Raise your hand if you spend time marketing your company, your employees, your teams, your culture and everything else in between. If your hand is up, great! You’re certainly on the right track with your Recruitment Marketing strategy. But there might be one valuable aspect that’s missing, and it’s one that can help you draw in top candidates.
I’m talking about your onboarding process. When job seekers are looking for their next opportunity, they want to know how they will be supported during their first few weeks and months in their new role and what is expected of them. If you market this information during the recruitment process, candidates who like what they see are more likely to apply and accept a position with your company.
Why is onboarding so important to Recruitment Marketing? More candidates are looking for growth opportunities in their next career move. A survey by The Muse found that compensation is not the most important thing to job seekers. Learning and growth opportunities and work-life balance were ranked 1 and 2 with compensation coming in 3rd. Plus research from the Brandon Hall Group found that a comprehensive and solid onboarding process can improve new employee retention by as much as 82%! On top of that, onboarding also helps improve their productivity by 70%.
Onboarding isn’t generally thought of as being part of what you promote in your Recruitment Marketing strategy. But it should be! In fact, your employer brand is the first step of onboarding. Once an offer is extended, the candidate experience hasn’t ended. It simply turns into the employee experience. Everything that candidates learned from their interactions with you during the hiring process — such as the company culture, values, mission and teams — they are now taking with them as employees.
By showcasing your onboarding program while candidates are considering an opportunity with your organization, you are more likely to draw in potential new employees who will be engaged and productive.
To learn what your company should be marketing for its onboarding process, here are the top things employees want when they first join an organization, according to LinkedIn:
- 72% want 1-on-1 time with their direct manager
- 67% want a clear outline of the performance goals they should aim for
- 57% want to see a plan for their first few weeks of employment
- 53% want to learn more about the company culture and values
Whatever your onboarding program entails, whether it be any of the aspects above or something else entirely, you’ve got to make it part of your Recruitment Marketing plan!
Take a look below at a few ways you can successfully market your onboarding process to candidates and see how some companies are already doing it.
Put it front and center on your careers site
One of the best ways you can capture candidate attention is to include details of your onboarding process right on your careers site. Job seekers often scour a careers page to find the information they are looking for. Make it easy for them to learn more about your onboarding by including it on the page! L’Oreal lists details of its onboarding program on its site, telling job seekers that new employees dive directly into their work as part of a tailored 6-month training program.
L’Oreal lists details of its onboarding program on its careers site, telling job seekers that new employees dive directly into their work as part of a tailored 6-month training program.
Showcase the importance of onboarding
Candidates know how important a strong onboarding program is, and they want to know that companies are aware of it, too! A good idea is to tell candidates how your company places a focus on onboarding and how it helps make employees more satisfied and productive in their roles. Medallia features a blog post written by their VP and head of HR that covers how the company has put time and effort into developing an effective onboarding program.
Medallia features a blog post written by their VP and head of HR that covers how the company has put time and effort into developing an effective onboarding program.
Let your employees tell the story
If anyone knows what your onboarding process is like, it’s the employees who have already gone through it! Give your current employees the spotlight to share their experience of participating in your onboarding program. Candidates will be interested to learn directly from employees who can share the details of what to expect and how it prepared them to work at your organization. Buffer turned over the keyboard to one of their employees to tell candidates more about what she experienced as a new hire at the company.
Candidates will be interested to learn directly from employees who can share the details of what to expect and how the onboarding program prepared them to work at their organization.
Make it visual and social
Content about your onboarding process should not be limited to just your careers site. Take it to social media! Whether it’s sharing content you’ve already created, posting photos and videos from new hire events or even resharing new employee-generated content, social media will widen your reach and put your company in front of candidates. Zappos shared a Twitter post about the celebration held for graduates of their new hire training program.
This Zappos Twitter post showcases both their onboarding program and the company culture.
Spread the onboarding news
Apart from your careers site and social media, it helps to share content of your onboarding process on other channels, as well. You never know where a potential candidate might be looking, and the right content can grab their attention! Formats like press releases and news articles in which your organization is featured helps to generate awareness. L’Oreal created a press release to spread the word about their Fit Culture App, which helps new employees learn more about the company and the culture.
L’Oreal’s Fit Culture App helps new employees learn more about the company and the culture.
Share additional development opportunities
Training and development programs shouldn’t stop after a new employee has been onboarded. Companies that provide more opportunities for employees to learn new skills and explore different facets of the organization see a happier and more productive workforce. If you offer these types of programs, include them in your Recruitment Marketing efforts! DigitalOcean has an Engineer Developer Program that is open to current employees looking for mentorship and skill building. The company features a blog written by the leader of this program to give candidates more information about what they offer.
DigitalOcean has an Engineer Developer Program that is open to current employees looking for mentorship and skill building.
When navigating the first few weeks and months at a new company, new employees want to know they’ll be supported by being given the right tools and resources to learn all there is to know about the company, the culture and what to expect. Providing this valuable information to candidates before they’ve even applied can tip the scales in your favor if they know they will join an onboarding program that is focused on setting them up for success as an employee.