No one can deny the power of storytelling. When we tell a story, whether myth or truth, what we are doing is making sense of our world and communicating that sense to others. Building the story of your client company and sharing it with candidates is the best way to get the candidate to not only absorb and remember the essential facts about the client, but also make an effective impression on the candidate. When we tell our client company's story, what we are really doing is painting a picture of what the company is like as a whole.
For most industries today, it is a candidate driven market. In order to initially engage and attract candidates who are faced with multiple opportunities at any given time, presenting the story of our client is a way to put a face on that company. The company becomes more of a person with a history and a personality instead of seeming like a large mysterious entity. In this way, the candidate can find a way to relate to the company. It becomes easier for the candidate to imagine themselves there and decipher if it is a good match.
So how do we assemble a story about our client that will achieve all of these things? It comes from a combination of background research and open-ended questions that we ask the hiring managers during initial meetings.
Examples of things that we research are the company's promotional material, what they brag about (ie. records, awards, reviews, achievements, certifications), the history of the company, where and when it began, who owns/manages the company, and so on.
But to really get good content for the story we are trying to build, we ask the hiring managers a selection of questions about the company. Some of these questions include:
▪ What would you say is the best thing about working for the company, or can you tell me some reasons why someone would want to come and work there?
▪ What is the culture like there?
▪ What are the current state of affairs there?
▪ What are some of the biggest challenges the hired person will face when they start there?
▪ Are there any negative rumors we might come across about the company?
| ▪ | What would you say is the best thing about working for the company, or can you tell me some reasons why someone would want to come and work there? |
| ▪ | What is the culture like there? |
| ▪ | What are the current state of affairs there? |
| ▪ | What are some of the biggest challenges the hired person will face when they start there? |
| ▪ | Are there any negative rumors we might come across about the company? |
When you ask your hiring managers questions like these, you get a lot of backstory which serves as great content to use when building your client company's story. Formulating your collection of facts into a story is much more digestible and makes a better impact when communicating to your candidates.
