For companies seeking to attract, engage, and hire great talent, reputation –or, employer brand, to use the industry vernacular– is everything. As, indeed, it should be, with recent data showing that 91% of jobseekers use some sort of research tool to learn more about an employer’s brand prior to applying for a job.*
So, what if you had a tool at your disposal that promised to improve candidates’ perception of your company?
The latest addition to the Clinch Recruitment Marketing Suite does exactly that, connecting career site visitors directly to your employee brand champions. By bringing authentic employee voices to the forefront of your careers site, you can showcase what it’s truly like to work for your organization.
Here’s how to harness the power of Employee Generated Content –at scale.
Employee Generated Content is the key to authenticity
User Generated Content (UGC) refers to content created by real people, rather than brands. UGC has become a core part of many retailer’s marketing strategies in recent years, as they know their customers trust information more when it comes from people like them. It’s been shown that consumers are 2.4X more likely to perceive user-generated content as authentic when compared to content created by brands.
Employee Generated Content is a form of UGC where content – text, videos, images, testimonials etc – is created by an organization’s employees. This content is far more authentic than corporate careers site copy: it helps tell the true story of your culture and EVP. By sharing rich content like employee testimonials, photos and stories across social media, job listings and other channels, companies using EGC can showcase their employer brand in its full glory.
The importance of employee generated content
In today’s tight talent market, companies need to get strategic to attract the best talent. The modern jobseeker is savvy and does their research: they are increasingly sceptical about the claims employers make about themselves. They are, however, much more likely to trust opinions from other employees. EGC helps put a face to a brand and the stories told by employees are much more engaging and memorable than traditional career content.
EGC in statistics
The number of candidates reporting a “great” candidate experience has fallen by 3%.
Source: Talent Board
61% of jobseekers are more sceptical of claims made by employers than before.
Source: CEB
57% of candidates said employers do not share important information such as “day in the life” stories.
Source: Talent Board
Content shared by employees receives 8x more engagement than content shared by brand channels.
Source: Social Media Today
Employee stories are 20% more immersive than traditional careers site content and candidates reading these stories have 2x less frustration finding the information they need.
Source: PathMotion Authentic Employer Branding Report
Brand messages are re-shared up to 24 times more when distributed by your employees instead of a brand.
Source: Viral Nation
Why use Employee Generated Content?
Receive more applicants
ECG helps to maintain candidate engagement throughout the recruitment process. By giving jobseekers the ability to ask employees specific questions and allowing organic conversations to occur, you can prove your organisation values transparency. This mutual trust and constant engagement encourages jobseekers to apply to your open roles.
Hold great interviews
Providing employee insights and interview tips throughout the recruitment process helps the best candidates shine. Hiring managers will be thrilled at the quality of interviews they hold, which helps maintain engagement throughout the hiring process.
Unsuitable candidates self-select out
EGC gives applicants an authentic sense of what the day to day of a particular role looks like. Being open and transparent about the parameters of a role encourages wrong-fit candidates to self-select out, and inspires best-fit candidates to self-select in to the recruitment process. This benefits organizations, as taking large groups of unsuitable candidates through the recruitment process is time-consuming and expensive.
Let diverse perspectives shine
EGC is a great way to prove that your organization is committed to diversity and inclusion. It’s easy for a company to claim that they support and encourage minorities, but if an actual member of that minority group tells candidates in detail how they are supported, it is much more convincing.
Drive more people to your career site
To boost the SEO and traffic to your career site, build up a rich bank of employee generated content. EGC is generally very keyword rich and relevant to candidate searches, so it will help attract more people looking for similar answers.
Get ahead of negative reviews
Your organization’s score on review sites such as Glassdoor can easily be skewed by one negative review from a disgruntled ex-employee. EGC helps to give a more balanced view of your organization as an employer from staff who are succeeding in their roles.
Encourage a strong culture
Asking your employees to contribute their own EGC helps keep them engaged in their role by recognizing and celebrating them as experts in their field. This in turn helps them to showcase their work and grow their personal brand. This can improve retention and company pride among your existing employees.
How can I get started with Employee Generated Content today?
Employee Generated Content is a great way for your hiring team to generate cost-effective content that builds trust with candidates and boosts engagement rates.
However, there are challenges when creating EGC. Deciding on topics, creating content and managing signoffs can be very time-consuming for both recruitment teams and the employees involved. It can also be difficult making sure all content created by employees is on brand and is consistent with your company’s Employer Value Proposition.
This latest addition to our Recruitment Marketing Suite solves these problems by letting your candidates dictate the topics they want to learn more about and directing questions to the most appropriate employee. Each employee generally only needs to spend 10-15 minutes a month answering questions to help build up a bank of really valuable content. We also train your nominated employees in how to respond to candidates and can set approval levels to help you control what content is shown to candidates.
Employee Generated Content forms a vital part of any successful recruitment marketing strategy. If you’d like to know more about how you can implement this technology in your own organization, get in touch today to see how it all comes together. If you’re an existing Clinch customer, speak to your Customer Success Manager to learn more.
