AI: Empowering Startups to Transform their Employer Branding

It’s 2023, and in the tech world there’s one thing on everyone’s minds right now: the rise of AI. It’s woven its way into almost every aspect of our work and personal lives, and we can’t get enough of the convenience it’s created.

And if you’re thinking “I’m not part of the AI hype”, you’re most likely just unaware of how much you actually are. With the rise of so many AI technologies, you may already be using AI on a daily basis without even realizing it. For example, if you use applications like Grammarly to check your spelling or enhance your writing, then you’re using AI. Other popular applications such as Canva and Photoshop also use AI technology.

But there’s more to AI than just checking your spelling and making some visuals. In fact, a study by McKinsey found that at least 30% of our everyday work could be automated using AI. This is especially important for startups and scale-ups: when you don’t have the same resources available as your competitors, having automated processes in place is very valuable.

The same goes for your HR function. When you have a very small HR team, it can be difficult to keep up with larger companies in attracting and retaining the best talent. Your employer branding might not be getting the attention it needs, which means you are missing out on one of the most cost-effective ways to get great people into your company. This is where AI can have a huge impact.

So, how can you use AI to improve your Employer Branding?

Before you read any further, you should first understand why it’s so important to invest in your company’s employer branding.

TL;DR: it saves you a ton of money, and you really have no other choice.

When it comes to Employer Branding, startups have less employees, less time, and less money laying around.

However, thanks to recent developments in AI, they now have better access to solutions that are cost-effective, time-effective and don’t require a bunch of resources.

When it comes to building an employer brand, we believe there are 8 key topics you should keep in mind. So, I’ll give you 8 different ways to level up your employer brand using AI, covering each of those 8 topics – the candidate journey, your career page, employer value proposition, employee advocacy, content, social media, clear communication, and honesty.

8 Ways to level up your employer brand using AI

1. Set up for a successful Candidate Journey

AI-powered scheduling tools can automate how you book interviews. Tools such as Clockwise allow you to share a link with your candidates which they can use to schedule themselves, based on your availability. The same link can be used to cancel or reschedule, eliminating back-and-forth communication and reducing calendar conflicts.

If you want to go a bit more advanced, you can simplify and automate certain steps of your application process using AI. Chatbots or virtual assistants can guide candidates through the application process, answer questions, auto-fill information from CVs, and provide real-time feedback. Making your application process easier creates a great first impression of your hiring process.

2. Create inspiring Career Pages

It’s possible (and useful) to generate engaging job descriptions, company overviews, and other content using AI. Or, at least give you a good baseline to start from. Many applicant tracking systems already have a built-in feature for this, such as Recruitee.

OpenAI’s GPT4 is also a great tool to help you formulate job descriptions, overviews, and other texts in just a few seconds. You can search for some useful prompts to help you.

For more advanced users, you can use tools such as Hotjar to analyze data from career page interactions, identify pain points, and make data-driven improvements. They also have an AI-powered tool which can help you create surveys and gather feedback from your users, allowing you to continuously improve their experience on your pages.

3. Enhance your Employer Value Proposition (EVP)

Improve your employee experience by utilizing AI tools, which is a crucial aspect of the EVP. AI-powered platforms and tools can provide personalized learning and development recommendations, assist with onboarding processes, and offer real-time support for employees. Tools such as Officevibe provide real-time insights into employee sentiment and engagement.

By analyzing employee feedback from pulse surveys, you can identify trends and areas of improvement. This feedback loop enables organizations to address concerns promptly, demonstrate a commitment to employee well-being, and continuously enhance the EVP.

4. Increase your Employee Advocacy

By (publicly) acknowledging and celebrating employees’ accomplishments, organizations foster a culture of appreciation and motivate employees to become enthusiastic advocates for their employer. Similar to Officevibe, Vityl also has peer recognition features available. It can integrate with other tools such as Slack, so you can share recognition with the rest of your team.

You can improve various aspects of the employee experience by using AI, such as your onboarding processes. There are many platforms out there that allow you to fully automate your onboarding with AI, such as Zenefits. This includes automatically generating and sending offer letters, background checks with Checkr, self-onboarding, and more. By creating a better onboarding experience, employees are more likely to advocate for their organization, both internally and externally.

5. Create some amazing Content

Many platforms use AI to assist you in creating compelling and relevant content for your employer branding efforts. Buffer uses AI-powered technology to generate blog posts, social media updates, and other content that aligns with your employer brand’s tone and messaging. This helps you consistently produce high-quality content to attract and engage potential candidates.

6. Amplify your Social Media

AI algorithms are able to analyze social media data, including engagement metrics, audience demographics, and trends to optimize content for social media platforms. Tools such as Later can suggest the best times to post and reply, recommend relevant hashtags, and generate compelling social media captions.

This helps you maximize your social media reach and engagement, and understand what type of content resonates best with your audience. It can also be used to assist your employees with sharing relevant and engaging content on their social media channels. This makes it easier for them to share valuable insights, company news, and thought leadership articles.

7. Improve your Communication

You can also boost your communication using AI, by helping you to personalize communication and increasing the frequency and efficacy of your communication. Quickmail uses AI to create personalised email sequences, track email deliverability, and optimise scheduling. It also has a number of useful integrations, so you can take actions where needed and keep your communication seamless.

Many applicant tracking systems also allow you to trigger automations within your workflow, which will automatically complete your templates and send them when a certain action is triggered. For example, if a candidate is moved to the interview stage, an automation can be triggered which sends an email to the candidate to schedule themselves for the interview, and shares all the necessary information they will need to prepare.

The most Important – Lead with Honesty

Being honest means using AI in an ethical and transparent way. This involves being clear about the use of AI in your employer branding efforts, respecting data privacy, and ensuring fairness and unbiased algorithms. This way, you can build trust and credibility with both your candidates and employees. Take this example from innocent drinks: they’re testing whether ChatGPT is better at writing ads than they are, and being brutally honest about it.

Combine AI with Human Expertise

So there you have it, my best tips for using AI to make your employer branding much easier. Of course, you do not have to implement all of these tips right away. Pick and choose those which apply to your organization’s current needs, and then expand from there. It’s important to remember that these tools should be used to enhance the honesty and authenticity of your product, not to manipulate or misrepresent your employer brand.

Last but not least, remember that while AI can significantly enhance your employer branding efforts, it should always be used in conjunction with human expertise. Combining these two ensures a personalized and authentic employer brand experience that resonates with your audience and employees.

Edited by Sascha Gala Mikic