Previously on the exaqueo blog, we talked about the five types of employees who will activate your employer brand, whether you want them to or not. The idea being that — while you want employees to be brand advocates, share your company’s story, and post photos — you need to provide them with training and resources, first. If you haven’t had a chance to read that article, stop and read it here.

Now, we want to share with you some additional insight and ideas for empowering yet another cohort of employer brand ambassadors. It’s possibly a group that you’ve forgotten. Or perhaps one that you haven’t quite considered yet. Who are they?

Your third-party recruitment vendors, including temporary, permanent and temp-to-perm placement agencies, and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partners.

According to the American Staffing Association, during the course of a year, America’s staffing companies hire nearly 15 million temporary and contract employees. And, more than one-third (35%) of these employees were offered a permanent job by a client where they worked on an assignment. So, what does staffing have to do with employer branding? It boils down to this: everyday, there are millions of job seekers learning about thousands of organizations, like yours, via third-party employees who don’t live and breathe your values and culture.

These external partners are already creating brand awareness about your company, attracting candidates, influencing hiring decisions, and impacting your ability to find and keep qualified talent. As an employer brand or talent acquisition leader, you have to ask yourself these questions:

• Who are my third-party recruitment partners?
• When and where do we use recruitment partners?
• How do these partners influence my organization’s employer brand?
• Do our preferred recruitment partners know what our employer brand is?
• What are the candidate touchpoints and channels that they own?
• Is our employer brand pulled across all appropriate candidate touch points?
• What can I do to ensure third-party agencies effectively represent my organization’s unique employment experience?

Staffing Partners Impact Your Employer Brand

The exaqueo team has been working with a client on activating their global employer brand. One aspect of the overall activation strategy includes educating external recruitment vendors on the language of the organization’s employer brand: what the employer brand is, how to use the employer brand, and talking points to support the employer brand. Here are a few things we admire about this thoughtful approach:

1. The client recognizes their third-party relationships are about more than just filling open requisitions.
2. The client acknowledges the influence that third-parties have on their employer brand.
3. The client is treating their RPO and agency partners as a true extension of their talent acquisition team.

As you think about your own recruitment partners, consider the ways in which you can teach them about your employer brand. What are the current, missed opportunities? Is there a training session that you can offer to the main points of contact? Is there a guide that you can provide to your partners? Are there templates or recruitment marketing collateral that you can provide?

Staffing partners are influencing job seekers and candidates’ career decisions. Don’t forget about them—to do so is a talent acquisition oversight.

If you liked this post, check out this one:  5 Employees Who Will Activate Your Employer Brand