This story originally appeared on Glassdoor
It’s not just your recruiters who get the talent to join — it’s your brand, too.
The recruiter has their work cut out for them, sure, but ultimately it’s your brand story that informs prospects of what kind of company you are. You need to convey the best aspects of your company via a cohesive brand narrative that communicates what your company stands for and why top talent should join you, and that means paying extra attention to your branding strategy.
But that’s not always easy, especially if you’re more of a figures-and-graphs brand. So below, we explain how to develop the best brand story that will accurately portray your brand during recruitment. We’ll dive into some advanced techniques by the end, but first, let’s start with the basics.
What a brand story is and why you need one
Your brand story is the culmination of everything your brand says, does and looks like. From highly influential areas like site design to more minute areas like whether or not you use emojis, every brand choice contributes to your overall brand story. You also have direct outlets (About Page, Mission Statement, etc.) where you can explain word-for-word what your brand is about, choosing what to mention, highlight and gloss over about your brand.
Some common contributors to brand stories are:
- Brand name
- Logo
- Slogan
- Website design
- Website copy
- Brand voice
- Blog content
- Social media content
- Product/service quality
- Prices
- Customer service
- Associated charities
- Community outreach
- Sponsorships
Brand stories influence every aspect of a business: recruiting, sales, investing, you name it. It’s all around us and we usually don’t even notice it… but we do feel it. Think about it. What makes Apple feel cutting-edge? What makes Dior feel upscale? Why does the New York Times feel more trustworthy than the New York Post? The answers fall back on how each company developed (or failed to develop) their brand story.
Your recruits are going to weigh your brand story just as heavily as more substantial factors like salary, location, etc. You could offer the best package by the numbers of all the interested parties, but if your brand doesn’t appeal to recruits on a deeper level, they’ll opt for the one that does.
How to write an effective brand story for recruitment
When crafting an engaging brand narrative to attract top talent, the first thing you should do is write an appealing story about your brand on your career page. We recommend using an About Page format, because that’s a good “home base” for your brand story, as well as a grounded reference for all other avenues.
So what should a good brand story say? It’s actually simpler than it seems, as long as you follow a basic problem-solution approach. And because this is a business, you also want to mention how your brand reaches its solution — the process.
The first step, then, is identifying what problem your brand seeks to solve and how you solve it. Affordable eyewear company Warby Parker states on their site’s Story Page that their problem was “glasses are too expensive,” and that their solution…
