Is your business on Instagram? Maybe…. but are you using it to recruit yet?
With over 500 million active users each month, it’s very likely that many of your current staff are on Instagram. There’s a good chance the talent you want to attract is too.
So why aren’t you using it as part of your Employer Brand Strategy?
As an Internal Communicator, I was delighted to be invited to The Future of Talent Acquisition Masterclass organised by Engage International. The theme of the event hosted by James Murphy was based around the Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and the role that Communicators & in-house recruiters have in attracting talent to businesses.
One of the presentations in particular resonated with me: Katrina Collier, of The Searchologist spoke about how companies could and should be using Instagram to show people what it is really like to work there.
So how do you do that?
- Post and re-post photos and videos via your company brand Instagram account. This might be OK if your company working culture is closely aligned with your product’s brand.
- Better, via a dedicated “Working at….” Instagram account just for showcasing working environment (this is best, in fact Katrina advocates that all recruitment teams have their OWN dedicated social media accounts separate from the main company ones)
- Via a company culture hashtag eg #LifeAtCompanyName or #CompanyNameLife
For internal comms pros it can be a fantastic source of user-generated content. For example, you could display values posters mentioning your company culture hashtag and then bring a feed of all that content into your intranet. That same feed can be pulled onto your recruitment webpages and even re-purposed into short video compilations to show what it’s really like to work there.
This might feel scary at first, but as Katrina pointed out, the chances are your employees are ALREADY sharing photos and videos on social media and mentioning your company. Do a quick search on Instagram now for your company name and you’ll be surprised what you find!
A recurrent theme of the workshop was how employers are increasingly putting a huge amount of effort to present themselves in an attractive light to prospective employees. That might mean revamping their Careers webpages with glossy photos, promises of flexible working and descriptions of a warm and supportive culture. Yet, if the reality of life working in your company doesn’t match, you’re not going to be attracting the right people and those you attract will be disappointed and leave.
The CIPD estimates the average cost of recruiting the wrong person to a role is £8,200, and as much as £12,000 for senior managers or directors, so can you afford to be anything BUT authentic?
Would you like to chat about how you could be using social media to engage and recruit staff? Get in touch.