Looking for a job has never been so easy. In less than 10 years, we have moved away from paper-based job offers; firstly, to internet job boards and then to the actual omnipresence of the company’s own websites. The “war for talent” has obliged even the best companies to find ways of differentiating themselves when it comes to recruiting, in order to make themselves more visible, more attractive and more convincing. In fact, most of the Fortune 500 companies are self-proclaimed “ Employers of Choice ”. But is this enough in the current climate to reach the previous goals?
First, employers have to focus on their EVP, or Employee Value Proposal, and make sure that their global HR offerings are fitting their employees’ needs. As pointed out in an earlier post, offering a 25-year-old new employee a retirement plan might not be as effective as offering him a new iPad, for example.
Along with the optimisation of the EVP, companies must provide effective development programmes ensuring employability, a complete system of compensation, benefits and rewards (never forget that sometimes, a pat on the back can be just as effective as a pay rise, and costs much less).
The next step is the validation and communication of your position as an employer of choice. How do you demonstrate this effectively? Some tools, like the Top Employers’ certification, can improve your EVP, and you can check the actual value of your HR offers, but there is nothing like a direct experience to find out how good an employer is.
Today, we’ll focus on three methods for attracting the best talents, in the best possible conditions: Heineken with “the Candidate” experience, Deloitte with the NL live chat, and SNCF with their Serious Game Le Défi.
In each case, we will see the challenge, the purpose of the tool and the expected results. And, most importantly, we will find out why they work!
- Heineken was looking for a trainee for a Sport Sponsorship position; a dream job for many young professionals, bringing a lot of C.V.s. So, how could they choose the best one, and how could they give this new person the highest possible outlook for his/her future job?Consequently, they decided to go for a totally new recruitment process. First, the trainee would be received by the HR Director in person, and would be subjected to a set of very unsettling scenarios, from the HRD’s fainting, to his holding the candidate’s hand… The reactions of the young professionals were filmed and shared via social media networks, through which anyone could vote for their preferred candidate.
Not only does this very well-designed technique make a refreshing change from the usual boring tasks given to candidates competing for a job, but also the ROI is pretty high as it is shared all over the world. So, the impact on the employer’s brand was very positive, and the induction of the new trainee was very easy as everyone already knew him.
- Deloitte has a global strategy based on its “ambassadors”; a set of current employees who act as company referrals. In the Netherlands, the company developed an online chat – in addition to its already impressive presence on social media sites – in which anybody could have a direct chat with an existing employee at Deloitte. Not only would this help to transmit and share part of the company culture, and maybe clear up some misconceptions about the reality of working at Deloitte, but it would surely support a young professional in making the right choice when sending a C.V. Like any strong brand, Deloitte receives C.V.s from people wanting to work for the company, without always being aware of the reality of the work. Engaging with potential employees through online chat allows these young professionals to ask questions such as, “Do you work in open spaces or a closed office? Do you work regular hours or around the clock? Is the dress code relaxed or is it always suit and tie?” and so on. Depending on the answers, and depending on each potential candidate’s personal fit to a specific company culture, they will make sure they send their C.V. to the company that best suits their needs. For Deloitte, this certainly allows them to reduce their short-term employee turnover of 12-18 months after integration, which is usually due to a misfit between the employee and the company culture.
- Last but not least, recent years have seen the rise of the serious games. Started by the U.S. Army, these are intended to help employees get a closer look into their potential future job. Moving from Edutainment (where the intention is to learn while you are having fun) to Recrutainment (where the employer demonstrates the available jobs in a fun way with the opportunity to attract and recruit new candidates) is a strategic move for companies offering jobs which are hard to understand, or those which have a hard time recruiting. The French Railway, SNCF, which lacks a good reputation as an employer (despite being a Top Employer since 2013) because most people imagine their jobs simply as onsite maintenance roles or train drivers, has developed a serious game named Le Défi, only for engineers, with real prizes (such as trips to China, the UK or Australia to visit some of the company’s activities first-hand) in which high-level engineers’ problems have to be resolved. It has helped to raise awareness of the jobs, identify potential talent to recruit, and achieve some viral activity through the use of Social Media.
This century has already seen a change in recruiting; so now, not only do you have to publish your job offers, you also have to make them attractive, different, prove the quality of your EVP and get referrals from internal and external ambassadors, but companies and recruiters also have to act as if they were young professionals and make themselves visible in the hope of attracting the best candidates.
What are you doing to make your company more attractive to talented people?
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Ref:
Deloitte Online Ambassadors (DUTCH)
