1. “The Value of Honest Recruitment Branding”
By Carol West
When recruiting potential employees, are you putting your company’s real face forward?
The image an employer projects for potential hires, also known as its recruitment brand,
should, above all, be honest. Painting an unrealistic picture of your company or
misrepresenting what employees should expect from your organization can be a huge
mistake.
Job interviews can be like first dates where both parties put on an extra layer of sheen,
embellishing their love of a certain sport or of foreign-language films. A few months
later, after the honeymoon is over, one admits to hating football and the other fesses up to
preferring action flicks. Soon, the relationship ends and everyone feels like time has been
wasted.
Similarly, when employers and potential candidates aren’t honest with each other, bad
decisions result. For example, a recruiter may be so smitten with a highly qualified
candidate that he bends the truth about what the organization can provide.
But when a hire is based on that dishonesty, tenure may be short-lived—which can be
costly. Replacing an employee, whatever the reason, costs about 25 percent of that
employee’s total annual compensation, according to the Employment Policy Foundation,
a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C. Across industries and compensation
levels, the cost ranges, on average, from $6,803 to$19,465 per employee, the foundation
reports.
Promoting the wrong image of your organization during the recruitment process also
can lead to a significant “human loss,” says Price Woodward, a principal responsible for
recruiting at Edward Jones investment firm, based in St. Louis. Woodward says the
employee loses the investment he put into taking the job. And the colleagues who worked
to hire and train the employee lose the time and effort they have invested as well.
“There really is not a winner at all in trying to under-sell or over-promise or minimize
the difficulty of the work,” Woodward says. “There are too many losers and it’s just not
the right thing to do.”
Analyze Your Culture
So, how do you create an honest, successful recruitment brand for your company? Start
with an accurate assessment and highlight your strengths, says Elizabeth Amorose,
project director at the Carbone Smolan Agency (CSA), a New York-based marketing
firm that specializes in recruitment strategies.
To determine your recruitment brand, Amorose encourages clients to develop a list of
the top five to10 messages they feel candidates must know. These should include any
special advantages employees might gain by working for your organization, such as
opportunities for advancement, the chance to help in an important cause, the opportunity
to develop highly-prized skills, the respect of working for an industry leader, or the
ability to reap generous benefits and perks.
And be aware that aspects of your business that seem like selling points may not be—
but they may lead to other selling points.

2. For example, Amorose recently worked on a recruitment campaign for the New York
law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft. The firm contracted with CSA because
executives did not believe its recruitment materials were effectively portraying the law
firm’s image, says Claudia Freeman, CSA’s director of marketing and communications.
Some new hires agreed, saying they could not attain the work/life balance portrayed in
Cadwalader’s recruitment materials. Instead, they were greeted with the same long hours
and strict deadlines that are common to the legal profession.
But what really sets Cadwalader apart from other law firms is that it offers client
contact early in attorneys’ tenure, which can help attorneys reach the next level in their
careers, says Freeman. In a campaign called, “The Real Deal,” Amorose highlighted this
advantage to Cadwalader’s recruits, while being honest about the firm’s expectations
regarding the number of work hours per week.
Cadwalader’s experience with CSA was made easier because the firm had already
gone through a ‘culture-identification process,’—a task Freeman says is “easier said than
done.” The process included management meetings where employees at all levels were
asked to identify trends and themes and say what they think about the firm.
After much analysis, Cadwalader executives discovered that commitment to client
service emerged as the prevailing theme. Knowing that the firm’s ability to do business
was dependent on being available whenever the client requested, the hiring campaign was
adjusted to more fully reveal the demands on staff. Freeman cautions that this is a new
approach and though they have not had an opportunity to gauge the overall results of the
“Real Deal” strategy, they are confident it will prove beneficial.
A Broader Shift
The recruitment branding approach taken by Cadwalader fits with a broader movement to
more open and honest business dealings. Trends in recruitment branding often follow
trends in society, and the new zeal for honesty is no exception, says Amorose. She points
out that during the dot-com era, companies tried to communicate their technological
savvy because they were losing recruits to the dot-coms. Following the dot-com bust and
the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, there was a shift toward “a more emotional and
warm style of recruiting,” she says.
Now in the post-Enron era, the shift toward honesty is inevitable, Amorose says.
“There is so much more attention placed on what a company really stands for,” she says.
But the shift still isn’t complete.
“In general, I don’t think we are totally there yet,” says Maureen Hensen, SPHR,
director of recruitment and employment strategies for the Henry Ford Health System in
Gross Isle, Mich. “However, there is more of a trend in industry today toward
transparency and for leadership at all levels to be more genuine and authentic,” Henson
says.
Inevitably, there will be companies that struggle to re-establish their credibility after a
difficult time. They may experience difficult financial times, a reduction in workforce or
a corporate scandal. Any of these setbacks can make recruiting more challenging—but
not impossible.
“Companies can be honest about what they are doing to mitigate their unfavorable
circumstances,” Hanson says. This approach offers hope and optimism to candidates who

3. may embrace the opportunity as a chance to offer a solid contribution toward turning the
organization around.
On the other hand, not being fully honest with a recruit can impact an employee’s
entire tenure with your company. “Recruitment drives retention,” says Hensen.
“Everything from the first point of contact through the new hire orientation and beyond
drives the entire relationship.”
To make sure things start off on the right foot, begin by giving a realistic job preview,
Henson recommends. “The toughest thing is conveying that realistic job preview because
so often people want to hear it through their own filters,” she says. To deliver the clearest
possible job preview and accurately convey it to candidates, you have to think about
culture, or “the way we do things around here.”
Henson suggests companies define their culture by considering things like how
decisions are made, how much authority employees have and how people are held
accountable within the organization.
“Relationships are a big part of culture,” Henson says. “How do individuals interact?
How well do they play in the sandbox together?”
Sending the Right Message
Once you’ve assessed the culture, delivering the message to prospective employees can
be done in a variety of ways. Most organizations have a statement of their vision, mission
and values. If an organization is following the standards it has set for itself, it will have a
useful template for recruiters to use when speaking with candidates.
It’s also good to show simple, real-life examples of the culture, Henson says. She
encourages letting the candidate meet their peers and co-workers on all levels.
Management candidates should meet with their direct reports and peers, as well as upper
management.
“Even if an employee involved in the selection process has a less-than-positive attitude
or you fear they may say something unfavorable, this should not always deter you from
involving them,” says Henson. She points this out as a way to let a candidate know
exactly what to expect.
She also notes that current employees are best able to predict whether the candidate is
a good fit for the environment because they are the ones living and working there day to
day. This will help to favorably influence their relationships going forward, Henson says.
A New Era
More than ever, companies have a strong demand for assessments and getting more data
regarding a candidate’s strengths and opportunities for development, Henson says. (For
information on how companies are using personality tests to better hire, manage and
develop employees throughout their tenure, see this month’s cover story on page ___.)
“Recruitment needs to be more of a dialogue,” she says. Just as the company is
choosing, so is the prospective employee.
“Find out what that employee’s sweet spot is, or what levers you need to push to
cultivate that relationship,” Henson advises. Failure to find out what the candidate wants
and desires can doom the working the relationship. Assessments, good face-to-face
dialogue, and actually exploring the candidate’s needs are all essential components, she
says.

4. “We are moving away from the get-them-in-the-door-and-get-them-in-the-seat
philosophy,” Henson says. “A lot more attention is being given to selecting employees
for that ‘good fit’ and achieving that comes with forthright dialogue.”
Experts agree that being comfortable in a culture is ultimately an individual decision.
But being open with applicants can help them make informed decisions about whether to
accept a position and where they feel they fit in.
As an analyst for the federal government, Chmonica Peoples knows just how valuable
honesty can be. After working in the private sector a few years ago for a government
services consulting firm, Peoples accepted a position as an employment services
specialist.
“The company was just not clear with me about the day-to-day operations, as they
seemed to not have defined it for themselves,” Peoples says. Working relationships
among the staff were tense and the communication between her project office and the
corporate headquarters was unclear and inconsistent. As a result, she left the job after
about six months.
But Peoples learned a lot from the experience. Her current job is a good fit, she says,
because her employer “offered real answers to my questions about how they really did
things around here.”
The face of recruitment is evolving with today’s changing employment needs.
Companies that want to attract and retain great employees who will fit in well with their
current company culture must evolve or risk lower employee retention rates, excessive
recruitment costs and the danger of coming across to clients or shareholders as
disingenuous.
Gone are the days when the hiring manager pretended all was well within the company
and sold applicants strictly on salary and benefits. Successful employees demand more
and employers that are truthful on the front end may attain greater retention of satisfied
employees and lowered cost in the long run.
Carol West is a freelance writer based in Southern California. She has worked as a
Human Resource Specialist and is published through The Society For Human Resource
Management.