How To Improve Recruiting When You Have A Bad Reputation

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It’s fairly easy to attract new talent into your organization if it boasts a sterling reputation in the sector and is associated with values like innovation or industry leadership. Right?

But what do you do if you’re dealing with the opposite scenario? If, for whatever reason, your organization doesn’t have the greatest reputation out there in the market?

The reputation of any business is absolutely key to its recruitment strategy, since even unemployed people would rather remain without a job than join the ranks of a company with a bad reputation.

If you’re recruiting for an enterprise surrounded by a lot of negativity, here are some tips to help you change the public perception and attract talented workers in the process.
Key Takeaways:

• When you see any negative opinions or comments about your company, try to respond to them in a calm and polite way.

• Social media is a great tool to use when building your employer reputation.

• Try using captivating job stories and draw a picture of the role to help it seem more attractive.

6 Ways to Improve Your Recruiting When You Have a Bad Reputation

1. Deal With Negative Opinions

   The worst thing you can do to your company and its recruiting process is to allow those negative comments to run wild while you just sit and hope for the general opinion about your company to improve. Be proactive! If you see a negative comment about the company, try to respond to it in a calm and polite way.

   Be sure to monitor your online brand and address negative reviews as quickly as possible. Ignoring them, you’ll show that you don’t care about your brand reputation or that you simply cannot defend yourself because all of it is true.

   Show what it takes to succeed at the organization and share stories which explain what kind of people will be satisfied with working here.

2. Give a Voice to Your People

   No matter how much you praise your company and explain (or perhaps ‘defend’) the reasons behind its bad reputation, if you are the boss, candidates will expect you to do this and disregard your efforts.

   Allowing your employees, collaborators and customers to communicate their stories and experiences is your best strategy for showing a positive perspective on the company that is genuine.

   It’s their feedback that candidates will find most believable. Be sure to benefit from this powerful resource and use the help of your employees to build company reputation. Encourage your staff to share honest opinions about what is great and what could be improved about your organization. Always let them know how much you appreciate their feedback and engagement.

3. Use Social Media

   Building you employer reputation is most effective on platforms used by everyone in the industry, from brands and their employees to job candidates. Social media is there to help you gain a degree of control over your reputation.

   Build a positive image of your organization by showing what’s happening behind the scenes, promoting interesting industry content, sharing company photos, and linking to key resources in your posts to engage your followers and employees.

4. Create Captivating Job Stories

   Turn your job postings into interesting stories to avoid sounding boring and offer candidates a look into the opportunity, all the while making it even more attractive.

   Draw a picture of their role in the company, describe the kind of environment they’ll be working at and construct a vision of a fantastic job opportunity.

   Switching job descriptions for job stories is your best strategy for building a positive employer brand for your organization.

5. Revamp Your LinkedIn Profile

   When rethinking your personal LinkedIn strategy, do it with one aim in mind – to show that you’re a recruiter who specializes in hiring a specific type of candidate.

   Expect prospective candidates to vet you just as much as you vet them. Candidates will check out your profile to see how influential you are in their sector.

   If you present yourself as a general recruiter, they might think that you’re not well-versed in hiring their skill sets and your requests will likely be denied.

6. Address a Broader Group of Professionals

   Have you spent a lot of time and effort trying to attract the desired candidates but so far to no avail?

   Perhaps it’s time to broaden the scope of your search and count on those candidates who wouldn’t be discouraged by your reputation. Even if they didn’t work in the sector before or have only partial experience compared to what you’re asking for, you still might bring value to the organization by hiring them.

   Hiring for a company with a bad reputation is challenging, but those tips will help you to work out a strategy for boosting your employer brand and attracting talented candidates.

Recruiting FAQ

1. What is a common mistake to make when recruiting?

   A common mistake to make when recruiting is asking predictable questions that reveal nothing about the candidate. Questions such as “what is your greatest strength?” or “Tell me about a time you faced a challenge at work?” are questions that can have rehearsed answers.

   When you ask questions to a candidate, the goal is to knock them out of their comfort zone and get them to actually think about their answer. Getting them to think about their answer more will help you get to understand them on a deeper level.

2. What causes ineffective recruitment?

   Not setting measurable targets and goals and not defining your target group can be some causes for ineffective recruitment. Setting specific goals and targets before the start of the recruiting process can help measure your success. You should also have a target group in mind when you post a job listing. Without having an idea of who you want to hire can lead to the wrong person being hired.

3. What are skills needed for a recruiter to be successful?

   A good recruiter needs to have good communication skills and efficient organization skills. Having good communication skills is what makes a recruiter great. Without proper communication skills, a recruiter won’t be able to build the necessary relationships with candidates.

   Recruiters should also be able to have efficient organization to keep track of candidates, interviews, and meetings. Without organization skills, a recruiter might miss interviews or mix up candidates.

4. What is the most important goal in recruitment?

   The most important goal in recruitment is to attract the top candidates and building strong relationships with them. When hiring for a position, you want the best possible candidate for the job. Your recruiting process should be attracting the top candidates and making them want to work for your company.

Author

Bernadette Eichner

Bernadette Eichner has had a successful career in hospitality sales, real estate, and recruitment. In 1999, she founded HRM Resolutions, a strategic human resource consultancy, and later became a founding recruiter and investor at RecruitLoop.