Does your employer brand stand up in testing times?

Company career sites are typically an extension of a company's personality and brand. You'll likely read about how a company is wonderful to work for, core values and what they stand for. But during the current pandemic, are companies living up to their words?

This current situation has had a massive effect on the jobs market. From an extended period of candidate scarcity to one where specific industries have temporarily closed down, while others are seeing huge demand.

We see an upturn in demand for support and care workers in the healthcare and not for profit sectors. At the same time supermarket staff, delivery drivers, warehouse workers and contact centres for vital services are in great demand. There's also a considerable call for volunteers, rightly recognising their value as essential pillars of our communities.

Industries rely heavily on careers sites for online recruitment and communicating employer brand

Before the current crisis, we know from research that charity/not for profit and retail sectors were experiencing a scarcity of qualified candidates and both heavily reliant on their careers/website for delivering the right quantity and quality of candidates - Source UK Candidate Attraction 2019/20. Image (right) shows charity/not for profit channel usage 2019/20.

They are not the only sectors; Education, Energy/Utilities and Science/Pharma rely on their career sites as the number one channel to attract and secure talent.

Does your employer brand stand up at this time of intense pressure?

While a career site is invaluable for online recruitment and delivering sourcing success, it should have the right candidate-centric content throughout your candidate journey, from attraction to onboarding. This can make a big difference for your candidate engagement and promote your employer brand. But, above all, it needs truth at its heart. Your employer brand is being put to the test right now. Those companies that have looked after their staff through troubled times, as well as those that have kept the nation moving, will be the ones remembered when we finally turn the corner.

Keeping your brand and values alive in the eye of a candidate

The latest research by Eploy & HR Grapevine shows that FAQ's and career pathways are not common topics on a careers/website (used by less than 25%), even job search and apply online is used by just 43% of the research participants. Yet leveraging your career site by having 'peak performing' content can make a huge difference to the quality and quantity of candidates it attracts and how they perceive you as an employer.

Peak Performing Careers Sites are...

6x more likely to have Interview Hints & Tips

4x more likely to have Department / Team Landing Pages

3x more likely to have How our Recruitment Process Works

2x more likely to have Employee Videos Learning & Development Diversity Career Pathways

The clear connecting feature of these content types is that they are valuable and useful for the candidate throughout their evaluation process, from first enticing them to apply, right through the application and assessment stages.

Industry examples of adapting

Here are two examples of companies that are adapting their recruitment practices to address the change in requirements.

Mencap, the UK charity for people with a learning disability are experiencing an urgent need to recruit for both permanent and relief positions. They reacted quickly using their recruitment technology to manage this critical need by adapting their online application process to fast track candidates into roles, removing the need for high call volumes to register with them and speed up the process further. Mencap utilised their employer brand across their careers site and other social channels to reinforce their values and the roles they had on offer.

We also see Morrisons making similar changes to recruit for roles to provide food and essential items for the nation. They have hired over 14,000 people across their stores in 14 days! How they have reacted quickly and made a positive effect with lasting impact is incredible. As well as recruiting for temporary positions through 'walk-ins' directly to store to speed up the process, permanent vacancies are listed on their careers site, searchable by business unit and location. This is supported by recruitment hints and tips, recruitment process journey – even examples of the type of right to work documentation required. In other words, candidate-centric content.