It’s becoming increasingly clear that employer branding is a huge part of the recruiting process. Candidate’s today want an employer that showcases its brand in the best possible light. And jobseekers do not hesitate to consult multiple sources—whether it’s LinkedIn®, Glassdoor, or family and friends—to get more insight into a prospective employer’s culture, which means your brand is being showcased in more locations than you think. In order to make your company stand out among the rest, here are a few tips on creating a winning brand aesthetic—specifically where your career pages are concerned.
In today’s mobile and social world, candidates have more brand touch points with your company than ever before. They’re seeing your logo, website, company e-mails, social accounts, and more—sometimes several times a day. As a result, your brand’s visuals play a strong role in shaping a candidate’s opinion of your company.
Dial in on the Vibe
Aesthetics are about more than just your logo and color palette. Those are part of the picture, but your brand’s overall aesthetic is the larger sum total of different elements of the candidate experience.
It also includes your team’s attitude, the style of layout you use on your career pages, and even the types of in-person experiences or interviews that you create. If you had to boil down the feeling of your brand, how would you encapsulate it? What “vibe” does your brand give off to customers and candidates, alike? Think about ways to reflect your goals and presence in easy-to-convey language. Some examples might include:
- Elegant, minimalist, refined
- Colorful and funky, with an informal flare
- A high-touch, high-end experience that speaks of luxury
Defining your “vibe” essentially boils down to the type of candidates your company is trying to recruit. You wouldn’t want to give off a “fun, playful” vibe if you’re trying to recruit mortuary assistants, for example.
Lean into the Power of UX
Your user experience (UX) is a critical part of your overall aesthetic. Today, the UX of your website, apps, and digital experience mediates an important percentage of your candidate’s experience. Think about ways to translate your larger visual objectives into your digital properties.
For example, look at your design and layout of your careers’ page. Does the experience you’re currently offering digitally align, or can you take steps to improve your UX? Take into consideration the fact that jobseekers are becoming increasingly more reliant on mobile technology. From an application standpoint, jobseekers don’t want to have to fill out 10 pages of an application from their mobile devices, therefore the UX should be seamless and easy to use.
For many brands, spending time on improving the user experience can pay dividends across the board and further infuse your aesthetic into every part of the candidate experience.
Engage in Visual Storytelling
Another way to subtly convey your brand’s larger message is through visual storytelling. The images, infographics, and videos you use are powerful communicators. If your brand is trying to cultivate an aesthetic, consider looking critically at this element of your candidate communications.
To have an even larger impact, consider creating visual branding guidelines that speak to your aesthetic and distribute them to every department that’s involved in the recruiting process. By getting every department involved, you’ll learn what potential candidates are looking for when it comes to working in those specific roles.
There are many levels to a brand aesthetic that fall outside the realms of traditional branding. In a highly design- and visually-oriented climate, it’s important to think about and find new ways to stand out. Committing to defining and building your aesthetic is one way to create a winning candidate experience and to differentiate your brand from the competition.
Elena Valentine and Katrina Kibben will explain, in great detail, how storytelling can help attract candidates and keep them engaged during the entire recruiting process. Join them for the interactive workshop: The Power of Storytelling: How to Design and Deliver Recruitment Messaging to Supercharge Your Hiring Strategy, at RecruitCon 2019. Click here to learn more, or to register today!
