Category: Candidate Attraction

Rural Healthcare: How to Recruit and Attract Clinical Talent in Rural Areas

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Healthcare providers in rural areas face unique obstacles when it comes to recruiting and retaining clinical talent. The growing shortage of nurses and physicians coupled with declining rural populations makes it more challenging than ever for rural healthcare organizations to attract physicians, nurses and other specialized clinical professionals. In this post, we cover the healthcare recruitment challenges faced by rural healthcare organizations and actionable advice on how to overcome them with smart talent acquisition strategies.

Rural Healthcare Challenges

Modern Healthcare reports that 77% of rural counties in America are experiencing shortages of primary care physicians, and the number of surgeons practicing in rural counties has decreased by 21%. What’s more, the Council of State Governments reports that more than 60% of areas experiencing nursing shortages are located in rural regions. Recruiting and retaining clinical professionals in these underserved rural communities remains a significant challenge for states and county governments and healthcare organizations. Economic, educational, professional and cultural dynamics affect the clinical talent shortages in rural areas including the following factors:

  • Many universities and institutions of higher learning are located in more urban regions, limiting rural healthcare organizations recent graduate talent pool.
  • Access to professional development and education programs may be limited in rural areas which can discourage candidates looking to further their career training and education.
  • Candidates with experience working in urban areas may not be prepared for or willing to adapt to the culture and lifestyle changes inherent with living in rural communities.
  • Rural healthcare organizations may not have enough opportunities for career advancement within the organization.
  • Rural healthcare organizations often face understaffing leading to increased workloads, extended shifts and less scheduling flexibility.
  • Urban healthcare organizations may be able to offer more competitive salaries, benefits and better working conditions.
  • Rural communities may offer fewer career opportunities for spouses and children of candidates.

Recruiting Strategies for Rural Healthcare Organizations

To overcome healthcare recruiting challenges, rural healthcare organizations need to employ various strategies focused on attracting and retaining clinical talent. Below, we list four approaches rural healthcare organizations can utilize to source, hire and retain clinical talent.

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Recruit Foreign-Born Talent

Rural healthcare providers should not limit their talent search locally. Federal programs like Conrad State 30 allow a state’s health department to request J-1 Visa waivers for a maximum of 30 foreign-born physicians per year. For foreign-born physicians to be accepted into the program, they must agree to work in a Health Professional Shortage Area or Medically Underserved Area. Healthcare organizations located in one of these federally designated areas can reach out to their state’s health department and request J-1 Visa recipients be sent to their facility if they display sufficient need.

Non-immigrant H-1B Visas can also be used to fill clinical employment gaps for rural healthcare organizations. H-1B Visas are employer-sponsored and are reserved for “specialty occupations,” including medical doctors, nurses and physical therapists. H-1B visas are issued for three years and can be extended to six years depending on circumstance.

While exact H-1B Visa requirements vary by state and each state is given some flexibility in determining program rules, all of the following are required by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services:

  • The recipient must have a full-time contract for employment as a direct care healthcare worker in a region designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area, Medically Underserved Area or a Medically Underserved Population.
  • A firm commitment from an international medical graduate to begin employment within 90-days of receiving a visa waiver.
  • Three years of employment, specifically in H-1B temporary worker status, with the sponsoring employer.
  • A no-objection letter from the visa recipient’s home country if the talent exchange was subsidized by the home government.

Offer Recent Graduates Loan-Repayment Assistance    

According to Debt.org, more than 76% of medical school graduates exit school with average $189,000, in student loan debt. What’s more, 47% of graduates owed $200,000 loans and 13% owed more than $300,000. Rural healthcare organizations can attract these young clinical professionals by offering loan repayment programs and incentives. If a rural healthcare organization is unable to afford its a loan repayment program, there are multiple state and federal programs designated to assist rural healthcare organizations. Below, we list three long-standing federally subsidized loan repayment incentive programs:

Maintain a Steady Candidate Pipeline

The healthcare talent shortage has placed a premium on clinical healthcare workers. Rural healthcare organizations have to reconcile the fact that some of their talent may be lured away by offers from competitors in more attractive locations. To stay ahead of talent attrition, rural healthcare organizations need to build and maintain a verdant candidate pipeline. Below we share strategies on how to build and cultivate relationships with potential candidates:

  • Healthcare organizations should position themselves as rural training sites for medical students, primary care residents, nurses and other clinical roles looking to experience healthcare in a rural setting.
  • Staff members should be encouraged to network and cultivate a rapport with potential candidates at medical conferences, professional development workshops, networking events and trade shows.
  • Recruit traveling nurses, physicians and locum tenens clinical professionals who may also be on the lookout for permanent practice opportunities.
  • Recruiters for rural healthcare organizations should be provided with subscriptions to candidate sourcing services and encouraged to reach out to candidates who have experience working in rural healthcare.

Sell the Community to Candidates

Many candidates may have preconceived notions regarding rural communities — and not all of them positive. To assuage a candidate’s doubts about working and living in a rural setting, it is important for healthcare organizations to highlight the strengths and positive attributes of their community. Recruiters can point to the lower cost of living in the community and how that can make the compensation packages more attractive. Elements of a community’s culture such as recreational and leisure activities, natural beauty, festivals, fairs, the arts scene, spiritual and religious institutions and a community’s character may make the position more attractive once highlighted. Additional factors such as the community being a good place to raise children, an opportunity for more professional independence and the chance to offer more personable patient care are all positives that can be presented to interested candidates.

Conclusion

For rural healthcare organizations facing recruiting and retention challenges, employing some of the approaches and strategies outlined in this blog will help attract vital clinical talent. Improved talent acquisition, in turn, will enhance the quality of care rural healthcare organizations provide to their communities.

How to Use Pre-Employment Assessments and Testing in Healthcare Recruiting

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From resumes to references and cover letters, healthcare organizations have multiple sources of information to learn about the skills and competencies of a potential hire. Even with this information, it can be hard to get to know candidates throughout the hiring process. Healthcare HR professionals can use pre-employment testing to more accurately ascertain the strengths, weaknesses and overall suitability of a candidate. In this post, we cover the basics of pre-employment assessments and ways healthcare recruitment teams can leverage them to make better healthcare hiring decisions.

What is Pre-employment Testing and Assessment?

A pre-employment assessment is a method used by an employer to evaluate a candidate’s skills, intellect, personality and other traits. Recruitment process outsourcing providers, healthcare hiring managers and recruiters are all relying more heavily on data-driven talent management practices. According to a survey conducted by the American Management Association (AMA), the use of pre-employment assessments is growing steadily. The AMA’s study revealed the following:

  • 70% of employers conduct job skill testing at some point during the hiring process
  • 46% of employers conduct personality or psychological assessments of job candidates
  • 41% of employers test candidates for literacy and math aptitude

Assessments can provide valuable information on a candidate’s ability to successfully execute their duties in the workplace. Below we list the three popular types of pre-employment assessments and their functions:

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Pre-employment aptitude tests

According to a study conducted by LinkedIn, the most important traits employers seek in candidates are problem-solving skills and the ability to learn new concepts. These traits are hard to measure based solely on a review of a candidate’s resume or during an interview. An aptitude test is used to measure a candidate’s critical thinking, problem-solving skills and ability to learn and apply new information.

Pre-employment personality tests

A personality test seeks to answer the following questions for organizations: Will the candidate be happy in this position? Does the candidate possess the behavioral traits and attributes needed for success in this role? Dissimilar from an aptitude test, there are no right or wrong answers to the questions on personality tests. Measuring behavioral traits can help healthcare organizations predict job fit by determining if a candidate’s behavioral tendencies line up well with an organization’s culture and the demands of the position.

Pre-employment skills tests

Skills tests are designed to measure job-related skills, including skills from verbal, math and communication abilities, to typing and computer literacy. Many skills tests in healthcare are designed to measure more specific medical-related skills such as medical terminology, patient safety practices or other knowledge unique to the healthcare work environment.

The Value of Pre-Employment Testing and Pre-Employment Screening in Healthcare

Pre-employment assessment tests offer wide-ranging benefits from streamlining the recruiting process to strengthening a healthcare organization’s capabilities by increasing the chance that a new hire will be effective in their role.

A study conducted by Gallup concluded that companies that selected the top 20% of applicants based on talent assessments increased productivity by 10% and decreased turnover by 10%. Below, we list five of the most significant benefits a healthcare organization may experience after implementing pre-employment testing.

1. Lowering employee turnover

Employee turnover is a major issue for many healthcare organizations. The costs of turnover can be significant. Pre-employment assessments can help healthcare recruiters increase employee retention by making sure that new employees possess the basic skills required for the job along with the appropriate personality, or character, to feel comfortable working with a particular healthcare organization or medical environment. These factors may decrease the chances of candidates being let go for poor performance or failure to successfully complete training, as well as the likelihood that employees will quit of their own volition.

2. Reducing time spent on screening candidates

According to Recruiter.com, recruiters spent 63% of their workweek on the phone screening candidates. By requiring that candidates take pre-employment testing earlier in the recruiting process, healthcare organizations can quickly filter out candidates who do not possess the minimum skills or traits desired by hiring managers, which frees up time for recruiters to speak with more qualified candidates.

Moreover, setting minimum cutoff scores for certain assessments can narrow down the number of candidates selected for a phone or in-person interviews. Reducing the time dedicated to the screening process can drastically reduce the overall time to hire candidates.

3. Identifying prospective leaders

According to a survey conducted by the American College of Healthcare Executives, more than half of respondents agreed with the statement: “In general, over the last five years, my firm’s healthcare clients have changed the requirements for skills, knowledge or credentials needed by members of their senior leadership teams.” Respondents most often named emotional intelligence, ability to influence rather than direct, strategic thinking, collaboration and critical thinking as the skills most desired in healthcare leadership.

Pre-employment screening presents an opportunity to identify candidates who possess the potential to ascend to leadership roles by testing candidates on the leadership qualities they value most. Hiring healthcare workers who possess leadership potential can help healthcare organizations source harder-to-fill leadership positions internally in the future.

4. Building successful teams

Quality patient care is at the core of successful clinical hiring. To provide quality care, a healthcare organization’s staff needs to work towards the shared mission of caring for and serving patients with dignity, empathy and respect. This sense of common purpose begins with building effective teams within a healthcare organization.

Pre-employment assessments such as personality tests can be used to measure the behavioral traits not only central to job performance, but also to a candidate’s ability to work within a team structure. On personality tests, there are no right or wrong answers; however, the answers can provide healthcare organizations with insights into whether a candidate will fit in with their team and the organization’s overall culture. Traits such as strong interpersonal skills, good communication skills and high levels of empathy can all indicate that a candidate works well with others and can provide patients with quality care.

5. Recognizing strengths and weaknesses

From soft skills such as bedside manner to hard skills like technical proficiency, a properly administered pre-employment testing can uncover a healthcare applicant’s professional strengths and weaknesses. Identifying strengths and weaknesses using assessments can help HR professionals by:

  • Identifying candidates with high levels of initiative and strong work ethic
  • Screening out candidates who may be unreliable
  • Reducing the potential of hiring the wrong candidates and wasting resources on training
  • Helping HR leaders develop training programs for current employees based on insights gleaned from the strengths and weaknesses of candidates

By utilizing pre-employment screening and assessments, healthcare organizations can better understand where a candidate will excel, which of their skills may need nurturing or training and if they are well-suited for the roles they are applying to.

Conclusion

By utilizing pre-employment assessments tests, healthcare organizations can employ a less biased and more efficient method of hiring candidates. Furthermore, the data provided by pre-employment assessments can better inform hiring managers and recruiters of the skills and traits possessed by applicants and can be used to better position job descriptions and optimize training procedures. If you would like to learn more about pre-employment screening technology, check out PeopleScout’s proprietary recruiting technology platform, Affinix and check out other great strategies for healthcare recruiting including healthcare RPO.

Leveraging Recruitment Marketing to Attract Healthcare Talent

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Recruitment marketing has evolved from being an emerging trend in talent acquisition to a necessary strategy to attract top candidates, especially in competitive talent markets. Given the shortage of healthcare talent in both clinical and non-clinical roles, organizations looking to attract and hire the best candidates need to leverage recruitment marketing strategies to stay competitive. In this post, we outline key strategies to help healthcare organizations build a robust healthcare recruitment marketing program.

Clearly Communicate the Employer Brand and Value to Healthcare Talent

Healthcare hiring managers spend a lot of time crafting the persona of their ideal candidate. However, some hiring managers neglect to address the value their healthcare organization presents to potential candidates. Building a strong employer brand can have a positive impact on recruiting. In fact, according to a LinkedIn survey, 75 percent of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before applying for a position. This means candidates are as concerned with the reputation of a potential employer as the employer is concerned with a candidate’s experience and work history.

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To present value to candidates, healthcare hiring managers and recruiters need to look through a marketing lens and carefully reflect upon how their employer brand will be interpreted by healthcare talent. Good employer branding not only communicates an organization’s mission and values, but also the experiences and triumphs of an organization’s current workforce. Effective employer branding highlights employee engagement within an organization and the community it serves and will attract like-minded candidates eager to help an organization achieve its goals and objectives. Below we outline a few ways healthcare organizations can better communicate their employer brand to candidates:

  • Hire a film crew or photographer to take candid shots of the facility and employees. Candidates are savvy enough to tell the difference between stock photography and real employee photos and will appreciate a real look inside of an organization.
  • Tell the stories of real employees progressing and excelling within the organization. These stories serve as an inspiration and show candidates that there is a clear path to advancement and success if they join the team.
  • Review the organization’s social media accounts to see if it reflects the culture of the organization and whether it is used to full effect to highlight employee success stories, internal commitments to staff and fun work-related activities.

Update the Career Page

Providing an excellent candidate experience is a vital component of an effective recruitment marketing strategy and building a well-designed and easy to navigate career site can help positively impact candidate experience. What’s more, Talent Board found that 64 percent of candidates listed career sites as a top resource for researching new opportunities. When candidates visit a career page, it is often the first experience they have with an organization. From the moment a candidate lands on a career page, he or she begins to sketch out a mental image about an organization, its facilities and employees, so it is vital to provide applicants with the information they want most. According to a Glassdoor survey, the top five pieces of information job seekers want employers to provide on a career site are:

  • Salary and compensation information
  • Employee benefits and perks
  • Basic company information
  • What makes an organization an attractive place to work
  • The organization’s mission, vision, values and culture

Beyond providing applicants with the information they want, healthcare organizations also need to make applying for open positions simple. Sometimes replying to a job posting can be a frustrating experience. Many career sites have a burdensome online application process that bogs down applicants with long forms and multiple hoops to jump through before they can submit their resume. This leads to lots of qualified healthcare talent leaving applications half-complete or worse, applying with a competitor.

To prevent applicant frustration and abandonment, healthcare organizations should build career pages that have an easy interface with no separate URLs or pop-up screens. According to a study from Appcast, recruiters can boost application conversion rates up to 365 percent by reducing the length of the application process to five minutes or less.

A well-designed career site can also help filter out unqualified candidates. Healthcare staffing teams should structure applications to include screener questions to filter out unqualified job candidates so talent acquisition resources can be dedicated to engaging the most qualified applicants.

Invest in Content Marketing to Recruit Healthcare Talent

The objective of content marketing is simple: create relevant and engaging content aimed at current and potential customers in an attempt to educate them on products, services or topics of interest. While the majority of content marketing efforts are targeted at obtaining clients, content marketing can also be leveraged as a recruiting tactic to attract and engage healthcare talent.

Healthcare recruiters looking to deploy content as another tool in their talent acquisition arsenal should work with their organization’s marketing team to create compelling content. Compelling content can come in many forms such as blogs, ebooks, podcasts and videos. The only prerequisite to great content is that it should tell a story can add value for readers and in turn, improve the candidate experience.

Beyond the above-mentioned content vehicles, interactive content can also make a significant impact on job seekers. According to a report by the Content Marketing Institute, 81 percent of content marketers agree that interactive content grabs attention more effectively than static content, and 79 percent agree that interactive content enhances retention of brand messaging. Interactive content provides candidates with a two-way conversation and is more personal than other pieces of content. A simple yet fun quiz that tests how well a candidate aligns with an organization’s brand values or video tours of the facility allow candidates to research a potential employer and helps them feel more in control of the recruiting process.

SEO and Healthcare Talent Acquisition Strategy

The best recruitment marketing strategy is only as effective as an organization’s presence on search engines. What’s more, 30 percent of Google searches—around 300 million a month—are employment related. In the highly competitive healthcare talent market, ranking well on search engines and job boards can mean the difference between attracting a steady stream of healthcare talent and losing talent opportunities to competitors. Below we list recruitment marketing SEO basics:

  • Create a distinct, index-able job page for each open position and at each location if applicable
  • Ensure jobs pages are marked up with the proper schema and metadata structured data
  • Send regular XML sitemap updates to Google

In addition to SEO basics, properly optimized job postings provide additional job data Google finds valuable. This data can be added to a job post to help Google index and rank the page better. Remember, Google values “completeness of data” so the more information placed in a job posting, the more likely it is to turn up in the top results of a job candidates search. For better optimization, job postings should include:

  • Employment type (full-time, part-time, temp-to-hire)
  • Salary or hourly pay rate
  • Minimum education requirements
  • Minimum experience requirements
  • “Valid through” date
  • Work hours and schedule type
  • Industry sector: i.e., biomedical, hospital food service, laboratory work, etc.
  • Required skills such as “ability to lift more than 20 pounds” and “MS office proficiency”
  • Qualifications, certifications and experience
  • Responsibilities and job duties that are clearly defined

Job titles are also an extremely important SEO factor for ranking in search engines and on job boards. When drafting job postings, make sure common titles are used for open positions. For example, a healthcare provider looking to boost nursing recruiting might refer to nurses as “medical ninjas” instead of their traditional title. While quirky and unique, job seekers will never search for “medical ninja” openings when looking for a job. It is best practice to use common titles and standard terminology as keywords that job candidates are likely to use in their search.

Conclusion

As the skills shortage in healthcare remains a factor in recruiting healthcare talent, organizations need to continue to find ways to attract candidates. By implementing a strong recruitment marketing program, healthcare organizations will ensure they stay ahead of the talent curve. A healthcare RPO partner can guide you through creating effective campaigns that will make an impact.

The Long-Term Unemployed: Your Untapped Talent Pool

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While many signs point to a U.S. economy that’s made a strong, steady recovery from the Great Recession, the number of long-term unemployed Americans remains high. As the market for talent tightens, the long-term unemployed can be a valuable opportunity for employers.

The long-term employed are defined by the Labor Department as having been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer. More than 2.3 million Americans are considered long-term unemployed, but that data fails to account for people who have become discouraged and haven’t applied for a job in the past four weeks or those who have recently taken short-term, temporary assignments to make ends meet during an extended period of unemployment.

The Business Case for Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed

To stay ahead in the current talent market, employers need to look differently at the types of candidates they consider. For job seekers, the longer they are unemployed, the less likely they’ll get called for an interview or find a new job, according to analysis from the World Economic Forum. Many employers see a long resume gap as a red flag, but that thinking should be reconsidered.

According to Deloitte, hiring the long-term unemployed can prove to be a business advantage. Rather than unqualified, the long-term unemployed are under-accessed, and evidence suggests that companies who hire long-term unemployed workers have a more reliable and loyal workforce with higher retention rates.

Additionally, targeting the long-term unemployed can also lower your sourcing costs. If you are currently filtering out the long-term unemployed, intentionally or unintentionally, you’re narrowing your talent pool, which could mean you’re spending more bringing in candidates from out of town. Looking at the long-term unemployed gives you a larger talent pool.

Hiring the long-term unemployed also has a positive impact on your local community. The benefits of employment compared to the toll of unemployment are clear. When people are employed, rates of depression and divorce go down, self-esteem goes up and children do better in school.

Who Are the Long-Term Unemployed?

Long-term unemployment impacts people of all ages and backgrounds with all levels of experience and education, but according to Deloitte, it does hit some groups especially hard.

  • 27 percent of the long-term unemployed have post-secondary degrees (compared with 24.5 percent of the short-term unemployed)
  • Nearly 50 percent of the long-term unemployed belong to a minority group
  • 40 percent of the long-term unemployed are women
  • The three industries with the most long-term unemployed people are wholesale and retail trade, professional and business services and leisure and hospitality. About 37 percent of the long-term unemployed worked in one of those industries.

Best Practices for Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed

Organizations looking to increase their hiring of the long-term unemployed should develop a program or work with a partner with experience hiring the long-term unemployed. These best practices recommended by Deloitte should be a part of your long-term unemployed hiring program.

1. Use language in job postings and advertisements that doesn’t dissuade the long-term unemployed

The first hurdle is getting the long-term unemployed to apply to your open positions. Many become discouraged, and some common job description phrasing can dissuade the long-term unemployed from even filling out an application.

When you write job postings, avoid phrases like “must be currently employed” or “actively employed.” Instead, list the years of experience needed and use terms like “significant” or “recent.” As the candidate moves into the application, don’t ask candidates for their “current employer,” and don’t ask a mandatory question about “current job details.” Instead, ask the candidate to list their previous employers, starting with the most recent.

2. Eliminate filtering that dismisses long-term unemployed candidates

Once a long-term unemployed candidate applies, you need to make sure you don’t inadvertently filter them out. Review these filters in your ATS:

  • “Employment status”
  • “Dates of current employment”
  • Filtering candidates who do not answer “Can we contact your current employer?”
3. Use screening methods that emphasize skills

As you screen long-term unemployed candidates, use skills assessments and behavioral interviews to determine if the candidate is a good fit for the position. In addition to job-specific skills assessments, AI-enabled video interviewing technology can help you assess a candidate’s soft skills.

In the interview process, behavioral interview questions can help you better assess what a candidate can do and will do rather than what they currently do on a day-to-day basis. Ask questions that start with the phrase “tell me about a time when.” You may have additional questions for long-term unemployed candidates. It’s important to determine what they did during their unemployment and if any skills from temporary jobs or volunteer positions can apply.

4. Work with community partners

Working with local organizations that support the long-term unemployed can help develop and strengthen your hiring program. The organizations can provide a pipeline of prescreened candidates with relevant skills and experience. They can also provide insight into any specific needs of the long-term unemployed in your community.

At PeopleScout, we have a partnership with Skills For Chicagoland’s Future, an organization that helps place the long-term unemployed with employer partners. Since 2013, PeopleScout and its parent company, TrueBlue, have hired 465 people and contributed financial support to help Skills expand its impact locally and place more people in jobs. Most were employed as entry-level recruiting coordinators in our Chicago headquarters, and many have been promoted into other roles in the company.

The Ready to Work Business Collaborative is a national organization that brings together the long-term unemployed, under-employed, people with disabilities, veterans and opportunity youth with employers who want to hire them. At PeopleScout, we’ve partnered with the Ready to Work Business Collaborative since 2017. Through that partnership, we’ve been able to help build a toolkit to assist other employers hire these underutilized groups.

Four Ways to Strengthen your Employer Brand and Recruit Top Talent

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As the global economy grows and the talent market tightens, employers are facing increasing competition for the best workers. To succeed in attracting the best candidates and retaining top talent, organizations must place increased focus on their employment brand.

The World Economic Forum contends that “human capital is critical not only to the productivity of society, but also the functioning of its political, social and civic institutions.” The demand for high-skilled labor is growing faster than supply, with a deficit of 38 to 40 million workers with advanced education worldwide. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) 2017 survey, 77 percent of CEOs say they’re concerned that a shortage of key skills could impact their company’s growth.

In that same PwC survey, 69 percent of CEOs say they are convinced that it’s harder to gain and retain people’s trust in a digital and connected world. Cultivating trust is key to building a strong employer brand and recruiting top talent. An employer brand is a public perception of what it’s like to work for an organization. It’s what job seekers and employees think about when a company’s name is mentioned. With a strong employer brand, organizations can attract the right talent, without relying solely on compensation to improve retention rates.

In the current digital environment, job seekers are inundated with information about your organization – through your marketing, news, blogs and website. Even if your organization consistently puts out strong marketing content to attract talent, job sites like Glassdoor can help or hinder your brand and reputation based on employee reviews. 70 percent of job search candidates will use Glassdoor to help make informed decisions before they commit to their next career move. With so much information available to job seekers, employers need to be engaged with what’s being shared online.

How do you build a culture of trust and improve your employer branding?

1. Give your employees a voice on your blog and social media

The best advertisement you can get for your employer brand is recommendations from your employees; it’s the only form of advertising that is authentic. With the rise of social media, companies are more exposed than ever, whether they want to be or not. Giving your employees a voice empowers engagement and gives them ownership of the brand message.

Allowing your employees to contribute to your blog and social media accounts gives your readers a different perspective. By sharing their knowledge and experience, employees can offer an inside look at what it’s like to work for your organization. According to the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer Study, 62 percent of respondents found a company’s social media more convincing than their advertising. This means that giving an employee a voice and training brand ambassadors is more important than ever.

2. Develop employee ambassadors

Changing the perception of your employer brand does not always require a big budget. One way to build a strong brand is through brand ambassadors – employees who are engaged and connected in your organization and who can share their enthusiasm outside the workplace. To develop an employee ambassador program, you need to make sure that every employee understands and is aware of your key brand messages. Set up workshops to explain your company’s mission, vision and values, share the benefits of being a part of your organization and reiterate the voice and tone of your brand.

To start your brand ambassador program, find a few creative ways to get employees more involved. Companies can set up an employee referral program for open jobs with an incentivized bonus for every successful referral. A referral program gives your employees a bonus for spreading positive word of mouth about your company. Some employees may respond better to social recognition than financial incentives. Companies could also set up a platform for sharing gratitude and social accolades for employees that refer candidates. Another way to reward participants is through charitable gestures. By adding a charity component, a company can drive participation and build a network of charitable ambassadors. Employees can spread positive messages about your organization, recruit talent and make a difference for those in need.

3. Improve your Glassdoor ratings

Another impactful approach to employer branding is asking employees and interns to review your company on Glassdoor. Also, be sure to reply publicly to both positive and critical remarks. It’s important to show others that you take criticism seriously and want to learn to be a better employer. According to a Glassdoor survey, 62 percent of candidates in the U.S. agree their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review.

Building your Glassdoor account and obtaining an OpenCompany profile could also boost your rating and make your organization more transparent. To get an OpenCompany profile, you need to accomplish a few tasks on your Glassdoor account. As an organization, you need to update the company profile, add at least 10 photos, get reviewed by job candidates or employees, respond to those reviews and promote your Glassdoor profile with a badge on your website or blog. Accomplish those steps, and you will be among the handful of companies that have obtained the OpenCompany transparency badge on Glassdoor.

4. Digitize your brand strategy, and put mobile first

It is important to stay up-to-date on the digital technologies used for attracting the best talent. As these technologies gain even more momentum, they are profoundly changing the strategic context of employer branding. A study by Employer Branding International found that social media is the top communication medium, used by 76 percent of companies for communicating the employer brand, but only 45 percent of companies are using a mobile-optimized website.

The prevalence of smartphones and tablets means that we now have a massive audience of mobile job seekers. In addition, Generation Z is now entering the workforce and has no knowledge of life without a smartphone. For this generation, life is about being connected; sharing, searching and interacting with other consumers. As Generation Z candidates apply for jobs, they will have a different expectation for how they will communicate with potential employers. Having a strong brand with a mobile-optimized website is the first step to reaching these candidates.

As the talent market tightens around the globe, mobile optimization, social media, employee values and online ratings are growing more important for improving employer brands.