As the war for talent continues to intensify, there is increasing pressure on companies to tell a more comprehensive story to attract potential employees. Communications need to go beyond the hygiene factors such as benefits and rewards, and clearly communicate the purpose and values of the company, its long-term sustainability story. The growing importance of these aspects reflects the changing expectations of employees that a workplace should align with their values and beliefs.
It is also imperative that the different needs of potential employees must be addressed. For example, a recent graduate will be more interested in entry-level schemes, and training and development programmes. Therefore, companies should develop an insightful careers discussion tailored for distinctive interests and expectations of these audiences.
This year we found that most companies discuss culture (66%), values (56%) or diversity (78%) in their careers section. Moreover, over 70% now use employee stories to showcase what makes the company special and offer insight into the company culture. Despite this, only 10% of companies include or reference employee reviews such as Glassdoor to add authenticity to their overall employee value proposition. Going forward, real-life employee experiences will be one of the decisive factors influencing a company’s ability to attract future talent.
Our analytics data suggests that the audience for the careers section also looks for wider corporate narrative, such as purpose and vision, to get a clear understanding of the company they want to work for. However most companies do not discuss purpose (39%) in their careers sections, indicating that many are missing opportunities to tell potential employees a comprehensive story about what the company can offer beyond traditional benefits.
We found that most companies’ careers narrative caters to specific audiences (63%). Our analytics data also showed that, when available, these are usually one of the most trafficked careers pages. However, this has not increased over the past five years and therefore could require more attention from companies that are not currently taking into account the variety of candidate groups that visit their careers pages.
Black Sun is a global stakeholder communications company with offices in London and Singapore. We are united by a common purpose of making businesses more valued by their stakeholders. We are powered by a unique mix of strategic insight, creative inspiration and technology advantage, and help businesses communicate authentically how they deliver value to their stakeholders. We believe that inspiring strategic communications can spark positive change and drive long-term, sustainable performance.
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