As a recruiter or recruitment manager in the life sciences, employer brand should be at the forefront of all your recruiting marketing activities. You should strive to establish an employer brand that clearly communicates to job seekers:
- Who you are, what you do and what you stand for
- What types of people would thrive in the work environment you offer
- What it’s like to work for your organization
- What employees get when they join you (it’s more than salary and benefits)
As public relations is all about telling an effective story, increasing brand awareness and influencing perceptions of an organization, having a public relations strategy in place is a great way to engage your target audience in jobseekers.
In this article we describe 10 ways to improve your employer brand using PR and content; from familiarizing yourself with the company’s core values, to tracking the results of your recruiting marketing efforts…
Identify the stories you want to tell and the people you want to attract
Use your organization’s core values and mission to identify the types of stories you want to tell and the target audience you hope to engage. Start by looking at what your organization is already doing to represent these core values/goals and identify areas for improvement.
You can conduct an employee survey to better understand what makes your organization a great place to work beyond the things that seem obvious to you, and to better understand what types of people thrive in your work environment. All of this will form the basis of your PR and content marketing strategy.
Do a digital audit
Once you’ve identified the stories you want to tell, do a digital audit to get a full picture of what you’re already doing to share your mission and position yourself as an employer of choice. Take note of the social media accounts you have, content shared here and on your website, and check review sites like Glassdoor to see what employees are saying about you outside of surveys.
You can even ask someone outside the organization to research your business and list the first impressions your existing content creates on people discovering your brand for the first time.
Research your competition
Research your main competitors and identify:
- What they do/don’t do well
- What accounts/posts they use and interact with
- How they interact with their audience
- The key messages they send
- Any areas where they don’t do well (for example, do they have an Instagram account that only updates quarterly?)
Create a media list
Make a list of outside publications, PR distribution services, and other media that you think are relevant to the stories you want to share. For example, if you want a point of sale to share your pharmaceutical news, you can submit your press releases to PharmiWeb.com by creating a free contributor account.
Again, do your research to understand what other channels your competitors are using and don’t fall into the trap of sending every piece of content to every outlet, as this won’t be as effective as following a more targeted strategy.
Be creative with how and where you present your employer brand
Detailing your amazing company culture in job postings and sharing your company highlights with media across the country won’t be enough to showcase your employer brand to job seekers. Use employee testimonials and success stories, showcase your brand at external expos and career events, and use your company blog as more than a space to spread all your company news.
If you’re using a job board to advertise your roles, think about how you can improve your branding on those spaces as well. PharmiWeb Employer Branded Career Hubs are a great way to do this, as they give you a dedicated space to showcase everything that makes you an employer of choice.
Use patient voices
As a life science organization, your company likely has a positive impact on patients around the world. These people are also your brand ambassadors, with their individual stories showing the real impact of your work and the progress your organization is making.
Examine your social media strategy
Your social media channels shouldn’t just be a place where you can share your job postings. They should be used to highlight anything mentioned above; your corporate culture, your mission and values, your accomplishments and milestones, the voice of your patients and, most importantly, your employees.
Take a look at Barrington James LinkedIn Feed for some great examples of how to include your employees in your social media strategy to clearly demonstrate company culture.
Pay attention to workplace rewards
Workplace rewards can be a great way to highlight your values as well as your accomplishments, and including them on your website and other recruiting marketing materials can add credibility to claims you make about yourself. of your organization.
Organon career page is a great example of this, as they combine a comprehensive list of their awards, company culture score, CEO score, and employee reviews. Even before job seekers have scrolled down to see the company’s current vacancies, they can already see that Organon is a great place to work.
Think long term and be authentic
Your employer brand isn’t something you can create instantly, but rather something you should develop over time. Don’t just focus on it when running a recruiting campaign, but instead put it at the forefront of all your recruiting marketing activities to enable you to engage passive and active talent, build authenticity and strengthen your online presence.
Track your results
You need to understand what works and what doesn’t for your organization to identify areas where you should invest more/less resources. Use tracking codes to track where you’re mentioned, understand where new hires researched you, and understand the first impression your business creates and how that changes over time.
