3 ways to reach more people when hiring for mining and construction

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One of the biggest recruitment dilemmas many recruiters in the mining industry face is reaching the best people. Job boards like SEEK and Indeed are becoming a less effective way of recruiting for this industry. Why? Your ideal candidates are just not looking on the sites anymore… instead, the job offers are being delivered directly to them!

Similarly, for both construction and mining, the skills shortage is having a real impact, making it harder than ever to attract the best talent. So, if you’re recruiting for these industries, it’s crucial for you to understand the best way to attract and convert passive candidates. 

Passive candidates, or continuous candidates, are candidates who are not actively looking for a new role. This means that they are employed, enjoy their current work or lack the time to search for new opportunities. 

However, passive candidates may investigate the right opportunity if it arises, so it is important to create that opportunity and persuade the candidate to pursue it further.

Here are 3 passive recruitment techniques you can use to find the best people in mining and construction. 

Headhunting and digital headhunting

Headhunting and its digital counterpart is a targeted search for talent who are currently employed. These passive candidates may not be actively looking for a new position, but would be happy to move if the right opportunity arose.  

Headhunting is a particularly successful method of sourcing prospective employees with a niche skill – which may be just what you need in mining and construction!  

Clever advertising & standing out from the crowd

Typical recruitment advertisements can be completely missed or ignored by the passive candidates you’re looking to target. Create exciting and relatable recruitment advertisements that really speak to your demographic to attract attention and promote click-throughs that convert applications. 

Use a careers video or employee profile story as a way to promote your organisation’s ethos and culture. Establish an attractive careers page on your website with images of your real employees, as research reveals candidates are highly likely to investigate your employer brand and their careers page before applying. 

Utilise social media to promote brand awareness

Using social media as an advertising tool, you can advertise your vacancy to the right demographic and tailor it to reach those who like relevant pages and capture or recapture their attention. Advertisements are more likely to capture attention if it is related to your target’s personal interests.

For example, using Facebook advertising, you can search for potential candidates in a specific location, within a specific industry, based on interests and more to really target your recruitment advertisement. 

Our recruitment advertising team are experts in passive candidate attraction, headhunting, writing effective recruitment advertisements and social media advertisement targeting. For the best chance to fill your mining or construction vacancy, call us on 1300 366 573 or email us at info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Hiring to Retain: Bust the Myths of Retail Careers using Employer Branding

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We’ve collated some common myths about careers in the retail industry and the employer branding solution you can use bust them…

Many have a misconception that retail is just an industry that you enter as a ‘stepping stone’. While this may be true for some aspects of the industry, it is definitely not true for the majority of it. Here’s our guide on how you can use Employer Branding techniques to bust these big myths about the retail industry in order to attract, hire and retain the best talent.

Myth 1: Retail work is a just a ‘stepping stone’ and there’s no career progression

This myth probably originates from the casual nature of the store assistant role. Many young people rely on this position as a first job; a place to gain some work experience before moving on to a ‘professional career’. While the retail industry definitely needs these people, it is a common misconception that this is all that retail is.

Using employer branding, you can sell retail as more than just a stepping stone. After all, a store assistant role is an entry level role to begin building a career. Make it clear in your job advertisements that there is more to retail than stacking shelves. Think about the skills that your potential employee can develop, from dealing with money to stock room and even warehouse management skills; there are a number of routes that can be taken to develop a career and allow employees to grow internally.

Myth 2: Retail workers are unskilled and unqualified

This myth probably also originates from the basis of retail being an option as a first job and shop floor roles not needing specific qualifications. While it is true and some roles don’t require qualifications, many opportunities within retail do require a specific tertiary qualification which are often something that can be developed while working – from internal apprenticeships to support through degrees.

Again, this is about selling employee development. Selling your brand as somewhere that provides opportunity to everyone, regardless of qualifications or personal situation. Selling the fact that you can learn these skills through internal development programmes and support. After all, retail offers opportunities to progress in sales, management, HR,  IT, software development and more. Some of the bigger brands do this really well; we are sure that at least one brand came to mind when you read that.

Myth 3: All retail workers are either young people or the semi-retired

When you consider how many people will take their impressions of retail from what they see in the shop floor, it’s not surprising that this is a myth that needs busting. Those who are more willing to work weekends or over Christmas have flexible schedules and naturally this would be more suited to young people, students, working-parents and the semi-retired. According to GradAustralia, a study by the Families and Work Institute has shown that the average age of retail employees is actually 37; what the public do not always see is the workforce behind the scenes, those that manage regions of stores and/or work in the head office.

In terms of Employer Branding, the answer to busting this myth would be to show people the different avenues available to them. That they don’t have to be a young person just starting their career to have the opportunity to progress within retail. Share the stories of employee career and success paths, demonstrating how they got there.

Do you need support with your employer brand?

Employment Office’s specialists in Employer Branding spend time getting to know your brand’s unique story and work in partnership with you to promote your story to high-quality candidates.

To find out more about our Employer Branding Service, contact us on 1300 366 573 or email us at info@employmentoffice.com.au.

 

4 things candidates are looking for in your employer brand

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Many employers understand the value of promoting a strong employer brand. But what are the key things candidates are looking for? By understanding the key elements of employer brand candidates are looking for, you’ll learn how to tailor your messaging and content strategy, and the best areas to focus your efforts and attention.

Whether or not your organisation has done anything to actively manage your employer brand, you already have one! And potential candidates are examining it before deciding if your organisation is right for them. According to LinkedIn, 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a role.

There are a number of components that go into an employer brand, and all of these things work together to shape your overall employer brand. The things that comprise your employer brand include:

Things you can control:

  • Careers site
  • Recruitment advertisements
  • Website and blog
  • Culture and organisational values
  • Candidate communication

Things you can influence:

  • Employee stories and advocacy
  • Social media channels
  • Organisation reviews

Things you can indirectly influence:

  • Public perception
  • Accolades and awards.

So, what are candidates looking for? And how can you attract the right people to help your organisation?

1. Your mission

Candidates are looking for more than a paycheck. They’re looking for an opportunity to contribute towards a valuable mission. For millennials, this is particularly important, as according to the latest statistics, 78% saying they want their employer’s values to match their own.

To captivate potential hires, craft an authentic narrative about why you’re here and what’s important to you as an organisation. Your commitment to this mission should be the thread that connects all of your print and online materials, from your careers page to corporate activism to social media to employee testimonials. Give prospective candidates and idea of what drives the work you do.

2. Real information about employee experience

When investigating an organisation’s employer brand, candidates aren’t interested in corporate jargon about your products and services. They want to know what it’s like to work for you, from those who know you best and are doing the work themselves.

The best way to do this is by filling your careers site and social channels with real employee profile stories, whether they are video or written stories, or both. This makes your brand more relatable and personal. People respond well and are most engaged with compelling visual imagery, a “day in the life” photos and videos. Attractive visuals and imagery create a lasting impact.

3. An active, engaging social media presence

We live in a digital world, so social media is crucial in your employer brand strategy. Up to 57% of job seekers use social media in their hiring search. How much time can you invest in this channel, and what is your strategy?

Tailor your content to the unique style of each social media account. For example, Twitter is great for concise summaries of key industry news (such as industry blog posts and recent awards or milestones for your organisation), compelling visuals trump all else on Instagram, and Facebook gives you space to post longer content that connects with a varied demographic. Ensure that your social media manager keeps all of your social media content on-brand to give viewers a sense of your organisation’s unique identity.

4. Positive candidate experience  

The experience you create for candidates is another important component for your long-term employer branding strategy, because it’s deeply personal and candidates are paying such close attention.

78% of candidates say the overall candidate experience at a company is an indicator of how well the organisation values its employees. That means job seekers look at your candidate experience as “proof” that you do, in fact, live up to your company values.

Create a positive candidate experience by making sure your processes are short, efficient, fair, and involve good communication.

Make sure your application process is brief, intuitive, and relatively easy. Many candidates will simply give up if your ask for page after page of information. Also, remember to communicate with prospective talent throughout your recruitment process and respect their time and effort. An automated email or text message confirming submission of the application should be a given, but adding a personalised touch from a recruiter within a few days (even a simple “we are still processing your application and will be in touch soon”) is even better.

Also remember that the candidate experience doesn’t stop after you’ve made your hiring decision. Notifying those who were unsuccessful is particularly important, as 80% of people say they wouldn’t apply for another job at a company if they fail to hear back about a position. Leaving candidates with a positive impression of your company ensures that you have prospective talent waiting in the pipeline the next time you’re ready to hire.

By understanding what candidates are looking for in your employer brand, you can review and fortify your strategies to strengthen and promote your employer brand.

Find out more about our Employer Branding services here. If you’d like some advice about how to build a great employer brand for your organisation, schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Specialists by calling us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Attracting and retaining millennials by offering the opportunity to learn and grow

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Millennials now make up a growing proportion of the workforce and their expectations of ‘their dream job’ are here to stay.

87% of millennials surveyed in Gallup’s latest report said that development opportunities are important in their role. No longer are the stereotypes of ping pong tables and free beer the way to win over the best talent of our future generations. The real winners are organisations that continue to nurture millennials’ skills and develop their expertise long into their career.

In today’s fast-paced recruitment climate it’s important that organisations provide opportunities for their younger employees to remain competitive both in their own role and in their industry. More than ever, organisations (large and small) need to be thinking about offering professional development programs to their team members – employee attraction and retention depends on it.

How does employee training and development help your employer brand?
Competing for quality talent in today’s market is increasingly difficult. Offering a competitive salary alone doesn’t necessarily secure you the best people.

While almost all employees consider growth and development opportunities extremely important in an employer, millennials are most attracted to employers who offer advancement pathways and strong leadership. It’s not just talent attraction that should be compelling you to offer these programs, but also employee retention.

What sort of professional development opportunities should my organisation offer?
Training initiatives in your workplace do not have to be expensive. There are a broad array of programs that you can implement to give your people a chance to grow professionally.

Brown-bag sessions or ‘Lunch and Learns’
Held over the lunch hour, brown-bag sessions (also known as Lunch and Learns) are informal training sessions hosted by other employees or senior management. As a non-mandatory program, brown-bag sessions share insights into particularly niche fields or new products and services. They are also a great place to talk about things like industry trends and policy changes or non-work concepts like ‘finding a work-life balance’. The brown-bag sessions provide a platform to encourage employees who are experts in a certain topic to give a brief presentation to the team and share their knowledge.

External Training and Development
Providing funding for further education is a great incentive for millennial employees and your broader team. This may be offered through online courses and open universities or through the opportunity to attend seminars and workshops in an area of professional interest. As an example, L’Oréal has partnered with universities around the world (including Harvard, Colombia and HEC Paris) to give employees the chance to complete internationally renowned certificates. This is a great way to ensure your people are at the forefront of leading ideas and innovation. And there’s no need to worry that this may be out of budget, there are multitudes of low or no cost training initiatives online that you can support through your workplace.

Mentoring
As a way of fostering stronger networks within your organisation, mentorship programs are a great way to share knowledge and learned experience throughout your team. These can be run as a form of one-on-one leadership training or just as a way to offer new employees support and guidance as they adjust to your organisation and get a feel for the opportunities on offer. Mentoring (as well as job shadowing) is also an excellent low-cost avenue for internal professional development and a great way to establish a constructive feedback culture.

Personal Development Planning
A simple strategy to show employees that you’re here to help them grow and support their career progression is a Personal Development Plan. At the beginning of the year, talk to your people about their overarching career goals and objectives for the year ahead. Together, use the time to construct specific milestones for the next 12 months and schedule check-ins to track their progress.

Considering the financial burden of a bored and under-qualified workforce, offering professional development opportunities to your team is a small expense. By implementing one of the above suggestions or something as simple as sending an in-house newsletter with industry updates, suggested podcasts, webinars and articles, you will improve your employer brand. If you’re looking to attract and retain a team of qualified millennials, there’s no better place to start than by supporting professional development.

Employee Advocacy: your most powerful employer branding tool

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Your most powerful brand assets are your people. They are committed to the success of your organisation and are driven to contribute to your mission. It is crucial that you are harnessing the power of their loyalty! Here we have shared four ways that organisations are stimulating employee advocacy and promoting a culture of employee advocacy.

Social Advocacy
Traditionally word-of-mouth marketing was not the most desirable messaging channel as it was limited to the close friends and family of an individual. Today, most people are connected to an average of 250 people across their social media networks.

Encouraging your employees to speak about your business and their experiences with you, now has the potential to reach thousands. At Zappos, staff are trained in the art of the tweet and are encouraged to share their life at work with the hashtag #InsideZappos. LinkedIn is also a great platform to expand your businesses network, and encouraging your employees to share your content and post about their workplace may also empower them to develop their personal brands too.  

People profiles (celebrate their success!)
As the #1 contributor to your organisation’s success, your people deserve to be celebrated! Employee-of-the-month programs can be an excellent platform to recognise your people internally, but shining the spotlight publicly is even better. Profile stories like the ones we’ve written here for Nganampa Health Council are an example of one approach to sharing the personal journeys of your people and to show potential candidates what life at your organisation looks like.

These can also be featured through video, a fantastic tool for expressing the feel of your workplace.

Not-for-profit Initiatives
Gaining company support for non-profit projects can be enormously beneficial to organisations for a number of reasons. Putting aside the consumer branding advantages from conducting CSR initiatives; volunteer projects and fundraisers are a great way to show your people the human side to your organisation. This builds their personal support and encourages them to speak positively about you and the philanthropic work that you do.

A great example of this in action is the Deloitte pro bono program. Funded by Deloitte, non-profit projects are staffed and evaluated as if they’re an external client. The organisation also supports staff to volunteer their skills to social services and each year they send more than 200 consultants to week-long projects in collaboration with non-profits and micro enterprises.

Asking staff to share their experiences with the Deloitte CSR program, the company reached 3.9 million people, resulting in 4000 likes, comments and shares. This is a great result of active employee engagement and highlights the benefits of socially responsible activities to the employer and consumer brand.

Industry Events
Conferences, workshops and seminars are not only a highly beneficial way for your people to gain industry insights and updates, they also present an unmissable networking opportunity for your employer brand. Encouraging people to speak about organisational initiatives and culture is an excellent way to attract competitor’s talent whom are sitting in the same room!

Editor’s Note: Employment Office works with businesses to attract and retain quality talent. Their Employer Branding Specialists expertly uncover and elevate the client’s Employee Value Proposition to help achieve their long-term recruitment marketing objectives.

 

 

 

Unsuccessful Feedback – Letting Them Down Easy

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Delivering bad news is rarely something that Recruiters and Hiring Managers enjoy doing. However, when it comes to maintaining your Employer Brand and reputation, delivering unsuccessful feedback to a candidate is one of the most important parts of the recruitment process. 

Every interaction that a member of the public has with your employer brand, including their experience in a recruitment process, helps to form their impression of your organisation. One thing we can be sure of is that people talk; and you want them to be talking positively about you. For those who have a poor experience, there can be dangerous consequences.

Studies show that:

  • 78% of candidates who have had a bad application experience will relay that to their friends, family and network.
  • Over 80% of the reasons supplied from those candidates for their poor negative experiences were based on poor communication from the recruiting organisation. 

Setting up best practice, time effective procedures and tools to deliver feedback, and making certain that all candidates exit a recruitment process with a sense of finalisation, are key in ensuring a positive brand interaction. If candidates were both unsuitable for your role and for your organisation as a whole – perhaps they weren’t the right “cultural fit” – they are less likely to bad mouth the organisation if they feel they were assessed fairly and notified appropriately. Likewise, candidates who may have been a good organisational fit but were not suitable for that one role in particular are more likely to continue interacting with your brand and applying for roles that may be more aligned with their skills and experience in the future.

Please see below our recommendations for delivering unsuccessful feedback:

  • Be Timely – Leaving aside extraneous circumstances, move forward with unsuccessful feedback as soon as your final decision has been made. There is no need to leave candidates hanging through your recruitment process when you know you will not proceed with them. The importance of timeliness in giving feedback is even more critical for candidates who make it through to the final interview stage. Candidates who have attended face to face interviews should be notified of the results within 3-5 days of their interviews.
  • Match Their Engagement – Consider the time candidates have taken to apply for your role and go through a recruitment process with your organisation. An application you have considered unsuitable based on a first screen of the resume can be addressed in the format of a polite email, but an applicant who you have progressed through to a face-to-face interview should benefit from the personal touch of a phone call.
  • Rip Off the Band-Aid –  This will save both your time and that of the candidates. Make the nature of your decision apparent at the very start of the communication, whether it is over the phone or email, and don’t beat around the bush.
  • Don’t Apologise – There is no need to apologise for choosing not to recruit that person in to your organisation. Saying sorry opens a window for the candidate to question your decision and will only make the call more difficult.
  • Be Constructive – Constructive feedback is a valuable tool in providing a high level of candidate care – so make sure the feedback you give can be used by the candidate to improve their future job prospects. Explaining that the organisation had a higher preference for certain industry experience or higher qualifications is feedback that a candidate can action and remedy for future applications.

By following these guidelines and building a conscientious and professional procedure for exiting candidates from your recruitment process, you can ensure that even a “rejection” works in your favour and positively influences candidate perceptions of your organisation.

For more information on candidate care, watch our webinar Candidate Care & Your Employer Brand, or download the slides for further reading.

 

Why Your HR & Marketing Teams Need to Be Friends

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A comprehensive understanding of the role, knowledge of the right key words to attract relevant job seekers, and a creative flair are just some of the qualities required to execute an effective job listing as part your recruitment advertising campaign. However, these qualities don’t sit solely with the HR or Marketing departments. Thus, HR and Marketing must work together when it comes to the all-important task of recruitment advertising. After all, without an informative and captivating job listing, you’re unlikely to yield the number and quality of applicants you need to create a high-calibre shortlist. As branding company ‘Emotive Brand’ puts it, “HR understands what matters to employees, but Marketing knows how to capture their attention.” Read on to learn how Marketing and HR complement one another, and the steps you need to take to establish a value-adding relationship between the two.

Where HR shines

Employment Office Recruitment Advertising Specialist, Alexa Littleton, says HR, in collaboration with the Hiring Manager, provides the vital information needed to recruit. “HR offers the bread and butter for a job description – from the necessary skills and qualifications to key aspects of the employment contract, including compensation and working hours. These aspects are the basics of an informative job description, and are fundamental to any successful recruitment effort.”  However, she notes that HR does not necessarily know how to present this key information in the most effective way to ensure quality applications.

What Marketing brings to the table

When invited to collaborate in the recruitment advertising process, Marketing adds an important (and often underestimated) dimension to the job listing. Marketing is better equipped to consider the recruitment campaign from the perspective of candidates, and thus, tailor the job listing to ‘sell’ the role and your workplace.

Marketers will take a tedious list of role requirements, often crafted by HR to attract high-quality candidates, and play with the language to better reflect the dynamics of the role. For example, instead of stating that a managerial role requires ‘leadership,’ marketers would reconsider if this term was the most-fitting to describe the quality necessary for the role. In this instance, it would be more comprehensive to say, ‘a leadership background is ideal, as you will be directing a fast-paced team of junior and senior professionals across multiple departments.’ Specifying how leadership is relevant to the role reveals more information about the team the new hire will work within.

Further, the Marketing team will consider other important factors that should be included in the job listing – elements to captivate relevant job seekers. This includes details of the workplace culture and employee benefits that your organisation is proud of. Include three to five of your most outstanding benefits, and direct job seekers to your careers website to learn more about your culture.

Marketers should also be consulted when it comes to the graphic design of job ads – they have an eye for aesthetics. Why simply attach your logo to your job listing? Don’t underestimate the power of a strong image; Social Media and Content Analysts report that visuals increase user engagement by up to 94 per cent. Consider how an engaging image or video could impact your recruitment results. In effect, the Marketing team can shape a recruitment advertising campaign to reflect a positive Employer Brand.

Establish a productive relationship between HR and Marketing  

Don’t worry – there’s no need to overhaul your recruitment advertising strategy to marry your HR and Marketing departments. All it takes is communication between the departments throughout the recruitment advertising process.

  1. Host a HR/ Marketing Workshop where Marketing has the opportunity to review past recruitment advertising campaigns and offer feedback. Recruitment Advertising Specialist, Alexa Littleton says that HR should present their current campaigns and listen to Marketing’s guidance. “Of course, HR will not be able to take up every suggestion offered by Marketing, and Marketing won’t necessarily agree with HR about what should be included in a job ad. However, this workshop will establish a mutual understanding of the strengths and limitations of both teams for future collaboration,” she says.
  2. Marketing should own the design. Before the job listing has been crafted, HR and Marketing should meet to identify the important aspects of the role that must be communicated. From here, Marketing can create a relevant and engaging graphic to showcase the recruitment campaign. Starting the graphic design early in the recruitment advertising process means that if multiple drafts are required, the Marketing team will have the graphics finalised by the next meeting, after the job listing has been written by HR.
  1. HR should own the job listing but Marketing should improve it. After the job listing has been drafted by HR, Marketing should ensure the job ad not only describes the ideal candidate, but is written in an attractive way to highlight the company’s employer brand. Brand consistency is key here, but at the same time, different roles require specific employee benefits and varying aspects of your employer brand to be articulated. For example, when recruiting a junior, highlight your company leadership or volunteering program. A middle to senior professional on the other hand would find flexibility and parental benefits attractive.

The additional step of engaging Marketing with HR, compared to the traditional recruitment process where HR handles the recruitment process, is simple but will make all the difference in honing-in on candidates who identify with your culture.

Editor’s Note: Powerful job listing make up just one part of a successful recruitment advertising campaign. Our Recruitment Advertising Specialists at Employment Office use comprehensive recruitment advertising strategies to magnify an organisation’s hiring potential and uncover their next star. Partner with our team to execute a holistic outstanding recruitment campaign that harnesses both active (niche and generalist job boards) and passive candidate attraction strategies. Contact us today to learn more about our proven approach.

 

 

 

Health, Wellness, and your Employer Brand

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It’s no news that investing in the health and wellness of your staff carries a number of significant benefits for both employer and employee. From higher productivity, to reduced stress levels, lowered absenteeism and reduced turnover, the benefits of a healthy workforce are boundless. But many business leaders fail to realise there is a key opportunity to enhance their employer brand through health and wellness efforts.

More than 70 per cent of Australians consider health and wellbeing as one of the three most important factors for a good workplace, reported a 2015 Medibank Private study.

What’s more is that in an Australian study of 2400 professionals conducted by Robert Walters, one in two professionals would leave their jobs if their wellbeing needs were not met. Wellbeing programs have evolved from simply being ‘a nice perk’ to being an essential tool for employers hoping to retain their talent.

Head of Employer Branding at Employment Office, Mark Puncher says more and more job seekers perceive their place of work as reflection of their lifestyle, and employers need to tap into this.

“With health and wellness considered top of the list as an important factor for 70 per cent of job seekers, a strong employer branding strategy marked by health and wellness initiatives should be at the forefront of recruitment efforts,” he says.

“Via social media, job seekers have an insight into what it’s like to work for a particular company. So employers need to take advantage of this online exposure to celebrate their workplace culture, particularly their health and wellness activities – which is continuing to grow as a major factor for job seekers when considering an employer.”    

Read on to learn how to enhance your employer brand by showcasing your health and wellness efforts.

Implement effective health and wellness activities.

Founding Director of Employment Office, Tudor Marsden Huggins, knows first-hand the positive impact health and wellness activities has on his team.  “We hold monthly ‘buzz nights’ to celebrate team achievements of the past month – and they’ve proven to be wonderful opportunity to get the team outdoors and moving. We’ve kayaked down the Brisbane River, had a blast indoor trampolining, played bowling, laser skirmish and even completed a scavenger hunt across the city. But keeping your team healthy doesn’t have to be an elaborate endeavour. Something as simple as a team run or rock-climbing event, and providing fresh and healthy snacks are some of the easiest but most effective ways to invest in the health of your team,” he says.  

Identify and list your health and wellness activities on your careers webpage! Describe the aim of each health and wellness activity and include pictures of your team having fun. Be sure to note even small things such as providing fruit and nuts in the kitchen and vending machines – these perks go along way when it comes to a candidate envisaging working for your organisation.  

Update your social media pages

Update your social channels frequently with what is going on in the health and wellness space. This allows you to show you’re investing in the health of your staff on a day-to-day basis, and importantly, that your team are engaging in your wellness program.  

Further, you’ll find social media to be a health and wellness tool in itself, enabling you to encourage your team to keep up their great work. As an idea, link all your wellness posts with a hashtag to emphasise the work you’re doing in the space. For example, #<youroganisation>fit or #<yourorganisation>wellness.

There are so many possibilities when it comes to celebrating a healthy workplace culture on social media. You could run competitions in which staff members post pictures of themselves making a healthy choice or a number of steps per day competition. Congratulate different personal health and fitness achievements and of course, post about events that your organisation gets involved in, just to name a few!

Sign up your organisation for larger events

There’s nothing more powerful for an employer brand than real people showcasing the fun they are having as part of your company. Founding Director of Employment Office, Tudor Marsden Huggins says participating in the national cycling charity event, Tour de Office, is not only a powerful health message to his staff, but provides media opportunities for Employment Office to be featured in conjunction with Tour de Office. “Employment Office has participated in Tour de Office since it was established in 2011. In addition to encouraging staff to incorporate exercise into their day and fundraising for a charity of our choice, Employment Office has been able to secure local and state publicity alongside Tour de Office during the event,” he says.

Communicate to your team internally.

Employer branding is about nurturing your employees’ perception of you, just as much as it is about how you are perceived by job seekers. With this in mind, it is essential to remind candidates and employees of the programs and initiates you offer.   

Staff can only get involved in health and wellness activities if they know about them!

An Australian study conducted by Robert Australian concluded, “Many organisations do not adequately communicate their workplace wellness program internally to their employees, which leads to under-utilisation of the program and a reduction in the benefits and productivity that can be derived from improved health and wellbeing levels.”

Including a health and wellness section on internal company newsletters, starting a ‘health board’ in the kitchen where different ideas of healthy activities can be shared, and announcing weekly ‘wellbeing news’ in meetings are some ideas to keep communication on all things health open in the workplace.

Whether you have an established health and wellness program or not, now is the time to invest in the wellbeing of your staff, to reap all the benefits that come with a healthy workforce and a strong employer brand that will attract and retain top talent.

Editor’s note: Employment Office provides tailored employer branding services designed and delivered by senior recruitment and marketing specialists. Partner with Employment Office to leverage your workplace culture and make your employer brand shine.

“No small talk.” Has this company taken Employer Branding too far?

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No Tupperware. Company-approved toilet paper only. Black Moleskin diaries to be used – exclusively.

Australian skin care brand Aēsop has some very interesting rules governing how employees go about their day. They’ve developed a unique and powerful employer brand that is unrivalled by other players in their industry.

But have they gone too far with their employer brand, or is it a genius way to attract the right people to their organisation?

Let’s take a tour around the world of Aēsop. Read on to find out what it’s like to be an employee at Aēsop’s head office – and why Aēsop might just be getting it right.  

Firstly, no small talk about the weather – this is banned. Desks must be clean with jackets hung on a single coat-rack at one end of the building. Personal items must not be visible on desks and all employees are to write only in black Moleskin diaries provided by Aēsop. Post it notes must be hidden from view, placed within the Moleskin diaries.

Phones are to be kept on silent to ensure everyone can stay focused. When writing emails, remember your ‘email sandwich’. All emails must adhere to a strict template: opening and closing with a pleasantry, with business affairs in between.

When it comes to lunchtime, it’s company policy that you leave your desk, even just for 10 minutes. Staff must relocate to the office kitchen or one of the local cafes. And make sure your lunch is eaten only from Aēsop-approved plates and bowls. Your latté is not safe either – coffees are to be poured in Aēsop-approved cups.

But there are some fantastic upsides to working at Aēsop, with a healthy stock of fresh fruit, dark chocolate, restaurant-quality coffee and nuts ready to give you that boost of energy in the afternoon. 

What does this all mean for Aēsop’s employer brand?

Employer branding is about an organisation positioning itself as an employer of choice. Yet, a strong employer brand works to actively attract candidates who will be a good cultural fit, and deter those who will not.

Aēsop’s extreme guidelines will put off some job seekers. And that’s exactly the point.

“We take cultural alignment to the nth degree. If the fit is not good for you, then it’s not good for us. It’s a sensibility,” said Aēsop general marketing manager, Lisa D’Amico.

While it may seem a bit intense, when the boot fits, “it really works,” says one current head office employee. “We’re trying to promote a beautiful idea that flows through every aspect of the business – from the product packaging to the stores themselves, up to the way we work each day. It’s about aesthetic and thoughtfulness.”

This unique employer branding strategy positions Aēsop as a strict employer, but not necessarily a bad one. Aēsop does not hide away from its culture and employer brand – in fact, they make in clear across their careers page and careers video. This approach means that job seekers who wouldn’t work well in this environment are put off early, saving both Aēsop and the applicant time.

The question is, no matter who you are as an employer, are you shouting it from the rooftop?

Whatever your story, you need to be sharing it with the world. By telling people who you are loud and clear, you’ll immediately increase your recruitment potential by being upfront and directly appealing to job seekers who are a perfect fit. But there is one thing to keep in mind…

“An employer brand doesn’t develop overnight,” says Mark Puncher, Head of Employer Branding. “Every organisation has an employer brand that’s been forming since day one. The trick to telling your story and guiding your employee value proposition to where it needs to be, is understanding who you are, where you’ve been, where you want to go and who the right people are to take your organisation and employer brand forward.”

If you want to position yourself as an employer of choice and attract the best people who are right for your organisation, start amplifying your employer brand. That’s where we can help – and we promise to let you use sticky notes, Tupperware, take-away coffee cups and any notebook you like.

Editor’s note: Employment Office provides leading Employer Branding services based on proven recruitment results. Get in touch with Employment Office’s Head of Employer Branding, Mark Puncher, for a free consultation today.

48% of employees say the role they were hired for isn’t the job they’re doing

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Misleading advertising is all-encompassing and inescapable – it continues to pepper the Internet, our cities’ billboards and product packaging. And the recruitment industry is no exception. A recent Employment Office poll reveals candidates are experiencing such bait-and-switch practices in the recruitment space. In fact, almost half of employees surveyed reported the job they are doing isn’t the role they were hired for.

Although crafting a job description to make the role sound better than it actually is may attract more candidates in the short term, misleading job descriptions have significant long-term repercussions. With an entire talent pool enthusiastic under false pretences, any candidate attracted by a misleading job description is inherently the wrong person for the role. As such, new hires quickly leave, and will likely share their experience on employer review websites such as Glassdoor, Great Place to Work or Indeed.com. Ultimately, misleading job advertisements costs an organisation more time and money in the long run, and risk damaging their employer brand.

Read on for our top three tips on how to accurately communicate the ins and outs of the position at hand to ensure you recruit the right fit for the role.

1. Conduct an exit interview with the incumbent. Of course, you need to ask why they are moving on, but delve deeper to discover what your future talent pool needs to know. The following questions will help you gain a complete picture of the position:

  • What did you value most about their role?
  • What did you dislike?
  • Did your role change over time? If so, how?
  • Was there anything unexpected about the role? If so, what was it?
  • What are the key qualities and skills we should seek in your replacement?

It’s a good idea to revisit your exit interview notes on other past employees of this position to learn how this role has evolved over the years and gain an insight into the direction the role may take.

2. Nail your job description.

  • Describe what the job entails on a day-to-day basis. It is a good idea to ask your sitting employee to write a list of the activities they get up to on a typical day.
  • Consider how this role will evolve. Your exit interview will provide valuable insights on the future of the position. However, key figures in the business direct the company’s activities as a whole, and as such, have a major influence on the responsibilities of the position. For example, new products and services, and bringing on new clients, can have a significant impact on a role; expanding and contracting responsibilities, altering teams and shifting career paths within your organisation.   
  • Don’t be afraid to describe the challenges of the position. Expressing the difficulties of a role will weed out unfit candidates at the application process, rather than later – during the interview or worse, after they’ve been hired! For example, if a position requires the worker to relocate to a rural area, highlight this factor to attract people who would embrace this challenge. If you’re hiring for a fast-paced sales-based role, say you’re looking for someone who thrives under pressure.

3. Invite the shortlisted candidate to shadow the sitting employee. Not only will the applicant be able to see first-hand their potential daily schedule, but this is an opportunity for you to observe them in the context of the role and confirm if they are a good fit for your organisation’s culture. At the end of the week, when your candidate signs their letter of acceptance, you’ll have peace of mind they are truly passionate about the role for which you hired them.

Doing your research and creating accurate job advertisements will ensure your new hire is prepared for all aspects of the role, helping you build a robust team that will stick around in the long run.

Editor’s note: Employment Office provides outstanding recruitment advertising services as part of a fully integrated recruitment marketing process. We cover all aspects of an organisation’s recruitment needs whilst being transparent and cost effective.