Employer Brand Boost How to Leverage Employees on LinkedIn

Employer Brand Boost How to Leverage Employees on LinkedIn Employer branding is a forming a central part of talent attraction in today’s brave new world. Attracting the very best candidates is only getting harder, so standing out from the crowd with a great employer brand is a great way to overtake competitors. The problem? Employer branding can be a little amorphous â€" it’s hard to know exactly where to begin. It’s far easier to break intangible concepts like this into small manageable chunks â€" particularly if you’re just getting started. An easy first step to boost your employer brand is to make sure all your employees are on LinkedIn. Here’s why: Trust What do you think candidates are more likely to trust â€" your employees or your corporate message? Recent research suggests that  â€œ66% of people trust a company’s employees on internal programs, benefits and working conditions [more] than any other stakeholder”. Encourage your staff to connect with talent online and answer any questions they might have about the company. You can even formalise this, and encourage potential applicants to sign up for webinars and Twitter QA’s with your staff. Alternatively, you can just encourage your team to reach out on LinkedIn and start relationships with the kind of people that they would like to work with. Referrals Referrals are the holy grail of every hiring department. It’s statistically proven to produce the best hires. New hires that have been referred are also 23% less likely to quit â€" a particular benefit given the problems with retention that many companies have nowadays. LinkedIn, as the main hub of professional communications, is your best bet for a thriving referral system. It’s easy for employees to cultivate and keep up with business connections â€" the platform will even notify you when connections are looking for new work or have changed role. Trying to leverage your staff for referrals? Make sure their LinkedIn profiles are up to scratch. Think of every profile as an individual product or marketing page for your company. Having a team that consistently appears to be high quality on LinkedIn says a lot about a company! Content distribution Having a high proportion of your employees on LinkedIn makes it far easier for you to spread employer branding and career related content to a professional, targeted audience. Content plays a key role in employer branding. Focus on creating material that gives candidates an insight into your company and helps them understand what a role with you would ‘really look like’. Use your employees to amplify the reach of this content and get it in front of as many people as possible. This could be as simple as asking them to share it to their own audiences, but it could also involve them sharing your material in relevant LinkedIn groups or sending it to specific candidates. Summary The sheer volume of talented professionals on LinkedIn makes it a must for any developing employer branding strategy. Encourage your employees to act on your behalf and interact with great online talent, and you’ll be surprised as to the positive effect on your brand.

Dont Let Student Debt Hold Back Your Career, Why You Should Refinance Before Rates Rise

Dont Let Student Debt Hold Back Your Career, Why You Should Refinance Before Rates Rise For millennials especially, carrying a large amount of student debt can be worrisome.  You spent years getting an education only to find limited opportunities to make headway with your career.  And you certainly didn’t find that your earnings were what you’d hoped for.  What do you do with that student debt, especially in light of  rising interest rates? Right now, interest rates are still historically low.  But with multiple student loans, even those low rates can add up.  Plus, if you never took advantage of post-graduate opportunities to refinance the debt and get better rates, you’re paying more than you should be. What are your options?  Here’s a summary. Student Loan Refinancing Refinancing a student loan is similar to any other debt refinancing in that you’re trading an old loan for a new one.  One of the motivations for doing that is to achieve a lower interest rate.  And the lower interest rate means that you’re paying the bank less interest, paying off the loan more quickly, or a combination of both.  The bottom line:  You save money. Alternatively, your objective may be to lower payments rather that have a focus on the money saved with lower interest.  That’s a valid reason to refinance, also, especially if your income has been less than expected.  The lower payments can relieve the financial pressure of a tight budget, and let you focus more on your career. Student Loan Consolidation Many students leave college with a number of separate loans, each with different rates and terms.  A consolidation loan is a type of refinance that bundles most or all of your student debts into a single loan.  One payment,  instead of several.  One interest rate.  So it’s easier to see exactly what you owe and the progress you’re making. With either a straight refinance or a consolidation loan, you’ll want to consider all the factors so you can make a sound financial decision.  There are several online  questionnaires  and calculators to help you analyze your options.  You should take a serious look at this, because rates are going up and right now you can get rates as low as just over 2 percent. Keep Control By Active Management Debt of any kind is never a “set it and forget it” thing.  You’ll always want to be aware of changing interest rates, government programs, and of course your own debt obligations.  With diligence and patience, that huge chain of debt you feel around your ankle will be off before you know it. . Images via pixabay.