Blog: Reaching out successfully to external candidates is impossible from the island of insularity

If we’re being honest, most of us, whether personally or professionally or both, spend perhaps a little too much time on social media. There’s an awful lot wrong with such platforms – chiefly around the anonymity that encourages shocking and largely un-policed comment and opinion. There’s also, conversely, a lot to be said for such sites. They create community, belonging, company and engagement. And boy, have many people needed an antidote to feelings of loneliness and isolation over the last 18 months.

It’s all too easy and understandable to edit out, block and lose some of our social followers and fellow travellers. They might express a view online which we’re not happy or comfortable with. Accordingly, the logical extension of this is ending up in a comfortable, safe place, engaging only with those whose world view is similar to ours. We agree with what we see around us. We post a lot of likes – in fact, what’s not to like?

By doing so, we can create a series of echo chambers around us. If we only hear voices which are in sync with our own, opinions which absolutely align with our own, then we risk not being aware of the outside world, of other perspectives, of other outlooks. Virtual group think, in other words.

The same issue applies to our choice of media and entertainment. With the explosion of options via the likes of Netflix, Prime, Disney and Sky, the days of have single-figure channel options seem quaint and antiquated. Audiences are hugely segmented. Shared experience TV has become a rarity – with the likes of Vigil and the recent Euros being distinct outliers. Again, we watch what directly appeals and filter out the choices of others. Our choices become insular to the exclusion of everything else.

I suspect, too, that Covid has only exacerbated this tendency. For many of us, we have seen far too much of our own living space and our own choices and surroundings. The outside world was to be actively avoided. For lots of entirely understandable reasons, there has been a tendency to become more insular. We have not gone out into the real world, but constructed a virtual or social world which tends to confirm our thoughts and opinions. Such confirmation further entrenches our perspective, in the absence of an alternative.

It’s been the same with many employers. Since March 2020, there has been so much (entirely justifiable) focus on surviving, on pivoting to a remote world, on re-shaping the business, on looking after – in some cases – internal audiences and on dealing with customers virtually rather than physically.

I wonder if such insularity influences the employer branding eco-system?

We’ve just had another awards event for the great and the good of the industry. Just to be clear, I absolutely love such events. The annual satisfaction of still, vaguely, fitting in your dinner suit. The much-abused largesse of the bar tab. Pondering the extent to which that year’s comedian would attempt to demonstrate their knowledge, or otherwise, of the arcane field of employer branding. Winning awards, then promptly losing them in the end-of-evening taxi. The hangover from Hades. Happy times.

And such awards tend to have more impact because they are judged by our peer groups and immediate stakeholders.

But, is their strength actually their weakness?

It’s worth factoring in the latest labour market metrics in answering such a question. The latest KPMG/REC monthly research suggested that 97% of UK recruiters were taking longer than usual to fill vacancies. The survey’s permanent placement index rose from July’s 69.3 to 72.7 – any reading over 50 denotes growth. London’s figure was at a record high. Confusingly, in a market crying out for candidates, those candidates appear less enthusiastic about considering themselves, well, candidates. The same survey suggested that the job security index fell 1.6 points to 91.5, indicating people’s pessimism as regards job prospects. The staff availability index fell another 3 points over the month to hit 22.8. according to the REC CEO, Neil Carberry, “In August, the number of candidates available to start jobs fell at another new record rate, deepening the current labour shortage”.

In a labour market driven by both candidate demand and candidate caution, insularity is not the answer.

Our employer branding output might be answering the brief, but is it answering the reticence, wariness and questions of candidate audiences? Whilst we spend time and focus encouraging and drawing out the stories and experiences of internal employee audiences, how do such narratives land externally? Do they create association, empathy and encouragement? Or is cynicism and indifference closer to the mark?

Because if we’re not spending time with external candidate audiences, such questions remain unanswered. In their place, we rely on intuition, experience and assumption. All insular attributes.

And, given the current caution of potential candidates, this isn’t working.

In way, employer branding has always been ultimately judged by external candidate audiences – they apply or they don’t apply. They’re encouraged and inspired to change jobs or to do the opposite.

I’ve just delivered some fascinating research amongst external candidate audiences for a financial services organisation. And whilst some of the insights gathered during the research confirmed our thoughts, a lot was far more challenging and eye-opening.

The ultimate employer branding solutions, based on such research, need to balance internal authenticity with content that addresses such perceptions. Content that reaches out. Content born out of candidate proximity, not the well-meaning insular echo chamber of assumption and habit.

About
Neil Harrison is recognised as a leading employer brand specialist, creating insights and actionable intelligence around key people audiences. Internal employee communities as well as external talent pools. These are insights which will help drive informed EVPs and their associated employer brands. Factors such as Brexit, as well as a tightening labour market, mean that organisations serious about talent acquisition need to act based on knowledge rather than guesswork.