If you operate a business, you know that unless you are intentionally building an enterprise of one, eventually, you will need to start hiring team members to scale. There are a lot of growth-oriented activities that can be outsourced to contractors, but some activities are better suited to bring in-house with your team.

Finding the best people to join your mission is vital to your success.

Without the right people on your team –

• • You may not be able to add more customers
  • You may not be able to properly service the customers you do have
  • Existing team members may leave because the workload is too intense

Let’s introduce you to Oscar. He owns a food packaging business that is approaching $20M in annual sales. His business requires a second Production Manager so the business can start up a second production shift. If Oscar cannot fill this role, he is in jeopardy of losing a seven-figure contract with a big box store.

Oscar’s been recruiting to fill this role for six weeks now and only three people have applied for the role. Oscar’s starting to grumble that “nobody wants to work” and feeling the pressure of knowing he will lose the big box store contract.

What can Oscar do differently to take control of his recruiting?

 Oscar can start by examining his reputation as an employer.

 +Up until now, Oscar has never heard of the term Employer Brand or understood the importance of his reputation as an employer.

Luckily for him, we were able to coach him through a 10-point plan so he could start to take control of his recruitment needs.

The 10 Point Plan 

• • Audit your reputation – You would be surprised what you will find on the internet when you type in your company name and look up your business on Glassdoor, Indeed, and other career sites. While you do not need to know definitively want is being said about your company, the knowledge and information are important to include in your overarching strategic plan to improve your employee reputation.

Oscar was shocked when he searched for his company’s reputation. He discovered that previous employees would not recommend his company for employment.

• • Focus on Alignment – If you have spent the time to build your company around core values, now is the time to make sure these values are more than just words on a wall. If the core values are not living throughout the organization, misalignment is the problem. Top candidates know when a company does not “walk the talk” and they do not want to be associated with those types of companies.

• • 1-2-1’s – Standardizing regularly scheduled 15-minute 1-2-1 conversations with each team member is a powerful way to take control of your employer’s brand (and improve employee experience, culture, and performance). If you have not implemented 1-2-1s yet, we have free training for you. 1-2-1 Training & Templates

• • Act of Feedback – Implementing 1-2-1’s will give you feedback, and hopefully, it will be feedback that you need to hear and not what you want to hear. To keep that feedback flowing, you need to act on that feedback. It is ok if the feedback is not actionable. Communicate back to the source why the feedback is not actionable, so they understand. Failure to do this may end future feedback.

• • Develop Your Employer Value Proposition – Just like your marketing should message your value to the customer, you need to create a message that shows your value, as an employer, to prospective employees. Compensation is especially important but so is professional development, mentoring, strong leadership, and the organization WHY.

• • Create a positive recruitment experience – Recruitment should not take 20 weeks, fourteen interviews, and 9 assessments. Streamline the recruitment process, clearly articulate the process from start to finish with each candidate and give them a decision timeline. A focus on ensuring the experience is positive will pay dividends, ESPECIALLY if you do not hire the candidate.

Providing a positive recruitment experience for those that do not join your company is important because –

• • They may be a future customer
  • They may refer other candidates
  • They may want to join your company in the future

• • Develop a meaningful onboarding process – Onboarding is much more than just having your new hire fill out new hire paperwork. Divide your onboarding process into three pillars –

1. 1. 1. Administrative onboarding
      2. Cultural onboarding
      3. Technology onboarding

• • Embrace Continuous Improvement – If you do not take control of your employer’s reputation, it will take on a life of its own. Constantly assess your organization’s reputation, both internally and externally, to drive a 1% improvement each day.

• • Employee Ambassadors – Once you get your reputation, employee experience, and culture headed in the right direction, find ways to incentivize your employees to become your hiring ambassadors. Your team can sell the experience of being employed at your company better than you can. This is a great crossroads to get your marketing arm involved to help build the ambassador program

• • Promote & Message – Just like you market and message your product or solution, be prepared to market your Employer’s Brand. Just like marketing the product or solution, you can –

1. 1. 1. Create a career page on your company website
      2. Promote videos with employees showing the world what a “day in the life” looks like at the company
      3. Set up peer conversations during the recruitment process so that candidates can speak candidly with potential peers.

Revamping your reputation as an employer, but you can make a significant, measurable process in less than 30 days. Oscar was forced to examine his reputation as an employer and embark on a 30-day plan to take control of his Employer Brand. The business now has a top production manager, a second shift, and has successfully expanded its big box store sales.

Oscar is a fictional character, but the framework of his story is based on true life events.

TL;DR 

• • Your inability to find top candidates may be because of your reputation as an employer 

• • You cannot scale your business without hiring the right team 

• • Top candidates do not want to work for companies with marginal reputations 

• • Prioritize taking control of your Employer Brand with the 10-point framework 

• • Drive continuous improvement of your reputation
     

See you again next week. 

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