This blog post was inspired by conversations with William Tincup.  Check him out on Twitter at @williamtincup and his internet radio show at DriveThruHR.

Here’s a question: when’s the last time you really sat down with your team and discussed the true value proposition that you provide candidates and how to most effectively message this to candidates.  If the answer is never, it might be a great time to do just that.

Here’s a recruitment marketing idea.  Block off two consecutive weekly afternoons (i.e. this Thursday and next Thursday) and bring in your core recruiting team for a brainstorming session.  Ask them to share their honest opinions on what you currently do (make it clear that you are trying to improve the strategy and frankness is imperative.)  Be the moderator to move along the conversation and ensure everyone is heard on each issue.

Ask questions like:

• In your opinion, what is the most unique benefit we provide to candidates as an employer?
• What is the biggest determinant for a candidate to have a positive candidate experience?
• How do you grade our messaging to candidates today?
• How do you grade our candidate experience?
• If there’s one place you point candidates towards for more information where would that be?
• Who are the companies we compete most with for candidates?
• Why do we win employees? Lose them?

What we are really trying to get at with these questions is a few things.  First, you are trying to evaluate where you are at now with your messaging and branding strategy.  While trying to determine what really resonates with candidates from your ground level recruiters.  Second, you are trying to figure how what the competitive marketplace looks like and how you are messaging vs. the other employer choices that candidates have.  Basically, what you can do better.

These are just some beginner questions and may not be the best for your organization.  But the key to the exercise is to build off these initial questions and dig down deeper into these questions so you can extract the unique value that working at your company provides.  This will help you determine and set up a plan to message this to your target candidates across all areas of your organization.

The key here is to leave the first brainstorming session with an exercise to think about the key value propositions brought up in the meeting and to think about potential ways to message it.  The second meeting will lead to everyone sharing their ideas (there will be many different ones) to help build consensus around a combined message going forward.

The point of this exercise is to leverage the knowledge of everyone on your team so that you can identify what truly matters to candidates.  It also is a great way to get everyone on your team on the same page with how you communicate and attract candidates to the organization.

This is the very beginning of thinking about your employer brand and the value you provide as an employer.  Once you decide on a strategy, it’s time to begin leveraging this brand throughout your recruiting organization and measuring it through recruitment metrics.  I will touch upon this in a post next week, so stay tuned!

For more content, engage with Chris on Twitter @smashfly and check out other posts on the SmashFly Blog.