Recruitment tips: happy staff, happy reviews

In this, the third part of our blog series of recruitment tips, we focus on what your staff – existing and past – are saying about you … and how this can affect what prospective employees might think about your business.

Two vital recruitment tips

1. Cultivate your culture, it’s important – it’s who you are! Nurture it and involve your staff.
2. Review your reviews – pay attention to Glassdoor etc. (see more below).

How to explain your culture – create a Culture Book

You may have heard of the term ‘Culture book’ and this is a fantastic way to show prospective recruits what your business is all about.

Perhaps take a look at LinkedIn’s Culture Book, which states that ‘The best companies in the world develop a unique culture … It takes effort!’ And they’re not wrong! Your culture will define your business both internally and to the outside world so you have to take control of it and work on it daily – otherwise it will take control of you!

Having a Culture Book shows that you care about your culture and spend time nurturing it, which is really important. It’s fairly straightforward to compile – just remember it should tell prospective recruits pretty quickly what they can expect and (hopefully) want to be a part of!

Note that the Culture Book is also firmly for existing staff and must belong to everyone in the company. It should be an organic document that evolves over time as people make new contributions. You might want to designate someone to collate everything and oversee new publications.

You can make this book available on your website and direct prospective employees to it.

Items you could include:

• Your mission.
• Vision.
• Company values.
• Qualities that you value in people – key aspirations and attributes like innovation, being proactive, accountability, drive.
• Your approach to work, your clients, and colleagues.
• News items featuring your business.
• Quotes from staff about what it is like to work at the company.

Remember you can’t hide from an online world!

With the advent of social sites like Google My Business (which has Google Reviews) – and Glassdoor – your existing staff and customers can give their verdict on your business. So you need to always have one eye on these reviews because your prospective staff and clients will also be looking at them. Encourage your contacts to leave positive reviews whenever you can.

Glassdoor is a very popular website for job seekers, with over 62 million unique monthly visitors. So having a high Glassdoor score is important – for your company’s reputation as well as for recruitment and staff retention. A low score and bad reviews of what it is like to work at your company will put people off working with you straight away.

Pay attention to Glassdoor and nurture your image there. Consider what potential employees would want and see how you match up:

• Check if you are offering competitive salaries for the roles you’re advertising.
• Do your benefits sound appealing and relevant to the people you are trying to attract?
• Check your interview comments.
• Check reviews of areas like career development and progression opportunities.
• Add photos that show a happy and successful team (awards for example).
• Post your company values there to show your business in a positive light.

Good luck and we hope you find some of these recruitment tips helpful. Do let us know if you have others to share with us!

As an IT Support company we are happy to talk to you about how tech can improve your business too – so do get in touch on the form below or by phoning 0330 124 3599.