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Welcome to episode 13 of Claire Shares. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m going to be sharing with you high energy, bite size videos, about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. Make sure you’re subscribed to Claire Shares wherever you get your podcasts! Today’s talent attraction topic is about embedding your organization’s mission, vision and values into your recruitment marketing efforts, to attract the right candidates for your company.
Before we get started with today’s talent topic, I want to share with you my recommendation of the week.
Recommendation of the week
HR Summer School is a single, immersive event designed to educate, connect, and inspire. It takes place June 11th – 13th starting at 11 AM ET. This event will be livestreamed to Linkedin Live. Unlike a webinar, where it’s one-dimensional and you can’t interact with other attendees, this livestream format means you get to talk with other attendees, interact with speakers in the live chat, and share your own thoughts throughout the event. The content is amazing, it’s free, and you can get up to 7.5 SHRM and HRCI recertification credits.
The event was designed not just to educate, but to inspire. To help each of us by reminding us of why we chose HR and why it matters. And it’s also about community and connecting with each other so we can lift each other up. So, if you’ve been tired, worn down, or even lost your job in the last year, HR Summer School is here to fill your tank. Yes, we’ll give you stories, education, and ideas. But we’ll also give you the encouragement you need. Sign up for free and view the agenda at hrsummerschool.org.
Let’s get into our talent topic of the day. Using your organization’s mission, vision and values for talent attraction.
Why mission, vision, and values?
Embedding your organization’s mission, vision and values into your recruitment marketing efforts, helps the right candidates identify themselves and express interest in your company.
Let’s start with some basics on mission, vision and values. Before you start implementing some of these talent attraction best practices I’m going to share with you, it’s important to revisit your organization’s mission, vision and values and ensure the leadership team is in alignment.
I’ve worked for organizations that have up to 9 core values. They’re posted in the lobby and on the walls of the company, but they were never explained to me in detail as a new hire. Have you been there? For one, 9 was a lot to remember, But 2, even if you have that many core values, they should always be easy to understand and top of mind, especially in attracting and recruiting top talent.
Here at Lighthouse, our leadership team recently spent an hour and a half together to review our mission, vision and values and come up with really good behavioral examples for each. These core values make us, and make your organization really special. We decided to take it a step further and talk about our purpose, value proposition, what we’ve heard our clients and community say about working with us, and looking at our Google reviews. Taking time to refresh on this as a leadership team, and make sure everyone is on the same page, is key. Knowing what’s most important to you as a company, then helps you craft the communication and initiatives around talent attraction, which we’ll dive into here next!
Once you and your leadership team is refreshed on your mission, vision, values, and what those look like in action, it’s time to take those to your talent attraction and recruitment marketing efforts!
How to communicate your mission, vision and values
You want to communicate what makes your organization unique on your company website, careers page, job postings, social media profiles and posts, and other content.
I hear from my HR Community network that they are getting lots of applicants for their open roles, but they’re not the right applicants. Usually I see their job post reads like a job description, a bulleted list of tasks and there isn’t anything specific in there that would catch the right person’s attention.
The job duties are what they are, but what can you do to show case your company mission, vision and values and speak to your ideal candidate in the job posting? Here are some things to consider to improve your careers website and job postings, so you’re ideal candidates feel the connection to your organization and apply!
- Share a story about your company history.
- Talk about the difference your products or services are making.
- Show case community impact and corporate social responsibility.
- Highlight opportunities for employees to develop and grow.
- Show your values in action, such as linking to a video of employees in action on the job or in the community.
- Especially for onsite roles, showcase your office space! If people are going to be coming into the office, they want to see the work environment. Show individual spaces for work, as well as collaborative spaces. Show break spaces such as kitchens, picnic tables outside of walking paths.
- And don’t just show, story tell about your teams working and accomplishing together. High quality photos help a ton for talent attraction.
Another idea is to spotlight current employees on your website and social media pages, especially in roles that you are currently hiring for. Consider spotlighting the hiring manager as well. Have them answer questions such as: What is this role really like? What do folks like about their jobs? What types of exciting projects will this new hire contribute to?
Remember, your job posting is used to attract people to your opportunity and company. Excite them! Give them a reason to apply! You have to put the work into that job post and application process if you want to attract the right candidates for your organization.
When adding more information about your organization to your website, careers page, job postings, social posts and more, partner with your marketing department if you have one, to get some support. Employer branding and talent attraction are just as important to include in your marketing efforts, as marketing products and services. Your people are the reason you can provide those products and services.
In episode 9 of Claire Shares, I share more about brand ambassador and talent acquisition ambassador programs, which can be an impactful factor in your talent attraction initiative. Be sure to check it out if you missed it.
Specific examples from Team Lighthouse
Now I want to share with you some specific examples of what has worked well for us here at Lighthouse Technology Services. We get great inbound applicants, and folks often reaching out to our hiring managers asking when they are adding roles to their teams!
First is Google reviews – When we place a candidate, our recruiting team reaches out to both the candidate and the hiring manager asking for a review. On the technology managed services side if our business, once a ticket is resolved and closes, our ticketing system sends the user a template asking for a review.
Next, is our Linkedin posts. Rather than this just being marketing’s job, we get all employees involved. When a post does come out from the company LinkedIn page, the link is shared so the rest of the team can like, comment or share if they would like to. If you have a new job opening at your organization, it is not just HR or marketing’s job to get the word out or attract candidates. Get your hiring managers and employees engaged in contributing to the process!
There is also a recommended posts feature on LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn company page admin can write content and attach a photo or video with it, and load it up to a queue of recommended content. How cool is that? Employees just getting started with their use of LinkedIn, or getting started with being more active, are much more likely to share if they don’t have to create something from scratch.
Each week during team meetings, our marketing manager reminds us to go in and check the recommended content list and share a post that resonates with us that week. We have dedicated time during team meetings as well for folks to go to the recommended content section on LinkedIn and make their post. Your employees are more likely to share when there is dedicated time to do it together.
We also do employee spotlights. We are a small company of 15, so we post about birthdays and service anniversaries for each of our team members. My birthday post on March 11th on LinkedIn blew up in the best way. It was so nice to see the likes and comments, and reconnect with some folks from my network I hadn’t talked to in years. Remember anything, even a birthday post, can lead to a potential business opportunity or a potential candidate applying!
We also spotlight our team not just on LinkedIn, but on our website. If you head to the resources tab on the Lighthouse website, you’ll see that many of our blog posts are written by different team members. Our marketing team helps employees showcase their thought leadership because not only are different perspectives good, it gives employees a piece of content that they are proud to share with their unique networks. Your future employees are looking for information on what it’s like to work at your company, and how employees are involved, appreciated and celebrated.
Wrap-up
This week, think about making who you are and what you stand for clear, and then showcasing it across your website, careers site, job postings, and social meda to help you attract the best people for your organization.
Thank you for being here with me and joining me for these bite size videos all about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. These areas of HR and People Ops are my favorite and specialty, and I’m so excited to dive in with you. This work is what I do, if you need help with the tools, technology and process around how you attract, acquire and retain talent, reach out to me and let’s talk!
Claire is Coaching 