Some companies are finally getting the idea that you have to do more than say “We’re hiring” to attract the attention of job candidates. It’s evident that they’re starting to understand the importance of showing that they are a company made up of real people, so they’re featuring employees in stories and social posts. Unfortunately, what hasn’t sunk in yet is the fact that there’s a certain kind of content that will actually do the job of nurturing relationships and influencing candidate decisions, and then there’s another kind that won’t help at all.

If recruiting for your company has been tough and you’ve started to explore how you can change your approach, you’ve probably come across Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding. If this is you -- Congratulations! You’re onto something! But when it comes to deciphering exactly what these two disciplines are and how they work together, it can be a bit confusing.

What if you were interested in employment opportunities at a company but when you went to their career page, all you found was a list of open job positions? Job candidates have more questions than what can be answered in a job description. They want to know -- What’s it like to work here? Will I fit in? Who are these people? Why should I work here?

Once you’ve recognized that you’re not going to get the recruiting results that you want by doing the same thing you’ve always done, you need to communicate how a new approach - recruitment marketing - is going to serve your company and meet your business goals. You’ve never done recruitment marketing before, so you’ve never had a budget for it. Even though everyone knows something has to change, you’ve got to help people get over their feelings that change is the bigger risk than staying stuck.

When you’ve decided that you’re going to be intentional about communicating your employer brand through employee experience stories, the next step is to decide who will be featured in your first story. Remember that the objective of employee storytelling is to answer the “Why should I work for you?” question and the answer to that question is different for different people. That means that you have to go for diversity, but to get your first story all you need to do is pinpoint one person.

Employee experience stories are huge trust builders in your recruiting process. When your employees talk about the value that your company brings to their professional and personal lives through their real life stories, you’re able to engage job candidates while providing them with answers to their “Why should I work for you?” questions. Because stories stimulate empathy, using them in a proactive recruiting process will build relationships with potential candidates, and stir up feelings of good will within your company.

HR professionals aren’t the only people thinking about recruiting. Recruiting is on the minds of business owners and executives who are tasked with implementing business strategy because they know that their ability to meet their business goals depends in large part on their ability to attract and retain the right talent.

Once you decide to start a storytelling initiative, it’s time to rally support within your company and get people excited to participate. You’ve already got buy-in from leadership, because they understand how the right talent enables their business strategy. Now you need to get everyone else in the company onboard. This is critical, because you can’t tell employee stories with your employees!

If you can’t find the people you need to operate your business, you have a big problem. It’s a problem that isn’t going to resolve itself any time soon. How can businesses compete for the labor they need to advance their plans for growth? One tactic business owners and HR professionals are turning to is content marketing, and the creation of employee stories to connect with people and build relationships with them through their online interactions.

“Everyone is so happy with the completion of our big project implementation. Sure, there were a few problems to troubleshoot along the way, but your team stuck with it and performed brilliantly. We now have a system that is operating at capacity and is creating the real time results that we need to meet our goals.” Zzzzzz…. Is it over? This client quote could be just about any business in any industry. I made this one up but amazingly enough, this is the type of text that many companies are publishing for testimonials.

Just before sitting down to write this, I had to do a search to see if you could still get jack-in-the-box toys. You can. You can get them in even more variations than the standard clown that was the norm when I was growing up. The ageless thrill of the jack-in-the-box is a mixture of predictability and surprise. You know as you turn the handle what’s going to happen. Yet when the lid flips up and the toy pops out, it’s always a surprise. This is what happens in storytelling, and I call it impact and insight.

Technology has made us predictable. We use the same behaviors to explore, discover and research job opportunities that we use when we’re shopping for the products and services we need for our personal and professional lives. We seek out answers to our own questions and by the time we’re ready to contact a business or walk through their door, we have a pretty good idea of what direction we want to go. Asking and finding answers to questions helps us develop confidence that we’re making a good decision.