Best Employer Branding Content Types for All Candidate Journey Stages

? TL;DR: At different stages of the candidate journey, from awareness to termination, some recruitment and employer branding content types are more effective than others. In this article, we list the most effective content types for all these different stages.

Candidates go through distinct stages of becoming your employees—just like your prospects do before they become customers. 

Similarly to marketing content, some employer branding content types are more effective than others for particular stages. 

Nailing the right type takes some planning and attention to detail. So to make that part a bit easier, we’ve broken down this article into distinct stages of the employee journey. 

Each section comes with plenty of suitable content types and ideas. As you’ll see, there’s an effective content type for each occasion, situation, or recruitment stage.

We’ll start with the stage that precedes employment itself: the pre-application stage.

The Pre-Application Stage

The pre-application stage is a crucial phase for building awareness among candidates.

At this stage, candidates may not even be actively looking for a new job. But if you get their attention, they’ll start contemplating what it would be like to work for your company.

One good example is Fi’s Instagram content. They post a lot of dog videos and memes to insert themselves into their target audience’s “for you” pages.

Even if you’re not considering a career change, Fi’s content certainly warms you up to the idea of working in the “world’s most dog-friendly office”.

Whether you reach candidates organically or via targeted ads, it’s all about first impressions and harnessing the interest.

So seize the opportunity and post creative vacancy announcements and job descriptions on LinkedIn, Facebook, or even Instagram.

Good job descriptions, like the one below, balance essential information with enticing details. They provide a clear overview of the role’s responsibilities, qualifications, and benefits.

However, you can do more with social media than merely sharing job descriptions and application links. 

The job ad should leave a good first impression. But your entire social media presence needs to seal the deal since 79% of people use social media when looking for jobs. 

So, start by filling up the “about” sections on different platforms with informative and engaging copy, images, or videos. 

Specifically, the LinkedIn company page is a great space to introduce your company. Include plenty of  “life at the company” content, such as inside peek videos or snippets from Glassdoor reviews.

Besides social media, interested candidates will also check your company’s website content. 

You can’t go wrong if you populate your website with in-depth information relevant to possible candidates. 

To help them learn more about you, create the following employer branding content types and pages:

• Career pages
• Perks and benefits pages
• Recruitment process overview
• Social responsibility policies and activism
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion policies
• Employer value proposition (or EVP for short)

Candidates find it increasingly important to work for socially responsible companies that actively make a positive impact. That’s why your EVP is one of the most important things you need to create content around. 

You’ll be a more desirable employer if you use your website to state what values you stand for.

Below is an example of how Salesforce displays their company values and commitments.

Finally, use employee-generated content to amplify your brand’s authenticity and nudge candidates to apply.

Your current employees’ voices paint a genuine and relatable image of your company that goes beyond polished marketing materials.

Therefore, seek out employee stories, experiences, and quotes from satisfied, long-standing employees. 

And for your content to pack an extra punch, include pictures of real employees. Such pieces generate 57% more engagement than content without pictures. 

The best thing is that you can reuse that content across social media, your website, or any other channel.

Now that we’ve covered the attraction stage, let’s move to content designed to facilitate good communication during the recruitment process.

The Recruitment Stage

At this stage, you’ll use content to transparently communicate and keep the candidate updated on the selection process.

Unfortunately, many employers neglect this part, so it’s no wonder candidate resentment is on the rise.

Poor communication sours the candidate’s experience. What’s worse, it could come back to haunt you later. 

For instance, serious candidates will be reluctant to reapply or refer others to the company. On top of that, they could share their experience on online review platforms and dissuade others from applying.

So, what can you do to avoid it?

The answer is proactive communication. 

Once the candidate sends in their application, you’ll mostly communicate via email. This content type makes it extra easy to automate application acknowledgments and periodic application status updates.

Even a simple “we’re still reviewing applications” signals to candidates that you take their interest seriously. 

Especially with templates available (such as this one from Workable), you have no excuse to ghost the candidate.

Take an hour or two to craft your own templates or use existing templates as inspiration for crafting your content. You can customize them to reflect your brand and the role the candidate is applying for.

Next, you’d also want to prepare the following content pieces: 

• A friendly and personalized interview invitation
• Helpful interview prep information and materials
• Employee feedback forms and surveys

At the end of the recruitment stage, you’ll also need offer letters for successful candidates. Finally, you’ll need carefully crafted rejection letters for those who didn’t make the cut. 

Remember: any communication with the candidate at this stage is an opportunity to reinforce the employer brand through content. 

Therefore, communicate transparently to improve the candidate experience. It will reflect positively on your brand, even if you ultimately don’t select them for the position.

The Onboarding Stage

Once the candidate accepts the offer, it’s time to start the onboarding process. 

You want to quickly immerse new hires in both culture and operations. And you can use a whole range of employee onboarding content pieces to integrate new hires from day one.

First, you can share new hire announcements on social media or internal bulletin boards.

These announcements create a sense of excitement and belonging for the new team member. Don’t forget to enrich your announcements with interesting details or fun facts about the new employee.

Next, you need different types of content that can help new hires understand and adopt the culture, such as:

• Employee handbook
• Welcome kits
• Orientation materials
• Company culture videos
• Internal brand documentation

You’ll also need various training materials, manuals, or process guides to help new hires get operational fast.

Your new employee will need to soak up a lot of information in a short time. So our advice is to diversify your content formats as much as possible. Break up learning materials into visually engaging presentations, videos, or even podcasts. 

If your LMS allows it, make the learning experience a bit more fun with interactive elements and gamification.

Additionally, you can create content that helps the new hires discover new growth opportunities, such as learning and development resources, or mentorship programs.

Depending on the role, you can use these company-wide or within specific teams.

When developing your employer branding content strategy, always look for ways to repurpose the content you already have. 

Reusing existing content for onboarding purposes saves resources and maximizes the impact of your employer branding efforts.

For instance, HelpScout designed an onboarding email sequence that contains links to relevant posts from the company’s blog.

This is a nice way to add more value to the candidate’s onboarding experience at no additional cost or work.

Your content has now set the stage for a positive candidate experience and smooth integration into your organization. 

Next, you can focus on active employee engagement throughout the employment duration.

The Employment Stage

This is usually the longest period of the employee’s lifecycle. At this stage, you’ll have to consistently provide content that supports employee satisfaction, engagement, and growth.

You want to show employees that you’re proud of their work and achievements. Therefore, regularly feature your employees’ success stories, highlighting their achievements and contributions.

Existing employees and future candidates will find this content equally inspiring. 

It’s not just great employer branding material, either. Clients will approach you more confidently if they see the high achievers and professionals on your team.

If you need more ideas for external-facing content in this employment journey stage, here are some other types to explore:

• Thought leadership content
• Case studies of successful and exciting projects your team gets to work on
• Results of internal surveys (what makes your company a great place to work at?)
• Company blog

Buffer, a social media marketing tool, is an excellent example of encouraging employees to participate and share their insights.

Buffer’s blog posts feature the challenges and success stories of Buffer employees. Note that it’s not a marketing or sales tool; it’s a treasure trove of inside-sourced stories.

Content pieces like these are a fun and engaging way to encourage knowledge-sharing. Doesn’t a peer-written blog post sound much more effective than traditional top-down communication methods?

Some content types can also boost team spirit in your company. Events such as team building, parties, get-togethers, or other social engagements are endless sources of social media content.

Such content fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty among existing employees. It also entices prospective talent seeking a workplace culture like yours. 

Talking about the dual role of content, right?

Lastly, you’ll use some content types for internal communication only. These include:

• Internal newsletter
• Company announcements (such as a new project, client, or initiative)
• Celebrating milestones (birthday shoutouts, work anniversaries)
• Training and development materials 
• Upskilling programs
• Insights from employee performance reviews

Promoting such content pieces internally keeps your employees in the loop and more invested in the company’s success.

Therefore, regularly share information within the team to build a more connected and positive work environment. This makes employees happier and more likely to stick around for the long term.

Even so, most employment journeys eventually come to an end. 

How you treat employees as they leave speaks volumes about your employer brand. So let’s see what content opportunities you can find in the post-employment stage.

The Post-Employment Stage

Unless you want disgruntled former employees venting on Glassdoor or Indeed, you should strive to handle employee departures gracefully.

When you do so, even the post-employment stage can greatly build up your employer brand. The content you create here can encourage positive word-of-mouth and potential referrals.

You can be a breath of fresh air in the corporate world by posting casual farewell messages on social media.

Camos, for instance, doesn’t hold grudges against employees who quit to seek new career opportunities. On the contrary—they send them off with well-wishes and farewell pints in a beer garden.

Aside from public post-employment posts on social media, here are some more content types you can use internally:

• Goodbye emails
• Exit interviews and surveys
• Offboarding materials
• Announcement in an internal newsletter or bulletin board
• Content around boomerang employee programs

Lastly, don’t forget to create content around your alumni network if your company has one.

You’ve probably heard of Xooglers , a community of former and current Google employees. Alumni networks like this foster connections even after employees leave the company.

Because of that, many other businesses promote alumni programs, though they may not have as catchy names.

If you have similar networks, make sure to inform departing employees about how to connect and share experiences. 

This little up-front effort ensures that you have the foundations for future collaborations.

Pick the Right Employer Branding Content Types for the Job

Deciding on the right approach to present your company to potential employees can be overwhelming. The competition is fierce, and there’s no shortage of captivating employer-branding content out there.

However, strategically crafting content for different employee journey stages can be your competitive advantage. It helps you increase employee engagement and satisfaction and build a talent pipeline that never dries out.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

• 4 Important Ways Content Marketing Supports Your Employer Brand
• 10 Steps to Creating a Powerful Employer Branding Content Strategy

We hope this overview gave you some ideas to refresh and expand your employer branding content strategy. 

But if you struggle to draft a content marketing plan that stands out to candidates and aligns with your recruitment goals, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ll help you uncover the hidden content gems in your company to reach the right people at the right time and place.