunity to life on paper will mean that you are already lagging behind when it comes to attracting the very best talent.

Here’s a tick list of five main aspects to the job spec:

  • The company—explain the vision, the values, the strategy and who the competitors and customers are. We also actively encourage links to company social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to give candidates an insight into what your employees share and say about the business.
  • The department—describe the culture of your department, where your team sits in the overall function, who some of the most influential people are, who the stakeholders are and why the most recent people joined.
  • The line manager—as the saying goes, “You join a company, but you leave a boss.” That is so true. Similarly, if a candidate is thinking about whether or not to apply for a job, the background and personality of the line manager could be the deciding factor.  Candidates want to work for someone who is passionate about the company, and whom they feel that they will learn from.
  • The job—it is your responsibility to bring it to life. That may mean splitting it into main responsibilities, expected projects and where and how the role can impact the business commercially. It may also mean noting the internal customers the candidate will work with, and (if it’s a management position) detailing the experience level of the direct reports.
  • Future opportunities—candidates like to know the answer to the question, “If I do this role successfully, what next?” So if your company has a positive track record of promoting candidates internally, explain this in the job description.

Lastly, outlining your definition of success and setting expectations will help candidates pinpoint aspects of their experience that are most relevant, inspire their confidence in the roles and drive home the fact that their development needs will be addressed.

3. Consider hiring for individual merit, not a job role.

Recent research suggests that nearly 90 percent of organisations are hiring based on the soft skills and behaviours of a candidate as opposed to their hard skills or specific sector-based experience.

The main reason for this is the shortage of talent available in the market place. As such, organisations have to become more creative with their hiring, and therefore the “person spec” is becoming more popular.

In essence, what businesses are looking for are candidates whose personal values match those of the business. Candidates with a high capacity for processing information, essentially trainability, are being considered for jobs even if they don’t have the necessary level of experience to do the job on day one.

Therefore, it is important to bring the opportunity to life via a person spec. This should include a lot of the same content as the job spec, but we also recommend the following content:

  • Technical, organisational, communicative and creative skills that you prefer
  • Specific trade qualifications or education required for the role
  • Level of experience required in either similar organisations or equivalent roles
  • Personality type that will fit with your team and your organisation’s ethos.

4.  Use video.

Quite simply, the digital age is here and it’s here to stay.  With so many people now researching and consuming information via their phones, make it as easy as possible for them to access or digest your content.  

In summary

Knowing that candidates are taking more control of their career paths, it’s in your best interest as an employer to position your company in the best possible light. Part of your success will come from upgrading how you position both your job spec and your person spec. I wish you luck in your endeavour.

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