Employer branding like the Endboss: 13 hacks for employer attractiveness & recruiting

Are you looking for a few more powerful impulses to strengthen your employer brand and attract new employees more easily? Here are 13 tips from our agency practice for you with examples of employer branding. There are a few good tips for you in my article that you certainly don't know yet - and the power for more employer attractiveness is with you.

What does employer attractiveness or employer branding mean?

Employer branding refers to a company's strategies and efforts to build a positive and attractive employer brand . This means that a company works specifically on its internal and external fields of activity to shape its image as an employer in order to attract, retain and motivate talent and skilled workers.

Employer branding is very important nowadays, as the labor market is highly competitive and qualified professionals can choose their employers carefully. Being an employer today has become demanding. Bosses are like conductors who not only lead their team, but also have to keep an eye on other instruments relating to customer acquisition and support, labor and tax law requirements, suppliers and partners, etc.

This is precisely why it is important for every employer to build a strong team, so that they can devote themselves to other entrepreneurial tasks and goals in addition to day-to-day business and keep the business running smoothly. And from an employee perspective, it is always good to work in an attractive company because it attracts other productive professionals with whom work becomes more effective and goal-oriented.

So what tools and options are available to employers to make their company attractive as an employer brand?

In many blog posts on the subject of employer branding and employer attractiveness, you will always find the big names as examples: Apple, Microsoft, Nike, Pepsi, Coca Cola and co. But firstly, the blog authors have never built an Apple or Nike themselves and secondly, such examples are not relevant for most companies , because at least some of us are an Apple or Nike and are now operating in an environment like the large corporations when they were still small companies. It is therefore much more useful to identify precisely those companies that are not so dissimilar to your own . What did they do right, what works on the market under today's conditions and industry-specific constraints?

Below you will find 13 hacks for sharpening employer branding, which we have prepared for you from our agency perspective with insight into various industries and clients as well as our own ideas of corporate culture in practice.

1. mission impossible? What are your company's values, mission and vision?

Would you want to work for a company whose mission is to "accelerate the global transition to sustainable energy"?

Doesn't sound too far-fetched at first. Whose mission is it? Tesla's:

It doesn't have to be just the big brands with big missions that are inspiring. This article is not about corporations, but about smaller companies. However, Tesla was an obvious place to start because the company is comparatively young and has also exerted a disruptive force on the entire industry.

It works just as well for smaller companies as it does for the big ones that a corporate mission statement has an identifying effect on (potential) employees.

An example here from northern Germany - the mission:

We want our employees, our guests and our suppliers to be well. (...) We are like a good neighbor. A good friend.

Yes, you can certainly feel good about a company that wraps up its why in such a statement. It comes from the mission statement of Junge Bäckerei from Lübeck. And it has prepared its vision, its why and also its values in textbook fashion and proudly presents them on the company website.

With over 200 stores and around 4800 employees, the Junge bakery has certainly had plenty of time and experience to become aware of its values in its 125-year tradition.

So here is a third example: Outness from Neubrandenburg is a team of around 20 people in the field of company health management. Managing Director Hannes Schröder repeats almost like a prayer wheel in each of his BGM podcast episodes that they have set themselves the goal of helping a total of 1,000,000 people to be healthier, more motivated and happier at work by 2030. And that's also what it says on the Outness company website:

If you want to delve a little deeper into the topic, you can find four more blog posts from me here, in which I provide guidance on the mission, vision and values. In particular, familiarize yourself with the fourth link to the Golden Circle!

• https://www.tutkit.com/de/blog/56-vision-unternehmen-beispiele-tipps
• https://www.tutkit.com/de/blog/57-unternehmensmission-entwickeln-tipps-beispiele
• https://www.tutkit.com/de/blog/58-werte-eines-unternehmens-tipps-beispiele
• https://www.tutkit.com/de/blog/59-golden-circle-markenleitbild-entwickeln-kostenlose-vorlage

As such processes relating to mission definition and the definition of vision and values are not dictated from above, but rather the team should be involved in such processes as the DNA of the corporate culture, I would like to refer you to our template for employee surveys , which you can use for your values workshops in the company :

The corporate culture is not described as an ideal on the website or in a mission statement, but must actually be based on the experience of the employees. If you want your employees to identify strongly with the work situation, it makes sense to involve your team in these processes. Here you can find out more about how employee surveys can be carried out in your company using our template.

The bottom line for you:

1. Communicate clearly and authentically about your company values, mission and vision on your website, in social channels, in print media, simply at every touchpoint where you can address potential employees.
2. Establish a positive, supportive and inclusive company culture that satisfies and motivates your employees. This will turn your employees into brand ambassadors who are happy to talk about your company and attract other potential employees.

Mission impossible? Not any more. For you it is now:

2. the power of identifying images

You probably know it too: If you look at a website to get to know a company because you are looking for a service or a product, you also click through to the about us section and take a look at the team, right? Pictures of the team give you the opportunity to visually identify with the company as early as the contact initiation stage. The most common mistakes are

• no pictures of the team or contact persons
• Stock images obviously imitate a team that does not exist
• Outdated team images that damage the positioning

Therefore, take the opportunity to position yourself with trust-inspiring images of the team and contact persons . This not only serves as a recommendation to potential applicants, but also to your target customers.

When we carry out an agency assignment to relaunch a company website, we always provide the photographer with a mood board detailing the type of images we need of the company and its employees.

The mood board is a good working and presentation tool in communication and design professions. It comes from the English mood for "mood" and board for "blackboard". Mood boards help to present impulses for different styles during the course of a project and they help to develop visually presentable ideas and implement them in line with the concept.

We don't want to leave it up to the photographer to decide which photos are taken during a shoot. We directly specify the motifs and the mood in a detailed and scenic mood board - in consultation with the client, of course.

Here is an example of an excerpt from the mood board for the relaunch of a hospital from one of our agency projects, in which the individual pages of the mood board were divided into:

• Sympathetic staff
• Live in action
• Patient care
• Quiet moments
• Ideas from competitors

I will never forget a phone call a few years ago with the managing director of an office equipment and consulting company. We had been commissioned with the relaunch. A photographer friend of the managing director was to provide the photos. We received the download link for the resulting photographs. The managing director called me a few days later and asked how I liked the pictures. I told him that I certainly didn't see the company he wanted in five years' time in the pictures. The employees were holding Leitz folders in their hands or were photographed during the fictitious phone call. I told him that the visual positioning should focus more on office consulting. This requires completely different motifs in interaction with customers and digital media (tablet or digital video wall). He replied that he was now angry , not at my unsparing feedback , but at the fact that he hadn't seen it himself. The photographer was allowed to come back and repeat the shoot. It was a lesson for us too. Since then, we've always had a mood board for preliminary coordination with the customer and for briefing the photographer. This provides certainty about the positioning and what should come out at the end of a shoot.

Show your face and offer a personal projection surface for identification that corresponds to your positioning. Because people unconsciously and visually search for the answer to the question: Is my counterpart competent and trustworthy? And good images of the team and people are a great way to do this.

3. use triggers: The number in the job advertisements in the menu

It is important that companies also integrate a careers section on their websites. This can be a small section on the homepage or in the about us page or separate career subpages or even special landing pages.

Here is an example of the one-pager of a Stralsund-based care company: PD-Kleeblatt.de. Both in the video loop at the beginning and throughout the various sections when scrolling down, the website visitor discovers footage of the team interacting with clients. The following screenshot shows the jobs section: it is correctly placed directly after the mission statement and the company's values. The contact persons are recognizable and therefore approachable by name and identifiable for website visitors. Vacancies are stored as PDF files. The call-to-action is clearly named with the button to apply. The OnePager is a well-designed, clear solution for the company and here too it becomes clear what is meant under point 2 The power of identifying images : Good images create identification.

In contrast, the website www.meckcura.de has its own careers section as a subpage with a recruiting video, values, vacancies and employee testimonials.

What stands out on the MeckCura page in the menu is a trigger that draws our attention. The most important call-to-actions are linked in the menu: the central telephone number as well as the subpages for the three locations and the careers page as a jobs link. At the jobs link, we see a small number, which we know as a notification from social media.

When the website visitor scrolls, the fixed navigation changes color, which increases contrast and also attracts attention.

This trigger is used in a smart way because our brain has already been conditioned to look at it and even - for those who know it from their own experience - to click on it so that the notification number disappears. Here is a screenshot of these from Facebook and LinkedIn. The red numbers already indicate that there is important information for me. I want to click up.

This website uses this trigger to deliberately draw the website visitor's attention and intelligently lead the user to the career section.

Such amplifiers work with numbers, but also with terms such as hot, sale or a flame 🔥. Here at MeckCura, it was used for career purposes with a number without any other signal-colored amplifier. You can also use this for your jobs or other call-to-actions on your website.

4. make it easy: lower the application hurdles

When I read some job advertisements, I get the impression that they are only looking for people with above-average qualifications and extremely high performance and experience - and often for completely normal jobs that need to be done. Lateral entrants who may have completed a non-specialist degree ten years ago are directly excluded. And so are many other suitable job candidates.

Overambitious job advertisements can be a hurdle that prevents people from applying in the first place. So check what qualifications and experience you really need to get into your vacancy. Here at the 4eck Media agency, we don't expect people to have the relevant training or degree for content management or marketing. Above all, you need to have the right social skills because we are only a small team. We already teach people the technical aspects.

The assumption that complete application documents are sent via PDF can also be too big a hurdle for the initial contact for certain jobs. People often look at job advertisements impulsively because they are annoyed with a colleague or manager. If a company expects complete documents for the first contact, laziness can win out for one or two people and the person who is basically interested stays in their old job for the time being. In many job profiles, it is therefore better to keep the first contact hurdle as low as possible. Two or three digital queries with contact details may be enough to give the company the opportunity to contact you directly. You can then check each other out in conversation and have the documents submitted accordingly.

The important thing at the beginning is to make contact , not to submit a complete application! The rest will then become clearer. If contact is never made because the first hurdle is already high, a company will lose out on many potentially suitable employees. So make sure that your online application forms contain as few mandatory fields as possible and that the website visitor is easily tempted to complete the contact request. It should also be very easy to use on mobile devices. Also make it possible for contact to be made via social channels. You can further increase the likelihood of making contact by describing the position, tasks and corporate culture as transparently as possible in order to appeal to potential applicants. And remove any superhero requirements in your job advertisement that no one will bring with them anyway. This effectively lowers the hurdle for an application.

5. remember the power of positive ratings and reviews

Reviews on Google and ratings on Kununu play an important role for applicants who are looking for opinion information about potential employers, i.e. statements from actual customers, partners and, above all, employees.

The two most important platforms are Google reviews of the company and Kununu, which belongs to XING and New Work AG respectively.

Google reviews

Google reviews are often the first port of call for applicants looking for information about a company. They offer insights into general customer satisfaction and the image of a company.

As of January 2024, our own entry has 85 Google reviews for an agency in a rural area, a decent number of reviews and therefore often has the pole position in the results with different keywords, especially for local search queries:

Google reviews are important for applicants for the following reasons:

• Company reputation: positive reviews can indicate a good company image, while negative reviews can indicate problems or dissatisfied customers.
• Work culture and working conditions: Some Google reviews may also contain information about the work culture and working conditions at the company. This can be helpful for applicants to decide whether the company meets their expectations.
• Reliability: Companies with many reviews may be seen as more reliable and established, while companies with few or no reviews may be less well known.

Also interesting is the insight into the communication of how companies react to (negative) reviews . Here is a perfect example of how Lenz Wild GmbH reacted to a 1-star rating on Google.

Understanding was shown, an explanation given and an offer made. Anyone who reads this response to the 1-star rating will be further convinced of the company's professionalism. So even a negative 1 -star review is an opportunity to position yourself positively for customers and applicants.

Establish a methodology in your company to get positive Google reviews from real customers, partners and/or employees. Even a satisfied student intern can rate your company with 5 stars. Have you ever thought about it?

By the way: In addition to gaining reputation, positive Google reviews are also a lever to improve your online visibility in Google search results.

Kununu reviews

Kununu is a platform that was specially developed for employee reviews of companies. Here, former and current employees as well as applicants can show how they rate your company. Measurable and comparable elements are available for a meaningful evaluation:

• What is the working atmosphere like?
• How do superiors behave?
• How much cohesion is there among colleagues?
• Are there enough exciting tasks to solve?
• What is the internal communication like?
• What about the issue of equality?
• How are older colleagues treated?
• What opportunities for promotion or further training are on offer?
• How good are the salary and benefits?
• How are the working conditions assessed?
• How sensitively does the company deal with environmental and social issues?
• How good is the work-life balance?
• How is the company's image rated?

The assessments are therefore more specific to applicants and focus on ...

1. Insight into the working environment: Kununu reviews usually focus on aspects such as work culture, leadership, work-life balance, career opportunities and salary. Applicants can thus gain insight into the actual experience of employees in a company.
2. Transparency: Kununu emphasizes transparency, and most reviews are published anonymously. This allows for honest assessments, as employees may be less reticent to share their opinions anonymously.
3. Benchmarking: Kununu also offers the opportunity to compare companies with each other by comparing reviews, scores and comments. This helps applicants to compare companies in their industry or region.

Even we, as a very small company, have received nine reviews over the years from current and former employees. With a score of 4.4, we can say that we do not give potential applicants any reason not to apply for the time being.

What is particularly interesting is how many page views a company profile has. As an example, I would like to show a heating company from the small town of Neustrelitz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

3.2 out of 5 with five ratings. If you take a closer look at the ratings, it becomes clear that after two very poor ratings, three top ratings were given in the same month of April 2017. Anyone with a clear mind will immediately recognize that the employer responded with a few positive reviews. Since then, there has been silence on the review front.

The problem for such an entry is that it has already been viewed over 6,000 times - for a craft business in a town with around 21,000 inhabitants. Who is interested in Kununu reviews of a company? Mainly potential applicants ... even in small towns and rural areas in sectors where you wouldn't readily expect it.

Are they inclined to apply to the company? Based on Kununu reviews alone, you're more likely to get reasons not to, which is why in this case the company's reputation in the region, professional website, social media communication etc. is more important than ever.

Instead of reacting to such reviews, it is important to proactively build up positive reviews. Because sooner or later, former employees will always follow up. The first negative review is bound to come. And it's a good thing if there are already a lot of positive ones so that they don't do too much damage to the score that applicants look at as a benchmark. A positive score is also a great way to advertise - in flyers, social posts, job advertisements and on the website.

Kununu entries are relatively high up in Google search results

A nice side effect: in brand-related searches, i.e. directly after the company name in the Google search, the respective Kununu accounts are also listed relatively high up. If the review is positive, you can be even happier about the many stars. If it is negative, you can expect that someone searching for your company will also see the employee reviews relatively easily.

Tip: Use reciprocity to receive positive reviews from employees

Reciprocity means mutuality or interdependence and is a basic principle of human behavior. With timing and a little sensitivity, you can use this principle very well to create a certain "debt of gratitude" with an employee, which they are happy to repay with a positive review.

Whenever a new employee has completed their probationary period, when a fixed-term contract is converted into a permanent contract, when an employee receives a salary increase or other moments of special employee happiness, the moment is favorable. Then ask for feedback in a one-on-one meeting. Ask your employee how they rate the working atmosphere, how they find their tasks, how they work with their colleagues and superiors and so on. These personal feedback questions are timed to coincide with the moment when the employee has received something positive from the company, such as a pay rise. Therefore, he returns the favor in the same state of happiness and gives you golden feedback. At the end of the conversation, turn the conversation to the great importance for the company and the team of continuing to attract such great people as the employee is, and since the good people are checking out companies on kununu.com these days, it would be possible for him to post the feedback from just now online there too. This can be done anonymously and relatively quickly. People are reluctant to change their opinions, and by increasing employee opinion as a recruiting tool , he or she will usually give a positive rating. After three days, you can ask again if nothing has happened. By then at the latest, you can be sure that the feedback on Kununu will go online in the form of a positive review ... in my experience.

Overall, Google reviews and Kununu ratings are a sign of quality and attractiveness , but also valuable sources of information for applicants. They allow them to better understand companies before they apply and help them make the right decision for their professional future. However, it is important to look at this information critically and not just rely on individual reviews, but to get an overall picture.

Other employer review platforms

Kununu is particularly popular in Germany. Internationally, there are other platforms that you should be aware of and take into account:

• Glassdoor: Glassdoor is one of the best-known platforms for company reviews. Employees can leave anonymous reviews and share information about salaries, interviews and company culture. Companies also have the opportunity to showcase themselves on Glassdoor.
• Indeed Company Reviews: On Indeed, employees can rate companies and share experiences. These reviews can be used by job seekers to find out more about potential employers.
• Great Place to Work: Great Place to Work is an international organization that evaluates companies based on employee surveys and cultural audits. Those that meet the criteria are awarded the "Great Place to Work" certificate.
• Comparably: Comparably offers a platform for company ratings, with a focus on comparing salaries, corporate culture and working conditions.
• Vault: Vault is known for its company rankings and reviews. The platform also offers information on career tips, industry analysis and career guides.
• Jobvite: Jobvite is a recruiting platform that also integrates employer branding and company reviews. Employees can rate their employers on the platform.

6 Social media and employer attractiveness

If the ratings on Kununu are poor, good reasons for a positioning on social media are all the more important. But the plumbing company from Neustrelitz doesn't shine there either. The last two posts were published on Facebook in 2021 and the images visually exude the charm of the 90s. The crowning glory is the slightly blurred, gloomy cover photo.

A company from the same sector in Waren (Müritz), which has the same number of inhabitants as Neustrelitz, shows that things can be done differently:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087272024161

They post there several times a week and provide insights into their work areas.

The colleagues allow themselves to be accompanied at work and thus become brand ambassadors for the trade company all by themselves. This becomes clear when you look at the photos that are published as posts in the overview:

A few potentials for improvement can also be discovered in this example from our hometown Waren (Müritz). And anyone who lists the best-managed social media accounts will certainly not include my example in their list. That is also clear. For many companies, there is hardly any budget for social media and marketing only runs on the side. That's why I like the way the social posts are made by this craft business, because they do business just like many other SMEs.

If you position yourself via social media, remember: the heroes of your company are your employees. Show your colleagues, the work content, the corporate culture. Be good to your people and they will share your posts. It often makes sense if certain posts are not shared via the company profile , but directly by employees via their profiles .

7 Where are the applicants: Choose the right platform for your job ads

One of our clients, a modern care company with locations in Güstrow, Wismar and Rostock, has developed a recruiting campaign via an external care consultant. A videographer developed a recruiting video that gave an insight into the corporate culture with voices from the managing director and the team. We thought the video was good and it is still on the company's website today.

Several packages were booked on the Stepstone job portal for up to eight weeks with the aim of filling several positions in nursing management.

The total cost was just under 10,000 euros, of which only a fraction went towards the video production. The video campaign went online at Stepstone with matching images, the video and the job advertisements.

In a phone call after the end of the booking period, I asked the managing director how the Stepstone campaign had gone. The managing director said that a total of 0 applications had been received. But that didn't matter, because he had simply put the job advertisements online via his Ebay classifieds account and linked the video and some applications were then filled.

Conclusion: Pay attention to where your clientele is and which channels you actually use to reach them . For our client, the quickly copied and pasted entry on (formerly Ebay) classifieds was much more effective than the costly advertisement on one of the largest job portals. Potential employees may not even be actively looking to change jobs yet and look around on job portals. Via other channels with a location-based focus (such as Instagram, classified ads, Facebook groups, ...), interested parties discover your ad independently of their desire to change jobs and only then come up with the idea that it would be nice to work somewhere else.

For our agency clients, we were able to achieve the greatest effect with location-based ad campaigns via Facebook and Instagram by focusing the radius on the area of influence of the interested parties, so that sooner or later everyone stumbles across the job ad digitally and may come up with ideas :-)

Here are three older ads with a focus on the respective locations. The ratio between people reached and interactions is extremely good. As a result, the ad-based, animated job ads reached over 306,000 people on Facebook alone in just a few weeks, who interacted with the ad over 21,000 times. The vacancies were filled after just a short time.

The HLS company mentioned above also initiated a trainee campaign via its agency (not us!) with a recruiting video, Facebook ads and its own landing page, where pupils were actively invited to a taster day. Very descriptive, inspiring and identifying. Unfortunately, the landing page is already offline again. The social post can be seen here.

8. be bold in your campaigns and create visual eye-catchers

For certain campaigns, it is a good idea to use wordplay or visual effects to catch the attention of the target audience because they have the effect of tripping them up as they scroll through social media. For example, we designed a Gepflegt einen ... campaign for the care company mentioned here several times, in which vacancies were referred to in an ambiguous way. We created five slogans with matching image motifs featuring the company's employees and managing director. These were then played out as animated job advertisements on social media. The campaign was a great success, attracting a lot of attention and numerous applications.

Here are three campaign motifs directly integrated as a video (press play), which were played out via Facebook and Instagram:

Get one up in style:

Wipe the slate clean:

Let you drive with care:

This campaign was then also continued in print media and via bus stickers. Here is the view from the vector file for the back of the bus:

Various slogan approaches were suggested to the client during the conception phase. Here are some other approaches that were developed but have not yet been implemented.

Let's hold hands!
(Visual context: Holding and guiding elderly people by the hand)

Our job: Top banker. Will you join us?
(Visual context: Carer and old person on bench)

Our job: Walking home care worker. Are you getting in?
(Visual context: Standing in the doorway of the nursing home)

Job with power of attraction.
(Visual context: Assistance with dressing)

We are looking for SEX . Are you up for it? Then join us as a senior EXpert .
(SEX is always a magnet for attention ;-))

Join us to the stars.

You: stomach, legs, bottom.
We: back, feet, shoulders.
Fits together. Apply now.

If even in the care sector such puns are possible as eye-catchers, every other sector also offers its potential to attract attention in your campaigns with ambiguous wordplay . So be creative in the conception and bold in the implementation!

9 Google for Jobs

Many job seekers also search via Google by entering the job title and region. As a company, it will be difficult to be listed in the upper area, because these are usually occupied by large and high-reach job portals such as Stepstone, Xing, Monster, Indeed and Co. But there is an effective chance to appear in Google's job offer snippet with your vacancies, because many companies do not yet have this reach boost on their screen.

Google for Jobs is a function that Google has integrated into its search engine to make it easier for users to find jobs. It is a type of aggregator that brings together job advertisements from various job portals and company career pages and displays them directly in Google search results.

Google has published a landing page for this: https://jobs.google.com/about/intl/de_ALL/

As Google is the most used search engine worldwide, Google for Jobs significantly increases the visibility of job advertisements, provided they are optimized accordingly by company websites. This allows companies to reach a greater number of potential applicants.

Google for Jobs uses advanced algorithms to provide users with the most relevant jobs based on their search queries. This means that a company's job ads are more likely to be seen by qualified and interested candidates who are actually looking for a job.

Companies can optimize their job ads for Google for Jobs relatively easily. This is done by customizing their own careers page and using structured data to be more easily captured by Google. We did this for our agency client MeckCura and provided the job offers on the website with structured data so that Google can read them optimally.

Ready-made job plugins for WordPress also already support schema markup.

If you now search for "Pflegekraft Rostock Job", you will see our customer with his vacancies in the first place in the jobs widget.

Unlike many job boards and recruiting platforms, Google for Jobs is free for companies . There are no fees for posting job advertisements.

For companies looking to increase their recruitment reach while improving the efficiency of their recruitment process, Google for Jobs offers a valuable way to achieve this. It is important that companies optimize their job ads and career pages for the search engine to take full advantage of Google for Jobs.

10. the podcast as a talent magnet

A podcast is generally an effective marketing tool for acquiring new customers . Hardly any other measure is as effective for building identification with the podcast host and for binding customer groups to the company.

A podcast in the B2B environment can - as practice shows - also be used very well to attract talent . One example: The BGM podcast by Hannes Schröder from Outness, a company specializing in occupational health management, is a valuable resource for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that deal with topics relating to occupational health management. The podcast looks at a variety of aspects of OHM, including workplace health promotion, healthy leadership, reducing absenteeism and lowering sickness levels. I have also been a guest on the podcast and have been able to give tips on employer attractiveness.

The podcast is mainly listened to by people who are fundamentally interested in the topic of occupational health management ... and mainly from the world of teaching - i.e. students of health management - and practice. Whenever Hannes Schröder has a vacancy and refers to it in one of his podcast episodes , the company receives dozens of applications in the days that follow. The advantage of these applicants is that they are already very well informed about Outness and its corporate culture. The podcast also enables the company to attract new specialists from further afield who are willing to move to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern especially for the new job.

Other applicants for whom relocation is not an option are registered in the internal talent and applicant pool in case Outness expands its reach and opens new locations near the applicants.

A podcast therefore enables companies to present their brand, culture and values in an authentic way. Potential employees gain an insight into the corporate culture and can identify with the company's values and goals . Interviews with current employees or managers can give interested parties a realistic insight into everyday working life and the working atmosphere. This can increase interest in joining the company.

By discussing relevant topics and trends in a company podcast, a company can position itself as an opinion leader in its industry . This often attracts professionals who want to work in an innovative and leading company.

In conclusion, a podcast makes it possible to establish a personal and authentic connection with the audience. This can build trust in the company and significantly influence the decision to apply.

11. building a talent and applicant pool

Building a talent and applicant pool is a company's trump card when it comes to being able to react quickly to personnel growth opportunities or other employee requirements. Interested parties for vacancies are stored in a talent and applicant pool and contacted directly if required. As we saw in point 10, Outness already uses a talent and applicant pool for its own expansion plans. A podcast is therefore also a means of acquisition for this. There are, of course, many other methods.

The first and logical step to building a talent and applicant pool is to include an option on your careers website where talent can register for future opportunities even without a specific job posting.

Build relationships with potential candidates, even if there is no suitable vacancy at the moment. Establish partnerships with universities, technical colleges and vocational schools to identify talent early on and add them to your pool. Also use student internships, working students, master's thesis supervision, trade fair visits and other industry events to identify potential employees and add them to your talent and applicant pool.

For the care company we support, the first measures for the opening of a new location are started 12 months in advance, because the need for dozens of employees at the start in an industry that is already suffering from fluctuation and a shortage of employees cannot be met in a short-term campaign. In the first six months, posts are scattered across social media reporting on the construction work and plans for the launch of the new site. The reach of these posts is increased on an ad-based basis and targeted precisely at people in the regional and professional area. The call to action is to register in a talent and applicant pool. In the last six months, it is specifically about filling the new positions at the start date. The call to action here is to make contact and initiate the application process. This constant bombardment with changing ad campaigns will trigger a repetition effect , which is known in psychology as the mere-exposure effect (see illustration below). The mere repeated perception of something that was initially assessed neutrally results in a more positive assessment. In our client example, we hope to make it easier for potential job candidates to identify with the company and consciously imagine what it would be like to work there, until finally, in the last few months, the application is more actively promoted as a call to action.

If you have collected many potential job candidates in your talent and applicant pool, keep in touch with them, for example by sending regular updates via email, WhatsApp or direct phone calls or by inviting them to company events or with voice messages and video messages, etc.

Your talent pool can also include a special category: internal talent . Sometimes the best candidates are already in the company . Through internal training programs and career planning, you can prepare existing employees for higher positions and offer development options.

Your current employees can also be a valuable source of new talent. Referral programs can motivate them to suggest suitable candidates from their network. Encourage your employees to recommend suitable candidates from their personal network. Often such referrals are very valuable and lead to long-term hires. Even if they are not hired straight away, they can be noted in your talent and applicant pool.

Finally, it is also worth maintaining contact with former employees as a further measure in your talent management. They are often willing to return or can make valuable recommendations.

12. actively organize onboarding and ensure it with an onboarding checklist

Approximately a quarter of all newly hired employees resign before their first day at work. And of those who show up to start their new jobs, a double-digit percentage also think about quitting on their first day. As a result, both employees and companies lose valuable time and the actual and opportunity costs are very high in such cases.

Active and effective onboarding can help to ensure that new employees quickly reach procedural and professional flying height on the one hand and quickly identify with the company on the other.

Here are a few tips on how onboarding can be actively organized:

• Preparation before starting work: organizational and administrative matters should be clarified before the first day of work.
• Structured induction plan: A detailed plan for the first few weeks and months helps to facilitate and structure the induction process.
• Social integration: Organize team events and promote interaction between new and existing employees. If colleagues from the team are already introduced during the application process and are allowed to help decide on candidates, new employees will also be integrated more quickly because they were involved in the decision themselves.
• Regular feedback: Regular feedback is essential for the development of the new employee. Ideally, a sponsor, mentor or other type of supervisor should be available.
• Promote the company culture: Integrate new employees into the company culture and values. Some companies use self-created video training to communicate their values and culture.
• Address adjustment difficulties: Be alert to challenges and offer support or have the supervisor resolve them.
• Takeover decision after the probationary period: Assess suitability and ensure long-term employee retention.

We ourselves ensure onboarding with a checklist of what to do in the run-up to and on the first day through to the end of the probationary period when we hire a new employee. You too can ensure the success of the induction with a checklist!

These are a selection of points from our onboarding checklist that we ensure as a small company on the first day:

• Before day one: give access to important video training and books so that optimal preparation starts as soon as the contract is signed
• Small welcome gifts on the first day: books, tablet/laptop, notebook from Moleskine, etc.
• Create emails => vorname.nachname@4eck-media.de
• Prepare email signature
• Prepare key/access key and instruction letter
• Initial office equipment with notepads, notebooks, pens, business cards, A4 folders, etc. in the corporate design
• Prepare blog post and internal welcome message for Slack
• Integrate portrait image on websites
• Provide access to project management tools (JIRA, SLACK, ...)
• Access to Dropbox server
• Set up access to certain websites (4eck, ...)
• Sharing important cloud documents (meeting agenda, OKR, ....)
• Instruction in project management and cloud solutions
• Vacation check => which times and when to enter (!)
• Provision of the most important documents for project management (offer, sample contract, questionnaire, briefing documents, ...)
• Have breakfast or lunch together on the first day
• Assign mentor and brief for instruction in software & support etc.: Determine MA

In terms of communication, the following content is also discussed on the first day:

• Company goals (long-term, current OKR) and most important challenges
• Personal goals (discuss and set out in writing)
• Tasks and measures
• Network development and expansion
• Mutual expectations
• Existing appointments and known events

Let's always remember: New employees are nervous before and tense on their first day. Let's prepare them in the best possible way and create a start that is simply convincing. When the new employee comes home in the evening and tells their partner how the new day went and they can't stop talking enthusiastically about the various aspects of onboarding, the first step has been taken towards a new employee becoming a brand ambassador for the company .

Conversely, if an employee resigns during the probationary period because they do not feel that they have been met and makes their impression transparent on an employer review platform such as Kununu, this will have a negative impact on the company's reputation. And it is not always the fault of the unsuitable employee that they left of their own accord or were dismissed by the company.

13 New Work: Be attentive and good to your people

In the media and social channels, no perspective on the world of work gets by without talking about changing requirements. Employers are expected to meet the new needs of employees in order to be or remain attractive. We are talking about New Work.

New Work is a term that refers to new work concepts and practices that aim to rethink traditional working models and adapt them to the changing world of work. At its core, New Work is about making work more human-centered, flexible, creative and meaningful. Here are some basic characteristics and principles of New Work:

• Self-determination and personal responsibility: employees should have more autonomy and freedom of choice in their work. This also includes the ability to flexibly organize their own work location and working hours.
• Collaboration and networking: New Work promotes collaboration and the exchange of ideas. This includes modern communication and collaboration tools that enable collaboration regardless of physical locations.
• Promoting innovation: The focus is on creating an environment that promotes creativity and innovation. Companies should encourage their employees to contribute new ideas and learn continuously.
• Meaningful work: The aim is to provide employees with meaningful and fulfilling work. Companies should clearly communicate their mission and values and involve employees in aligning themselves with common goals.
• Flexible working models: The traditional 9-to-5 working hours and fixed work location are being broken up. Flexible working time models, part-time work, remote working and other flexible approaches are encouraged.

Examples of New Work measures could include

• Introduction of home office and remote working options to improve the compatibility of family, home and work.
• Implementation of flexible working time models.
• Introduction of modern target management systems such as OKR with process-oriented feedback meetings instead of results-oriented employee or year-end meetings.
• end-of-year appraisals.
• Promotion of agile working methods such as Scrum or Kanban.
• Creating inspiring working environments that promote creativity and exchange.
• Enabling further training and personal development for employees.
• Introducing sports activities and company health management
• Organizing team events with family participation.

It is important to note that the implementation of New Work principles depends heavily on the industry, the corporate culture and the individual needs of the employees. It is about creating working conditions that suit both the company and the employees and promote adaptability in a constantly changing working environment.

My tip from our own experience. Pay particular attention to your people who work in coworking spaces or from home , as they are often "only" digitally connected for a long time via communication channels such as Slack. Supervisors should institutionalize joint and regular discussions about the work and work in the projects, without too much of a time gap. This ensures that remote employees do not feel neglected.

If you are particularly attentive as an employer , it pays huge dividends in terms of satisfaction and loyalty without having to pay a lot of money. When one of our employees fell ill, we ordered a care package via Etsy and sent it to him with best wishes for his recovery - all lovingly packaged directly by the retailer. We received his response via WhatsApp message. The effect of this small gift, which didn't cost 30 euros, was priceless .

So it doesn't always have to be big benefits. Even small tokens of appreciation create joy, a feeling of social acceptance and loyalty. Just keep your eyes open for ways in which you can do something good for your employees.

Bonus: A lionized Kununu hack

If the score on the employer rating platform doesn't quite match your self-image, there is a way to boost your overall score on Kununu . How? Through applicants! You have to come up with that first.

While 69 employees of the company shown here rated their own company with 3.8 on Kununu by January 2024 (which is also pretty close to the 3.9 stars on Google reviews), the HR department has managed to elicit top marks from applicants. As of January 2024, an incredible 415 applicants have rated the company with a 4.6. I can only take my hat off enviously.

The applicant ratings can be displayed by changing the filter on the left:

Now you can also advertise in the job ads in the career section of the company website with 4.5 through 484 ratings. This shows size, attractiveness and employee satisfaction, as long as nobody investigates further where the ratings actually come from.

According to its own statement on the company website, the company itself has 150 highly qualified employees who are on the hunt for high-performance results . The HR department probably takes this literally. In addition to the large number of job interviews that the HR department has to handle every day, it also manages to make them almost exclusively pleasant, transparent and appreciative, according to applicant feedback on Kununu. As Head of HR, it's a pleasure to say thank you for every new Kununu review. The company is rightly granted such positive ratings (with the exception of a few 1.0 worst ratings). And apparently from applicants who have received a rejection. Otherwise the company would have to have 500 or more employees.

So far, our company has not been rated 5.0 after we have rejected applicants. The gold standard in applicant management or the holy grail in pushing the Kununu score has thus been found. Lion strong, one can only say. The name says it all :-)