What is it like to work at your organization? This is one of the top questions job candidates ask during the hiring process. Building your employer brand has become a crucial part of positioning yourself as an employer of choice and ultimately attracting top talent.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, an employer brand is described as an organization’s communications about its mission, values, culture and personality. It communicates what it’s like to work at that organization, and sets expectations for a potential partnership.
A number of studies and surveys show the rising importance of emphasizing this type of communication:
- 72% of recruiters think an employer brand has a significant impact on hiring.
- A strong employer brand results in 28% less employee turnover.
- Companies who emphasize their employer brand experience 50% lower cost-per-hire.
- Organizations who highlight intangible benefits find 50% more qualified applicants.
But creating and presenting your company’s brand can be challenging – after all, you likely compete with a number of organizations and companies that offer similar salary and benefits. But with the right strategy, you can set yourself apart in the eyes of prospective employees.
Whether you want to communicate to potential customers or internal audiences, getting your brand story across is difficult if you cannot visualize the experience of being part of the organization, and what that brand stands for. Many organizations benefit from video and images for storytelling, but those resources can become static (especially when not regularly updated). The goal is to provide a deeper, dynamic experience that’s not only incredibly useful but also fun and memorable.
Immersive, VR-ready media is an extremely powerful tool, and can help attract the right employees for your company with unique experiences that show how your company operates, what it’s like to work there, and the physical location and offices where employees spend their time. By offering a VR-ready solution, those interested in diving in with the necessary equipment can do so, while at the same time the media is still impressive on a mobile device or desktop computer. Below are several ways that immersive media, including interactive maps and virtual tours can bring your company to life.
Telling Your Company’s History
Potential employees want to know what’s behind the product or service your company offers. Who started this business? Why did they start it? How did they do it? It’s a natural human inclination to want to dive deeper into the company’s backstory. The heritage and/or evolution of a company can provide a meaningful reason to work there, and pique interest in learning more.
Step one for anybody interested in your company is, in all likelihood, visiting the website. Immersive media enhances the look of your website, and an “About” page can really come to life. A virtual tour can show, rather than tell, your history by allowing your audience to quite literally walk through the past. With historic videos and photos, you can narrate and explain both your origins and how far the organization has come since then.
Offer a Look Behind the Scenes
Who doesn’t want to know what happens behind the scenes of their favorite brand? When looking for a new job, potential employees are curious about what it’s actually like to work there. On paper, anything can sound good, but it can be hard to tell what the work environment is truly like until you show up in person. And even then, it can be hard to imagine working there full-time.
Virtual reality-ready tech gives your brand the opportunity to give outsiders an accurate, even real-time look inside your company. By offering a tour behind the scenes, you can show off the personality of your employees, what the break room is like during lunch, or the fun perks. Using VR-ready virtual tours may inspire top talent to learn more about your business and take the next steps on their journey to take a deeper look at all your company has to offer.
This isn’t hard to do. 360-degree video (which can be captured with a $600 GoPro Fusion or similar camera) can show the movement in the office on a busy day, show the buzz at an all-hands-on-deck launch meeting, or the fun that was had at an employee off-site. 360° panoramas can do the same, allowing prospective employees to dive into a specific location and scroll around to see what’s around.
Ultimately, using virtual reality to build your company brand is only the beginning. Your entire communication with prospective employees, from first contacts to the benefits you offer, should be consistent with your company’s brand and image. But using tools like immersive media and VR is a powerful way to move conversations forward and help get the right candidates through the door.
