For organizations that are trying to recruit and retain top talent in today’s ultra-competitive job market, company culture should be top of mind.  A strong company culture is an automatic advantage in the war for talent by fostering a sense of loyalty in your current employees and making your organization more desirable to potential candidates. 

A 2019 survey from Glassdoor found that 77% of candidates consider a company’s culture before applying for a job and 56% said a good workplace culture was more important to them than salary. Furthermore, a 2022 Jobvite survey found that 32% of job seekers who had left a job within the first 90 days listed a poor company culture as the reason.

It’s pretty clear to see that company culture can make or break an employer’s recruitment and retention strategy. How can you align your employee communications to ensure that your company culture is consistently and compellingly promoted? Keep reading.

How to Effectively Promote Your Company Culture

Promoting a positive company culture isn’t always the simplest task, but maximizing your internal communications is the best first step in achieving this goal. Here are a few questions to ask if you’re wondering whether you’re effectively promoting your company culture. 

What Types of Messages Are You Conveying?

It’s likely that you’re using a multitude of channels to engage your employees and key stakeholders. How are you maximizing them to promote your company culture? 

Take your existing employee communications strategy and evaluate each channel to see how you’re promoting your company culture there:

• Employee Communications (email, in-person, Slack, etc.)

  • • Your internal communications should set the stage for your external communications.
    • Don’t just focus on recruiting new talent – retention is also important! Show your current employees why your company is a wonderful place to work. Happy, empowered employees are great advocates to promote your company and its values. Unhappy employees, not so much…
    • Use your internal communication channels to thank and reward employees for their skills and contributions.
      
      

• Social Media

  • • Feature employee testimonials (video, video, video!)
    • Post photos of employee events like volunteer days, social events, career and team building opportunities, conferences and even just a standard “day in the life” working at your office 
    • Re-share content from current employees 

   

• Career/Jobs Page

  • • Your career/jobs page should be rich in content about what it’s like to work at your organization. Photos, videos and authentic testimonials from employees should be featured here, along with compelling job postings that captivate candidates and compel them to apply.
      
      

No matter what channels you have available in your organization, your communications have the power to positively impact your culture. So be sure to use them to their fullest! Poll your employees, maybe there is a channel that you don’t utilize that would be a better fit.

Is Your Messaging Cohesive?

We might sound like a bit of a broken record when it comes to this topic, but that’s because consistency is so crucial to any successful strategic communications plan. 

When potential or current employees visit the various channels and platforms associated with your organization, are they being met with the same messaging across the board? Or are they dealing with a series of disparate messages written by multiple different department heads?

Appoint one person or team to perform “quality control” on your external and employee communications and task them with taking inventory of the messaging in each one. Are the communications keeping in line with your company values? Do they feature rich, engaging content that shows your company culture instead of just telling everyone about it? 

Think about other parameters that are important and assess how each channel is stacking up to your overall communications goals. 

Do Your Communications Uphold Your Values?

Are your company “values” sitting in a document graveyard or living in a dusty, old slide deck that you only break out for the board?

If so, it’s time to give them a good look and decide whether or not you’re upholding these values in your communications. For example: 

• If your company is “always here to help,” are you actually there when potential candidates reach out with questions?
• If you value “honesty,” are you being transparent about what happens at your company every day? Remember: candidates can easily research you on Glassdoor. 
• If you value “simplicity,” is your branding and messaging clean, clear and to-the-point?
• If you value “humility,” are you being boisterous or overly-confident in your messages and tone? 

Reassess what’s really important to your company and ensure you’re promoting exactly that in your messaging. Keep a consistent tone of voice that reminds employees, candidates and key stakeholders that it’s your company communicating at all times. Be familiar but keep your content fresh. 

How to Communicate Company Culture to Candidates 

Potential applicants will come to expect information about your company culture. So:

• Define your company’s values 
• Show off your unique personality 
• Feature diversity and inclusion 
• Showcase your company’s social and environmental consciousness 
• Promote your perks and flexibility 
• Display learning and development opportunities 
• Use photos and video testimonials from current employees 
• Have a helpful FAQ page

Set Your Organization Apart 

Your company culture is one-of-a-kind in a million different ways. 

Use your employee communications to highlight what's important and valuable at your organization and show potential applicants why your organization is such an amazing place to work.