This post originally appeared on the SmashFly blog. 

Recruitment marketers, we know you’re thinking about funnels that end in hire. But did you know there’s a different approach that can make your job easier and harder at the same time? 

Yes, the infinity loop extends your territory to the employee experience. This introduces employee engagement, retention and referral metrics into your world, but! It drastically improves your candidate attraction efforts. We’re going to tell you how.

The infinity loop is a fluid relationship between the employee and candidate experience. To make it work, your recruitment marketing content has to evolve as your culture does.  How do you do all this? 

With the awesome marketing skills you already use every day, plus adding employee stories. 

Align the candidate and employee experience

A 2017 Weber Shandwick survey found that only 19% of employees globally feel their experience at work matches their organization’s employer brand. Read: The left and right sides of the funnel don’t match. Employer brand content from five years ago is not setting culture-right-now expectations. 

Employee stories align expectations with reality. Marketing jargon leaves room for misinterpretation; but when candidates hear a real story from an employee, they have a tangible example of what working with you will be like. The more stories they hear, the better picture of your organization they have. 

Let’s take this example BAE Systems, Inc. on the topic of innovation in engineering:

Innovation can mean a lot of things, and for BAE Systems it includes an adrenaline-inducing, deadline-oriented environment. Sharing a story like Nick’s sets the expectation. It won’t be a surprise when your new hire finds themself in a similar situation; and likely, because you’ve attracted the right person, they’re excited by the challenge.

Infuse your candidate insights throughout the employee experience

You know a lot about your new hires from the recruiting process and your nurture campaigns. Don’t waste those insights. Apply your skills and knowledge to serve up relevant content, even if you’re using it in talent attraction, too (especially if — repurposing content is a great thing). 

For the ambitious developer you’ve just hired, share content around leadership and development opportunities and connect them with a mentor. 

Bonus if you can add details to make it specific to a team or persona to increase relevance. Check out this video from Dell celebrating how two women’s side project became a company-wide innovation:

Every woman in STEM who watches this video is reminded how Dell will support their innovative pursuits, too. Increase employee engagement and encourage innovation in less than two minutes? Yes!

When content reflects the true experience, it resonates with employees

True and timely stories about the employee experience will feature people your employees know or values and specifics they recognize and relate to. That could be content specific to their team, the talent group they align with (interns, veterans, an ERG, etc.), or a specific business area, to name a few. 

Employees are more likely to share content they feel personally connected to. 

Thanks to your employee nurture activities, you’ve continued the trust as the candidate transitioned firmly into employee status. Now you’re giving them content that resonates. Time to make the ask. Encourage team members to share content they like with their personal and professional networks. Benefits are huge. 

Infinity loop, we love you

When you create employee stories on a regular basis, you have a handle on the culture as it changes… which fuels your recruitment marketing content, which sets candidate and employee expectations, which creates a great employee experience, which turns employees into fans, who in turn share with potential candidates… see how this infinity loop works?