20 Unique ways to get in front of candidates in 2020
Let’s face it: the internet is saturated with content. Because of the high volume of content, online users have developed high expectations when it comes to content. In order to invest their time in engaging with a piece of content, they need to be presented with something that’s high-quality and unique.
In other words, it’s getting tougher to actually compete and get the attention of prospective candidates - particularly since we’re not only competing with other employers, but also with a range of amazing consumer brands.
So how do you cut through the noise and stand out from the pack in 2020? We’ve compiled a list of 20 companies who have created stellar employer branding content to inspire you.
1 - Microsoft
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Telling stories that are actually stories.
How it works:
In the employer brand world, content can sometimes feel a bit cookie cutter. There are a lot of career blogs published that follow a Q&A style checklist and always ask the same questions, for instance.
The Microsoft Life blog, however features employee spotlights that feel like real stories - they have compelling topics and narrative arcs that draw you in.
2 - Twitter
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Showing candidates where they fit.
How it works:
Candidates who stop by your careers site have a limited attention span. If your site is frustrating to use or poorly organized, busy candidates won’t spend the time trying to figure things out - they’ll head over to submit their application to another organization instead.
Twitter has organized their career site architecture with the busy candidate in mind. As candidates search through Twitter’s applicant tracking system, they can filter for the ideal role based on what they’re looking to contribute or work on.
This engaging approach encourages site visitors to explore a range of roles across teams. It also demystifies the company's structure by providing clear, accessible information about what each area of the org is focused on.
3 - Amgen
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Providing real value to candidates.
How it works:
Amgen uses social to provide candidates with advice for excelling during the hiring process. This not only helps candidates prepare a great interview and rock their interviews, but it also brands Amgen as an employer that cares about the candidate’s experience and future success at the company.
4 - Washington Post
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Sharing employee bios via Instagram story highlights.
How it works:
Washington Post uses their Instagram account @washpostlife to showcase a different member of their team each week. They share their “life story,” proud moments, fun facts, and ultimately why they chose Washington Post for their career. The narrative style of these short bios, along with the tasteful positioning of the text, draw you in to want to learn more about each employee and the work they do.
5 - T-Mobile
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Using their well-defined career paths to land talent.
How it works:
Millennial and Gen Z talent want to understand how much growth they can anticipate and what their future might look like with an organization. T-Mobile fulfills this desire by laying out a few of their typical career paths in a visual, scrolling panel on the various team pages on their career site.
With a click, prospective candidates can learn all about the role responsibilities at each level, the average salary, and even explore open positions at each level.
6 - Booking.com
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Sharing a true-to-culture video campaign.
How it works:
Booking.com challenged their 14,000 employees to document their own trips and vacations with a company-provided GoPro. The campaign led to an inspiring video that aligns employees with Booking.com’s mission: “To empower people to experience the world.”
The video campaign not only created an impressive video with more than 5.5 million views but it also acted as a strong way to attract like-minded, adventure-seeking job candidates.
7 - The Home Depot
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Marketing their new mobile onboarding experience.
How it works:
The Home Depot introduced a mobile onboarding experience called “PocketGuide” that allows employees to leverage gamification to help them learn while on the job. PocketGuide delivers product knowledge and learning activities in the palm of your hand to reduce mundane office training. The Home Depot markets their latest digital experiences and self-service tech across their social media and careers site to attract and engage with new talent.
8 - Cisco
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Putting their inclusive culture front and center.
How it works:
Cisco created a recruitment marketing video and campaign showcasing their own employees with the slogan “Be you, with us.” The video demonstrates the value of unique perspectives and the freedom to share them in the workplace. This approach entices candidates who are keen to bring their full selves to work and avoid an antiquated corporate culture
9 - Teamweek
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Giving back to the environment.
How it works:
Teamweek candidates are asked to take a 20-minute skills test. For each passing grade, Teamweek plants a tree in their “Teamweek Forest” as a way to give back to the environment. By planting a tree for each high-achieving job candidate, Teamweek sends an important message about their employer brand and it allows them to attract candidates who share similar values.
10 - Salesforce
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Building brand advocacy with a fun hashtag.
How it works:
Salesforce created the hashtag #SalesforceOhana to show that their customers, employees, partners, and communities are one family (aka “Ohana”).
Salesforce uses the hashtag to encourage social sharing and brand advocacy. Employees have embraced the idea and regularly post moments from their work days and share why they love working for the company with their own social accounts. To date, the hashtag has been used on Instagram alone over 11,000 times!
Since candidates trust what employees have to say more than they trust what a corporate account is telling them, this type of employee-generated content goes a long way when it comes to grabbing a candidate’s attention.
11 - Heineken
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Leveraging interactive video content.
How it works:
Heineken launched a video campaign a couple of years ago informed by the real-life experiences of employees, to engage and inspire future talent. Named “Go Places,” the campaign invites candidates to respond to a series of questions to measure their interests and fit within the company. While the video helps candidates to understand their fit at Heineken, it also gives them insight into the creative and innovative culture they will be joining.
12 - Google
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Publishing a blog series spotlighting female colleagues.
How it works:
Google created a blog series called “The She Word” to highlight the dynamic and creative women working at Google.
Why is this a smart move? Simply put, when women see themselves represented in the culture on a company’s career site they’re more likely to apply, according to research by the Harvard Business Review. Google understands the power of gender equality and they have made it their priority to specifically highlight the contributions that brilliant women are making for the company.
13- Great Clips
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Creating beautiful job postings.
How it works:
Great Clips has ditched the “wall of text” style job description in favour of an aesthetically pleasing and visual experience. Their job descriptions act as a micro career site, where candidates can learn important information about the company and culture.
This is a smart move since many candidates might land on a job description directly from a site like Indeed, which means they’re missing the attention-grabbing culture content on your career site. Cutting through the noise with a job description that stands out from the crowd can also help to increase your site visitor to applicant conversion rates.
14 - Questrade
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Scheduling Twitter chats with candidates.
How it works:
Questrade has built out their own series of Twitter Chats using the hashtag #ChatQT. Questrade uses these Twitter Chats to encourage candidates and employees to “e-meet” online to discuss specific topics about the company. Questrade’s Twitter Chats bring together career experts and new talent to allow them to get a better idea of what the company offers, what a day in the life looks like, and if the company is a good fit for them.
15 - Starbucks
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Creating customized video playlists on YouTube.
How it works:
Starbucks clearly understands what attracts early career candidates - and where they’re spending time online. Their team showcases learning opportunities, career paths, cool projects, and the fun culture through custom video playlists on their YouTube channel.
16 - Accenture
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Sparking real conversations and tapping into candidates emotions.
How it works:
Accenture created a video campaign called “Inclusion Starts With I” to allow employees to share their diversity-related struggles in the workplace and encourage employees to behave inclusively.
The video features real employees’ honest and raw perspectives on stereotyping and exclusivity in the workplace. The fact that Accenture encourages these conversations as an employer showcases their commitment to inclusivity. This sort of meaningful and real content cuts through the noise and is appealing to a wide array of people who want to feel a sense of belonging at work.
17 - Eurowings Airlines
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Using a Tinder style approach to recruit (yes, you read that right!).
How it works:
Eurowings Airlines’ converted their job posts into Tinder profiles as part of a campaign. Candidates who clicked on a Eurowings profile card received additional information about the specifications of the job advertised. If applicants swiped right, they got the ‘it’s a match’ message, combined with further information about the job and a link to the Eurowings career site. Eurowings used the recruitment campaign to attract their desired talent audience - on-the-go millenials and GenZers who are up to date with the latest digital apps and trends.
18 - Amazon
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Hosting in-person job days.
How it works
Sometimes getting the attention of candidates in today’s digital world requires some offline efforts! Amazon hosts an annual “Amazon Jobs Day” to showcase what life at Amazon is really like. The company provides guided tours of its working locations and informal interviews held on site, offering candidates a unique look at the exact environment where they could be working.
19 - LEGO
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Putting creativity at the forefront.
How it works:
LEGO created an employer branding campaign called “Bring it to Life,” which encapsulated the LEGO values, culture, and working environment using LEGO products to recreate scenes in the workplace.
The LEGO team used its own products as a unique way to tell the employer story by showing candidates what a day in the life looks like. By featuring their recognizable toys with real-life messages, LEGO provided a fun approach to what their company culture is all about: the employee.
20 - IBM
What they’re doing that’s unique:
Telling employee stories - outside of work.
How it works:
IBM’s employee blog, #IBMazing, highlights the incredible things their employees are doing inside and outside of the office too. Through this blog series, candidates get to see the human side of IBM, meet their future colleagues, and get insight into the diverse range of people who make up the IBM team.
These examples demonstrate how thoughtful digital tools, storytelling, and creativity can be used to inspire and engage candidates as part of your employer branding strategy. By featuring real employee stories across different channels, companies provide candidates with the info they need to confidently apply to a role. And by taking advantage of social media and other digital channels, organizations are able to effectively increase their brand’s reach to attract more quality applicants.
Want to learn more?
Get in touch with our team to learn how you can level up your employer branding strategy! And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter in the footer below to receive how-to and inspiration articles like these on employer branding and recruitment marketing.
About The Employer Brand Shop
The Employer Brand Shop is a boutique recruitment marketing and employer brand agency located in Kitchener, Canada. Our team helps organizations around the world attract and engage talent using creative marketing strategies.