Struggling to Attract Employees? Here's How Social Media Can Help.
It’s been a major headache for many firms over the past 18 months - employee attraction and retention. It’s been difficult to attract new talent as the pool has been small (thanks closed borders!) and people have been reluctant to move during uncertain times. Firms have been pushed to offer higher salaries and improved benefits to attract the right talent, which doesn’t necessarily result in retention. Also, we know the days of higher salaries are limited…
From experience, having spoken to many directors, they’re struggling to attract talent, even though word of mouth and client referrals remain high. This puts a huge amount of stress on internal resources and it’s more difficult to keep team prosperity and client deliverables in balance.
Why are we sharing this with you? Because it relates to social media and ‘employment branding’.
Imagine it from the job seekers perspective - they’re more likely to seek out an employer who fits their personal values than ‘some boring old firm’ (sorry!). Why should someone come and work for private practice when they could go and work brand-side, backed by a marketing team who prominently showcase an exciting, fun work culture?
In Blackjet’s books, this is a fine line to walk. It’s not a good look to only post about the amazing things you are doing internally, and show off how much money has been spent on activities. It may not provide the desired perception for prospects and current clients. Blackjet know it’s also crucial to tell a brand story, show commercial acumen, and demonstrate problem solving for clients. This is where an effective multi-level, mixed-topic social media strategy comes in.
It’s about playing the long game. Pulling together a problem-centric and people-focused social media strategy shows you are human; it proves the people within the firm are real and not compliance producing, box ticking robots which are just, *yawn*, boring. Sharing the stories of how you got to where you are, the stories of clients, the stories of your people, and the wonderful things you are doing is key.
Show people who you are, what you are about, solve their problems and engage. Social media is the modern way we learn about and perceive the world. If you continue to believe it’s not important, or aren’t doing it consistently (and well) – you’ll continue to suffer with recruitment.
To provide context; I recently employed two people who said they watched all of our videos, viewed all of our social media and dove deep into the social media treasure chest to find out everything they could about who we were. Throughout the interview process, they were able to relate what we were saying about the company to what they saw, and, fully visualise being part of the Blackjet crew.
Another client was able to recently attract two experienced industry professionals who were not actively looking. But, once the talent had seen the company culture on social media, they were able to be secured, adding two amazing assets to the firm.
So, I’d like to encourage you to think about how social media impacts the pipeline of employees for now and in the future. If you are unsure about what this might mean for you, contact me, Christine Westbury to discuss what an effective social media strategy might look like for your firm. Book a call with me here.
p.s. Here’s a thought: People want to work for firms they feel proud to tell their friends about. How good does it feel when your friends say “Wow, I saw on Linkedin that you were doing this – it looked so great!”?