It is a fact that any PR – both personal, when wishing to show off yourself, as well as the professional, with the intention to showcase a brand – focuses on the good sides, strengths and exclusiveness. Which lady would like to explain on her first date that the scar she has above her eye is from the time she tried to tame those killer shoes?
And there is nothing wrong with that – we open ourselves when we gain confidence and are not afraid of making fools of ourselves. It would be wrong during that first cup of coffee to start blabbering about how you adore those Lady Gaga style high heels, even though, when trying to wear them you almost broke your neck and the only thing you would like to do with them now is to burn them.
Why then do brands, in this case, employers, wish to appear what they are not and to attract candidates who will not find a place for themselves in the company and will be angry with the fact that they were simply tricked? Why do so many employers wish to show off as very progressive, very innovative, very tech-savvy and only visible through MacBook cameras, when, for example, in reality, they have a team with so-to-say domestic surroundings which prefers face-to-face conversations? While snacking on their baked muffins. Which are not even vegan.
My guess – it’s fashion. Certain qualities of an employer seem to have become blindly fashionable and, if a company does not possess them, it is trying to create the illusion of possession. However, just as not everyone is going on a shopping spree and buying all the newest autumn collection, not all potential employees want to have a Mac, bean bags or IT workshops as a present. You and your true benefits and qualities, if properly communicated, can find new colleagues who would say “it’s a match!” both in the first interview as well as a year later. Well, unless you are stuck at the beginning of the nineties, you have an unstable chief (exactly – not a boss or a superior, but a chief), who can only be talked to after lunch, when he will be drinking coffee from his personal, strictly untouchable mug.

When trying to build a consistent employer image and find colleagues, who will not run away elsewhere in a few weeks, try these steps that I wrote down while sitting in a café in Visaginas, that have been successful both with my clients as well as when looking for a new colleague to join the INK agency.

If you like corny jokes in your company, every morning starts with quoting Valstybinis Tautos Frontas (State Front of the Nation), and Fridays mean pizzas from Čili Pizza while watching best episodes of the Radioshow, then it would be foolish (and naïve) to create an image of sophisticated young professionals, who are changing the world. And the key word here is sophisticated. You can be geniuses (or professionals) without bean bags on which you discuss stock market fluctuations, Macs or other trendy high-tech employer features. True, I am not saying that they are inherently bad – no. It is bad when employers assign themselves to the attributes they do not have.

When choosing a new colleague, it is useful to define not only what professional experience and skills you expect from him but also what personal features are necessary for his successful integration into the team. In the INK agency we call this feature… ink-icity. It is a combination of sarcasm awareness, creativity, having fire in your eyes and possessing something out of this world, which, once you see it in a job interview, you can put down as a plus. Sometimes more than one. And, in my opinion, it is important not to sacrifice this factor when choosing a candidate who, for example, has more professional experience but whose personality would less likely match with the rest of the team. Professional knowledge is easier to acquire than changing the foundation of personality.

Colleagues who have been with the company for two, three, four years or more are one of the strongest pillars of its development, growth and positive change. These are the people who believe in the company, who are loyal to it, who would not easily exchange the work there for another position. If they are satisfied after reaching that self-realization step, then the new colleagues will not be disappointed in the workplace atmosphere and will not ask themselves after a week: “what am I doing here?”
It is useful to include your old colleagues in the newbie selection process. At INK Agency, account managers, who started working here from the position of an assistant, often participate when selecting them. We are the best ones to tell what is waiting for the assistant here, what will be the hardest, and what invaluable amount of knowledge will be waiting for them once those difficulties are overcome. If the candidate is not scared off – you can meet him again.
After all, time is precious – in both professional and personal relationships.