By Business & Finance 
Next Generation CEO Linda Davis stresses the importance of giving prospective talent an experience of your organisation that is both meaningful and consistent.
Ireland is a hive of talent and is working on some of the most cutting-edge advancements in product and technology design. There is no limit to the talent that you can attract to your organisation.
What is key is that you have a strong marketing strategy in place around your talent acquisition. And once that prospective talent touches your brand, they should receive an excellent experience of your organisation.
Key to your talent marketing strategy is making sure you are telling stories of your company, of your current talent, of your strategy and of the purpose of the company. Key to this is that you understand the audience you are trying to attract and then engage them in their circle of interest.
Visual storytelling is key for 2017, with the focus on ensuring the human element is in the story. The most popular method for learning is now visual with an average attention span of 15-20 seconds.
Bring your organisation to life and get your current talent to describe their story in the company. Your recruitment strategy needs to elicit an emotional response to your brand, making it memorable to the viewer.
MARKETING STRATEGY
The key to a good marketing strategy is to focus on a few key concepts or ideas and roll them out really well. Don’t get overwhelmed; you can’t boil the ocean! So focus on the key, or difficult to attract, talent to start with.
Create a great careers page, as this will be the main touchpoint that any candidate will land on when really considering working in your organisation. This may sound simple, however, is often very overlooked by companies.
Key to your talent marketing strategy is making sure you are telling stories of your company, of your current talent, of your strategy and of the purpose of the company
Create video content that is experience-rich for the viewer and leaves them with an emotional reaction.
Market these videos where potential candidates can experience your brand in their personal time. Put a small budget behind your campaign and measure its success before putting significant financial resources behind it.
HUMAN TOUCH
Once a prospective candidate has experienced your brand and it has elicited them to take action and apply, make sure that the process from application to job offer is seamless. Make sure the application process is simple and easy for the user as there is a very high disengagement rate at this stage of the process.
Remember, we are in a human-to-human business, so make sure that your interview process isn’t over automated as it is very important that your prospective talent has human contact from your company.
This is a great opportunity to excite and delight them before they begin an interview process, giving your organisation an edge over others. It will also add to the experience the prospective employee has.
Linda Davis
FOLLOW THE LEADER
Key to your interview process is that all touchpoints that a prospective candidate has with your company need to be synergistic, so make sure that everybody involved in the hiring process has a deep understanding of your culture, your values and what is required of the person to be successful.
Remember, we are in a human-to-human business, so make sure that your interview process isn’t over automated
People buy into people and will follow leaders as well as brands, so make sure that all members are trained to deliver into the recruitment process.
Keep your prospective talent aware of the process and stay consistent and in constant contact with them. Nothing frustrates a prospective candidate more than not knowing where they are in process, or what the timelines are, or who they are meeting.
Remember whether you hire or not, every candidate who has an interview in your company is either a brand ambassador or a brand detractor, depending on their experience with your organisation.
Keep it simple, easy and full of communication.
