Two recent situations prompted me to put some pen to paper. One organisation has had cultural and people issues over the past few years. They do some great work, but personnel change was needed and this was achieved. Now they have a fantastic team that works together and hold many social activities. Unfortunately the public perception of this organisation as a place to work is still negative. Makes recruiting people for them that much harder in what is a candidate short market for the type of employees they require. The key here is getting the message out so that they become an employer of choice again. This will be a process that takes time but a few ideas we have suggested implementing include:

• Social media coverage: utilising all relevant social media outlets, show people what it’s like to work there. Videos, images that give people an insight.
• The people. Make sure the current employees are brand ambassadors, Wellington is a small place and if everyone one of their 60 or so employees told 5 people a week how great it is to work there…..
• Make a song and dance when someone new comes on board, media releases, use social media. Show people who you are hiring and why they are coming on board. Maybe a video testimonial.
• Make sure current employees LI profiles are up to date, accurate and professional.
• When advertising for roles, make sure you communicate with everyone. We called a great candidate for a role here recently and they declined as they had applied there before and heard nothing back. People have long memories!

We are constantly on the lookout for new ways to show clients’ workplaces to the public – as this allows for a much easier recruitment process. Let us know if you have any other gems?

If you have a spare 10mins – have a look at what these guys get up to at Zappos