Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

Posting new-hire announcements lets potential recruits know that “something is happening here” (at your company). Yes, this inexpensive tool is guaranteed to get everyone talking about the success of your recruiting and the quality of your new hires.

What Is A New-Hire Announcement?

If you are not familiar with this traditional recruiting tool that has been around literally for decades. You should know that it now deserves a second look precisely because few are currently using them. With a little research, you will find that new-hire announcements are a cheap and effective recruiting tool that simultaneously impacts recruiting, employer branding, and current employee retention.

They accomplish these impacts by publicly announcing that your organization has recently scored a significant hiring success. These announcements gain reader interest by including compelling information about the new-hire and the team they will work on. Fortunately, this recruiting tool can also be implemented by a single hiring manager without many approvals.

An Example 

In this section, you will find an example of what a new-hire announcement looks like (note: this example is purposely shortened to only 50 words).

Google is excited to announce…The hiring of Michael Cox as the head of our growing and innovative data analysis team. Our entire AI team is proud to add the extensive experience and endless knowledge of this wickedly smart individual. To our already exceptional portfolio of game-changer talent!

This Announcement Tool Produces Multiple Talent Impacts

This “take notice” public announcement tool will positively impact your talent management results in four distinct areas. Those critical areas include: 

• Potential recruits will take notice – the primary purpose of this tool is to boost current recruiting. That boost begins when you get the attention of potential recruits when they see that your organization is still actively recruiting. The powerful description of the new-hire covered by the announcement lets them know that you are recruiting exceptional talent, even in these highly competitive times. Next, the fact that you are using this innovative recruiting tool sends a message to potential recruits that you are innovative in recruiting (just like you innovate in every other aspect of the company). Finally, posting about a significant number of exceptional hires over time will positively impact your external employer’s brand image. And that will cause more highly talented potential recruits to want to learn more about your company and how it continues to grow. 
• It shows outsiders that you openly welcome new-hires – these announcements help to “reinforce the sale” for each new-hire. By letting each announced new-hire clearly understand that your organization is proud to have them on board. Even though they didn’t need to. This organization went out of its way to welcome them. And when you let potential recruits know that this organization isn’t insular, recruits are more likely to consider you an employer of choice. 
• Announcements will improve retention – by letting your own employees know that in-demand candidates are still choosing your organization. Because these outsiders, with multiple job choices, believe in your company’s future growth potential. You are indirectly encouraging your best employees to stay.
• It informs your employees about a new colleague – when the announcement is also posted internally. It also lets your current employees know that they will now have a new and exciting colleague. That, when feasible, they may learn from.

—————————————————–

Stop: Don’t Assume That These Announcements Will Hurt New-Hire Retention

Like many traditional recruiting approaches, many hiring managers and some in HR still automatically assume that the public posting of a new-hire will somehow trigger an effort by outside recruiters to recruit them away. Fortunately, today, this seldom happens. Because tech-savvy recruiters now have so many other additional ways to learn about all of your company’s new hires (especially using LinkedIn).

—————————————————–

Elements That Make Announcements Much More Powerful 

In order to ensure that your new-hire announcement stands out and is remembered, you should consider adding most of the following dozen “power elements” to your posts.

• Personalize them – by far, the most effective way to increase the impact of your announcement. Personalize the announcement’s content to the point where the reader clearly sees that you really know and appreciate this new-hire. A high degree of personalization will make reading the announcement much more interesting and memorable. Obviously, it’s also important not to reveal any personal details that might make the new-hire uncomfortable.
• Use memorable identifiers – wherever possible, use only compelling/powerful words and phrases that will be noticed and remembered by your audience. Memorable identifiers can cover your reactions to acquiring the new-hire. You can reveal your positive reaction in your announcement by using words like excited, enthusiastic, proud, and energized. Words that reveal the unique capabilities of the new-hire can include exceptional, extraordinary, impactful, powerful, and inspirational. You can describe the role that they have taken in their field. By using descriptive terms like leader, game changer, inspirational, innovator, pioneer, and purple squirrel. 
• Leave out the mundane – it is equally as important not to bore the reader of the announcement with information that has little chance of exciting them. Making the announcement a faster and more powerful read. Usually, it means that you should omit most pictures, job titles, education, commonly held skills, all hobbies, who they report to, who they replaced, and their experience at little-known companies.
• Also, highlight your organization’s existing strengths – although these announcements focus on information covering a specific new-hire. It’s also critical that you broaden the content of the announcement. So that it also highlights the existing strengths of the manager, the team, and your entire organization. Highlight these factors to the point where it is crystal clear to the reader. That if they join your organization. They, too, will have the opportunity to work alongside many outstanding colleagues in an exciting work environment. 
• Don’t forget to brag – you need to be extremely careful because most new-hire announcement examples that are found on the Internet are long and boring. Instead, before you begin sculpting your announcement. Realize that although it is called an announcement, in fact, recruiters should really call them “brag sheets.” So, if you really want to make sure that the announcement is remembered. Set your comfort limits, and then go beyond them. To the point where the announcement is gushing with enthusiasm without being sickeningly sweet.
• Expand your new-hire announcements beyond executive positions – traditionally, only executives had their hiring announced. However, now that many mid-level technical jobs (such as those in AI) have an equal or greater impact. Today, I would instead focus your announcements on all high-impact jobs where recruiting is exceptionally difficult.
• Don’t just place announcements on career sites – it is wise to use a multi-channel approach to where you post these announcements. Obviously, for recruiting purposes, it first makes sense to place these announcements in job search content areas that are frequented by your targeted potential candidates. However, realize that these announcements will also likely have a larger impact. When they are also placed in the broader business, industry, and functional news areas. 
• Keep them brief and powerful – if your announcements appear to be too long, potential readers will simply skip them. So, your goal should be to make them short (less than 200 words). In order to encourage more to completely read through them. So, it’s essential that you test announcements of different lengths. In order to determine the length that will ensure that your target will read the content completely through. It’s equally important to make them powerful by including content that is compelling and memorable.
• Don’t forget to also use traditional media – although today, most announcements are placed on several different social media platforms. Although it will cost you. Consider also placing your announcements in traditional media (industry/functional magazines and most newspapers), where they are guaranteed to stand out.
• Also, post your announcements internally – make sure that all of your employees are fully aware of this hiring success. And that a new colleague will be joining them. By distributing your new-hire announcements internally on your most Used team communications platforms (i.e., Slack or Teams). 
• Withhold any announcements until they actually start – you can avoid the embarrassment of announcing a new-hire that never actually starts by withholding all announcements until the new-hire actually shows up on their first day.
• Pretesting is essential – one of the most commonly made mistakes is to assume that your well-sculpted announcement will be remembered in the key areas that you’re trying to get across. Therefore, it is essential that you pretest each announcement with at least two of your employees’ network in the new-hire’s field. In order to ensure that each of your key points were actually noticed and remembered.
• Use metrics to continually refine your announcements – if you want to continually refine and increase the impact of your announcements. Your announcement creating process must be data-driven. Start collecting data with a survey that covers a handful of your top applicants and all of your new hires (at least in key jobs). Ask survey participants to reveal the appropriateness of the content, length, and where placed. Also, ask the participants to judge the overall impact that they had on their decision to apply at your company. And finally, pay particular attention to the impact that your announcements had on recruiting women and diversity hiring.

If you only do one thing – sculpt a powerful new-hire announcement for one of your exceptional recent hires in a key position. Then, post it on your LinkedIn profile. And don’t be surprised when you receive an immediate reaction.

Final Thoughts

My mission as an influencer is to reveal each month in my articles the many effective sourcing and recruiting tools that, for some reason, are seldom used in modern corporate recruiting. And obviously, at least to me, the posting of new-hire announcements falls into that category. So, if you are seeking a competitive advantage in recruiting, I recommend that you try them because they cost almost nothing, and they won’t take up much recruiter time. However, I assure you that after you use them. You will find that they will definitely get your organization talked about.

Author’s Note 

• Please share these ideas by sharing this article with your team/network and posting it on your favorite media.
• And, if you don’t already subscribe to Dr. Sullivan’s Aggressive Talent Management articles, you can do that here.