How to Brand Your Candidate and Employee Experience

Both your candidate experience and employee experience send a strong message about your employer brand. That is why activating your employer brand across the entire employee lifecycle is crucial to engaging your current employee base. Consider the impact that a consistent employer brand has on today’s mobile workforce, as they begin to rely more upon virtual and digital experiences.

In partnership with Rally Recruitment Marketing, we bring you 50 opportunities across 19 stages in the employee journey to help weave your employer brand into your new virtual candidate and employee experience. For a link to the full report click here!

Download all 50 opportunities as a checklist

Candidate Process

During the candidate application process there are ten touchpoints where you can leave a lasting company impression. Here are a few key takeaways from the full report:

 

• Candidates need to know about your organization’s culture and employment opportunities to ensure that you remain on their radar. The key is to take advantage of candidates who are actively searching for a role or passively open to considering new opportunities in the same place: online.

 

• Change is a big decision! As an employer, you want to have the right brand content to help candidates understand how they will fit into your organization, before taking the time to apply. While social media is great for building brand awareness, candidates navigate to your career site to investigate further.

 

• For many candidates ‘apply now’ might be their first experience with your company. A long, frustrating, and difficult application process sets the wrong impression about what to expect from your organization. That is why your apply flow is crucial for delivery of your value proposition.

 

• There is typically a gap between when your new hire signs their offer and their first day. There are plenty of activities you can do during this period to create a positive experience with your candidates.

Corteva Case Study

To reduce friction in their candidate experience Corteva chose to upgrade the UX and UI of their existing applicant tracking system (ATS), instead of migrating to a new system which would still offer little customization. InFlight partnered with Corteva to produce a thoughtful new brand, beautiful new career site, and improved apply flow that elevated the company’s candidate experience. Corteva’s new employer brand, including messaging platform and creative add-ons such as video, have made a crucial difference in how candidates view Corteva as an employer. The new brand messaging and content also provide candidates with the information they need to confidently submit an application.

InFlight’s Enhanced Apply Flow reduces job application abandonment rates by improving the user experience and reducing the time it takes to complete the application. By removing the up-front candidate registration and the typical laundry list of screening questions, candidate’s have a smoother application experience that takes much less time.

Read the Corteva case study

 

Employee Experience

During an employee’s lifetime within your company, there are many opportunities to solidify your employer brand both internally and externally. Here are a few key takeaways from the report:

• According to Glassdoor, a strong onboarding process improves new hire retention by 82% and productivity by more than 70%! Onboarding is a critical transition point for new hires, and the experience you provide can validate the new hire’s perception – or blow it up.

 

• With the shift to remote work, virtual training programs have become a must. Effective training programs are critical in helping new employees better understand their roles and how they contribute to the company’s success.

 

• By maintaining your employer brand from pre-hire to retire you increase the chances that employees will stick around long term because they know that the brand promises made during the recruiting process are real and true. Consistent reminders about the best part about working at your organization, encourages employees to stick around in the long term.

 

• Employees who have a positive experience will openly share their stories with others and recommend your organization as a great place to work. Don’t forget, ex-employees can be strong advocates for your brand too!

Final thoughts

Ultimately, your candidate experience, employee experience, and employer brand go hand in hand. As a company, it can be difficult to retain your top performers without a thoughtful, positive, and quality employer brand. When crafting your employer brand activation strategy, it’s important to approach it holistically and determine your key objectives and strategy. Form there, you can dig in to identify employer brand opportunities across the entire employee lifecycle. Creating a cohesive, digital-first experience from pre-hire to retire will put your organization in a better position to competitively attract and retain talent.

 

This blog is based on an research report that was done in collaboration with Rally Recruitment Marketing. If you’re interested in reading that report, you can access it here.