Every organisation, small or large, has an employer brand, whether it has been consciously cultivated or not. Your employer brand is the reputation your company carries as a place to work and having a positive employer brand is crucial if you want to attract and retain quality talent.

The hiring process is the most influential factor that can impact your employer brand. This is a candidate’s first interaction with your organisation so if it’s inefficient, you risk losing great talent to a competitor – or worse, tarnishing their perception of your business and leading them to share their negative experience with others!

By targeting your hiring process and improving the candidate experience, you can ensure you find the right person for your team and protect your employer brand.

Speed Up the Hiring Process

While many employers initially have a sense of urgency around the hiring process timeline, I often see this urgency die off as recruitment progresses.

This can have a detrimental effect on your employer brand and may see you lose quality candidates who simply can’t wait any longer. They may believe you are no longer interested due to lack of communication or have decided to accept another position while waiting for your response.

Helping hiring managers to understand the importance of efficient recruitment practices will speed up the hiring process and in turn, cultivate a positive perception of your business.

You can speed up your recruitment process by:

• Ensuring that the hiring manager has adequate time to be actively involved in the selection and interview process

• Creating a job advert that only targets appropriate candidates 

• Taking advantage of telephone/video interviews to fit around your schedule and that of the candidates’

• Engaging a recruitment specialist to streamline the process and identify candidates from their network that will be a good fit for the role

Communication is Key

While doing what you can to speed up the hiring process will assist in protecting your employer brand, the most crucial element is demonstrating clear communication. In business, as in life, things don't always run to plan and sometimes it is impossible to avoid delays. While your recruiter will make every effort to present your organisation in a positive light, they need to know about any issues so they can inform the candidate and keep them engaged.

By communicating promptly about delays in progressing through the recruitment stages, such as when providing interview feedback, you establish yourself as honest and mtransparent. You are then more likely to retain the interest of a top candidate who may have otherwise gone elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

At Chandler Macleod, we are here to represent you to potential employees. We see ourselves as an extension of your business and pride ourselves on positively representing you as well as expressing the benefits of working for your organisation. By following my advice on recruitment best practice, together we can ensure your employer brand is protected, enabling you to attract the best quality staff for your team.

For more tips on employer branding or help with your next talent search, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.