Autor: Inga Daliba I Owner of DarbaGuru I IPTER Latvia
If we speak of the matter of human resources, the power to attract and, unfortunately, also repel a particular personality is much stronger than a finely developed company logo, a thought-out job advertisement or a carefully chosen ad publishing platform. In particular, the personal brands of the manager and key people, including the personnel specialist, should be especially carefully considered in compact companies, where daily interaction between colleagues is very close, as well as in regions where available personnel resources are very limited.
Further, I will highlight several aspects and examples of personal branding or purposeful creation of own public image, which are especially important for attraction and retention of personnel.
- Visibility and easiness of finding
Can a potential employee, having opened the company’s website or googled the company’s name and the name and surname of the manager or personnel manager, “see the faces” of these persons and read their professional story, their qualifications and background, read interviews, opinion papers or opinion videos, blogs? Is this manager and personnel specialist visible in real and online environment, would you like to communicate with them during a break at a conference or workshop, invite them to join your social media profile contacts or write them a letter, for example, on LinkedIn.
Just as an employer checks information about a potential employee on the internet, so does a job seeker – looks for information about a company or a person who has addressed them on behalf of that company. I invite you to audit the visibility and easiness of finding the key people of your company by typing their names and surnames in search engines and checking what and how professional and high-quality information is reflected in the search results. The employer’s image of the company and the public image of the key people are closely related.
- Availability
The next aspect that should definitely be evaluated for the process of finding new employees to be as successful as possible is the availability of responsible specialists to candidates. An impersonal info e-mail in a job advertisement does not indicate anything good about the company’s culture, or at least does not indicate that the next person in the team is really welcome. The candidate must clearly understand which person in the company they can address with questions about job opportunities – is it the company manager themselves, or a specific personnel specialist, or a specific recruiter of the recruitment company representing this employer.
In the modern era of fast information exchange, it is worth to consider whether e-mail is the only possibility to receive applications and answer the questions of candidates. Maybe the selection process and communication with candidates can be fully transferred to social media messaging tools (Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn Messenger) or instant messaging tools (WhatsApp, Slack, etc.).
- Positioning and own story
Do you wonder does your circle of contacts clearly know what you are doing and what is your current actuality? Sometimes the right team member or partner is right next to you, but we don’t even notice it.
Tell about your occupation, about your unique field, about what is different from other market players and from other industry professionals. What is your as a personnel specialist’s mission in this company? What do you want to achieve with your activities? Why are you doing what you are currently doing? Tell personally – use „I“. This will create credibility for you and the company you work in.
- Reputation
The matter of reputation is critical in personnel attraction.
Reputation in the eyes of candidates is raised by:
- professional and consistent communication;
- publishing high-quality and true information on social media;
- expressing opinions and sharing advice, recommendations, important information;
- public recommendations, for example, on the LinkedIn profile, from line managers, customers, candidates, company employees;
- positivism and openness;
- clear professional goals, values and mission.
- Long-term thinking
Long-term processes can only be built if based in quality. Both the company manager and the personnel specialist must constantly strive to improve the skills necessary to those working in a “person-to-person” model on a daily basis. These are leadership, flexibility, openness, positivism, skill of life-long learning, public speaking, dress style, body language, provision of feedback, positioning, networking and storytelling skills, empathy and critical thinking.
I would like to wish the companies to not be afraid to grow and help to develop strong personal brands within organizations, within a team, because they gather purposeful professionals around them and thus help the company grow and develop.