According to a recent study conducted by Audencia's Positive Impact Chair with jobs_that_makesense, 81% of candidates emphasize the need for consistency with their personal values and beliefs, and 54% of them say they choose their employment according to its impact on the planet and society.
The expectations of candidates⸱e⸱s relate to the meaning they will find in their work, and beyond the job description, they are attentive⸱ve⸱s to other criteria in their job search .
In this context, how to recruit well? How to promote your employer brand to facilitate recruitment? How to better attract talent by highlighting the positive impact of your organization on society? We tell you about it.
Define your identity
Before communicating on your employer brand to better recruit, is it well defined and clear for everyone internally?
Your mission
This is the first element of your employer brand (and the one that appears just below your ad title on jobs_that_makesense). Explain simply and with passion the role of your organization for society. What you want to transform, change, revolutionize in your sector of activity. For example, Loom is not a clothing brand like the others. They define themselves as a militant company and have given themselves the mission of producing better and above all consuming (much) less. Defining your value proposition helps attract the best talent for you and will recruit employees aligned with it.
Your values
Company values are often what candidates join an organization for. Are you recognized for your professionalism? Your shared governance? Your authenticity? Your ethics? Make sure that the values are well understood by your employees. Sometimes, the company must also redefine them to create a common culture and know how to attract new relevant talent. Defining your values will also allow you to identify new employees who share them during your recruitments and therefore potentially correspond to your culture.
Build employee loyalty
To attract new talent, start by retaining old ones! Indeed, well-being at work, opportunities for development aligned with needs, a sense of belonging and good internal talent management are all factors that engage and contribute to the retention of potential ambassadors for your trademark: your employees. Word of mouth can positively and negatively impact the reputation of the employer and the attractiveness of the company, because it is your employee who will talk best about his professional life internally.
Communicate on your employer brand
The employer brand image must also be cultivated through your HR communication media. How to attract candidates through communication?
Be transparent
Tell the truth about your processes, your values, your governance, your corporate culture. Highlight who you really are. Moreover, transparency is part of the CSR commitments. At jobs_that_makesense, we have a compensation model known to all team members. This allows for some transparency within the organization.
—> To know how to be transparent, without an invisibility cloak, here is our article.
Do you have an impact study or a CSR report? Communicate it!
The impact study is both an approach and a regulatory dossier. This allows you to have a more in-depth reflection on the social and environmental impact of your project. It has three main objectives: to design a project that is more respectful of the environment, to shed light on nature and the decisions to be made, and finally to inform the public of your actions. Beyond the promise of impact, candidates who will see that you have made the effort to carry out this study or this assessment will more easily understand to what extent your impact is a real subject for you and that you are committed to let it be. This is the case, for example, of Clear Fashion, which has produced his impact study and makes it public.
Give proof of your commitment, mention your labels and/or certifications.
Labels give more credibility to your project and your desire to have a positive impact. There are many, likee B-Corp, ZEI, or Positive Workplace. Like the impact study or the CSR report, it is important to highlight this type of information, which can help attract talent. For example, you can share this information directly in your job advertisements by mentioning the label. On jobs_that_makesense, you can also add your labels, they will be highlighted on your ads.
Quality of life at work
Mentioning the quality of life at work is another very important element of your impactful employer branding, which helps to attract candidates, especially young talents who are sensitive to it. For example, talk about the quality of your workplace (and we're not just talking about having a football table or a ping-pong table). If you are in a coworking that brings together other SSE actors, you can mention it. You can also highlight the activities your employees can access, whether it's sports, inspiring talks from outsiders or even internal events.
You can also highlight testimonials from your employees on their well-being at work. Moreover, if you have made additional commitments in your human resources management, such as managerial practices, teleworking, innovative leave, or the right to disconnect, now is the time to mention it!
Finally, it may be important to highlight extra-remuneration benefits that your employees can benefit from, such as mobility packages or meal tickets for example.
Your governance
If you have governance that is a bit different from the classic patterns (shared governance, self-governance) on the job market, highlight it in your recruitment process, in your ads and on your career page! This will also allow candidates to understand your functioning, and therefore to understand if this functioning can correspond to them. At makesense we also have a shared governance model (or Opale governance), inspired by Frédéric Laloux's book. This governance allows everyone to have a say in the structure, but also to participate in important strategic or other decisions and therefore to retain the best talent.
Where to communicate on its impactful employer brand?
Here are 5 main channels on which you can communicate about your impactful employer brand.
On social media and the internet
These digital tools are often your first showcase for candidates. Communicate about what you do, the organization's mission, your strengths, your vision, your adventure, but don't forget to also communicate about yourself and your team! Photos, videos of your team, of your workplace allow candidates to project themselves. For example, the site Positive Workspace highlights all their collaborators, then displays its offers directly on its site, which allows candidates to understand who the members of the team are.
On jobs_that_makesense, the specialized job site impact
For your recruitment communication, you can post on jobs_that_makesense, the impact employment platform. Being present there means making your organization attractive to candidates sourcing offers with impact. Do not hesitate to indicate what you do well by creating your recruiter page on the platform to make yourself known as an impact employer. You can add your labels, create your career page with information about yourself, your impact, photos of your teams, etc. Your career page allows you to give candidates more information about your purpose, your impact and you can shape it as you wish. Here for example the carreer page of Makesense.
On your job offers
In the introduction or at the end of ads, for example, you can also talk about the benefits, your impact, labels, impact studies, etc. You can also indicate information about your team, who composes it, how many you are. By adding photos to your ad or career page, it also allows candidates to put faces on the team and be inspired. Finally, you can explain what your internal organization is and the different advantages of working in your organization within your offer, in a section "The + of this position to be filled" and/or "The conditions" for example.
During recruitment, make candidates want to join you
Your recruitment process must reflect your governance and your organization. By using an ATS (Application Tracking System), you will therefore be able to follow all the applications you have received and you will know where you stand: this is what we offer to all recruiters on jobs_that_makesense, by activating application tracking on the platform. Do not forget to contact each candidate again, whether for a refusal or a request for an interview. It’s always better to provide a good recruiting experience.
By speaking out on topics that interest you
Via your usual communication channels, articles, testimonials, on the specific subjects on which you stand out. By speaking out, you are also engaging on topics that are important to you, which could hold the attention of potential candidates and recruit easily. For example, the mutual Alan wrote an article on its salaries and on his pay scale, which makes it possible to get out of the taboo of pay. The start-up and clothing brand Hopaal created Hopaal Magazine and regularly writes articles on responsible fashion, the choice of certain materials and their transparency in terms of price, for example.
To conclude, do not hesitate to highlight what you do well, the candidates will be very sensitive to it. This will then allow you to have a well-established image of an impactful employer.