Any company may have the best marketing strategies, but in the end, it’s customers who will always have the stronger voice. Similarly, when it comes to your recruiter brand, employees and candidates will always have a bigger say about how your business treats its current and potential workforce. No matter how convincing your job postings or company descriptions may appear, positive reviews hail supreme.
If you want to increase positive reviews and improve your recruiter brand reputation, here are a few inputs that may prove helpful for your recruitment team as a start:
Take intuitive steps in asking for reviews.
Know when to ask for a review and how to ask for it. Sometimes the manner you’ll ask the candidate or employee for a review will affect the outcome and content. Paying attention to minor details in soliciting opinions could either lead to positive online reviews or unnecessarily bad ones because the candidate felt forced to write a review. To be intuitive in gathering reviews, consider these steps:
Ask at the right time.
Would you request for a review after the candidate was rejected for the position or when they receive news that they’ve been hired? Neither. While the former will surely rake in positive reviews, it’s no different from the latter. In both situations, the candidate is overwhelmed with emotions. This could factor into the review and create a false narration.
A good time to ask for the review is when the candidate is done with all the required steps in the recruitment process — perhaps, after the final interview. Since they have witnessed by then what goes on with recruiting future employees, they will have a good sense of what has happened and how they were treated.
Give options on how to deliver the review.
At the end of the final interview, you can send a link to an online form to be filled out. But some might appreciate the review to be done orally, through a series of interview questions. There’s merit in being more conversational with your candidates. This lighter atmosphere can work in producing more positive reviews. But then again, an option to do the review in secret should still be present.
Open-ended questions start the conversation well.
Whether it’s an online form or a short slew of inquiries, an open-ended question gives comfort to the candidate. Use questions like “How did you find the recruitment process?” and “What steps in the recruitment process do you think work best?” These questions help the candidate not only have freedom in answering but also look back at the process. Building comfort at the start will ease the candidate into opening up and sharing good experiences up to the end of the recruitment process.
Keep those positive reviews coming.
While the steps mentioned above are within the recruitment process, building a good employer brand reputation continues. The cycle of good employee experience starts with positive candidate feedback spreading to other candidates, who then prove on their own that your company does treat prospective employees well. Get this cycle going, and you will increase positive online reviews and boost your recruiter image.
Be the first to give positive reviews.
Especially for candidates that seem like a good fit, look into searching them on professional social media sites and giving them positive reviews as an applicant, too. Such social media sites publish testimonials on the professional qualifications of certain users. When the candidate sees your company has given them the thumbs up, they just might answer back through positive reviews, too.
Utilize reviews right away.
You may feature your positive reviews on your company’s social media accounts, official websites, or job postings, among many other channels. It will also be best to put up positive reviews you received recently to keep them updated. Especially if your recruitment team is currently on the lookout for fresh talent, displaying these positive reviews right away increases your chance of attracting the best candidates.
Analyze trends in reviews and apply adjustments immediately.
Just as the talent acquisition team is quick with the hiring process, train them to be quick in evaluating reviews as well. Seeing what the candidates enjoyed the most in the hiring process gives you a glimpse of what strong suits you can continue to apply. Being expeditious in pinpointing what candidates didn’t enjoy in the process means calibrating your recruitment steps immediately for the next applicant. This way, mistakes are avoided as soon as possible.
Commence damage control.
Of course, it won’t be raves and compliments all the time. While positive reviews beget positive reviews, the same goes for negative ones. Like in the consumer world, negative reviews are often a lot in volume and louder in sentiment than positive reviews. Nevertheless, there is still a way to turn those frowns upside down and make sure future candidates will only smile when they encounter your brand.
Negative reviews are everywhere.
Your social media is the best place to start. Compared to your website, social media have mechanisms for feedback both for candidates and consumers through direct messaging, forums, and comments section.
Next, delve into job seeker platforms. Usually, these have sections dedicated to company profiles and allow users to key in their experience with the said organization. Chances are your company might have an entry in these websites, and former candidates have said a thing or two.
Respond to negative reviews straight away.
Once you locate these reviews, approach the commenter by apologizing. Next, explain how the company is addressing the problem. Keep in mind that you should respond as authentically as possible without using canned responses.
Also, your response should resonate not only with the commenter but also with future candidates. They should see in your response that the company is aware of the problem and is doing something about it.
Finally, say thank you.
While this seems out of place considering that the commenter may be upset, take note that the person took time to post the negative review online instead of keeping it to themselves. Their negative review is an opportunity for your company to improve, so a little bit of appreciation would mean so much. Besides, you get to do professional and graceful communications with them when you thank them for going the extra mile to ensure that their concerns are noticed.
Find out your means to gather positive reviews.
Looking for and gathering all those reviews seems like too much work. While search engines can only get you so far, evaluating what these reviews are telling your company in unison can be daunting. There must be a better way to expedite these tasks so that reputation management would be a breeze.
Great Recruiter’s reputation management tool is a boon for companies who want to build and improve online brand reputation. With the tool’s real-time tracking of candidate reviews, you can get to the bottom of recruitment issues your company may be facing. Automated review requests keep candidate feedback coming, and you’ll have enough material to evaluate your company’s recruitment progress in no time.
Do these sound like promising means to maintain your recruiter brand? If yes, book a demo now.
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