Credibility is a powerful aspect of building and sustaining your winning employer brand. Today’s job candidates are more savvy than ever – and most of them have their pick of potential companies to work for. They’ll see right through fluff and fabrication, so make sure your branding messages are authentic, transparent, and relevant to what desired talent is looking for.
As you develop your branding strategy, you may be wondering just how important employee testimonials are to its ongoing success. The answer is: very! Messages from current workers on what it’s really like to be on your payroll resonate much more strongly with desired talent than any more “canned” material that emerges from your C-suite. Why? Because peers relate to peers, or in this case, possible future peers.
Guide the Narrative
Close to 90 percent of job seekers look at reviews and company ratings before deciding where to apply. The way you brand yourself as an employer can have a significant impact on whether they’ll continue to pursue you or turn their attention elsewhere. Here’s where strong employee testimonials can help.
Never Underestimate the Power of Video
Video testimonials combine the shareability of video content with the trustworthiness of your best brand ambassadors, aka top-performing employees. Social media is where it’s at in today’s market, so use videos posted on your social platforms to maximize their positive impact.
When job seekers research a company, they’re looking to find out:
- Information on organizational culture and on their potential colleagues
- Answers to the question “Why would I want to work there?”
- Details about your company values. Do they align with those of the candidate?
- Specifics about your products or services, and how they could add value.
You can create story testimonials, which highlight employees’ personal experience with your company; journey testimonials which show employees’ growth within your organization, or Q&A testimonials, which address topics through a quick, snappy question and answer format. Or, a combination of all three. As you map out your branding strategy, figure out which option(s) would work best for you.
How to Collect Employee Testimonials
Knowing what to capture in employee videos and how to do it can make the process a little easier and less intimidating. Here are some tips:
- Prepare your employees ahead of time and give them topics to talk about – but avoid having them memorize scripts. Keep things natural, authentic, and from the heart.
- Give employees questions to answer. This often makes it easier for them to think of what to say, without needing a script.
- Keep testimonials short and sweet. Short videos are more likely to be shared on social media.
By the way: You can use these basic guidelines even for non-video testimonials.
Let the expert team at Haley Marketing make your job easier as you design and implement your dynamic employer brand for 2023 and beyond – as well as map out the other key elements of your successful talent acquisition strategy. Contact us today to learn more.
